1. Down To The Waterline 4:00
DOWN TO THE WATERLINE Sweet surrender on the quayside You remember we used to run and hide In the shadow of cargoes I take you one time And we're counting all the numbers down to the waterline Near misses on the dogleap stairways French kisses in the darkened doorways A foghorn blowing out wild and cold A policeman shines a light upon my shoulder Up comes a coaster fast and silent in the night Over my shoulder all you can see are the pilot lights No money in our jackets and our jeans are torn Your hands are cold but your lips are warm She can see him on the jetty where they used to go She can feel him in the places where the sailors go When she's walking by the river and the railway line She can still hear him whisper Let's go down to the waterline
WATER OF LOVE High and dry in the long hot day Lost and lonley every day Got the flats all around me sky up above I need a little water of love I've been too long lonley and my heart feels pain Crying out for some soothing rain I believe I have taken enough I need a little water of love Water of love deep in the ground No water here to be found Some day baby when the river runs free It'll carry that water of love to me There's a bird up in a tree sitting up high Waiting for me to die If I don't get some water soon I'll be dead and gone in the afternoon Once I had a woman I could call my own Once I had a woman now my woman is gone Once there was a river now there's a stone You know it's evil then you're living alone
SETTING ME UP You say I'm the greatest bound for glory Well the word is out and I learned I got the latest side of the story You're pulling out before you get burned Well your hands are squeezing me down to the bone I never saw you breaking no law Stands to reason I've got to leave you alone What you taking me for You're setting me up to put me down You're making me out to be your clown You're just setting me up to put me down You better give it up Quit your messing around You think I care about your reaction You think I don't understand All you wanted was a piece of the action Now you talk about another man
SIX BLADE KNIFE Your six blade knife can do anything for you Anything you want it to One blade for breaking my heart One blade for tearing me apart Your six blade knife - do anything for you You can take away my mind like you take away the top of a tin When you come up from behind and lay it down cold on my skin Took a stone from my soul when I was lame Just so you could make me tame You take away my mind like you take away the top of a tin I'd like to be free of it now - I don't want it no more I'd like to be free of it now - you know I don't want it no more Everybody got a knife it can be just what they want it to be A needle a wife or something that you just can't see You know it keeps you strong Yes and it'll do me wrong Your six blade knife - do anything for you
SOUTHBOUND AGAIN Southbound again I don't know if I'm going or leaving home Boy got to be moving Seems like the boy is bound to roam Southbound again got no money I've got no place to go That woman's with her lover boy Never want to see her face no more Every single time I roll across the rolling River Tyne I get the same old feeling Every time I'm moving down the line Soutbound again last night I felt like crying Right now I'm sick of living But I'm going to keep on trying
SULTANS OF SWING You get a shiver in the dark It's raining in the park but meantime South of the river you stop and you hold everything A band is blowing Dixie double four time You feel alright when you hear that music ring You step inside but you don't see too many faces Coming in out of the rain to hear the jazz go down Too much competition too many places But not too many horns can make that sound Way on downsouth way on downsouth London town You check out Guitar George he knows all the chords Mind he's strictly rhythm he doesn't want to make it cry or sing And an old guitar is all he can afford When he gets up under the lights to play his thing And Harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene He's got a daytime job he's doing alright He can play honky tonk just like anything Saving it up for Friday night With the Sultans with the Sultans of Swing And a crowd of young boys they're fooling around in the corner Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles The don't give a damm about any trumpet playing band It ain't whet they call rock and roll And the Sultans played Creole And then the man he steps right up to the microphone And says at last just as the time bell rings 'Thank you goodnight now it's time to go home' and he makes it fast whith one more thing 'We are the Sultans of Swing'
IN THE GALLERY Harry made a bareback rider proud and free upon a horse And a fine coalminer for the NCB that was A fallen angel and Jesus on the cross A skating ballerina you should have seen her do the skater's walz Some people have got to paint and draw Harry had to work in clay and stone Like the waves coming to the shore It was in his blood and in his bones Ignored by all the trendy boys in London and in Leeds He might as well have been making toys or strings of beads He could not be in the gallery And then you get an artist says he doesn't want to paint at all He takes an empty canvas and sticks it on the wall The birds of feather all the phonies and all of the fakes While the dealers they get together And they decide who gets the breaks And who's going to be in the gallery No lies he wouldn't compromise No junk no bits of string And all the lies we subsidise That just don't mean a thing I've got to say he passed away in obscurity And now all the vultures are comming down from the tree So he's going to be in the gallery
WILD WEST END Stepping out to Angellucci's for my coffe beans Checking out the movies and the magazines Waitress she watches me crossing from the Borocco Bar I'm getting a pickup for my steel guitar I saw you walking out Shaftesbury Avenue Excuse me talking I wanna marry you This is seventh heaven street to me Don't be so proud You're just another angel in the crowd And I'm walking in the wild west end Walking with your wild best friend And my conductress on the number nineteen She was a honey Pink toenails and hands all dirty with money Greasy hair easy smile Made me feel nineteen for a while And I went down to Chinatown In the backroom it's a man's world All the money go down Duck inside the doorway gotta duck to eat Right now feels alright now You and me we can't beat And a gogo dancing girl yes I saw her The deejay he say here's Mandy for ya I feel alright to see her But she's paid to do that stuff She's dancing high I move on by The close ups can get rough When you're walking in the wild west end
LIONS Red sun go down way over dirty town Starlings are sweeping around crazy shoals A girl is there high heeling across the square Wind blows around in her hair and the flags upon the poles Waiting in the crowd to cross at the light She looks around to find a face she can like Church bell clinging on trying to get a crowd to Evensong Nobody cares to depend upon the chime it plays They're all in the station praying for trains Congregation late again It's getting darker all the time these flagpole days Drunk old soldier he gives her a fright He's a crazy lion howling for a fight Strap hanging gunshot sound Doors slamming on the overground Starlings are tough but the lions are made of stone Her evening paper is horror torn But there's hope later for Capricorns Her lucky stars give her just enough to get her home The she's reading about a swing to the right But she's thinking about a stranger in the night I'm thinking about the lions tonight What happend to the lions
10. Eastbound Train 3:30
EASTBOUND TRAIN It was New Cross Station, I was going on home Saw you get your ticket, standing on your own Here come the train about 02:44 I couldn't get a smoker, you took another car Yeah, the end of the line, we both had to change And you're standing right behind me I'm a feeling kinda strange We got to Mile End Road, my heart skipped a beat Standing right behind me, I'm a shakin' in my seat three-four minutes and the train comes through I'm ridin' on the Central, I'm a-lookin' at you Woman on the eastbound train Sometimes I wanna see you again Now I couldn't read a paper, you couldn't read a book Kept on taking me another look You got off the train, you never looked behind I tried, but I can't get you out of my mind Woman on the eastbound train Sometimes I wanna see you again Well I got one more thing I wanna say before I go If you get the message on the radio You can write a letter, get in touch with me Leave your number with the company Woman on the eastbound train Sometimes I wanna see you again Woman on the eastbound train Sometimes I wanna see you again
Guitars: Mark Knopfler Rhythm guitar: David Knopfler Bass: John Illsley Drums: Pick Withers Written by: Mark Knopfler Produced by: Muff Winwood Recorded at: Basing St. Studios, London, UK Year: 1978 Format: CD Label: Vertigo Reference No: 800 051 2 Songs: 9 Total Time: 41:28
