1. what it is 4:57
WHAT IT IS The drinking dens are spilling out and staggering in the square, there's lads and lasses falling about and a crackelling in the air then around the dungeon doors there's shelters in the queues, everybody's looking for somebody's arms to fall into It's what it is. That's what it is man Here's frost on the graves and the monuments but the taverns are warm in town People curse the government and shovel hot food down Lights are out in cityhall, the castle and the keep moon shines down upon it all, the legless and the sleepless Cold on a tollgate where the wagons creeping through Cold on a tollgate God knows what I can do Hmm that's what it is, it's what it is now The garrison sleeps and the citadel with the ghosts and the ancient stones High on the parapet the Scottish pipers stands alone High on the wind the howling runes speak of the rule And something from the past just comes and stares into my soul Cold on a tollgate where the Caledonian moves Cold on a tollgate God knows what I can do with you That's what it is, it's what it is now What it is, it's what it is now now now There's a chink of light as a burning wick there's a lantern in the tower Wee Willie Winkie with the candle sticks still writing songs in the mean wee hours On Charlotte Street they take a walking stick from my hotel The ghost of Dirty Dick is still in search of little Nell That's what it is, it's what it is now What it is, it's what it is now now now
SAILING TO PHILADELPHIA I am Jeremiah Dixon I am a Geordie boy A glass of wine with you sir and a ladies arms enjoy Oh Durham and Northumberland Is measured up by my own hand It was my fate from birth To make my mark upon the earth... He calls me Charlie Mason A stargazer am I It seems that I was born To chart the evening sky He cut me out for picking bread But I had other dreams instead This baker's boy from the west country Would join the Royal Society... We are sailing to Philadelphia A world away from the coaly Tyne Sailing to Philadelphia To draw the line A Mason-Dixon line Now you're a good surveyor, Dixon But I swear you'll make me mad The West will kill us both You gullible Geordie lad You talk of liberty How can America be free A Geordie and a baker's boy In the forests of the Iroquois... Now hold your head up, Mason See America lies there The moon and tide has raised The capes of Delaware Come up and feel the sun A new morning has begun Another day will make it clear Why your star should guide us here... We are sailing to Philadelphia A world away from the coaly Tyne Sailing to Philadelphia To draw the line A Mason-Dixon line
WHO'S YOUR BABY NOW The rock you stood upon Is broken up and gone Hey baby who's your baby now On the slipway of your dream Stands someone elses scheme Hey baby, who's your baby now Your baby now, baby now Your baby now, your baby now The ancient trate you ply Ain't enoiugh to get you by Hey baby who's you baby now The yard is locked and closed The old guard has been deposed Hey baby, who's your baby now Your baby now, baby now Your baby now, your baby now You always had to be the kind To have to say what's on your mind And hey, you really showed 'em how You used to laugh about I used to dish it out But hey, who's laughing now 'Cos the rock you stood upon Is broken up and gone Hey baby, who's your baby now Yeh the rock you stood upon Is broken up and gone Hey baby, who's your baby now
BALONEY AGAIN We don't eat in no white restaurants We're eating in a car Baloney again, baloney again We don't sleep in no white hotel bed We're sleeping in a car, baloney again You don't strut around in this countrytown You best stay in the car Look on ahead don't stare around You best stay where you are You're a long way from home, boy Don't push your luck too far Baloney again Twenty-two years we've sung the word Since ninetee, thirty-one Amen, I say amen Now the young folk want to praise the lord With guitar, bass and drums, amen Well I never get tired of Jesus But it's has been a heavy load Carrying his precious love Down a long dirt road We're a long way from home Just let's pay the man and go Baloney again The Lord is my sheperd He leaded me in pastures green He gave us this day Our daily bread and gasoline Go under the willow Park her up beside the stream Shoulders for pillows Lay down your head and dream Shoulders for pillows Lay down your head and dream
THE LAST LAUGH Don't you love the sound Of the last laugh my friend Don't you love the sound Of the last laugh at the end Down in the gutter with the metal soldiers Down in the scupper with the drunken sailors Down in the gutter with the metal soldiers But the last laugh, baby is yours And don't you love the sound Of the last laugh going down Games you tought you learned You neither lost nor won Dreams have crashed and burned But you're still going on Out on highway with the roadgang working Up on a mountain with the cold wind blowing Out on the highway with the road band working But the last laugh, baby is yours And don't you love the sound Of the last laugh going down They had you crying but you came up smiling They had you crawling but you came up flying They had you crying but you came up smiling And the last laugh, baby is yours And don't you love the sound Of the last laugh going down Yeh don't you love the sound Of the last laugh going down
DO AMERICA Well I've been it every since I was a kid at school Now they love me in Newcastle and in Liverpool I'm as hard as a pistol I can do no wrong I've been in Birmingham and Bristol to play my song Take the 777 to the USA Gonna party all night I'm gonna sleep all day See New York City 'cos I've never been New York City in a limousine Gonna do America do do America Do America do do America now Take the 777 over to LA Gonna party all night I'm gonna sleep all day Wake up and drive around Get the coolest girl in town Do America do do America Do America do do America now Now the people go na na Another people go ra ra And all the people go ga ga when I Do America do do America Do America do do America Do America do do America Do America do do America now Backstage passes for the food and booze Sunglasses for my interviews Statue of Liberty Everybody looking at me Do America do do America Do America do do America now
SILVERTOWN BLUES On Silvertown way, the cranes stand high Quiet and grey against the still of the sky They won't quit and lay down though the action has died They watch the new game in town on the Blackwall side From the poisinous drains a vision appear New circle of cranes and new reason to be here The big silverdome raising up into the dawn Above the church and the homes were all the silver is gone gone gone If I'd a bucket of gold What would I do Leave the story untold Silvertown blues I'm going down silvertown, down in silverdown I'm going down in silvertown, down in silvertown A silver dawn steals over the dust A truck with no weels upon cinder blocks Men with no dreams around the fire in the docks Scrap metal sceams are rusting over the night night night nitgh If I'd a bucket of gold Silver would do Leave the story untold Silvertown blues And I'm going down silvertown, down in silverdown I'm going down in silvertown, down in silvertown When you're standing on thin and dangerous ice You could knock and walk in for citizens advice Tell you the way you can turn, the way you can learn There's nothing they can tell me I don't allready know If I'd a bucket of gold Silver would do Leave the story untold Silvertown blues And I'm going down silvertown, down in silverdown I'm going down in silvertown, down in silvertown From the Canning Town train I saw a bill board high There's a big silverplane raising up into the sky I can make out the words seven flights every day Say's six of those birds are bound for JFK If I'd a bucket of gold Silver would do Leave the story untold Silvertown blues And I'm going down silvertown, down in silverdown I'm going down in silvertown, down in silvertown Going down slivertown, down in silvertown I'm going down in silvertown, down in silvertown Down in silvertown Down in silvertown Down in silvertown
EL MACHO Your data has gone home Now you left on your own sweet own You're a toughtalking friend Split on you in the bitter end And you look like a fine thing Jerry yeah you look like a fine thing Jerry They/We/You say you're a star That's what the boys all say you are I don't see much TV So you don't mean shit to me But you look like a fine thing Jerry Yeah you look like a fine thing Jerry But they got a name for people like you Yeah they do and they got a name for people like me too El macho, El macho Now they want you to sing Don't get shy or anything The boys all here Gonna buy you another beer 'Cause you look like a fine thing Jerry Yeah you look like a fine thing Jerry El macho, El macho
PRAIRIE WEDDING We only knew each other by letter When I met her off of the train. When the smoke had cleared and the dust was still She was standing there and speaking my name Guaranteed she looked like an angel I couldnt think of what I should say When Adam saw Eve in the garden I believe he felt the same way I handed her up on the wagon And I loaded up her trunk behind She was sitting up there with the gold in her hair And I tried to get a hold of my mind. Think you could love me Mary Think we got a chance of life Do you think you could love me Mary Now you oughta be my wife We finally headed out of the station And we drove up the home trail And when we came on the farm she laid a hand on my arm I thought my resolution would fail And I froze as she stepped in the doorway Stood there as still as could be I said I know it ain't much, it needs a woman's touch Lord she turned around and looked at me Think you could love me Mary Think we got a chance of life Do you think you could love me Mary Now you oughta be my wife We had a prairie wedding There was a preacher and a neighbour or two I gave my golden thing an gold wedding ring And the both of us said I do When the sun's going down on the prairie, And the gold in her hair is a flame I say Do you really love me Mary and I hold her and I whisper her name. Think you could love me Mary Think we got a chance of life Do you think you could love me Mary Now you oughta be my wife
WANDERLUST Big black cloud On a yellow plane Sure enough it Looks like rain Packin' up all our Faith and trust Me and the wanderlust Open windows Empty bed and chair Who's that callin' Ain't nobody there I look behind me And I see there's just Me and the wanderlust Dead of night I had a dream Sky was bright yes and the Fields were green It was down the road In the cloud of dust Me and the wanderlust And I'm on the egde Of an endless fall Sure enough He's come to call Got to go now Get on that bus Me and the wanderlust
SPEEDWAY AT NAZARETH After two thousands came thousands and one To be the new champions, we were there for to run From springtime in Arizona, 'til the fall in Monterey And the raceways were the battlefields and we fought 'em all the way It was in Phoenix in the morning, I had a wakeup call She went around the without a warning and put me in the wall I drove at Long Beach California with three cracked vertebrae And we went on the Indianapolis, Indiana in May Well, the Brickyard's there to crusify anyone whol will not learn I climbed the mountains to qualify I went flat throught the turn But I was down in the might-have-beens and an old pal good as died And I sat down in gasoline alley and I cried Well we were in at the killercamp on the Milwaukee mile And in June up in Michigan we were robbet at Belle Isle Then It was on to Portland Oregon for the G.I. Joe And I blew off almost everyone when I my motor let go New England, Ontario we died in the dirt Those walls from Mid Ohio to Toronto they hurt So we came to Rode America where we burned up at the lake But at the Speedway At Nazareth I made no mistake
JUNKIE DOLL Turnpike Lane, Tunrpike Lane You spiked my arm But you missed the vain Now it's all gone But the scars remain Junkie doll, I was stuck on you My junkie doll Turnham Green, Turnham Green You took me high As I've ever been Now it's all gone And now I'm clean Junkie doll I was stuck on you My junkie doll And a little bit of this would get you up And a little bit of that would get you down And a little bit of this would get you up And a little bit of that would get you down And a little bit of this would get you up And a little bit of that would get you down And a little bit of this would get you up And a little bit of that would get you down Turnpike Lane, Turnpike Lane You took my heart, Pan american Now rain or shine It's all the same Junkie doll, I was stuck on you My junkie doll A little bit of this would get you up A little bit of that would get you down A little bit of this would get you up A little bit of that would get you down And a little bit of this would get you up A little bit of that would get you down A little bit of this would get you up A little bit of that would get you down
SANDS OF NEVADA These tables are haunted By the ghost of Las Vegas Their chips were once mointains But they came here to play They could take me if they wanted But I have nothing worth counting And like the sands of Nevada They go drifting away Lady luck's still a mystery With her head on my shoulder And I dont know why I still want her to dance I gusess that's all history What it is is I'm older And I'm still a fool For a one-way romance Her dice were red rubies They rolled and they tumbeled And I never saw time Running out with my roll And in the wasteland of cut glass My dreams were crumbeled And I payed with whathever I had left for a soul Now the dawn's has broken eve On an empty horizon No reason for folding No rason to stay It's too soon to be leaving Too late for critizising They go drifting away
ONE MORE MATINEE Here's one of the two of us In 1954 don't laugh I keep all of the pictures Are you going to take a photograph Here's something nice for you A dear old thing came to a show Last time here we did An interview on local radio Make yourself at home my darling Come on in Hand me down that jar love Can I offer you a gin We're proud to be the oldest Ugly sisters in variety There's not the glamour now you see What happened to society There's another light bulb gone They don't all answer to the switch I don't know how we carry on And her she couldn't care the bitch But in a while the old boys In the band began to play And in a while the houselights And the curtains slide away And something's going to happen To make your whole life better Your whole life better one day Something's going to happen To make your whole life better Your whole life better one day Now the landlady's all squared away It's just a temporary deal I'm afraid tonight it's take-away You see there is no evening meal Don't worry dear you shall go to the ball I think the fairy said These suitcases have seen it all From under someone else's bed You want to smile those tears away Now don't you cry You want to know what I say I say never say die 'Cos something's going to happen To make your whole life better Your whole life better one day Something's going to happen To make your whole life better Your whole life better one day
15. what it is 3.33
(radio edit)
WHAT IT IS The drinking dens are spilling out and staggering in the square, there's lads and lasses falling about and a crackelling in the air then around the dungeon doors there's shelters in the queues, everybody's looking for somebody's arms to fall into It's what it is. That's what it is man Here's frost on the graves and the monuments but the taverns are warm in town People curse the government and shovel hot food down Lights are out in cityhall, the castle and the keep moon shines down upon it all, the legless and the sleepless Cold on a tollgate where the wagons creeping through Cold on a tollgate God knows what I can do Hmm that's what it is, it's what it is now The garrison sleeps and the citadel with the ghosts and the ancient stones High on the parapet the Scottish pipers stands alone High on the wind the howling runes speak of the rule And something from the past just comes and stares into my soul Cold on a tollgate where the Caledonian moves Cold on a tollgate God knows what I can do with you That's what it is, it's what it is now What it is, it's what it is now now now There's a chink of light as a burning wick there's a lantern in the tower Wee Willie Winkie with the candle sticks still writing songs in the mean wee hours On Charlotte Street they take a walking stick from my hotel The ghost of Dirty Dick is still in search of little Nell That's what it is, it's what it is now What it is, it's what it is now now now
THE LONG HIGHWAY Heard a bell being toll Before the break of day I heard my name being called Down that long highway You don't get long You don't get long You don't get long to stay Kissing me once and I'll be gone Down that long highway Spirits call from way beyond Lord I may not disobey Spare a thought for the vagabond Down that long highway Down that long highway Down that long highway
LET'S SEE YOU Tonight We Pushed The Boat Out Just A Little Too Far For Comfort Thought I'd Get My Order In Seeing As You Asked And Seeing As We're Talking You Never Had A Way With Words So It's Something Of A Drag To Hear You Like A Wind Up Bird Telling All And Sundry How Come Nothings Good How You Are Misunderstood You Never Had You A Lot Upstairs So It's Something Of A Drag To See You A Legend In Your Own Armchair Telling All And Sundry How Things Ought To Be What's Wrong With The Industry And Then It All Comes Back To You You Wanna Know What You Should Do Shut Up And Deal Let's See You Do Better Shut Up And Deal Let's See You Get It On Shut Up And Deal And Put It All Together Let's See You Do It All You Say Well It's Alright For Him I've Got More Talent In My Little Finger I Wonder About That Thing She's In How Can She Call Herself A Singer All The Same She Knows How To Play The Game I Know What It's Leading To You Wanna Know What You Should Do Shut Up And Deal Let's See You Do Better Shut Up And Deal Let's See You Get It On Shut Up And Deal Put It All Together Let's See You Let's See You Let's See You Do It All
CAMERADO Camerado See that cloud across the sun There ain't too many places left to run There was a time when we'd go anywhere the wind would blow Camerado Camerado They are fencing off the plains I hate to hear the wistle of the train The next thing you know they'll want your pistol and your tobacco Camerado Gotta piece of 44 on fire in my chest Out here on the mesa I will rest If you could hand me down that wiskey from my saddle bag Camerado Now the light is dying in the sky That ain't gonna bother you or I Seen enough of dying almost know all that there is to know Camerado Now you had best light out and ride There's pretty women on the other side See in Salinas you'll be free as air in Mexico Camerado
The song Sailing to Philadelphia features a duet with James Taylor The Last Laugh features a duet with Van Morrison Silvertown Blues and One More Matinee feature vocals from Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze Speedway At Nazareth and Prairie Wedding feature vocals from Gillian Welch and David Rawlings Mark Knopfler (vocal and guitars), Richard Bennett guitars and other assorted stringed things in his flight case), Jim Cox (piano and Hammond organ), Guy Fletcher Keyboards and backing vocals), Glenn Worf (bass), Chad Cromwell (drums), Aubrey Haynie (violin on What It Is and Speedway At Nazareth), Paul Franklin (pedal steel on Sailing To Philadelphia, Do America, Prairie Wedding, Wanderlust, Speedway At Nazareth, Sands of Nevada and One More Matineé), Danny Cummins (percussion on Who's Your Baby Now, El Macho and One More Matineé), Jim Hoke (harmonica and autoharp on Baloney Again), Jim Horn (tenor and baritone sax on The Last Laugh), Wayne Jackson (trumpet on The Last Laugh), Harvey Thompson (tenor sax on The Last Laugh), Frank Ricotti (marimba on El Macho), Mike Haynes (flugel horn on El Macho, flugel horn and trumpet on One More Matinee), and Mike Henderson (mandolin on Junkie Doll). Additional backing vocals by Robert Bailey, Louis Nunley, Duane Starling and Chris Willis (on Baloney Again) and Chris Rodriguez and Tim Davis (on El Macho). Written by: Mark Knopfler Produced by: Mark Knopfler and Chuck Ainlay Recorded at: Emerald Sound Studios, Nashville, USA Year: 2000 Format: CD Label: Mercury Reference No: 542 477 2 Songs: 13 Total Time: 60:31
