Saul Goodman Posted October 9, 2025 Posted October 9, 2025 For me it's Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits. "A lovestruck Romeo sing the streets of serenade. Laying everybody low with a love song that he made. Finds a streetlight, steps out of the shade, says something like, ""You and me babe, how 'bout it?"" Right there, sets up the scene of a movie like West Side Story. You can imagine Romeo, maybe a James Dean-like character trying to look cool for a girl. She says, "Hey, it's Romeo. You nearly gave me a heart attack." Being playful with him. Then in the next verse I guess they may have hooked up or were going to sneak out. "He's underneath the window." Is that a dorm room window, an apartment window, her parent's home and her bedroom window? and then she tells everyone, "Hey la, my boyfriend's back." So once again, she's coy by saying, "You shouldn't come around here singing up at people like that." And then she taunts him, "Anyway, what you gonna do about it?" But then the verse comes in and sadly you know it was never meant to be. "Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start. And I bet when you exploded into my heart, And I forget, I forget, the movie song. When 'you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong." At this point you know it was just a fantasy it would work out possibly because they are from different neighborhoods, classes, race, who knows. But it's a very sad lyric. Then he names her, "Juliet." "Come up on different streets. Both were streets of shame." I suppose this means two hoods, both possibly equal but separate. Or could be that Juliet was higher class but that hood held its own secrets. "Both dirty, both mean, yes and the dream was just the same." So again, both hoods just want life to be better. "And now I dream your dream for you and now your dream is real, how can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals." Unclear who is in this lyric. If it's Romeo then possibly he's feeling his class is beneath hers and her horizons are brighter than his. Ah, but then it's revealed in the next lyric that it probably is Romeo in the lyric because it goes, " You can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold. You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold." So are the chains he speaks of binding or are they bling? I would assume when mentioning strangers and fake promises they are binding. "You promised me everything. You promised me thick and thin. (yeah). Now you say, "Oh Romeo, yeah. You know I used to have a scene with him."" Ah... Juliet has wondering eyes. "Juliet, when we made love you used to cry. [you] Said I love you like the stars above, I love you 'til I die. There's a place for us, you know the Movie Song. When you gonna realize it's just that the time was wrong?" Ah... The heartbreak of knowing it was just a movie fantasy. A fantasy no matter how you worked the pieces just could not come true. The rest of the lyric is Romeo falling into despair, knowing his inadequacies he perceived she perceived. Possibly he fell in love with a materialistic slut and all he felt was love in his heart. All she felt was love for strangers and their promises. And we knew this from the very beginning, why? Because... The use of the steel top guitar fingerpicking in the beginning made this song feel like possibly it's a song about gypsies or a culture of everyone being on-the-take. Yet, it sounds upbeat. A piano joins in and the drums start a quiet tapping. MK's voice singing quietly and then suddenly it crescendos with the toms coming in and MK's voice holding more ernst as appropriate for the lyric. So, returns with ups and downs in volume and instruments fading in and out with the final outro with the fabled Dire Straits Strat. So it's not only the perfect lyrics that make a movie in your mind's eye, it's the music that reinforces the movie. Or is it the other way around? The perfect music the supports the awesome movie in your mind because of the lyric? I can't think of a more perfect song. I had the vinyl when I was 18. I've heard countless songs since. Some really good ones even before like, "Do You Feel..." by Peter F. But none are as perfect as Romeo and Juliet. And here it is. 2 Quote
DaveH Posted October 9, 2025 Posted October 9, 2025 (edited) For me, it's '17 Girls In A Row', Steel Panther. 😂 Edited October 10, 2025 by DaveH 1 7 Quote
Travis Posted October 10, 2025 Posted October 10, 2025 15 hours ago, DaveH said: For me, it's '18 Girls In A Row', Steel Panther. 😂 17…. 😜 1 1 1 Quote
velorush Posted October 10, 2025 Posted October 10, 2025 The best recording of my favorite song: I've always considered the first four bars of this are about as good as it gets: 1 Quote
LucSulla Posted October 10, 2025 Posted October 10, 2025 19 hours ago, crunchee said: We broke this out at a bar in South Austin once - one that still has plenty of patrons native to Hays and Travis Counties rather than transplants, and I said to my buddy, "50/50 chance a bar fight breaks out before we finish." Third verse, not even the famous one, some dude bodyslams another guy through a table. I do love covering that tune, lol. 4 Quote
veatch Posted October 10, 2025 Posted October 10, 2025 6 hours ago, velorush said: I've always considered the first four bars of this are about as good as it gets: Beautiful. Love the 1 string. Reminds me of this guy... 5 Quote
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