I've witnessed your suffering
As the battles raged higher
And though they hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms.

Mark Freuder Knopfler OBE (born 12 August 1949) is a British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer, best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977 with his brother David.

Song lyrics

Dire Straits (1978)

  • 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.
  • 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 the honky tonk like anything,
    Saving it up for Friday night.
    With the Sultans... with the Sultans of Swing.
  • Stepping out to Angellucci's for my coffee beans
    Checking out the movies and the magazines
    Waitress she watches me crossing from the Barocco Bar
    I'm getting a pickup for my steel guitar
    I saw you walking out Shaftesbury Avenue
    Excuse me for talking I wanna marry you
    This is the 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
    • Wild West End

Communiqué, (1979)

  • Lady writer on the TV
    She had all the brains and the beauty.
    The picture does not fit
    You talked to me when you felt like it.
    Just the way that her hair fell down around her face
    Then I recall my fall from grace
    Another time, another place.

Making Movies (1980)

  • Getting crazy on the Waltzers, but it's the life that I choose.
    Sing about the sixblade, sing about the switchback and a torture tattoo.
    And I been riding on a ghost train where the cars they scream and slam,
    And I don't know where I'll be tonight but I'd always tell you where I am.
  • A love struck Romeo, sings a street-suss serenade;
    Laying everybody low, with a love song that he made.
    Finds a convenient street light, steps out of the shade
    He says something like, "You and me babe, how about it?"
  • Juliet says, "Hey, it's Romeo. You nearly give me a heart attack."
    He's underneath the window; she's singing, "Hey, la, my boyfriend's back.
    You shouldn't come around here singing up at people like that.
    Anyway what you gonna do about it?"
  • Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start
    And I bet, then you exploded in my heart
    And I forget, I forget the movie song
    When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong? Juliet.
    We come up on different streets, they both were streets of shame
    Both dirty, both mean, yes, and the dream was just the same
    And I dreamed 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?
  • When 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
    You promised me everything, you promised me thick and thin, yeah.
    Now you just say, "Oh, Romeo, yeah. You know, I used to have a scene with him."
  • I seen a girl on a one way corridor
    Stealing down a wrong way street
    For all the world like an urban toreador
    She had wheels on on her feet
    Well the cars do the usual dances
    Same old cruise and the curbside crawl
    But the rollergirl she's taking chances
    They just love to see her take them all
    No fears alone at night she's sailing through the crowd
    In her ears the phones are tight and the music's playing loud
  • Hallelujah here she comes queen rollerball
    Om Shanti what can I say don't care at all
    You know she used to have to wait around
    She used to be the lonely one
    But now that she can skate around town
    She's the only one
  • She gets rock n roll, a rock n roll station
    And a rock n roll dream.
    She's making movies on location.
    She don't know what it means.
    But the music make her wanna be the story.
    And the story was whatever was the song, what it was.
    Rollergirl don't worry.
    D.J. plays the movies all night long.
  • She gets the sun in the daytime
    Perfume in the dusk
    And she comes out in the night time
    With the honeysuckle musk
    Because she smells just like a rose
    And she tastes just like a peach
    She got me walking where the wildlife goes
    I'd do anything to reach her
    And she was made in heaven
    Heaven's in the world

Love over Gold (1982)

  • The caretaker was crucified for sleeping at his post
    They're refusing to be pacified, it's him they blame the most.
    The watchdog's got rabies, the foreman's got the fleas.
    And everyone's concerned about Industrial Disease.
    There's panic on the switchboard, tongues are tied in knots.
    Some come out in sympathy, some come out in spots.
    Some blame the management, some blame the employees.
    And everybody knows it's the Industrial Disease.
  • Two men say they’re Jesus, one of them must be wrong.
    • Industrial Disease

Brothers in Arms (1985)

  • I'm tired of being in love and being all alone
    When you're so far away from me.
    I'm tired of making out on the telephone
    Because you're so far away from me.
  • Now look at them yo-yo's, that's the way you do it
    You play the guitar on the MTV.
    That ain't workin', that's the way you do it.
    Money for nothin' and chicks for free.
    Now that ain't workin', that's the way you do it
    Lemme tell ya them guys ain't dumb.
    Maybe get a blister on your little finger;
    Maybe get a blister on your thumb.
  • Here comes Johnny singing oldies, goldies
    Be-Bop-A-Lula, Baby What I Say
    Here comes Johnny singing I Gotta Woman
    Down in the tunnels, trying to make it pay.
    He got the action, he got the motion
    Oh yeah the boy can play.
    Dedication, devotion
    Turning all the night time into the day.
  • All the late night bargains have been struck
    Between the satin beaus and their belles.
    Prehistoric garbage trucks
    Have the city to themselves
    Echoes and roars, dinosaurs
    They're all doing the monster mash.
    And most of the taxis, most of the whores
    Are only taking calls for cash.

    I don't know how it happened
    It all took place so quick.
    But all I can do is hand it to you
    And your latest trick.

  • Why worry? There should be laughter after pain.
    There should be sunshine after rain.
    These things have always been the same.
    So why worry now?
    • Why Worry
  • Through these fields of destruction
    Baptisms of fire
    I've witnessed your suffering
    As the battles raged higher
    And though they hurt me so bad
    In the fear and alarm
    You did not desert me
    My brothers in arms.

On Every Street (1991)

  • Last time I was sober, man I felt bad
    Worst hangover that I ever had.
    It took six hamburgers and scotch all night
    Nicotine for breakfast just to put me right.
    ’Cause if you wanna run cool,
    If you wanna run cool,
    If you wanna run cool, you got to run
    On heavy, heavy fuel.

"Kill to Get Crimson" (2007)

Lyrics by Mark Knopfler

  • I wonder if there's no forever
    No walking hand in hand
    Down a yellow brick road
    To never never land
    These days I get to where I'm going
    Make it there eventually
    Follow the trail of breadcrumbs
    To where I'm meant to be..
  • I worked the rowdies and daytrippers
    Now and then I think of you
    Any which way we're all shufflin'
    Forward in the queue
    They'd like to move my operation
    They'd like to get me off the pier
    And I dream I'm on a steamer
    Pullin' out of here
    • True love will never fade
  • MacIntyre's teaching us waltzing
    Out on the gymnasium floor
    McIntyre's out of the army
    You'll be slippered if you get him wrong
    McIntyre's din booms loud in the gym
    And we've only got a little short song
    We've only got a little short song
  • And it's one, two, three, two, two we're all a disgrace
    McIntyre tore us apart
    And we dance with ourselves when we'd all found a space
    Waltzing with fear in our hearts
    • Secondary Waltz
  • When it's pop goes the weasel
    Let go of the easel
    You don't want
    This rickety rackety life
    It's seat of the trousers
    It's all sink or swim, son...
  • These are not my decisions
    Flaming visions
    Ringing expressions
    The clamouring voice
    It's volcanic desire
    The unquenchable fire
    It isn't a question
    Of having the choice
    Anyway, now I'm old
    But if you won't be told
    If you've been created
    To answer the call
    All passion and lust
    Is going to end in the dust
    But you'll hang on some
    Government gallery wall
  • You must go, forget it
    Let it all go, let it all go
    Go, forget it, let it all go
    • *Let it all go
  • Are you home from the sea, my soul balladeer
    You've been away roaming far away from here
    weathered a storm, your heart unafraid
    crossed every ocean in the boat that you made.
  • You're a light in the dark, a beacon of hope
    and strong as a sea boat, strong as a rope.
    And the vagabond wind, whispers over the bay
    and the songs and the laughter, are carried away in the sky.
    • In the Sky
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