A Mark In Time
Mark Knopfler Discussion => One Deep River / The Boy => Topic started by: Jules on January 30, 2024, 11:58:42 AM
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The Living End 3:43
I'll walk up the mic
At the top of the show
Think, only fifty-nine more
Flaming minutes to go
The old suit doesn't fit
The money's nothing at all
To give 'em the stand-up
And the mirror ball
When I was in fashion
The toast of the town
By God, it were smashing
There was totty all round
I'd have them all legless
In the palm of my hand
And we'd be off to wherever
From my laughter land
You had loyalty
Back in the ITV years
We all played for royalty
All had the big careers
Well you wake up one morning
Hey presto, you're ogne
You've slipped out of style
And there you are, done
You wake up one morning
You're just not the trend
Soon enough you're appearing
At The Living End
I'm going too fast
I can tell you for free
Dying from trying
Is what you can see
Needs a break and a brandy
Your funny man friend
Tonight appearing
At The Living End
Tonight appearing
At The Living End
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This could have been a wonderfully comical album title, too.
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https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/c106c080-0ed3-46b9-af3a-c9e402ae91a6
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I had to search google the meaning of that expression... I don't want to be critic but sometimes it's forgotten than many of us doesn't have English as their main language and this kinds of expressions scapes for us...
living end
(idiomatic, preceded by the) The most extreme form of something or the final and most impactful development in a series of events — whether favorable or unfavorable
Synonyms
(most extreme form or final, most impactful event): culmination
(most extreme form or final, most impactful event — favorable sense): best (noun), high point
(most extreme form or final, most impactful event — unfavorable sense): breaking point, last straw, worst (noun)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/living_end
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I had to search google the meaning of that expression... I don't want to be critic but sometimes it's forgotten than many of us doesn't have English as their main language and this kinds of expressions scapes for us...
living end
(idiomatic, preceded by the) The most extreme form of something or the final and most impactful development in a series of events — whether favorable or unfavorable
Synonyms
(most extreme form or final, most impactful event): culmination
(most extreme form or final, most impactful event — favorable sense): best (noun), high point
(most extreme form or final, most impactful event — unfavorable sense): breaking point, last straw, worst (noun)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/living_end
It’s not really a very commonly used phrase. This sums up the usuage as I understand it
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=the%20living%20end
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I had to search google the meaning of that expression... I don't want to be critic but sometimes it's forgotten than many of us doesn't have English as their main language and this kinds of expressions scapes for us...
living end
(idiomatic, preceded by the) The most extreme form of something or the final and most impactful development in a series of events — whether favorable or unfavorable
Synonyms
(most extreme form or final, most impactful event): culmination
(most extreme form or final, most impactful event — favorable sense): best (noun), high point
(most extreme form or final, most impactful event — unfavorable sense): breaking point, last straw, worst (noun)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/living_end
It’s not really a very commonly used phrase. This sums up the usuage as I understand it
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=the%20living%20end
I also had to search for the meaning of the words used in that link to describe what that sentence means!
:smack :lol
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Maybe this explains it :)
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/c106c080-0ed3-46b9-af3a-c9e402ae91a6
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Maybe this explains it :)
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/c106c080-0ed3-46b9-af3a-c9e402ae91a6
DMG send that before
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Yes indeed I wonder how that 2 seconds should explain it.
No idea what this should telling me.
LE
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If someone does something mildly outrageous but amusing you could say "Oh, you are the living end".
So if I turned up at an MK show wearing a dress or dressed with a headband like MK circa 1985 someone could laugh and say that to me.
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If someone does something mildly outrageous but amusing you could say "Oh, you are the living end".
So if I turned up at an MK show wearing a dress or dressed with a headband like MK circa 1985 someone could laugh and say that to me.
Okay thanks. Was able to figure that out with help from Google. Still wonder how you and dmg did come up with that Homer clip the same as if that would make anything clear. :lol
So maybe it gets clearer with MK's lyrics. I assume it will be something small, funny and irrelevant like Heavy Up or in that tradition.
LE
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If someone does something mildly outrageous but amusing you could say "Oh, you are the living end".
So if I turned up at an MK show wearing a dress or dressed with a headband like MK circa 1985 someone could laugh and say that to me.
Okay thanks. Was able to figure that out with help from Google. Still wonder how you and dmg did come up with that Homer clip the same as if that would make anything clear. :lol
So maybe it gets clearer with MK's lyrics. I assume it will be something small, funny and irrelevant like Heavy Up or in that tradition.
LE
Not necesarily, it could be turned round into something else, like death ie the end of living.
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If someone does something mildly outrageous but amusing you could say "Oh, you are the living end".
So if I turned up at an MK show wearing a dress or dressed with a headband like MK circa 1985 someone could laugh and say that to me.
Okay thanks. Was able to figure that out with help from Google. Still wonder how you and dmg did come up with that Homer clip the same as if that would make anything clear. :lol
So maybe it gets clearer with MK's lyrics. I assume it will be something small, funny and irrelevant like Heavy Up or in that tradition.
LE
Not necesarily, it could be turned round into something else, like death ie the end of living.
And this direction convinces me more. Maybe it's a very personal song and that's why it's a bonus song
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Just confirming that it really isn’t a common expression in idiomatic English.
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Mark is both a history and English teacher! For us, at least. I don't know why, I didn't knew the correct meaning of this title, but my first thought was that it could be about the big mud slide here two years ago. It probably wasn't even known outside Norway, but I heard a stories and thought "Mark could write songs about this". The slide took several houses, and a woman woke up in her bed and soon found herself sliding across mud, in freezing snow, still sitting on her mattress. Taking about nightmare; waking up and realize that the walls REALLY are disappearing in front of your eyes.
Whatever the song really is about, it almost certainly has something I can learn from it.
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"Whatever the song really is about, it almost certainly has something I can learn from it"
Exactly the same as from this song:
https://www.amarkintime.org/forum/index.php?topic=8599.0
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I didn't listen to the song but what I imagine from the phrase is about the "bread line" or people who meet their living ends in every day life.
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Nice nasty guitar solo in this. Another B track better than most of the album.
It does not sound like a Les Paul sound, reminds me of the Pensa sound from OES days especially Millionaire Blues sound.
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I like it, but I keep hearing So Far From the Clyde when I listen to it.
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It has a lot from that Dancefloor song from the last crap album, but this should definitely be on the album. Good, energetic song although Guy is allowed to do his synth plinkie stuff.
LE
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Classic Knopfler vocal melodies on this one, great song and I like female backing vocalists' 'shoo-shoo' rhythm parts
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The Living End"
I'll walk up the mic
At the top of the show
Think, only fifty-nine more
Flaming minutes to go
The old suit doesn't fit
The money's nothing at all
To give 'em the stand-up
And the mirror ball
When I was in fashion
The toast of the town
By God, it were smashing
There was totty all round
I'd have them all legless
In the palm of my hand
And we'd be off to wherever
From my laughter land
You had loyalty
Back in the ITV years
We all played for royalty
All had the big careers
Well you wake up one morning
Hey presto, you're ogne
You've slipped out of style
And there you are, done
You wake up one morning
You're just not the trend
Soon enough you're appearing
At The Living End
I'm going too fast
I can tell you for free
Dying from trying
Is what you can see
Needs a break and a brandy
Your funny man friend
Tonight appearing
At The Living End
Tonight appearing
At The Living End
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So, it appears to be about an ageing comedian who has fallen out of favour and is now reduced to playing tiny gigs having previously been big on television (ITV).
Someone like Jim Davidson but there are plenty of others.
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Such an original topic ::) OK, someone's over the hill and out of fashion. And? I really don't see the point of spending time, money and talent to record stuff like this.
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Such an original topic ::) OK, someone's over the hill and out of fashion. And? I really don't see the point of spending time, money and talent to record stuff like this.
He appears to have got into "observations" of other showbiz types in recent years, at least two on this album alone, then Early Bird, Terminal, Fizzy and the Still...
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Good on You Son also.
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I like the song, but understand why it couldn't be on the album. It's pretty much the same story as Ahead of the Game, and that one is more interesting musically, in my opinion.
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How?
LE
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How?
LE
Well, apart from the two songs sharing the same topic, The Living End resembles both Back on the Dancefloor (musically, but also, again in terms of topic) AND So Far from the Clyde (totally different topic, but sharing a melodic line). I could imagine that they excluded it from the album for that reason - too close to previous songs. Whereas Ahead of the Game, while typical Mark, is more its own song, if that makes any sense.
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Too close to previous songs, that could be the title of this album :lol But in a good way! It is like version 2 og 3; even better! His style is what I love, so if the whole album was totally different, I don't know if I would like it. The quote "he doesn't look back" is (almost) all wrong in my eyes. A lot of what he does, thematically and musically, is looking back, but in a magical way that mostly works very well. This track is Top 5 for me at the moment. The "schup schup" backing vocals works too. I admire Mark for almost never using female vocals , I think it's...cheap. He balances the use of it very well on the album.
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Female backing vocals are ...cheap? Get Madonna to sing them, if you can afford it! :lol
But I think I know what you mean. :)
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Who is Madonna??
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There are two errors in the lyrics to fix:
I'll walk up the mic
I'll walk up to the mic
Hey presto, you're ogne
Hey presto, you're gone
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I searched a bit, and I believe, this one easily could be about George Francis Roper?
" "George was a natural comic who did not need to try to be funny. All he needed was a microphone and a spotlight." "
" Vereran comic Frank Carson, who knew George for more than 40 years, said: "As the old saying goes, the show must go on. And George made sure it did go on for as long as he was able." "
" Jim Bowen who starred in The Comedians with George in the early 70s and went on to host TV's Bull's Eye, said: "He was a funny, funny man - and a real gentle man "
Here is the link to the article I come upon:
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/comedians-mourn-as-george-has-his-last-laugh-1147706
What do you Brits think?
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Could be.
To me it brings to mind Jim Davidson, but there were a whole pile of comedians in the 70s and 80s like this here in the UK.
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I searched a bit, and I believe, this one easily could be about George Francis Roper?
" "George was a natural comic who did not need to try to be funny. All he needed was a microphone and a spotlight." "
" Vereran comic Frank Carson, who knew George for more than 40 years, said: "As the old saying goes, the show must go on. And George made sure it did go on for as long as he was able." "
" Jim Bowen who starred in The Comedians with George in the early 70s and went on to host TV's Bull's Eye, said: "He was a funny, funny man - and a real gentle man "
Here is the link to the article I come upon:
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/comedians-mourn-as-george-has-his-last-laugh-1147706
What do you Brits think?
:thumbsup I like this direction.
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I have been caught into this one all day long. Insane.
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I have been caught into this one all day long. Insane.
I had the same thing recently with "Fat Chance Dupree" ;)
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I have been caught into this one all day long. Insane.
I had the same thing recently with "Fat Chance Dupree" ;)
Yes, I only listened to that one once, I hope I get to Fat Chance Dupree soon.
I'm a slow listener.
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About the title: So in the lyrics it comes across as if The Living End (with capital letters) and with "appearing at" it is meant as the name of a TV show? I guess it is not a real one? Is there are possible double meaning in it, the literal end of living and the meaning as explained in this thread as an idiom?
LE