A Mark In Time
Mark Knopfler Discussion => One Deep River / The Boy => Topic started by: Jules on January 30, 2024, 12:00:39 PM
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Nothing But Rain 3:28
On this night
More water than the world can bear
Rain and muddy water
On this night
Somebody moving
In the swamp out there
And rain, nothing but rain
I was half way to sleeping
I've tried to go back
To a forgotten railcar
On a forgotten track
Stopped there in the darkness
A forgotten train
On a night with no tomorrow
And nothing but rain
A forgotten railcar
On a forgotten track
And a child who was born there
In the deep Delta black
Tears in the darkness
A forgotten railcar
I've been trying to find you
I want to know where you are
Stopped there in the darkness
A forgotten train
On a night with no tomorrow
And nothing but rain
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Today listening this song while driving I started laughing as I pictured myself MK having difficulties to sleep, going to his kitchen for a tea, looking at the window and thinking "damm, there is nothing but rain outside, hey, I got an idea for a song!"
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Another great song. Guitar solo is very cool. Maybe not too challenging technically (what do I know) but very effective and just coooool... I love his voice on this one.
LE
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This is the most DS sounding track to my ears - late DS, but this could fit well on OES, perhaps Love Over Gold too. Can imagine this played live on the OES tour too. Really great song. 4 of the 5 bonus songs are superb.
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This is the most DS sounding track to my ears - late DS, but this could fit well on OES, perhaps Love Over Gold too. Can imagine this played live on the OES tour too. Really great song. 4 of the 5 bonus songs are superb.
It reminds me a bit to Planet of New Orleans. I think it would been have great live
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I'm beginning to like this much more now - it's definitely a grower!
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Loved this song from the first time I've listened to it. Mark"s wonderful voice and his guitar playing gives me chilles all over. What a cool song. He still can Dire Straits. ;)
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Loved this song from the first time I've listened to it. Mark"s wonderful voice and his guitar playing gives me chilles all over. What a cool song. He still can Dire Straits. ;)
Yes! I love this song.
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This is the most DS sounding track to my ears - late DS, but this could fit well on OES, perhaps Love Over Gold too. Can imagine this played live on the OES tour too. Really great song. 4 of the 5 bonus songs are superb.
It reminds me a bit to Planet of New Orleans. I think it would been have great live
Fully agree.
The scene and some parts of the song breathes New Orleans.
Musically it's a hybrid between PONO and Fade to black.
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Nothing But Rain"
On this night
More water than the world can bear
Rain and muddy water
On this night
Somebody moving
In the swamp out there
And rain, nothing but rain
I was half way to sleeping
I've tried to go back
To a forgotten railcar
On a forgotten track
Stopped there in the darkness
A forgotten train
On a night with no tomorrow
And nothing but rain
A forgotten railcar
On a forgotten track
And a child who was born there
In the deep Delta black
Tears in the darkness
A forgotten railcar
I've been trying to find you
I want to know where you are
Stopped there in the darkness
A forgotten train
On a night with no tomorrow
And nothing but rain
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This story gives me the creeps. Imagine moving around in the swamp in the middle of a hurricane and finding a newborn child, with death and destruction all around you. Such strong images!
Is there a film about Katrina that his might be based on?
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This story gives me the creeps. Imagine moving around in the swamp in the middle of a hurricane and finding a newborn child, with death and destruction all around you. Such strong images!
Is there a film about Katrina that his might be based on?
He's only dreaming/imaging this, though, right ("half way to sleeping")?
Anyway, I love this song. And I think it might have been inspired (musically) by Dylan's recent albums of 50s ballad covers (Shadows in the Night etc.). It does sound like a classic song of that era.
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Great song I love it. He still can make that guitar sing like he used to
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Amazing text, amazing story. Only gloom, darkness and rain. I love it.
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Yesterday I was listening to this song in a dark room. Incredible. It has a Fade To Black vibe.
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This story gives me the creeps. Imagine moving around in the swamp in the middle of a hurricane and finding a newborn child, with death and destruction all around you. Such strong images!
Is there a film about Katrina that his might be based on?
Or was it inspired by a book?
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Who knows?
I've just been reading the lyrics again. Maybe it's only partly about Katrina (the rain, "a night with no tomorrow").
The story of the child is confusing... the child could be the storyteller (not MK!) himself, thinking about his own past, or the storyteller is the father of the child, or the child could be the newborn baby of a complete stranger that he finds in the railcar in the middle of the night.
I'm not sure about the time, either. The story may be set in the past, as there are always floods and hurricanes in the Delta, like the one in 1927.
The idea is, anyway, that it might be about some famous old blues musician, born in a forgotten railcar in the Delta, maybe a hundred or more years ago. Has anyone got an idea who that might be?
Or maybe I'm on the wrong track ;-)
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"A child who was born there" does not automatically mean that it was born there in THAT night... it's a child "from there"... which indicates only that the storyteller is not from there, a guest, a traveller or whatever. Could be just a child. The child must not be a baby child. (Like the main character in "Where The Crawdads Sing", you know?)
LE
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I thought to myself that there is a lot of hopelessness, darkness, no life, no light, no future in this song. A child is hope, gives faith and is the beginning of a new life. Just a quick thought.
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I agree absolutely, with LE and Robson. Very mysterious.
Another thing that keeps me thinking is "the deep Delta black": black is of course the colour of the night and the storm, but in combination with the deep Delta it brings up images of the deep South and segregation of even slavery. So maybe the child (whoever that is) was born during those times.
Bessie Smith famousy´ly lived and toured in a railroad car (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Smith (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Smith)), and the railways apparently played an important role in the history of Blues music. Interesting site here: http://phlegm.mnsi.net/railroad_blues.html (http://phlegm.mnsi.net/railroad_blues.html).
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Interesting information. Thank you stratmad.
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I thought to myself that there is a lot of hopelessness, darkness, no life, no light, no future in this song. A child is hope, gives faith and is the beginning of a new life. Just a quick thought.
And I like your thought. :thumbsup
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I thought to myself that there is a lot of hopelessness, darkness, no life, no light, no future in this song. A child is hope, gives faith and is the beginning of a new life. Just a quick thought.
And I like your thought. :thumbsup
I'm glad :)
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I agree absolutely, with LE and Robson. Very mysterious.
Another thing that keeps me thinking is "the deep Delta black": black is of course the colour of the night and the storm, but in combination with the deep Delta it brings up images of the deep South and segregation of even slavery. So maybe the child (whoever that is) was born during those times.
Bessie Smith famousy´ly lived and toured in a railroad car (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Smith (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Smith)), and the railways apparently played an important role in the history of Blues music. Interesting site here: http://phlegm.mnsi.net/railroad_blues.html (http://phlegm.mnsi.net/railroad_blues.html).
Yes, I believe we are about. Delta Blues Museum connects almost all the dots, even the museum itself is housed in the historic Clarksdale freight depot?!
Do you notice the figures in the song strongly reminds to Single-Handed Sailor: the setup, a historical place, the darkness and the cold of the place, the mother and her baby etc...