A Mark In Time
Mark Knopfler Discussion => Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum => Topic started by: twm on April 05, 2014, 02:36:25 PM
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Recently, in one of the other threads, someone mentioned that MK's "Song For Sonny Liston" was inspired by his reading "Night Train: A Biography of Sonny Liston" (published in 2001) by Nick Tosches, who has also written extensively and knowledgeably on music. But, was this the correct title to use?
Tosches wrote "The Devil and Sonny Liston" but it was published in April 2000. When "Night Train" was published in France, it had almost the same cover as "The Devil and Sonny Liston" (the picture was reversed horizontally and cropped differently), suggesting they are one and the same book. Does "Night Train" as the inspiration for the song come from an MK interview or was it a surmise on someone's part?
I know that Mark has written songs inspired by his reading books ["Sailing to Philadelphia" was inspired by "Mason & Dixon" by Thomas Pynchon, as I recall] and this caused me to wonder if anyone has made a definitive list of MK songs so inspired?
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One of the early songs, 'Lions', was also inspired by the book.
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Recently, in one of the other threads, someone mentioned that MK's "Song For Sonny Liston" (published in 2001 was inspired by his reading "Night Train: A Biography of Sonny Liston" by Nick Tosches, who has also written extensively and knowledgeably on music. But, was this the correct title to use?
Tosches wrote "The Devil and Sonny Liston" but it was published in April 2000. When "Night Train" was published in France, it had almost the same cover as "The Devil and Sonny Liston" (the picture was reversed horizontally and cropped differently), suggesting they are one and the same book. Does "Night Train" as the inspiration for the song come from an MK interview or was it a surmise on someone's part?
I know that Mark has written songs inspired by his reading books ["Sailing to Philadelphia" was inspired by "Mason & Dixon" by Thomas Pynchon, as I recall] and this caused me to wonder if anyone has made a definitive list of MK songs so inspired?
Mark writes this in the "Shangri-La tourbook about his inspiration for Song For Sonny Liston :
"Song For Sonny Liston: Well, Sonny Liston was a big figure for me as a kid. He was the supposedly unbeatable bogeyman who the young Muhammed Ali (then Cassius Clay) had to knock over in order to become champion. He had shady characters making money off him. He had a wretched childhood; he never smiled. In some ways his story reminds me of Mike Tyson's. There's a powerful book about Liston, "Night Train" by Nick Tosches, which really helped me with the song."
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Telegraph Road was inspired by Growth of The Soil by Knut Hamsun...
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"True Love Will Never Fade" - The Electric Michaelangelo.
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twm, we once had this http://www.amarkintime.org/forum/index.php/topic,1778.msg33023.html#msg33023 thread, where we tried to collect the books that inspired a song.. not with the idea of doing it totally complete, but together we found a lot of novels. and I think a
part from the Romeo & Juliet connection with William Shakespeare, Robson pretty much nailed it so far.
Of course it is not always known to us which song is based upon a book. For example, I never have heard about the "lions" relation with a book, foma..
LE
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Heavy fuel comes from the book "money"
Madame Geneve comes from a book with a similar title, which I cant remember.
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Telegraph Road was inspired by Growth of The Soil by Knut Hamsun...
Which actually is a great book btw.. :)
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Telegraph Road was inspired by Growth of The Soil by Knut Hamsun...
Which actually is a great book btw.. :)
Markens Gr
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Good to revive this again. Can we reinstate the earlier list, its a good subject.
http://www.amarkintime.org/forum/index.php/topic,1778.msg33023.html#msg33023
Romeo And Juliet --- William Shakespeare:
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Lions?? I thought it was strange esoteric observations about Trafalgar Square? But there is some odd things in there, Starlings are tough but the lions are made of stone.. Gunshot sounds? And WHY is he thinking about the Lions again and again?
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The tough lions seem to be the monumental ones on trafalgar square, attacked by starlings all the time?
The drunk old soldier is another kind of "lion", a crazy one.
And the gunshot sound (made by closing doors?), together with "strap hanging", is illustrating "hanging around" in an overcrowded train (overground), no chance for a seat, therefore standing and using the straps for safety...
And then there are the lions in the newspaper, in the horoscope. That's what she prefers to read in the newspaper, after all that horror ("reading about a swing to the right (in politics?)")...
So he plays with the word "lion" with its many different meanings... (London/stone/tough/loud versus girl/starlings/human being)
But the main character is this elegant woman, just "a girl", high heeling across the square.. MK being a voyeur ;D, following her, thinking about her... and about all those people in this tough town... a little melancholic melody about being a Londoner, in November? Maybe that's all..
No book was ever mentioned (to my knowledge) as a source for Lions. Please enlighten me!
LE
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Mark said it was actually Ted Hughes poems to help him writing 'Lions'.
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From Amazon, about the book who inspired "Junkie Doll":
"Some Hope" is the third part of The Patrick Melrose Trilogy, the first two parts being "Never Mind" and the second "Bad News". When we first meet Patrick in "Never Mind" he is five years old, living in the South of France with his cruel and spiteful father and his alcoholic mother. In "Bad News" Patrick is twenty two and a hopeless drug addict, and the book is set during a weekend in New York when Patrick goes to collect his fathers ashes.
In this third book, "Some Hope", Patrick is now thirty. Having spent years suffering from drug addiction, he is now clean, but has no career (despite a sudden and disturbing need to obtain an income) and has split from the girl he was supposed to marry. The three books together are excellent and you will rarely find better writing anywhere or from anyone. This, third volume, takes place before and during a party and contains many characters that have appeared in the previous two books (they should be read in order preferably, in order to make sense).
The cast of snobbish and unbearable characters all converging on a country house, in which Princess Margaret is the guest of honour, coincides with Patrick's attempt to make sense of his life so far and to make peace with the memory of his father. The prose is exquisite and, although most of the characters are thoroughly unpleasant and often downright nasty, you find that you care what happens to Patrick Melrose and what will become of him. The sense of elitism from a less likeable group of people is hard to imagine and the thought of having to suffer such unbearable company would make anyone grateful they had no links to the aristocracy! For those interested, there are two further volumes, Mother's Milk and At Last.
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Good analysis of one of my faves LE.
I also enjoy the mystery of not knowing what a song is about and then sometimes one day the penny drops! Great feeling.
I still think Let's see You is about DK rather than Ed, sounds like a family dinner to me ;)
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Thanks, wayaman, for the information. On your recommendation, I would like to read this series. One big question: You say that most of the characters are unlikeable and disgusting. I think that you imply that Patrick is a sympathetic character. Would you clarify. No matter how well a book is written, if I can't like at least one character, preferably the protagonist, I just can't get through it. Help?
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Sorry but that commemts are not mine, its a copy and paste from amazon comments.
Beg your pardon about it.
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Great thread!