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Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum / Re: Once Upon A Time In The West lyrics
« Last post by Stanko on August 29, 2025, 11:54:03 AM »Although Mark was using “The West”, just as the film title does. It’s fair to say it was shorthand for “The Wild West” in the films case.
The phrase “It’s like the Wild West around here”, or describing somewhere as like the “Wild West” is fairly commonly in England, I’m not sure about other countries. It’s used to describe a situation that has turned lawless, a breakdown of authority, very chaotic or unruly, just as the real Wild West of America was lawless before rules and laws were put into place. When used as a phrase in that way, it’s not suggesting that a place actually resembles The Wild West, with horses, saloons and cowboys. It’s used to describe the “nature of a situation”. It’s more like using the phrase as a sort of adjective to describe something, rather than a noun denoting the actual place and period of time.
So I think he was just having fun playing around with the usage, or nature, of the word or phrase. It’s a kind of wordplay. Like he’s using the meaning of the full phrase of somewhere that resembles “The Wild West” to describe lawless situations for the basis of the main lyrics, but then using the shortened film title as the final line each time. It seems to me that's what he’s connected up.
I’m not suggesting the phrase actually is an adjective obviously, just that he’s playfully using it in that way, just as the phrase can be used to describe a situation or the state of a place. Maybe it appealed to the English teacher side of him.
It seems to me thats why the lyrics initially appear as non descript or unconnected, because it doesn’t appear to have one person, place or thing (noun) in common. Rather the lyrics all do a good job of describing lawless situations, just as the phrase of somewhere resembling “The Wild West” does.
Maybe he’s just describing unconnected lawless situations, not an actual place.
Yes, a decay taking its way