the great songs (xxii) - romeo & juliet

From their album Making Movies this is Dire Straits at their best. Great musicianship, songwriting and, more unusually, singing. And if I remember rightly, a pretty decent video, too.

Romeo and Juliet is, of course, based on the original play (and, less so, its retelling as West Side Story). Two star-crossed young lovers; did anyone ever capture it as well in song as Knopfler here? Six minutes of sheer class.

A love-struck Romeo sings a streetsuss serenade,
laying everybody low with a love song that he made;
finds a streetlight, steps out of the shade
says something like, 'You and me babe, how about it?'

Juliet says, 'Hey it's Romeo! You nearly gimme a heart attack';
he's underneath the window, she's singing, 'Hey-la my boyfriend's back';
'You shoudn't come around here singing up to people like that.
Anyway, what you gonna do about it?'

"Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start
and I bet, and you exploded in my heart
and I forget, I forget the movie song;
when you gonna realise it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?"

"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.'"

"Juliet when we made love you used to cry
you said, 'I love you like the stars above, I'll love you till I die.'
There's a place for us, you know the movie song;
when you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?"

"I can't do the talk, like they talk on TV.
And I can't do a love song like the way it's meant to be;
I can't do everything but I'd do anything for you,
I can't do anything 'cept be in love with you."

"And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be,
all I do is keep the beat and bad company;
all I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme -
Julie I'd do the stars with you any time."

"Juliet, when we made love you used to cry
you said 'I love you like the stars above, I'll love you till I die.'
There's a place for us, you know the movie song
when you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?"

And a love-struck Romeo sings a streetsuss serenade
laying everybody low with a love song that he made;
finds a convenient streetlight steps out of the shade
says something like, 'You and me babe how about it?'

'You and me babe, how about it?'