Great literature has always inspired great music. Combined with personal heartache or tragedy, creative motivation is just a heartbeat away. The stroke of a pen. The heavy sigh of sadness. Using art as a way to deal with pain and sadness.
But seriously, who does this guy think he is?
You are viewing: Who Wrote Romeo And Juliet Song
“A love struck Romeo, sang the streets of serenadeLaying everybody low with a love song that he madeFinds a streetlight, steps out of the shadeSays something like, “You and me, babe, how about it?””
Sung in time to a beautiful resonant guitar arpeggio, sounding like a mandolin from the middle ages, the sad story begins.
Written by guitar and songwriting virtuoso Mark Knopfler, and performed by his group Dire Straits, “Romeo and Juliet” frames his own tragic love story with nothing less than an interpretation (maybe even a complete re-write) of the story by William Shakespeare, perhaps the greatest writer to have ever lived. Perhaps the greatest writer to have ever put pen to paper.
Read more : Who Is John Cram
“Juliet says, “Hey, it’s Romeo, you nearly gave me a heart attack”He’s underneath the window, she’s singing, “Hey, la, my boyfriend’s back”You shouldn’t come around here singing up at people like thatAnyway, what you gonna do about it?”
Knopfler makes this classic, tragic love story a story for our time. Romeo is a singer. He is Sinatra. Standing in the yellow cone of a street light. He looks up at the girl he loves, and he propositions. Referencing the great 1963 “My Boyfriend’s Back” by The Angels, he gives his Juliet a voice, a voice that speaks to all of us.
“Come up on different streets, they both were streets of shameBoth dirty, both mean, yes, and the dream was just the sameAnd I dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is realHow 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 goldYou can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they holdYou promised me everything, you promised me thick and thin, yeahNow you just say “oh, Romeo, yeah, you know I used to have a scene with him”
Just as in the original, Romeo and Juliet come from different parts of town, but they shared a common dream. A dream of love, and a dream of a future together. Mark Knopfler was inspired to write “Romeo and Juliet” after he was unceremoniously dumped by a girlfriend, only to find out she was in the relationship only to further her own musical career. Only so she could someday say “Yeah, I used to have a scene with him.”
“Juliet, when we made love, you used to cryYou 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 songWhen you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?”
Read more : Who Got Married At St Patrick’s Cathedral Nyc
It is the peak of hubris to imagine you could interpret, let alone rewrite, one of the most important love stories of our time. I have argued in the past that no one steps on a stage, puts a pen to paper, even gets out of bed each morning, without a healthy dose of ego. But William Shakespeare? Seriously?
Knopfler evokes the very best of Bob Dylan. Gymnastic phrasing behind a sandy, gruff delivery. Had the song been crooned, or sung with more traditional style, it would not have nearly the same impact. The song is sung through heartbreak, and with a self-awareness that this Romeo may already be everything that this Juliet wants him to be.
“I can’t do the talk like they talk on the TVAnd I can’t do a love song like the way it’s meant to beI can’t do everything but I’d do anything for youI can’t do anything except be in love with youAnd all I do is miss you and the way we used to beAll I do is keep the beat and bad companyAll I do is kiss you through the bars of OrionJuliet, I’d do the stars with you any time.”
Inspiration is sometimes kept buried deep, something only the writer knows. As audacious as it might have been to take the story of Romeo and Juliet as his own, Knopfler lays bare for us the pain he is feeling, and the continuum in which he places his story.
“Juliet, when we made love you used to cryYou 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 songWhen you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?”
“Romeo and Juliet“Written by Mark KnopflerPerformed by Dire StraitsReleased January 9, 1981
Source: https://t-tees.com
Category: WHO
