"HOW SHALL WE THEN LIVE?" Francis Schaeffer

Wednesday, August 06, 2014

A MORAL BONE IN MARK KNOPFLER'S BODY

"PRIVATE DANCER"  (1984) was made famous by the sultry songstress Tina Turner.

All the men come in these places
And the men are all the same
You don't look at their faces
And you don't ask their names
You don't think of them as human
You don't think of them at all
You keep your mind on the money
Keeping your eyes on the wall
I'm your private dancer, a dancer for money
I'll do what you want me to do
I'm your private dancer, a dancer for money
And any old music will do
I wanna make a million dollars
I wanna live out by the sea
Have a husband and some children
Yeah, I guess I want a family

It is ultimately a sad song about a woman working in the flesh trade with hopes of making a lot of money and achieving a normal life.  The song is a woman's lament; it was written by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits.  What kind of man empathizes with the ultimately sad profession of a sex dancer?  Perhaps someone with a sense of morality; not always found in the music business.

Mark also wrote "ON EVERY STREET" - ( 1991)

There's gotta be a record of you some place
You gotta be on somebody's books
The lowdown, a picture of your face
Your injured looks
The sacred and profane
The pleasure and the pain
Somewhere your fingerprints remain concrete
And it's your face, I'm looking for
On every street
A lady killer, regulation tattoo
Silver spurs on his heels
Says, what can I tell you as I'm standing next to you
She threw herself under my wheels
Oh, it's a dangerous road
And a hazardous load
And the fireworks over liberty explode in the heat
And it's your face, I'm looking for
On every street

A three-chord symphony crashes into space
The moon is hanging upside down
I don't know why it is I'm still on the case
It's a ravenous town
And you still refuse to be traced
Seems to me such a waste
And every victory has a taste that's bittersweet
And it's your face, I'm looking for
On every street
And it's your face, I'm looking for
On every street

KNOPFLER talks about "the sacred and profane."  He's tracking a psychopath who has no guilt or feelings if his mistreatment of a woman leads to her death.  His attitude would appear to be, "no big deal" as he moves on to his next victim.
Knopfler's lament is that of the detective who, long after the case has been closed, continues a seemingly fruitless search for a man who will escape judicial justice but needs to be caught never-the-less. "She threw herself under my wheels."  NO, one way or another, he killed her and Knopfler does not  want that great moral injustice go unpunished.  He's actually obsessed.  He's a moral man pursuing an immoral man.

Knopfler is in his later 60's, started his working life as a journalist and a teacher (lecturer at Loughton College) before he hit it big with Dire Straits in the late 70s.

He's been pretty reticent about his personal life; he is in his third marriage - whatever that says.  But somewhere, behind the rock-n-roll persona, is a man with a moral sense of what should and shouldn't be.  I hope it continues as he enters the last decade or two of his life.