℗ 1984
(Mark Knopfler)
You walk out on the high wire You're a dancer on thin ice You pay no heed to the danger And less to advice Your footsteps are forbidden But with knowledge of your sin You throw your love to all the strangers And caution to the wind And you go dancing through doorways Just to see what you will find Leaving nothing to interfere With the crazy balance of your mind And when you finally reappear At the place where you came in You've thrown your love to all the strangers And caution to the wind It takes lover over gold And mind over matter To do what you do that you must When the things that you hold Can fall and be shattered Or run through your fingers like dust
(Mark Knopfler)
You get a shiver in the dark It's raining in the park but meantime South of the river you stop and you hold everything A band is blowing Dixie double four time You feel alright when you hear that music ring You step inside but you don't see too many faces Coming in out of the rain to hear the jazz go down Too much competition too many places But not too many horns can make that sound Way on downsouth way on downsouth London town You check out Guitar George he knows all the chords Mind he's strictly rhythm he doesn't want to make it cry or sing And an old guitar is all he can afford When he gets up under the lights to play his thing And Harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene He's got a daytime job he's doing alright He can play honky tonk just like anything Saving the Sultans with the Sultans of Swing And a crowd of young boys they're fooling around in the corner Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles The don't give a damm about any trumpet playing band It ain't whet they call rock and roll And the Sultans played Creole And then the man he steps right up to the microphone And says at last just as the time bell rings 'Thank you goodnight now it's time to go home' and he makes it fast with one more thing 'We are the Sultans of Swing'