Wednesday 23 December 2015

Telegraph Road - Dire Straits


Lyric:- 'And the birds up on the wires and the telegraph poles, they can always fly away from this rain and this cold' - Knopfler







If you were expecting 'Walk of Life' well you'll have to wait for tomorrow as a good friend of mine, Colin Neilson has asked me to write tonight in honour of his late brother who sadly died on the 23rd December, as did my childhood friend Trevor, way back in 1969 at the age of just 10 years old.





Even though it's 46 years ago, it still is a sad reminder of a life that was sadly never lived. 





So the music matches my mood today and I bought a copy of the 'Love Over Gold' album on Chrome Oxide Cassette in 1982 and wondered then at it's clarity (virtually hiss free) - You can wonder here too.





At a rather long 14 minutes and 20 seconds this track is actually a reflection of a bus trip taken by Knopfler himself. The lyrics narrate a tale of changing land development over a span of many decades along Telegraph Road in suburban Detroit, Michigan. OMG - slash my wrists...





Anyway, I like to think about the lyrics more as a narration on life itself, and for some the 'Telegraph Road' in question can be indeed be as long, hard or as harsh as Knopfler describes, but I for one believe that the road is as long or as hard as you want to make it and sadly for some, their road is far shorter and due to no fault of their own as in the cases above.





It makes me think of my own life journey and the long road that went on forever in Spain when I ran to Lisbon some eleven years ago. The 43 days out on that 'Telegraph Road' were just brilliant from dawn till dusk and whilst not every day in my life is full of fireworks, I do find it amazing that some folk find their own 'Telegraph Roads' boring and uninspiring, as mine certainly isn't.





Makes you wonder eh? And next time you find yourself hating your life, think about those whom could have done with a few more days loving theirs.





More tomorrow...


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