This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
I seen a girl on a one way corridor
Stealing down a wrong way street
For all the world like an urban toreador
She had wheels on on her feet
Well the cars do the usual dances
Sames old cruise and the kerbside crawl
But the rollergirl, she's taking chances
They just love to see her take them all
No fears alone at night she�s sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones are tight and the music�s playing loud
Hallelujah here she comes queens rollerball
Enchante what can I say don't care at all
You know she used to have to wait around
She used to be the lonely one
But now that she can skate around town
She's the only one
No fears alone at night she's sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones are tight and the music's playing loud
She gets rock n roll a rock n roll station
And a rock n roll dream
She's making movies on location
She don't know what it means
But the music make her wanna be the story
And the story was whatever was the song what it was
Rollergirl don't worry
D.j. play the movies all night long
She tortures taxi drivers just for fun
She like to read their lips
Says toro toro taxi see ya tomorrow my son
I swear she let a big truck grease her hip
She got her own world in the city
You can't intrude on her
She got her own world in the city
The city's being so rude to her
No fears alone at night she's sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones are tight and the music's playing loud
She gets rock n roll a rock n roll station
And a rock n roll dream
She's making movies on location
She don't know what it means
But the music make her wanna be the story
And the story was whatever was the song what it was
Rollergirl don't worry
D.j. play the movies all night long
Slippin and a slidin
Life�s a rollerball
Slippin and a slidin
Skateaway that�s all
Shala shalay hey hey
Skateaway
Stealing down a wrong way street
For all the world like an urban toreador
She had wheels on on her feet
Well the cars do the usual dances
Sames old cruise and the kerbside crawl
But the rollergirl, she's taking chances
They just love to see her take them all
No fears alone at night she�s sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones are tight and the music�s playing loud
Hallelujah here she comes queens rollerball
Enchante what can I say don't care at all
You know she used to have to wait around
She used to be the lonely one
But now that she can skate around town
She's the only one
No fears alone at night she's sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones are tight and the music's playing loud
She gets rock n roll a rock n roll station
And a rock n roll dream
She's making movies on location
She don't know what it means
But the music make her wanna be the story
And the story was whatever was the song what it was
Rollergirl don't worry
D.j. play the movies all night long
She tortures taxi drivers just for fun
She like to read their lips
Says toro toro taxi see ya tomorrow my son
I swear she let a big truck grease her hip
She got her own world in the city
You can't intrude on her
She got her own world in the city
The city's being so rude to her
No fears alone at night she's sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones are tight and the music's playing loud
She gets rock n roll a rock n roll station
And a rock n roll dream
She's making movies on location
She don't know what it means
But the music make her wanna be the story
And the story was whatever was the song what it was
Rollergirl don't worry
D.j. play the movies all night long
Slippin and a slidin
Life�s a rollerball
Slippin and a slidin
Skateaway that�s all
Shala shalay hey hey
Skateaway
Lyrics submitted by Dasch
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incredible guitar work, but I love the echo effect on the drums even more
fun as hell - so smooth and clean with an upbeat carefree attitude to it
awesome
i'm not sure what happened to inspire this song, but it seems as if he saw a girl who had headphones on while she was skating by, and from the sight, he sparked the story of the girl, who listened to music, and dreamed she was part of the story of the songs. he immortalizes her by actually putting her in a song, one actually about her and her own story.
A great song - love the lyrics and love the musical outtro - superb.
This is my favorite Dire Straits song. :) Toro! Toro! taxi!
It's a classic to the Brits. :)
The overall intention is really clear.
A couple of interesting points: There are two references to her being like a bullfighter/toreador. This is a role where someone faces a physically superior force and overcomes it with agility and evasion. There is a reference to rollerball. That is a fictional sport from the 1975 movie of the same name, and in that, also, someone uses agility to dodge threats. That was fairly recent when this song was written.
There are numerous other quick allusions to threats to her, and that she overcomes them… "no fear alone at night," "taxi drivers," "big truck."
Overall, the tone is of cities being threatening environments but the roller girl, like the heroes of the bullring and Rollerball, rises above it, and therefore "has her whole world in the city." Knopfler audibly laughs with glee. She's a hero for her times.
this is my favorite Dire Straits song, it's just so upbeat and carefree. it reminds me of being young and free with not a care or worry in the world.
This was the first Dire Straits video I ever saw, and it just enthralled me. The music, the visuals, the words, all about this young lady who "got her own world in the city yeah". A great song!
i agree with Rodan. she's MAKING MOVIES out of the songs she hears and becomes part of the story. its interesting that its the title of the album: like all the songs are actually stories for making movies out of them. to quote the album's booklet: "each song is a scenario waiting to be filmed"
I always thought this song was about a car :/
My favorite song, on my favorite DS album. I’ve seen Mark Knopfle three times but he never plays this one.