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Harry made a bareback rider proud and free upon a horse
And a fine coal miner for the NCB that was
A fallen angel and Jesus on the cross
A skating ballerina you should have seen her do the skater's waltz
Some people have got to paint and draw
Harry had to work in clay and stone
Like the waves coming to the shore
It was in his blood and in his bones
Ignored by all the trendy boys in London and in Leeds
He might as well have been making toys or strings of beads
He could not be in the gallery
And then you get an artist says he doesn't want to paint at all
He takes an empty canvas and sticks it on the wall
The birds of a feather all the phonies and all of the fakes
While the dealers they get together
And they decide who gets the breaks
And who's going to be in the gallery
No lies he wouldn't compromise
No junk no bits of string
And all the lies we subsidize
That just don't mean a thing
I've got to say he passed away in obscurity
And now all the vultures are coming down from the tree
So he's going to be in the gallery.
And a fine coal miner for the NCB that was
A fallen angel and Jesus on the cross
A skating ballerina you should have seen her do the skater's waltz
Some people have got to paint and draw
Harry had to work in clay and stone
Like the waves coming to the shore
It was in his blood and in his bones
Ignored by all the trendy boys in London and in Leeds
He might as well have been making toys or strings of beads
He could not be in the gallery
And then you get an artist says he doesn't want to paint at all
He takes an empty canvas and sticks it on the wall
The birds of a feather all the phonies and all of the fakes
While the dealers they get together
And they decide who gets the breaks
And who's going to be in the gallery
No lies he wouldn't compromise
No junk no bits of string
And all the lies we subsidize
That just don't mean a thing
I've got to say he passed away in obscurity
And now all the vultures are coming down from the tree
So he's going to be in the gallery.
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Knopfler uses some cynical lyrics:-
eg. "While the dealers they get together
And they decide who gets the breaks"
This could also be applied to the music industry where the most-talented musicians will not necessarily make it because they don't get the breaks and simultaneously talentless twats make millions.
Thank god Dire Straits eventually "got the breaks".
I agree with gianchi66. Harry is a sculptor from a working class background. Mark Knopfler is from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne (to our American friends, a city in the industrial north of England that grew from coal mining, steel and ship building) so Harry is probably from there. He sculpts in clay and stone but is ignored by the art illiterati in London (and Leeds which is another northern city but south of Newcastle. An in-joke there!). He's not considered a good artist until he dies but is obviously not around to see his success.
I see the song as a depiction of snobbery in art, or more widely as an illustration of the English "North/South divide. Northern artists are often overlooked by the "trendy boys" until they're dead and then fawned over as being "gritty" and "ignored in their own time". Basically it's about the hyposcrasy of art.