This might be relevant to the discussion about Scottish wars earlier on in this thread. The song is written in the style of a scottish folk song, but with blues guitar and a middle 8 to make it a pop song. It opens with 'these mist covered mountains', a clear reference to the scots song of the same name, and the hook contains a scotch snap (on the word brothers). The scotch snap is indicative of scottish dance music, specifically the strathspey, and afaik is not found anywhere else in western music.
Personally, I agree with previous posters that the song is about all wars, but Knopfler clearly had scottish music in mind when he wrote it.
This might be relevant to the discussion about Scottish wars earlier on in this thread. The song is written in the style of a scottish folk song, but with blues guitar and a middle 8 to make it a pop song. It opens with 'these mist covered mountains', a clear reference to the scots song of the same name, and the hook contains a scotch snap (on the word brothers). The scotch snap is indicative of scottish dance music, specifically the strathspey, and afaik is not found anywhere else in western music. Personally, I agree with previous posters that the song is about all wars, but Knopfler clearly had scottish music in mind when he wrote it.
@Foob Very interesting on the Scotch snap. Thanks. The song clearly starts on a Scottish musical basis.
@Foob Very interesting on the Scotch snap. Thanks. The song clearly starts on a Scottish musical basis.