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Be Prepared: You Can Still Get Gas in Heaven and Drink in Kingdom Come. In the meantime, I’m cleaning my gun.

I keep a weather eye on the horizon, back to the wall
I like to know who’s coming through the door at us all

It’s the old Army training, kickin’ in
I’m not complaining
It’s the world we live in

Ronny and Malarkey, they’re a devious firm
They’ll take you to the cleaners, let you burn
The help is breaking dishes in the kitchen,
Thanks a lot
We hired the worst dishwasher
This place ever got

Hidden below the radar, they want to spoil our fun:..
In the meantime, I’m cleaning my gun

Remember it got so cold ice froze up the tank
We lit a fire beneath her just so she would crank

Keep a weather eye on the horizon
Tap the storm glass now and then
We got a case of Old Damnation
For when you get here my friend

We can have ourselves a party before they come:::
In the meantime, I’m cleaning my gun

We had women and a mirror ball, we had a DJ
We used to eat pretty much all came this way
Ever since the goons came in took apart the place
I keep a tire iron in the corner just in case

Gave you a magic bullet on a little chain
Keep you safe from the chilly winds
And the howl of the rain

We’re gonna might need bullets, should we have stuck
Any which way, we’re gonna need a little luck

You can still get gas in heaven and drink in kingdom come:
In the meantime, I’m cleaning my gun.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Bram April 11, 2018, 11:22 AM

    Holy crap – a Brit wrote that?

  • pbird April 11, 2018, 4:12 PM

    I do love that man. He is great and keeps well.

  • Aggie April 11, 2018, 5:05 PM

    Sounds like an old WWII ballad.

  • Patvann April 11, 2018, 6:16 PM

    My BFS (bigfuckinstereo) has had Mark lined up for 30-plus years.

    That Brit gets it.
    And now I will play it (again) as it was meant to be. 115 db/ 18 -22k hz. 9.1 channels.

    Thanks!

  • Patvann April 11, 2018, 6:31 PM
  • Larry Geiger April 12, 2018, 5:22 AM

    Dire Straits. I thought that I recognized something.

  • Boat Guy April 12, 2018, 5:38 AM

    The man’s a treasure. This is one of my many favorites.

  • ghostsniper April 25, 2020, 4:32 AM

    I never tire of watching Mark’s hands while workin’ that stick.
    1978 was the year that changed a whole bunch of things regarding how I played guitar due to 2 people, Eddie Van Halen and Mark Knopfler. Upon hearing both, or either, for the first time a little thing snapped inside my brain and I was never the same again. Using both hands and all the fingers on each all the time to get 500% MORE out of a guitar. Even old campfire toons like say, “Michael Row The Boat Ashore” take on a whole new personna when the player incorporates the full potential of the hands as opposed to just simple strumming of chords. All the little components of the chords and the spaces in between bring new life to an old friend. It’s like that part in the “Wizard of Oz” where it goes from black and white to full blown big screen technicolor. There’s no going back.

  • Patrick O'Hannigan April 25, 2020, 4:55 AM

    That’s sharply observed, as all of Knopfler’s best stuff is. The guitar god can write music, too! Thank you!

  • Boat Guy April 25, 2020, 5:13 AM

    I’ll reiterate; the man’s a human treasure.
    Interestingly this cut played in my truck’s CD on the way home from the range yesterday.
    ghost, if you’ve not seen the Brit tv special ” Guitar Stories” where former DS bassman John Ilsley and Mark go through six of his most important guitars, do a search and see it; cool stuff

  • Snakepit Kansas April 25, 2020, 5:14 AM

    Nice timing. I put on a UTUB playlist of Mark Knopfler just yesterday. I love this tune.

  • azlibertarian April 25, 2020, 7:18 AM

    I just clicked into this thread as I wait for the rest of the house to wake with Knopfler playing on my headphones.

    Regarding “Cleaning My Gun”, which is a great song, I’ve split my quarantine-time (Rhetorical Question: Does time even exist in a quarantine?) among several pursuits, primarily enjoying my grandkids and at the reloading bench.

  • Bill in Tennessee April 25, 2020, 8:55 AM

    Lawdy! That it pretty much how I’m living my life right now. Although in truth, it would take me a week to clean ALL my guns.

  • Terry April 25, 2020, 9:36 AM

    Yep. Dire Straits. The quality of their entire compositions is almost beyond comparison. Mark Knopfler is in a class of his own.

  • Nori April 25, 2020, 1:52 PM

    Damn,what a grrreat video. This tune is now the official Anthem of 2020.
    Of course his guitar virtuosity is the first thing you notice,but it’s striking how his vocals make everything he’s done so unique.
    A Treasure,indeed.

  • Bilderback April 25, 2020, 2:02 PM

    Piper to the End is a good Knopfler tune too. He wrote it for his uncle who was killed at age 20 in WWII. He was a piper for the 1st Battalion, Tyneside Scottish, the Black Watch, Royal Highland Regiment.

  • Casey Klahn April 25, 2020, 10:35 PM

    The guns are stored not in the contemporary way. ahem. If John Rambo can put them over the archway to the living room on a good old boy rack, then you might consider it, too. It;’s against the law, though, so keep that in mind, citizens.

    I go to Drudge now to hot sheet what the Left is pushing. This is our life, now.

    That ain’t working, that’s the way you do it; those guys ain’t dumb…

  • ghostsniper April 26, 2020, 4:40 AM

    Casey sed: “It;’s against the law…”

    LOL, I’d be jailed for life!

    I used to be so organized, but I could never find stuff I was looking for. Is it in that cabinet over there, or in this drawer, where the hell is it?

    Then I just got tired of putting stuff away, so I stopped.

    My little Beretta Bobcat is stripped to the bones on that shelf over there as it waits for a new trigger spring to come in the mail. An AR is on the table behind me with an assortment of sights and mounts scattered around it. The Peacemaker is sitting here on my desk as last night I was sketching up some new grips I want to carve out of some scrap corian, and of course the big Beretta is sitting on the other side of the desk where it always lives, ready to go to work is necessary. And on the other side of the room 2 shotguns stand in the corner. And many knives, and ammo all over the place. Nobody but adults around here for the past 20+ years so there is no real reason to safeguard firearms, and other people’s inability to control their sissy emotions has no bearing on it.

  • ghostsniper April 26, 2020, 4:41 AM

    One more thing.
    Anyone that makes a law against guns in any shape or form is a criminal and needs to be arrested and incarcerated on the spot.

  • Casey Klahn April 26, 2020, 9:03 AM

    Yes. After the Chinese Virus gun laws are intolerable.

  • Vanderleun April 26, 2020, 11:55 AM

    And will begin to be roundly ignored wherever possible. The level of unregistered or falsely registered gun is about to increase substantially. Probably a lot of swapping going on in families or trusted circles of friends.

  • Casey Klahn April 26, 2020, 5:23 PM

    The 2 biggest sins are not being armed, and not shooting straight.