Romeo and Juliet" was written by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, and
appears on that band's 1980 album, "Making Movies." Amy Ray has
performed it fairly regularly since at least 1987. It's always been
one of my favorite DS songs, and I was pretty floored when I first
heard Amy do it, so I once asked her about it. She claimed that she
was inspired to cover it after she saw Dire Straits on their
"Brothers in Arms" tour. She felt that the arrangement that they
were using for the tour really lacked the edge of the "Making Movies"
version, and she wanted to try to bring back that edge. Which she
does, because her stripped-down version is PURE edge. (Personally,
though, I LOVED the DS arrangement from the "Brothers in Arms" tour -
I like it better than the original, in fact.) Anyway... Amy tends
to improvise with this one a bit, so I just transcribed the lyrics
off of "Making Movies."
Romeo and Juliet.
A lovestruck Romeo sings the streets a serenade
Laying everybody low with a love song that he made
Finds a streetlight, steps out of the shade
Says something like "You and me, babe, how about it?"
Juliet says "Hey, it's Romeo! You nearly give me a heart attack!"
He's underneath the window,
She's singing "Hey-la, my boyfriend's back -
You shouldn't come around here singing up at people like that!
Anyway, whatcha gonna do about it?"
Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start
And I bet and you exploded into my heart
And I forget, I forget the movie song
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?
We come up on different streets
They both were streets of shame
Both dirty, both mean
Yes, and the dream was just the same
And I dreamed your dream for you
And now your dream is real
How can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals?
When you can fall for chains of silver
You can fall for chains of gold
You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold
You promised me everything - You promised me thick and thin, yeah
Now you just say "Oh, Romeo, yeah,
You know I used to have a scene with him."
Juliet, when we made love you used to cry
You said "I love you like the stars above, I'll love you till I die"
There's a place for us
You know the movie song
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?
I can't do the talks like they talk on the TV
And I can't do a love song like the way its meant to be
I can't do everything but I'll do anything for you
I can't do anything except be in love with you
And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be
All I do is keep the beat to Bad Company
All I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme
Julie, I'd do the stars with you, anytime
Juliet, when we made love you used to cry
You said "I love you like the stars above, I'll love you till I die"
There's a place for us
You know the movie song
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?
And a lovestruck Romeo, he sings the streets a serenade
Laying everybody low with a love song that he made
Finds a convenient streetlight, steps out of the shade
And says something like "You and me, babe, how 'bout it?
You and me, babe, how 'bout it
