Telegraph Road

U vreme buke koju su proizvodili punk i uglađenije varijante muzike u vidu New Wavea, Dire Straits su ponudili publici nešto treće. Iako gitaristički heroji u tom času ni malo nisu bili u modi, zahvaljujući veštim prstima Marka Knopflera i trenutnom globalnom uspehu pesme “Sultans of Swing“, postalo je očigledno da ne živimo u “crno-bijelom svijetu”. I, iako u suštini nisu izmislili ništa novo i epohalno, Knopfler i momci su se, odjednom, za veoma kratko vreme suočili sa neočekivanim, ogromnim uspehom, sa kojim je bilo potrebno nositi se.

Za utehu, albumi su im se prodavali kao alva.

Ako njihova prva dva albuma posmatramo kao muzičke blizance, treći, Making Movies (1980) je bio iskorak napred u traženju raskošnijeg zvuka – Knopfler je dodao klavijature, a pesme na albumu pokazuju kako ubrzano sazreva kao autor, upuštajući se u kompleksnije forme (“Tunnel of Love“).

Sve je došlo na mesto na albumu Love Over Gold (1982), koji i za današnje uslove naprosto zvuči fenomenalno, a sama grupa se na njemu razmahala do maksimuma.

Album otvara monumentalna pesma “Telegraph Road” koja u skoro 15 minuta uspeva da drži pažnju slušaoca sugerišući mu da se neprestano pita šta ga čeka u nastavku.

U pitanju je zaista epska priča koju je potrebno pažljivo ispratiti:

A long time ago came a man on a track
Walking thirty miles with a sack on his back
And he put down his load where he thought it was the best
Made a home in the wilderness

He built a cabin and a winter store
And he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shore
And the other travellers came walking down the track
And they never went further, no, they never went back

Then came the churches, then came the schools
Then came the lawyers, then came the rules
Then came the trains and the trucks with their load
And the dirty old track was the Telegraph Road

Then came the mines, then came the ore
Then there was the hard times, then there was a war
Telegraph sang a song about the world outside
Telegraph Road got so deep and so wide
Like a rolling river

And my radio says tonight it’s gonna freeze
People driving home from the factories
There’s six lanes of traffic
Three lanes moving slow

I used to like to go to work but they shut it down
I’ve got a right to go to work
but there’s no work here to be found
Yes, and they say we’re gonna have to pay what’s owed
We’re gonna have to reap from some seed that’s been sowed

And the birds up on the wires and the telegraph poles
They can always fly away from this rain and this cold
You can hear them singing out their telegraph code
All the way down the Telegraph Road

Well, I’d sooner forget, but I remember those nights
Yeah, life was just a bet on a race between the lights
You had your hand on my shoulder,
you had your hand in my hair
Now you act a little colder like you don’t seem to care

But just believe in me baby and I’ll take you away
From out of this darkness and into the day
From these rivers of headlights, these rivers of rain
From the anger that lives on the streets with these names
‘Cause I’ve run every red light on memory lane
I’ve seen desperation explode into flames
And I don’t wanna see it again

From all of these signs saying “sorry but we’re closed”
All the way down the Telegraph Road

Telegraph Road je glavna saobraćajnica koja prolazi kroz Detroit. Knopfler je inspiraciju za pesmu dobio dok se grupa vozila autobusom. Kroz prozor je mogao da posmatra okolinu i vidi sve ono što su vredni ljudi izgradili pored puta. Tako je pesma postala metafora o razvoju grada i njegovom menjanju tokom decenija. Uključujući i ljude koji ga naseljavaju i koji su puni nade u bolje sutra (setimo se, Detroit je nekad bio jedan od centara američke industrije). Sam kraj pesme je sumoran – nekada perspektivan grad počinje da se raspada, zatvaraju se fabrike, poslovi se sele na druga mesta, ljudi gube radna mesta a istovremeno se gubi i nada u bolje sutra… U neku ruku, govori se metaforično o cikličnom kretanju u životu koji je sve samo ne predvidljiv.

U svetlu današnjeg stanja u Detroitu, kada je grad u bankrotu, industrija u raspadu, a broj stanovnika se rapidno smanjio, sa distance od 35 godina, ova pesma je bila vizionarska.

Izvedba koju danas slušate i gledate potiče sa koncerta održanog u rimu 2005. godine. Ceo koncert možete pogledati ovde.