Good On You Son

Album: Down the Road Wherever (2018)
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  • Flash goes a little hummingbird a dart and worried thread
    At the screen door by his lemon tree out here with the quick and the dead
    Designer blinds above LA frame the perfect view
    It's gonna be another day of sun and shameless blue

    By his cutting block the time has come for the fruit there by the juicer
    He grinds fresh coffee for himself he's beaten our producer
    La Times lies on the stone warming there like bread
    Hey what's not to like out here with the quick and the dead

    Good on you son, good on you
    The Camden shuffle and the old one-two
    Good on you son, good on you a-ha, oh yeah
    Good on you son, good on you
    The Camden shuffle and the old one-two yeah

    You wanna know what happiness is? In his eye lives a hunter's gleam
    Something to look forward to, this cat's gonna get the cream
    Skin of a mango is so smooth , smoother than the devil
    Cut it, slice it, chop it up to the rhythm of a cockney rebel

    Back in Blighty there's a flat on a grimy sink estate
    That's why he walked out of that and went to the Golden State
    Left the backie and the beer where he was born and bred
    Now he's cutting it out here with the quick and the dead

    Good on you son, good on you
    The Camden shuffle and the old one-two
    Good on you son, good on you a-ha, oh yeah
    What would you have had him do
    The Camden shuffle and the old one-two yeah

    Yeah, good on you son, good on you
    The Camden shuffle and the old one-two
    Good on you son, good on you a-ha, oh yeah
    Good on you son, good on you
    The Camden shuffle and the old one-two yeah yeah Writer/s: Mark Knopfler
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 4

  • Jam from Queensland, Australia The song appears to be about Steve Harley who moved to LA for a while in the early 80s. ‘Meeting my producer’ I think refers to Guy Fletcher, who used to play with Harley. I think it’s amazing how Knopfler dreams up these songs out of long past events. Harley, btw, came from New Cross, S-E London, where Knopfler et al formed Dire Straits (in adjacent Deptford).
  • Rmjp from UkI have always been inclined to think he might be referring to Sir Michael Caine
  • Levi from Adelaide, South Australia I’ve always been intrigued by the verse that refers to mangoes and the “tune of a Cockney Rebel”. I’m still not sure what it means, but there may be a connection between this song and the English Glam Rock band, Steve Harley & the Cockney Rebels.
  • Lea from Kansas City, MoI absolutely adore this song. Earned his way into his retirement years, and getting to spending them the way he wants to. Great condo in L.A., gets to play with a band, have fun, record more albums, in a great, sun-filled city, all the while keeping in mind the English life from where he came. I believe his incorporation of "the Quick and the dead" refer to the American wild west, where you're either "quick on the draw" in a shootout, or you're the dead one. It's a way to say that L.A. is a happening place, and he is getting to be a part of it. Not stooped over getting old, doing the old one-two like one might expect of a senior citizen -- no, he's quick on the draw, living his life the way he wants to, to the fullest, jamming out to his heart's content -- and isn't about to slow down!
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