Music

Shangri La

Shangri-La

Album Credits

Mark Knopfler: vocals and guitars
Richard Bennett: guitars
Jim Cox & Guy Fletcher: pianos and organ
Glenn Worf: bass
Chad Cromwell: drums

Recorded at Shangri-La Studios, Malibu, CA
Produced by Chuck Ainlay and Mark Knopfler
Engineered by Chuck Ainlay
Additional Engineering by Guy Fletcher
Mixed at British Grove Studios, Chiswick, London
Assistant Engineer: Rupert Coulson
Mastered by Bob Ludwig at Gateway Mastering and DVD, Maine

All songs written by Mark Knopfler
All songs published by Will D. Side Ltd/Hornall Bros. Music Limited for world, excluding USA and Canada. Will D Side Ltd/Rondor Music (London) Limited for USA and Canada

Art Direction by Dan Einzig Design & Illustration by Janfranco Caro at Mystery

A note for instrument lovers:

Richard played his National Hawaiian steel on 'All That Matters' and 'Stand Up Guy'. He played his tiple on 'Postcards from Paraguay'. On this song, Mark used his Ramirez Spanish guitar and Teisco Spectrum V Electric. On 'Donegan's Gone' Mark played bottleneck on his Danelectro DC with Jim, Glenn and Chad accompanying and on 'Song For Sonny Liston' he played an EKO 700 with Glenn and Chad making up the trio.

On other songs Richard employed his Gretsch 6120, Fender Stratocaster and a Pensa. Mark played his Gibson Les Paul, Fender Stratocaster, Fender Telecaster and Silvertone Dalelectro. His Gibson Southerner Jumbo was the acoustic guitar, except for 'Donegan's Gone' on which Richard played his own Southerner.

Guy and Jim played Hammond organ and piano. Guy played Wurlitzer and Rhodes pianos, harmonium on 'Stand Up Guy' and clavinet on 'Boom, Like That'. Jim played melodica and harmonica on 'Don't Crash the Ambulance' on the same pass.

Glenn played his Fender precision bass on everything. Also, he played his upright bass every day in the garden.

Chad's kit comprised a Ludwig kick drum and snares, Gretsch toms and Zildjian cymbals, and he played as little percussion as possible.

Mark's fourth solo studio album was his first release after a motorcycle accident in 2003. The first single was 'Boom, Like That' about the entrepreneurial skills of Ray Kroc. It also featured a second single, 'The Trawlerman's Song'.

Released: Mercury/Warner Bros. (2004)

Shangri-La

  • 1. 5:15 A.M.
    5:15 am
    Snow laying all around
    A collier cycles home
    From his night shift underground
    Past the silent pub
    Primary school, workingmen’s club
    On the road from the pithead
    The churchyard packed
    With mining dead

    Then beneath the bridge
    He comes to a giant car
    A shroud of snow upon the roof
    A mark ten jaguar
    He thought the man was fast asleep
    Silent, still and deep
    Both dead and cold
    Shot through
    With bullet holes

    The one armed bandit man
    Came north to fill his boots
    Came up from Cockneyland
    E-type jags and flashy suits
    Put your money in
    Pull the levers
    Watch them spin
    Cash cows in all the pubs
    But he preferred the new nightclubs

    Nineteen sixty-seven
    Bandit men in birdcage heaven
    La dolce vita, sixty-nine
    All new to people of the Tyne

    Who knows who did what
    Somebody made a call
    They said his hands
    Were in the pot
    That he’d been skimming hauls
    He picks up the swag
    They gaily gave away
    Drives his giant jag
    Off to his big pay day

    The bandit man
    Came north to fill his boots
    Came up from Cockneyland
    E-type jags and flashy suits
    The bandit man
    Came up the great north road
    Up to Geordieland
    To mine
    The mother lode

    Seams blew up or cracked
    Black diamonds came hard won
    Generations toiled and hacked
    For a pittance and black lung
    Crushed by tub or stone
    Together
    And alone
    How the young and old
    Paid the price of coal

    Eighteen sixty-seven
    My angel’s gone to heaven
    He’ll be happy there
    Sunlight and sweet clean air

    They gather round the glass
    Tough hewers and crutters
    Child trappers and putters
    The little foals and half-marrows
    Who pushed
    And pulled the barrows
    The hod boys
    And the rolleywaymen

    5.15 A.M.
  • 2. Boom, Like That
    I’m going to San Bernardino ring-a-ding-ding
    Milkshake mix is thus my thing now
    These guys bought a heap of my stuff
    And I gotta see a good thing shooting up now

    Oh my name is not Crock, that’s Kroc with a K
    Like crocodile but not spelled that way now
    It’s dog eat dog, rat eat rat
    Kroc style… Boom! like that

    Folks line up all down the street
    Now I am seeing this girl devour her meat now
    And then I get it Wham as clear as day
    My pulse begins to hammer then I hear a voice say

    These boys have got this down ought to be one of these in every town
    These boys have got the touch It’s clean as a whistle and it don’t cost much
    Wham bam don’t wait long, shake fries plenty of gum
    How about that friendly name, heck, every little thing gotta stay the same

    Or my name is not Kroc, that’s Kroc with a K
    A crocodile is not spelt that way now
    It’s Dog eat dog, rat eat rat
    Kroc style – Boom like that

    You gentlemen are to expand
    You’re gonna need a helping hand now
    So gentlemen well what about me?
    We’ll make a little business history now

    Oh my name is not Crock, that’s Kroc with a K
    Like crocodile but not spelled that way now
    It’s dog eat dog, rat eat rat
    Kroc style… Boom! like that

    Well we’ll build it up and I’ll buy him out
    The man they made me grind it out now
    They open up a new place flippin meat
    So I do too, right across the street

    I got the main I need town, sell em’ in the end and it all shuts down
    Sometimes you gotta be an S.O.B. you wanna make a dream reality
    Competition sent em south, they’re gonna drown or we’re hosing em’ out
    Do not pass go go straight to hell
    I smell a lotta meat …..da smell

    Or my name is not Kroc that’s Kroc with a K
    A crocodile is not spelt that way now
    Ohh it’s Dog eat Dog, Rat eat Rat
    Dog eat Dog, Rat eat Rat now
    Ohh it’s Dog eat Dog, Rat eat Rat
    Kroc style – Boom like that
  • 3. Sucker Row
    Somebody’s gotta crack
    A whip around here
    Who’s minding the store?
    Shake it up sell some beer
    What’s your Money maker for?
    Pay day
    We’re packin’ ’em in
    Six-gun Annie
    And Buffalo Jill
    But who’s to say
    They’ll be back again
    For a refill?
    Honey, you know the drill

    Ain’t no left turn
    Down sleepy time street
    You gotta be fast
    But you gotta stay loose
    Thinking
    On your feet
    Slick as grass
    Through a goose
    We gotta Rationalise
    The payroll
    Is giving me chills
    You and me’s
    Getting organized
    It’s kill or be killed
    Honey, you know the drill

    Well they can all look down
    On sucker row
    But they all forget
    The tallest trees
    From acorns grow
    Though they ain’t yet
    I never look down
    On a sucker stake
    They all pay the bills
    I never gave a sucker
    An even break
    And I never will

    A beautiful vision
    Keeps coming to me
    I see
    A miracle mile
    Flying in
    For free Service
    With a smile
    High rollers
    Fancy hotels
    Big time singers
    Topping the bill
    You gotta have a feel
    For the stuff that sells
    Call it a skill
    Honey, you know the drill

    Somebody’s gotta crack
    A whip around here
    Who’s Minding the store?
    Shake it up
    Sell some beer
    Money walking
    Through the door
    Annie’s arriving
    At a dangerous age
    Don’t you
    Go getting ill
    Get another woman
    Up in the cage
    Who ain’t over the hill
    Honey, you know the drill
  • 4. The Trawlerman’s Song
    We’re taking on water
    Diesel and stores
    Laying up awhile
    Before I’m back on board
    They’re patching her up
    To go fishing again
    They’re welding her rudder
    Scrubbing her keel
    Scars on her belly
    Need time to heal
    In the dock
    With the trawlermen

    I know all the people
    There’s nobody new
    Soon we’ll be leaving
    With the same old crew
    On the green water
    The tumbling sea
    They ain’t running
    Like the good old days
    Time’s just slipping
    Down the old slipways
    In the dock
    So dear to me

    Dark is the night
    I need a guiding light
    To keep me
    From foundering
    On the rocks
    My only prayer
    Is just to see you there
    At the end
    Of my wandering
    Back in the dock

    I could use a layoff
    Getting my strength back
    But there’s a loan to pay off
    And a few skipjack
    So it’s a turnaround
    Back in the southerly wind
    Pirates coming in
    To steal our gold
    You can count yourself lucky
    With a profit in the hold
    In the dock
    When we come in

    Dark is the night
    I need a guiding light
    To keep me
    From foundering
    On the rocks
    My only prayer
    Is just to see you there
    At the end
    Of my wandering
    Back in the dock
  • 5. Back To Tupelo
    Around the time of ‘clambake’
    Movie number twenty-five
    You and the lying dutchman
    Are still in overdrive

    You’re as strong as when you started
    Mississippi in your soul
    You can still be Marlon Brando
    And the king of rock and roll

    It isn’t just the records
    No, you must have Hollywood
    The songs alone are not enough
    That much is understood

    You’ll soon be back in Memphis
    Maybe then you’ll know what to do
    The storylines they’re giving you
    Are just not ringing true

    Oh, it’s a ways to go
    Back to Tupelo

    When you’re young and beautiful
    Your dreams are all ideals
    Later on it’s not the same
    Lord, everything is real

    Sixteen hundred miles of highway
    Roll back to the truth
    And a song to give your mother
    In your first recording booth

    Around the time of ‘clambake’
    That old dream’s still rolling on
    Sometimes there’ll be the feeling
    Things are going wrong

    The morning star is fading
    Lord, the Mississippi’s cold
    You can still be Marlon Brando
    And the king of rock and roll

    But it’s a ways to go
    Back to Tupelo

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS

    Doug Pettibone: electric guitar
  • 6. Our Shangri-La
    It’s the end of a perfect day
    For surfer boys and girls
    The sun’s dropping down in the bay
    And falling off the world

    There’s a diamond in the sky,
    Our evening star
    In our Shangri-La

    Get that fire burning strong
    Right here and right now
    It’s here and then it’s gone
    There’s no secret, anyhow.

    We may never love again
    To the music of guitars
    In our Shangri-La

    Tonight your beauty burns
    Into my memory
    The wheel of heaven turns
    Above us endlessly

    This is all the heaven we’ve got
    Right here where we are
    In our Shangri-La

    Tonight your beauty burns
    Into my memory
    The wheel of heaven turns
    Above us endlessly

    This is all the heaven we’ve got
    Right here where we are
    In our Shangri-La
    In our Shangri-La
    In our Shangri-La

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS

    Paul Franklin: pedal steel guitar
  • 7. Everybody Pays
    I got shot off my horse
    So what? I’m up again
    And playing
    In one of these
    Big saloons on main
    You can come up here
    Take a look
    Around these sinners’ dens
    You’re only ever going to find
    One or two real games
    Nobody’s driving
    Me underground
    Not yet anyway
    But either on the strip
    Or on the edge of town

    Everybody pays
    Everybody pays to play

    Yeah, you ought to stay
    Right where you are
    In sawdust land
    It’s probably the
    Safest place to be
    With your
    Greasy little pork pies
    And your shoestring hands
    It makes
    No difference to me
    All those directions
    Which we never took
    To go our different ways
    Who went and wrote
    The oldest story in the book?

    Everybody pays
    Everybody pays to play

    Curl up inside
    A boxcar dream
    And disappear
    With a couple
    Low roller friends
    You were never one
    For trouble
    So get out of here I knew the game
    Was dangerous back then
    But nobody’s breezing
    Through these swinging doors
    Just ups and walks away
    Everybody has to leave
    Some blood here on the floor

    Everybody pays
    Everybody pays to play
  • 8. Song For Sonny Liston
    So many mouths
    To feed on the farm
    Sonny was the second
    To the last one born
    His mamma ran away
    And his daddy beat him bad
    And he grew up wild
    Good love he never had

    He had a left
    Like Henry’s hammer
    A right like Betty bamalam
    Rode with the muggers
    In the dark and dread
    And all them sluggers
    Went down like lead

    Well he hung with the hoods
    He wouldn’t stroke the fans
    But he had dynamite
    In both his hands
    Boom bam
    Like the slammer door
    The bell and the can
    And the bodies on the floor

    Beware the bear’s in town
    Somebody’s money says
    The bear’s going down
    Yeah, the bear never smiles
    Sonny’s going down
    For miles and miles
    Sonny’s going down
    For miles and miles

    The writers didn’t like him
    The fight game jocks
    With his lowlife backers
    And his hands like rocks
    They didn’t want to have
    A bogey man
    They didn’t like him
    And he didn’t like them

    Black Cadillac
    Alligator boots
    Money in the pockets
    Of his sharkskin suits
    Some say the bear
    Took a flop
    They couldn’t believe it
    When they saw him drop

    He had a left
    Like Henry’s hammer
    A right like Betty bamalam
    Rode with the muggers
    In the dark and dread
    And all them sluggers
    Went down like lead

    Joe Louis was his hero
    He tried to be the same
    But a criminal child
    Wears a ball and chain
    So the civil rights people
    Didn’t want him on the throne
    And the hacks and the cops
    Wouldn’t leave him alone

    Beware the bear’s in town
    Somebody’s money says
    The bear’s going down
    Yeah, the bear never smiles
    Sonny’s going down
    For miles and miles
    Sonny’s going down
    For miles and miles

    At the foot of his bed
    With his feet on the floor
    There was dope in his veins
    And a pistol on the drawer
    There was no investigation
    As such
    He hated needles
    But he knew too much

    Criss-crossed
    On his back
    Scars from his daddy
    Like slavery tracks
    The second-last child
    Was the second-last king
    Never again was it the same
    In the ring

    He had a left
    Like Henry’s hammer
    A right like Betty bamalam
    Rode with the muggers
    In the dark and dread
    And all them sluggers
    Went down like lead
    They never could be sure
    About the day he was born
    A motherless child
    Set to working on the farm

    And they never could be sure
    About the day he died
    The bear was the king
    They cast aside
    Beware the bear’s in town
    Somebody’s money says
    The bear’s going down
    Yeah, the bear never smiles
    Sonny’s going down
    For miles and miles
    Sonny’s going down
    For miles and miles
  • 9. Whoop De Doo
    If I’m over the moon
    It’s because I’m over you
    A day at a time
    And I’m tickety-boo
    I don’t carry on
    The way I used to
    Whoop de doo
    Whoop de doo

    If I’m doing great
    It’s because when I get home
    I don’t go straight
    To my answerphone
    And the tears don’t come
    The way they used to
    Whoop de doo
    Whoop de doo

    So many little things
    Are so much better now
    They were only the little things
    Anyhow

    If I’m over the moon
    It’s because that’s what I am
    Funny that once I used to give a damn
    And I’d do anything In the whole wide world for you
    Whoop de doo
    Whoop de doo
    Anything
    Anything you’d want me to
    Whoop de doo
    Whoop de doo
  • 10. Postcards From Paraguay
    One thing was leading to the next
    I bit off more than I could chew
    I had the power to sign the cheques
    It wasn’t difficult to do

    I couldn’t stay and face the music
    So many reasons why
    I won’t be sending postcards
    From Paraguay

    I robbed a bank full of dinero
    A great big mountain of dough
    So it was goodbye compañero
    And cheerio

    I couldn’t stay and face the music
    So many reasons why
    I won’t be sending postcards
    From Paraguay

    I never meant to be a cheater
    But there was blood on the wall
    I had to steal from Peter
    To pay what I owed to Paul

    I couldn’t stay and face the music
    So many reasons why
    I won’t be sending postcards
    From Paraguay
  • 11. All That Matters
    My darling girl
    My darling girl
    You’re all that matters
    In this wicked world
    All that matters
    All that matters

    My darling boy
    My darling boy
    All of my sunshine
    And all of my joy
    You’re all that matters
    All that matters

    Well, I can’t stop the pain
    When it calls I’m a man
    And I can’t stop the rain
    When it falls, my darling
    Who can?

    My darling girl
    My darling girl
    You’re all that matters
    In this wicked world
    All that matters
    All that matters

    My darling friend
    My darling friend
    All we’ve got going
    Is love in the end
    It’s all that matters
    All that matters
  • 12. Stand Up Guy
    Brew the coffee in a bucket
    Double straight man and banjo
    If you don’t got the snake oil
    Buster, you don’t got a show
    Who puts the doh-re-me
    In our pockets
    Keeps the party going on?
    It’s the man
    Who sells the potions
    I’m just one who plays the songs

    Now they generally buys
    The bigger size
    They usually rub it in
    I drank it once, it tasted
    Like grease and paraffin
    It’s mostly alcohol, okay
    You can’t deny it’s strong
    We was going through the motions
    ’til the doctor came along

    There stands the bottle
    Ladies and gentlemen
    All these bottles
    Don’t have to tell you, friends
    These days, miracles
    Don’t come falling from the sky
    Raise your glasses to the doctor
    To a stand up guy

    When the monkeyshine is flying
    And he’s promising the cure
    He says the french
    For your lovesick blues
    La maladie d’amour
    He gets the chumps all laughing
    But he gets a few to buy
    Here’s to beefsteak
    When you’re hungry
    And whiskey when you’re dry

    Now the band’ll blow their moolah
    Like sailors gone ashore
    Now we’re going to west helena
    To gamble, drink and whore
    Let’s you and me
    All make whoopee
    Here’s mud in your eye
    Here’s to all the gals you ever want
    And heaven when you die

    There stands the bottle
    Ladies and gentlemen
    All these bottles
    Don’t have to tell you, friends
    These days miracles
    Don’t come falling from the sky
    Raise your glasses to the doctor
    To a stand up guy

    There’s a big cheese with a cigar
    Been sizing up the show
    He wants to get the doctor
    Pitching on the radio
    I will make a switch to guitar
    But the rules all still apply
    They want to trust somebody
    Yeah, they want a stand up guy

    There stands the bottle
    Here’s to absent friends
    All these bottles
    Dead soldiers in the end
    These days miracles
    Don’t come falling from the sky
    Raise your glasses to the doctor
    To a stand up guy
    To the doctor
    A stand up guy

    ADDITIONAL MUSICIANS

    Doug Pettibone: mandolin
  • 13. Donegan’s Gone
    Donegan’s gone, Lonnie Donegan
    Donegan’s gone
    Gone, Lonnie Donegan
    Donegan’s gone

    Play that big grand coulee dam
    Nobody loves like an irishman
    Gone, Lonnie Donegan

    Donegan’s gone
    Donegan’s gone, Lonnie Donegan
    Donegan’s gone
    Gone, Lonnie Donegan
    Donegan’s gone

    Lord, I’m just a rolling stone
    Rock my soul I wanna go home
    Gone, Lonnie Donegan

    Donegan’s gone
    Donegan’s gone, Lonnie Donegan
    Donegan’s gone

    Gone, Lonnie Donegan
    Donegan’s gone
    Stackalee and a gamblin’ man
    Rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham

    Gone, Lonnie Donegan
    Donegan’s gone
    Donegan’s gone, Lonnie Donegan
    Donegan’s gone

    Gone, Lonnie Donegan Donegan’s gone
    Time just goes on rolling by
    Lord, I feel like I could cry
    Gone, Lonnie Donegan
    Donegan’s gone
  • 14. Don’t Crash The Ambulance
    Don’t often open up this floor
    Since I handed in my gun
    What all these keys are for
    Now my tour of duty’s done
    You got to know the switches

    Now you got your turn
    Watch and learn, junior
    Watch and learn
    Now you will get your Trouble spots
    Here’s one from Down voodoo way
    Bragged he had me by the you-know-whats
    Very funny, you don’t say
    The big enchilada
    Stealing elections
    Had to go down there
    Trash collection
    Got his cojones
    On my desk in there
    Made into a souvenir
    Set of cufflinks, nice pair
    The rest of him’s
    Someplace up here
    Sometimes you got to
    Put a shoulder to the door

    Not so fast, junior
    Listen to your pa
    Here, son I’m handing over to you
    Don’t crash the ambulance
    Whatever you do

    What we have here’s a dung hole place
    Thought it was fly shit on the map
    Fat bastard, ugly face, ooh and the personal crap
    You can’t move the barriers, you can’t mess with oil and gas
    Had to go down there, stick a couple aircraft carriers in his ass
    Fancy dress, medals chest, it’s all in here, for all the gigs
    Gas mask bulletproof vest, all the usual rigs
    There’ll be things they missed, they didn’t mention
    You’ve even got a whistle in there for attracting attention

    Well, I think you’re gonna be okay, son
    If I had the tour, I guess
    These two buttons by the way
    This one I hope you never press
    Some holy fool, just watch, not like you or me
    That one’s the whole shootin’ match
    Right there, it’s the whole shitaree
    We don’t forget who put us here, Jack
    That’s page one we talk soft
    Carry a big stick, pack the biggest gun
    We don’t like accidents major or minor
    You don’t want yourself an incident
    Don’t ever invade China

    Here, son
    I’m handin’ over to you
    Don’t crash the ambulance
    Ohh, here son
    I’m handin’ over to you
    Don’t crash the ambulance
    Whatever you do