"Tunnel of Love" Dire Straits 1980

Throughout "Tunnel of Love", Mark Knopfler dramatizes this close encounter by using his guitar as a Greek chorus. The singer practically spits out the early verses while dodging his own instrumental licks as they ricochet against Illsley and Withers' solid wall of sound. Later, as Knopfler walks alone through the "carousel and the carnival arcades", waiting for another night and another girl, he wraps his voice like a ratty old raincoat around Bittan's gently tinkling piano and the long guitar solo that ends the track. Somehow, the evocative moan of the artist's guitar suggests a truth much deeper than the carnival-as-life metaphor has revealed.

Review by David Fricke (5 February 1981) on "Dire Straits: Making Movies" in Rolling Stone.


Getting crazy on the waltzers but it's the life that I choose
Sing about the six blade sing about the switchback and a torture tattoo
And I been riding on a ghost train where the cars they scream and slam
And I don't know where I'll be tonight but I'd always tell you where I am

In a screaming ring of faces I seen her standing in the light
She had a ticket for the races just like me she was a victim of the night
I put my hand upon the lever said let it rock and let it roll
I had the one arm bandit fever there was an arrow through my heart and my soul

And the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above
And I'm just high on the world
Come on and take a low ride with me girl
On the tunnel of love

It's just the danger when you're riding at your own risk
She said you are the perfect stranger she said baby let's keep it like this
It's just a cakewalk twisting baby step right up and say
Hey mister give me two give me two 'cause any two can play

And the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above
And I'm just high on the world
Come on and take a low ride with me girl
On the tunnel of love

Well it's been money for muscle another whirligig
Money for muscle another girl I dig
Another hustle just to make it big
And rock away rock away

And girl it looks so pretty to me like it always did
Like the Spanish city to me when we were kids
Oh girl it looks so pretty to me just like it always did
Like the Spanish city to me when we were kids

She took off a silver locket she said remember me by this
She put her hand in my pocket I got a keepsake and a kiss
And in the roar of dust and diesel I stood and watched her walk away
I could have caught up with her easy enough but something must have made me stay

And the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above
And I'm just high on the world
Come on and take a low ride with me girl
On the tunnel of love

And now I'm searching through these carousels and the carnival arcades
Searching everywhere from steeplechase to palisades
In any shooting gallery where promises are made
To rock away rock away from Cullercoats and Whitley bay out to rock away

And girl it looks so pretty to me like it always did
Like the Spanish city to me when we were kids
Girl it looks so pretty to me like it always did
Like the Spanish city to me when we were kids

Guitar solo