it’s a song called “True Love Will Never Fade” that opens Mark Knopfler’s (You know, ex-Dire Straits) new album called Kill to Get Crimson (don’t ask me why).
It’s a simple sly heartbreaking thing, that I’ve been playing on CD-repeat for hours. (Here are my thoughts on binge listening.
“True Love Never Fades”: On the surface a story about a tatoo artist who falls for a girl who I think wants him to ink “True Love Will Never” on her along with a picture of them. (Or maybe it’s just about the way a tatoo is a way of tryng to stave off fading through it’s sharp etched permanence. It opens with the tatoo artist wondering whether there’s an afterlife–“I don’t know if there’s a forever”–or everything, implicitly, fades away.)
Aside from conjuring up (as every fade away reference must) Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away” (and the Stones cover), it makes you think. If love has been true than even if it comes to an end, the truth of it when it was there will won’t fade away. It exists for all time, just as it was. Love is love, not fade away.
But all of this is beside the point. It’s just an amazingly, ravishingly beautiful song and made me realize how many amazing songs Knopler has written.
I mean I’ve been a life long sucker for “Roller Girl” (She’s Makin’ Movies). Anyone have any other Knofpler or Dire Strait faves?
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