Random Tuesday Music: Romeo and Juliet

Performed by: Dire Straits
Album: Making Movies (1980)

This is one of those songs that grew on me. I didn't enjoy the first few times I listened to it--and I mean really listening, not just hearing it sitting in the backseat of my dad's car as a wee one. It took me a while to get used to the mixture of singing and speaking, but the line "y'know, the movie song" always irked me a little bit. Not quite a Pope in Rome line, but irksome nonetheless.

"Pope in Rome line" is a term I believe I've only used with my father, but I'll explain. Have you ever heard a song that had a line that seemed out of place and/or ruined the song for you? That's a Pope in Rome line. It's a direct reference to the line "'cept for the Pope maybe in Rome" in Joan Osborne's "One of Us". Another example is "when she thought up that I should be with you" in James Blunt's "You're Beautiful". You just hear it going along, whatever, and then that line comes out of left field.

Back to Romeo and Juliet--a play I happen to loathe, but I digress. This song's been covered a few times. The Killers' rendition is the only cover I've heard, and I happen to like it, so I'll end the post with it. :) Going by what they're saying in the beginning of the clip here, it sounds like they covered it for the right reasons.