Current location:	switchboard, baby
Current mood:	curious
Current music:	guess
Entry tags:	dire straits, lyrics, mans2strong, youtube

I have a theory...
If you have no interest in interpreting song lyrics, or Dire Straits, or the song "The Man's Too Big" (it's a really cool song, you should check it out if you don't know it. I've included a YouTube clip of a live version behind the cut), skip this.

Still here? OK. Here are the song lyrics:

I'm just and ageing drummer boy
And in the wars I used to play
And I've called the tune
To many a torture session
Now they say I am a war criminal
And I'm fading away
Father please her my confession

I have legalised robbery
Called it belief
I have run with the money
And hid like a theif
I have re-written history
With my armies and my crooks
Invented memories
I did burn all the books
And I can still hear his laughter
And I can still hear his song
The man's too big
The man's too strong

Well I have tried to be meek
And I have tried to be mild
But I spat like a woman
And sulked like a child
I have lived behind wall
That have made me alone
Striven for peace
Which I never have known
And I can still hear his laughter
And I can still hear his song
The man's too big
The man's too strong

Well the sun rose on the courtyard
And they all did hear him say
'You always were a Judas
But I got you anyway
You may have got your silver
But I swear upon my life
Your sister gave me diamonds
And I gave them to your wife
Oh father please help me
For I have done wrong
The man's too big
The man's too strong


I really love this song & have wondered about it long & hard. My theory has evolved over the years, & may evolve further still, but this is how it currently stands:

I think there are actually two "voices" in this song- the "ageing drummer boy" (btw, "drummer" is an old-time slang term for "salesman," & I think that could be significant) & someone, possibly the "priest," to whom he is confessing or who @ least who can hear him. I agree w/ the poster who suggests that the main speaker is a composite, just as "the man" is a composite of the powers that be. I see the "drummer boy" as a composite of all the greedy, lying corporate heads & successful scoundrels who con people into believing in war & religion & then make a profit from them (the believers).

In MY way of understanding it "I can still hear his laughter/& I can still hear his song" is the voice of the confessor/listener, who is hearing, with horror, the litany of all the misdeeds of the "drummer boy." The confessor/listener later describes the scene of the "drummer boy's" fall (the courtyard @ dawn & all that implies).

"The Man's too big./The Man's too strong" might be both voices- the condemned "drummer boy" chortling that, even though he has fallen, he has won because "the man," for whom he worked & did all those evil things, will always win. Meanwhile, the horrified listener is thinking the same thing, but NOT with happiness, with dread.

"You always were a Judas" is, I believe, the voice of the "drummer boy" addressing the people (again, composite) whom he has misled & swindled. He is saying, in effect, that "even though you have turned on me now & brought me low, ruined me, you are in turn betrayed & ruined by those closest to you, & _I_ am the cause of it."

Well, that's my theory & I'm sticking to it. For now, @ least. ;-)