Romeo and Juliet" was written by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, and

appears on that band's 1980 album, "Making Movies." Amy Ray has

performed it fairly regularly since at least 1987. It's always been

one of my favorite DS songs, and I was pretty floored when I first

heard Amy do it, so I once asked her about it. She claimed that she

was inspired to cover it after she saw Dire Straits on their

"Brothers in Arms" tour. She felt that the arrangement that they

were using for the tour really lacked the edge of the "Making Movies"

version, and she wanted to try to bring back that edge. Which she

does, because her stripped-down version is PURE edge. (Personally,

though, I LOVED the DS arrangement from the "Brothers in Arms" tour -

I like it better than the original, in fact.) Anyway... Amy tends

to improvise with this one a bit, so I just transcribed the lyrics

off of "Making Movies."



Romeo and Juliet.



A lovestruck Romeo sings the streets a serenade

Laying everybody low with a love song that he made

Finds a streetlight, steps out of the shade

Says something like "You and me, babe, how about it?"



Juliet says "Hey, it's Romeo! You nearly give me a heart attack!"

He's underneath the window,

She's singing "Hey-la, my boyfriend's back -

You shouldn't come around here singing up at people like that!

Anyway, whatcha gonna do about it?"



Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start

And I bet and you exploded into my heart

And I forget, I forget the movie song

When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?



We come up on different streets

They both were streets of shame

Both dirty, both mean

Yes, and the dream was just the same

And I dreamed your dream for you

And now your dream is real

How can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals?



When you can fall for chains of silver

You can fall for chains of gold

You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold

You promised me everything - You promised me thick and thin, yeah

Now you just say "Oh, Romeo, yeah,

You know I used to have a scene with him."





Juliet, when we made love you used to cry

You said "I love you like the stars above, I'll love you till I die"

There's a place for us

You know the movie song

When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?



I can't do the talks like they talk on the TV

And I can't do a love song like the way its meant to be

I can't do everything but I'll do anything for you

I can't do anything except be in love with you



And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be

All I do is keep the beat to Bad Company

All I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme

Julie, I'd do the stars with you, anytime



Juliet, when we made love you used to cry

You said "I love you like the stars above, I'll love you till I die"

There's a place for us

You know the movie song

When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?



And a lovestruck Romeo, he sings the streets a serenade

Laying everybody low with a love song that he made

Finds a convenient streetlight, steps out of the shade

And says something like "You and me, babe, how 'bout it?

You and me, babe, how 'bout it