Dire Straits – Skateaway

This song is so smooth and has a great groove to it. Add in Mark Knopfler’s guitar and it turns into a very good pop song. It was on the album Making Movies which peaked at #19 in 1980.

Skateaway peaked at #58 in the Billboard 100 in 1981.

From Wiki

After the Communiqué Tour ended on 21 December 1979 in London, Mark Knopfler spent the first half of 1980 writing the songs for Dire Straits’ next album. He contacted Jimmy Iovine after hearing Iovine’s production on the song “Because the Night” by Patti Smith—a song she had co-written with Bruce Springsteen. Iovine, who had also worked on Springsteen’s Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town albums, was instrumental in recruiting E Street Band keyboardist Roy Bittan for the Making Movies sessions.[1]

Making Movies was recorded at the Power Station in New York from 20 June to 25 August 1980. Jimmy Iovine and Mark Knopfler produced the album.

Skateaway

I seen a girl on a one way corridor
Stealing down a wrong way street
For all the world like an urban toreador
She had wheels on on her feet
Well the cars do the usual dances
Same old cruise and the kerbside crawl
But the roller girl she’s taking chances
They just love to see her take them all

No fears alone at night she’s sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones are tight and the music’s playing loud

Hallelujah here she comes queen roller ball
Enchante what can I say don’t care at all
You know she used to have to wait around
She used to be the lonely one
But now that she can skate around town
She’s the only one

No fears alone at night she’s sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones are tight and the music’s playing loud
She gets rock n roll a rock n roll station
And a rock n roll dream
She’s making movies on location
She don’t know what it means
But the music make her want to be the story
And the story was whatever was the song what it was
Roller girl don’t worry
D.j. play the movies all night long

She tortures taxi drivers just for fun
She like to read their lips
Says toro toro taxi see ya tomorrow my son
I swear she let a big truck grease her hip
She got her own world in the city
You can’t intrude on her
She got her own world in the city
’cause the city’s benn so rude to her

No fears alone at night she’s sailing through the crowd
In her ears the phones are tight and the music’s playing loud
She gets rock n roll a rock n roll station
And a rock n roll dream
She’s making movies on location
She don’t know what it means
But the music make her want to be the story
And the story was whatever was the song what it was
Roller girl don’t worry
D.j. play the movies all night long

Come slipping and sliding
Life’s roller ball
Slipping and a sliding
Skate away that’s all
Shala shalay hey hey skate away
She’s going singing shala shalay hey hey
Skate away

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

11 thoughts on “Dire Straits – Skateaway”

  2. I can listen to this song over and over. It’s one that didn’t get enough airplay when it came out, imo. I stopped and appreciated it each time it came on. It was one of the few music videos I loved, too.

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      2. Lol… no lines for 20 dollar bottles of water and corporate advertising… the exact opposite of what it should be about… cause it’s not about music.

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      3. Right! And the artists they had on this bill don’t relate to a Woodstock vibe at all. It was weird.
        The ‘free’ concert that Arlo has planned at the actual site seems much more appropriate.

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