Quote:
Originally Posted by Guybrush
They probably both knew Jimmy Webb, though I do find Mark Knopfler's style to be confident enough not to think of him as a mimic.. of course there are usually similarities in style to predecessors in any genre.
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It's certainly not mimicking Webb's song, or plagiarising it in any way. What reminded me of it so strongly was firstly, the past tense narration "I was...", "I did such-and-such...", and secondly the two narrators, which reminded me of the well-known version by The Highwaymen in which Johnny, Waylon, Willie and Kris take turns with the verses.
This kind of lyric structure is often a feature of folk. Like you, I prefer Knopfler when he sounds folky, not so much when he's bluesy. That's probably because I am not the world's greatest blues fan in the first place.