Dire Straits / Mark Knopfler

    I am going to revive this in order to attempt a top 20 Mark Knopfler songs.


    1. Sailing To Philadelphia

    2. Silvertown Blues

    3,. Why Aye Man

    4. What It Is

    5. Done With Bonaparte

    6. The Trawlerman's Song

    7. 5.15 A.M.

    8. Donegan's Gone

    9. Going Home (theme from Local Hero)

    10. In The Sky

    11. Hill Farmer's Blues

    12. Prairie Wedding

    13. One Song At A Time

    14. Marbletown

    15. Golden Heart

    16. Song For Sonny Liston

    17. River Towns

    18 Postcards From Paraguay

    19. A Night In Summer Long Ago

    20, Everybody Pays


    That is almost impossible. I love all his songs. The only one I have a problem with is Secondary Waltz from Kill To Get Crimson.

    I'm not too familiar with MK's solo stuff but I love Dire Straits. Deeply underappreciated band imo.


    I'd rank the albums

    Making Movies. Most albums are not this ambitious, and most are not this good. I nearly wore out my cassette copy.


    Brothers in Arms. Masterpiece.


    Love Over Gold. Telegraph Road has to be the longest song that occasionally gets stuck in my head for hours. Supper's Ready and echoes don't.


    Communique

    DS

    On Every Street


    Fun memory. I bought Alchemy on cassette when it was released. I was maybe 12. I went to meet my friend and his father at a restaurant/bar. I had mushroom soup and so did my friend. My friend's father had a few pints of Guinness. He drove us home and insisted we listen to my new cassette on the way. The intro crowd part is long, like a minute or two of cheering. My friend and his dad were bemused by this purchase of mine. He kept turning the volume up. Then Calling Elvis blasts into high gear and he started cheering and weaving all over the road in time to the song. We arrived alive. I have no idea how we weren't pulled over.


    Is anybody home? Fortunately we were!

    I credit this thread for giving me the spark to explore MK’s solo works further and discover some great albums that I didn’t have before.

    Within a year I went from having one to seven albums of his, and I’ve still got my sights on getting more. He’s been my most-listened to artist in the last year.


    What initially brought me to the table with Dire Straits ages ago were songs like Lady Writer and Down To The Waterline where the guitar solos provide a compelling climax.

    What kept me there were the endearing qualities of songs like Portobello Belle and In The Gallery.


    I discovered his solo work favours his lyrical and melodic strengths.

    I think when I picked up that first solo album which I was initially lukewarm to, perhaps I expected more of a balance with stinging guitar solos interspersed throughout.

    Since then, after picking up more of his albums and broadening my expectations, I've embraced the subtle beauty of releases like Shangri-La or Tracker without feeling that there’s something missing.

    Yes. You don't want him to keep repeating himself. He already wrote Sultans & R&J. He can't write those songs again. He does something different on each album.


    As for the Calling Elvis video:


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    It is not a great song, though.

    Thanks for posting the video, it's as good as I remember. I'd forgotten about the very attractive woman so she was a bonus. That haircut, very nice.

    Quote from FeelItComing

    It is not a great song, though.

    Very few songs by any artist are! Not being a Straits fan, for me it's pretty good.

    Abandon all reason

    Well that's it, you see. For me the vast majority of DS songs are indeed 'great' (as are a large number of Genesis songs). Calling Elvis always seemed like they were trying to cash in on the cult which developed after Elvis' death.

    Quote from genesis1964

    For all Dire Strait fans out there, a new release of live recordings is coming out in November. Alchemy looks a great release


    https://www.martincid.com/en/2…e-1978-1992-november-3rd/

    I haven't listened to much Dire Straits in quite a while, but this release looks great. I like all of extra additions like Tunnel of Love from 92, and extended Telegraph Road. Just what you want from a new box set I suppose, not just a tired old repackaging effort. Between this and the new Genesis editions... hope I get a bonus from work 😬!

    I resisted buying the re-released studio albums but I may have to make an exception for this. I have never heard the Rainbow show.


    That may be the first time I've ever heard MK described as 'charismatic' bless him.

    Quote from genesis1964

    For all Dire Strait fans out there, a new release of live recordings is coming out in November. Alchemy looks a great release


    https://www.martincid.com/en/2…e-1978-1992-november-3rd/

    Was hoping to get the vinyl version of this, but price will be around £200 (12 vinyl) so am going to pre-order the cd version (8 discs) for around £50 instead.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake”

    Quote from genesis1964

    Was hoping to get the vinyl version of this, but price will be around £200 (12 vinyl) so am going to pre-order the cd version (8 discs) for around £50 instead.

    Yikes. That is a very great difference. I like to pay a little extra for the inconvenience of vinyl but not 4 times as much!!

    Quote from FeelItComing

    https://ultimateclassicrock.co…oZdCrfKwuszNEbGS7hDj29kvI


    I'm a happy person this morning.


    I came THIS close to buying the live boxset the other day. I've ordered this instead....

    I haven't pulled the trigger on that box set yet. It wasn't available in the US when I was really gung ho and now I'm having second thoughts, because it is pricey. Would love to hear Tunnel of Love from the On The Night tour though, among other things.


    Will definitely check out his new album.


    Edit: the CD version of the box set is actually extremely reasonably priced, I think. Will likely go that route.

    Quote from dudeski

    The deluxe boxset?

    His solo albums are some sort of lucky bag. Sometimes good, sometimes not even average. The first track sounds promising, though!

    As a devoted fan who loves all the solo albums without exception I would be interested to know which ones you consider 'not even average'. For me he's been amazingly consistent. I can count the solo songs I dislike on one hand.

    Quote from FeelItComing

    As a devoted fan who loves all the solo albums without exception I would be interested to know which ones you consider 'not even average'. For me he's been amazingly consistent. I can count the solo songs I dislike on one hand.

    oh - didn't mean to be offensive! It's perfectly fine you like his output!

    I just lost interest after his later albums all sounded more and more the same. I quite like "Golden Heart" and "Sailing..." but after that it became less interesting, especially his last few albums like "Privateering". And the new song sounds pretty boring to me. Would love to hear a proper rock album again.

    ... make tomorrow today!

    Quote from dudeski

    oh - didn't mean to be offensive! It's perfectly fine you like his output!

    I just lost interest after his later albums all sounded more and more the same. I quite like "Golden Heart" and "Sailing..." but after that it became less interesting, especially his last few albums like "Privateering". And the new song sounds pretty boring to me. Would love to hear a proper rock album again.

    I'd like that too. He was so good at it, and I liked best of all when he went off piste a little with stuff like Private Investigations, Telegraph Road or Your Latest Trick. I'm not familiar enough with his solo output to know if has any slightly odder stuff like that out there.