Dire Straits / Mark Knopfler

  • 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.

    Not offensive at all! I see what you mean! But as for a 'rock' album, he's a singer-songwriter now, really, and even if he wanted to I don't think he could write a song like Money For Nothing or Solid Rock these days.

  • 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.

    It depends what you mean by 'slightly odder'. Some of the 'character' songs like Imelda (about Imelda Marcos), Rudiger (about an obsessive German fan) or Coyote (about the Road Runner's nemesis in the Warner Brothers cartoons) or Boom, Like That about Ray Kroc (MacDonalds boss) might fit that description, I don't know. Musically though, I suppose the closest he has come to Telegraph Road is Speedway At Nazareth, which is a real epic, but give me Silvertown Blues any day (also something of an epic).

  • ... But as for a 'rock' album, he's a singer-songwriter now, really, and even if he wanted to I don't think he could write a song like Money For Nothing or Solid Rock these days.

    Admittedly, I initially had preconceived notions about what a Mark Knopfler album should sound like and then quickly discovered he had vastly expanded his musical palette since leaving Dire Straits — just as Peter Gabriel had since leaving Genesis.

    Knopfler is a great storyteller and songs like 5:15 A.M., River Towns, Basil, What It Is and Shangri-La are works of understated beauty.

    I would certainly rate any of those songs with the same vigour as any of my favourites of Dire Straits.

  • Not offensive at all! I see what you mean! But as for a 'rock' album, he's a singer-songwriter now, really, and even if he wanted to I don't think he could write a song like Money For Nothing or Solid Rock these days.

    perhaps you are right. But his last few albums all sounded pretty much the same. So something fresh would be nice. Nevertheless the new song is good. Just not surprising

  • MK has now recorded a new version of the theme from Local Hero featuring a large number of very well known guitarists (not Steve though, or Jimmy Page). But a certain Mike Rutherford is on it!! (the photo is very old).


    MARK KNOPFLER’S GUITAR HEROES - Mark Knopfler
    A landmark in rock music history, this new, very special recording of Mark Knopfler’s anthemic ‘Going Home (Theme From Local Hero)’ has been recorded to raise…
    www.markknopfler.com


    He never ceases to amaze me. It will be featured at Newcastle United's next home game on March 3.

  • Have posted a news item earlier today but haven’t yet found the time to post it here, so thank you


    / Mike Rutherford is part of Mark Knopfler's charity single

    cheers

    Christian


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  • MK has now recorded a new version of the theme from Local Hero featuring a large number of very well known guitarists (not Steve though, or Jimmy Page). But a certain Mike Rutherford is on it!! (the photo is very old).


    https://www.markknopfler.com/n…-knopflers-guitar-heroes/


    He never ceases to amaze me. It will be featured at Newcastle United's next home game on March 3.

    I stick to the CD release - and what a nice line-up that is. I wonder how many lead guitars we will get. I am sure we won't be able to recognize Mike's part here ...

  • I stick to the CD release - and what a nice line-up that is. I wonder how many lead guitars we will get. I am sure we won't be able to recognize Mike's part here ...

    I was wondering if he'd be the bass player. Agree otherwise it's an extraordinary lineup.

  • Personal story regarding Mark Knopfler dating back to October 2011. Bob Dylan was touring and MK was his opening act. I like a lot of Dylan's material but had no desire to see him live and even though I was/am still a big fan of MK I was not keen on seeing him as a support act.


    My sister-in-law is a big Dylan fan and had seen him before and was always playing his music and raving about how good he was live. She wanted to go through to Glasgow (Braehead Arena) to see him with her husband but they had no transport at the time. She knew I liked MK so bought me a ticket with the arrangemnet I would drive us all through to Glasgow. I thought why not, another chance to see MK and I will bear the Dylan part!!


    They both knew the music of Dire Straits but had never heard any of his solo material so played some of his music in the car so they were used to the type of music they were going to hear. After arriving we enjoyed a nice meal and then made our way to the arena. Settled down into our seats (which had a great view) and then the show began. Mark was brilliant as usual, crowd enthusastic about his music. What can I say about Dylan - his voice was rubbish and he never spoke in between any of the songs, I really did not enjoy that part of the show. The interesting part was the journey back.


    As soon as we got in the car my sister-in-law asked me to put on MK music I had. For the journey that lasted about an hour she kept on raving about how good MK was totally overshadowed Dylan. I have never seen her so overwhelmed with what she had experienced at the concert. She went there to see Dylan but came away being a fan of MK. To this day we still have a laugh about it.

    “Without music, life would be a mistake”

  • Thank you for that. I never understood why Mark opened for Dylan. I love Dylan but I have seen him live three times, and each time got more & more underwhelming. The first time I saw him was on the joint tour with Tom Petty - when Mark was a special guest, because it was in the middle of Dire Straits' record breaking run in Australia (which I am proud to have attended). I took a photo. This was in 1986, remember:


  • While I am at it - I never post photos on here because I know I need to post them from my computer, but as I have a couple of Mark at the moment here he is at St James Park. He & Brian Johnson will be co-hosting a series about various musicians on Sky Sports from April 25.

  • ...For the journey that lasted about an hour she kept on raving about how good MK was totally overshadowed Dylan ... She went there to see Dylan but came away being a fan of MK...

    Similar experience when I went to see Eric Clapton when he was touring with Mark Knopfler as his guest second guitarist (1988). At the time, I was a greater fan of Clapton but was more impressed with Knopfler. Decided after that I would begin exploring the music of Dire Straits (didn't have any of their albums at the time).


    And I am a great fan of Dylan and I have most of his albums but the one time I saw him live in concert (1989), it was like watching someone doing a comedic caricature of Dylan as the mumbling, indecipherable performer. Except in this instance, it was the real Bob Dylan. Several times during that show, I recall, he’d be halfway through a song before I recognized what he was actually playing. Still a big fan of his studio recordings but never felt the desire to see him in concert ever again after that.

  • So, this is the charity track. Mike plays rhythm guitar


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    cheers

    Christian


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  • So, this is the charity track. Mike plays rhythm guitar


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    In the whole song, or just a part? :/

  • In the whole song, or just a part? :/

    not sure

    liner notes say


    „…It‘s just perfect Nile Rodgers rhythm guitar. Same thing with Mike Rutherford. If you listen carefully, it‘s definitely Mike…“

    cheers

    Christian


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  • From what I can gather each musician plays at a specific part of the song. By the way, Paul Carrack is on it too! Next week another video will be released which will pinpoint exactly where in the track each musician plays. Of course it's possible that if Mike is playing rhythm he could be there throughout as Sting is on bass.


    It''s an exciting time to be a Knopfler fan so I'm rather beating the drum a bit. He's retired from touring though. A live performance of this track with as many of the people as he could get would be epic.