I became a fan when I heard Skateaway. The song, like much of Knopfler’s work is both subtle and sublime, both mundane and majestic; I was hooked almost from the first drum lick. I am another who wore out a copy of Alchemy back in the '80s. Thankfully I now have it on CD and ripped them all to mp3s years ago. It’s still one of the 3 or 4 best live rock albums, IMO. Not only have the songs held up but the band is so tight and so proficient that the performances on Alchemy hold up even more than 30 years later.
That’s also my favorite “lesser known” Dire Straits song. Making Movies was the one of their albums I heard relatively late, and I instantly liked Skateaway, such a clever and slick song I had and still never have heard on the radio, and that’s a loss to all radio listeners. Almost the whole album is superb, never mind Les Boys…
Hanging out with my neighbor one night, listening to tunes, he puts on a track I never heard before and asks me with a hint of arrogance, “Who is this?” Like, I SHOULD know but I’ll never get it right.
I close my eyes during the guitar work and I get this feeling deep inside of my chest. Beauty. The sublime. There’s only one guitarist who makes me feel this way.
“Mark Knopfler” I say, to the shock of my neighbor. The song was “Boom Like That”. Turns out, my neighbor loves Knopfler, but never listened to Dire Straits! So he introduces me to the solo work, and I introduce him to the Dire Straits albums, and we live happily ever after.
Oh yeah, that’s a good one if its what I recall. Is that the one where, at one point, he’s playing a sunburst Gibson Dreadnaught? He’s showing how he developed his fingerstyle and got his thumb working independently? Really good stuff from an inside baseball standpoint. And that guitar is a mid-1930’s Gibson Advanced Jumbo, probably an $85,000 guitar. I’ve played a couple. Fun.
By the way, regarding comments on Knopfler’s expressiveness. First of all: yes! Second of all, I really see it originating due to his not using a pick. Obviously for his chord work played that way - you can communicate so much more when you can use fingers for multiple lines, and thumb for counterpoint bass. But when you play lead lines without a pick while playing stuff that would normally be done with a pick, it really changes things up. Not only is the point of string attack a softer, rounder fleshier thing (MK = no nails), but you really think differently when doing it that way. It slows you down because you don’t have a pick’s up-and-down available the same way, but that softer attack is something that sounds so good when used melodically. Add a songwriter’s sensibility and yay.
I saw him when he was on tour with Dylan a few years ago and Knopfler was amazing. Not only his and the band’s playing, but one of the best live band sounds I’ve heard in an indoor concert.
I’m a really big MK fan, and managed to catch him live a few years back in Birmingham (UK) - I was not disappointed.
In addition to the great guitar work, I just love the observational nature of some of his lyrics.
I also really love it when I hear some Bob Dylan vocals and sitting underneath is some slick Knopfler guitar - MK played on the Dylan album Slow Train Coming.
As a long term fan I lack any form of objectivity whatsoever, but I think his observational lyrics are second to none. He lectured in English and he worked as a journalist for a time, and I think it shows.
I don’t know where he gets most of his material (sometimes it’s known and obvious) but to me his ability to write credibly from the point of view of all walks of life is superb. Everything from a biker to a hill farmer to a an exhibitionistic girl on skates. Of course he got into trouble over this with “Money for Nothing” when he wrote from the point of a meat-headed delivery guy, but that seemed unfair to me. I heard a comment about “5.15am” from someone who grew up in the area of the incident in question to the effect that the tone and language perfectly encapsulated local feeling at the time.
Some of it is from reading particular books eg “Boom, Like That” and “Sailing to Philadelphia”.
It’s funny, I heard his work in a theater… the soundtrack to Local Hero.
Beautiful, haunting movie, thanks in a large part to Mr. Knopfler’s celtic-infused guitar work.
He somehow had the ability to make an electric guitar strike the same emotional chords as an acoustic.
To this day, I don’t think I’ve ever owned a Walkman or an iPod or a phone that didn’t have “Wild Theme” on it.
Do give a listen, when things have quieted down for the night…
Great clip! I especially liked the video editing, where they cut to the drummer just for one, critical beat leading into the next phrase. So often quick cuts have no relevance to the music, but I think the editor was a musician here!
