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Timeless and genre-defying.Electric guitar music touches a membrane deep inside me that seems to exist for the purpose of resonating this sound alone (the only thing that touches it even more strongly is if the guitar chords are paired with a truly unusual voice). I'm sure every lover of great guitar music knows what I am talking about. Ever since I discovered that membrane years ago, I have been on the look for that special sound; be it straightforward rock, blues or folk music. However, growing up in a time when the radio airwaves were flooded with either disco or punk, depending on what station you were listening to, it wasn't always easy to find. Then one day I heard "Sultans of Swing," and my membrane resonated – all the more because this was not only a great guitarist playing but also one of the most unique voices I'd heard in a while, and the musical style seemed to defy classification, too ... it was somewhere between rock and blues, but I wasn't sure what exactly to call it.
However you define their sound, though, listening to Dire Straits' self-titled debut album almost 25 years after its publication, it is still amazing how rounded and accomplished their style was even then. The band's composition would change over the course of the years and Mark Knopfler would take them to the heights of the ambitiously-conceived "Love Over Gold" and the bestselling diversity of "Brothers in Arms," but the basic elements of the typical Dire Straits sound, recognizable throughout all those later developments, were there right from the start: Knopfler's rough, dark vocals, his signature style as a guitar player, the unique Fender sound soon associated with his name, and even little details like his tendency to introduce songs by a couple of solo guitar slides – seemingly just tossed out casually but immediately catching the listener's attention, even before the band joins him for the "real" start of the song; a feature present from the very first track on this first album, "Down to the Waterline." Their debut release was Dire Straits' most sparsely-produced record; musically it did not yet involve the more elaborate elements of Knopfler's later compositions, and it was the only release featuring only the band's original four musicians. This, in addition to the album's equally firm anchoring in rock, blues and folk music (with a little bit of country here and there) and the particularly raw tinges of Mark Knopfler's voice gave it a "down to earth" feeling not always present in the band's later recordings. Besides, Knopfler had not yet discovered the limelight of a really large concert arena (the band's name was no coincidence, after all) – he obviously always knew he was good, but many of his early songs almost became different pieces of music over the course of their live performances throughout the years; most notably, "Sultans of Swing:" just listen to the version recorded on the "Alchemy" live album five years later. Perfection? Absolutely and undeniably ... but also incredible showmanship, ignited by the cheers of the audience and by his pure joy in playing.
"Dire Straits" is much more than just a well-done debut album; it is as essential a component of the band's and Mark Knopfler's body of work as any of its successors. I disagree with those who are saying that this is the "real" Dire Straits; to me, this band (and Knopfler in particular) still defies categorization, and every one of their records first and foremost expresses the state of their musical development at the time it was recorded. But regardless where you place this particular album in their catalog, one thing is for sure: It is one of those few timeless and definite classics that will forever have a validity of their own and whose importance, if anything, only grows with the passage of the years.
Stellar compositions.Mark Knopfler obviously loves to write passacaglias – pieces of music that start with a very basic theme, played by only one or very few instruments and, often over repeated crescendos and slow-downs, increasing in volume and instrumentation to a rousing finale, performed by either all instruments or the instrumental lead "voice;" in Knopfler's case of course his trademark Fender Strat. "Brothers in Arms" has elements of a passacaglia, and so does "Speedway to Nazareth" on his latest solo release, "Sailing to Philadelphia." His greatest achievement though, not only in this regard, has to be "Telegraph Road," the opening track of "Love Over Gold." In a little over 14 minutes, the song rises from a simple opening melody, evoking the loneliness of that man walking along a deserted track at the beginning of the song's story, to a final guitar solo which is among the most ambitious and evocative pieces of music written by anyone in recent decades, anywhere and in any musical category. In between, there are no less than two other guitar solos, each of them over a minute long; dramatic centerpieces in their own right in any song but this one. And like the song's instrumentation, its lyrics trace the story of civilization from that one man walking along a track to a modern city, with six lines of traffic (three lines moving slow), unemployment, desolation and anger; so apparent in Knopfler's coarse vocals in the final verse and echoed with even greater force in the instrumental finale.
"Telegraph Road" is followed by the sinister "Private Investigations," reminiscent of Alan Parsons's interpretation of the Poe classic "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" (listen to that steady beat underneath the instrumental part and tell me you don't hear the "Tell Tale Heart"), and as daring and elaborate in its composition as "Telegraph Road." Both pieces are made possible by the advent of Alan Clark and his skills as a pianist; and yet, here as there it is Knopfler's guitar play that takes front and center stage. Next is the wicked "Industrial Disease," followed by the album's title track, and last, "It Never Rains," Knopfler's bow to Bob Dylan, rendered in an interpretation so true to life that you inadvertently feel yourself transported back by a decade or more and expect him switch into "The Times They Are A-Changin'" any second. One may wonder why the record, given its mostly gloomy and cynical mood, was not named for one of the two equally stunning and dark first tracks. Perhaps, however, the answer lies in the title song's last verse: "It takes love over gold and mind over matter to do what you do that you must, when the things that you hold can fall and be shattered or run through your fingers like dust."
The album's cover rightly (although somewhat unnecessarily) describes "Love Over Gold" as "one of Dire Straits' most ambitiously conceived projects to date" and points out that it "reflects almost a year's worth of meticulous attention." Short of his film music (which he was not to start writing until a year later, with "Local Hero"), this album was the closest yet that Knopfler has come to classical composition; not just in the record's first two masterpieces but right down to little details like the xylophone air underneath the title track. It was a hard act to follow, even for a Mark Knopfler; and his virtually only choice was to take his music into other, and more diverse directions ("Brothers in Arms"). Listening to the remastered CD version of "Love Over Gold," you almost forget that unlike its mega-selling successor this recording was not "made for CD;" which in itself speaks volumes to the quality of the sound engineering and production and, more importantly, to the indeed "meticulous attention" given to every single instrumental and human voice of every single track on the album. In all of its 41+ minutes, and although it does not reflect as wide a range of musical styles as Knopfler's later work, "Love Over Gold" is one of the most complex pieces of recording he ever produced. It may have taken the release of "Brothers in Arms" to propel Dire Straits to worldwide fame forever. But it is impossible to listen to "Love Over Gold" and not recognize the unique talent of a man who, having found an initial foothold in the musical scene through the success of his band's first three albums, here made it clear once and for all just how much more the world had yet to expect from him.
Makes you wish they'd go on and on and on!Have you ever wondered how many variations of a song, or of a song's theme a band can perform live without ever getting boring? Ever listened to somebody play and wished he'd never stop because he is just that great? "Alchemy" is exactly that kind of experience. Recorded two years before what was probably their most successful studio album ("Brothers in Arms"), this more than 90 minute-long live release easily explains why Dire Straits took off with rocket speed in a time otherwise dominated by disco music on the one hand and punk on the other, and why to this day they are considered one of the greatest rock bands ever to have existed. Listen to the first chords of "Once Upon a Time in the West," and you'll know why Mark Knopfler is, in addition to all his other accomplishments, a much sought-after film score composer. Listen to "Romeo and Juliet," and you'll understand why the greatest love story ever told truly is more than a story of two rich kids born to feuding families a couple of centuries ago in Italy, and holds as much truth for us streetwise teenagers of the late 20th century as it did 400 years ago. Listen to "Telegraph Road," and you'll find a dark, brooding novel of epic proportions condensed into one song, culminating with as haunting and intense a guitar solo as you'll ever hear – by Mark Knopfler or others.
From their first studio album on, Dire Straits defied the three-minute limits imposed by the conventions of radio airplay. But it has always been in a live venue that Mark Knopfler's talent shines most, and that he is able to fully explore all that his Fender will give him ... and more. Each song on this double CD is extended as compared to its respective studio version; no less than four of them ("Once Upon a Time in the West," "Sultans of Swing," "Tunnel of Love" and "Telegraph Road") are over ten minutes long, three even over 13 minutes – only a Dire Straits live album would make it necessary for "just" 11 songs to be spread out over two discs. But these recordings are not about length. They are about one man's dialogue with his guitar, the poetry of his lyrics, his awareness of society; in short, all that great music stands for and can express. Gifted as he is, Mark Knopfler has always found musicians who are exceptionally talented in their own right to provide a foundation he can build on, and this early (although not the earliest) incarnation of Dire Straits is no exception. Yet this band, in all of its formations over the course of the years, was as dominated by Knopfler's musical genius as few other bands have ever been, and nothing could have made this clearer than their live recordings; an experience only surpassed by actually witnessing Knopfler live on stage, particularly as he just seems to get better and better over the course of the years. "Telegraph Road" alone, the dramatic finale of his unforgettable live appearance during his 2001 "Sailing to Philadelphia" tour, left me completely stunned and wishing the show would go on and on for hours more.
"Anybody who finds nothing to love here has either got a problem with the essential fabric of rock and roll or cloth ears," writes British music journalist Robert Sandall in the introduction to Dire Straits' greatest hits album, "Sultans of Swing." And while this is true for anything they have ever released over the course of their career, and likewise for each and every one of Knopfler's solo albums and movie scores, you have to have more than cloth ears and a problem with the things that rock music is all about not to be inspired by this incredible piece of live recording.
An era-defining classic.Trust Mark Knopfler not to succumb to platitude, regardless where he is and what's going on around him. There they are sitting on the Caribbean island paradise of Montserrat, and what does the man write? Songs about the pain of separation, love gone wrong and The Blues in general ("So Far Away," "Your Latest Trick," "Why Worry" and "One World"), a part tongue-in-cheek, part grating duet with Sting, who just happened to be available because he was vacationing on Montserrat, on an underdog's gripes about rock stardom ("Money For Nothing"), followed by a more upbeat variation on the "stardom" theme (although even there, we are reminded that "after all the violence and double talk, there's just a song in all the trouble and the strife, you do the Walk Of Life") ... and no less than three songs about war and the abuse of power ("Run Across The River," "The Man's Too Strong" and of course, "Brothers in Arms").
Musically, this album is more diversified than Dire Straits' prior studio albums; there's a sax in "Your Latest Trick," "Walk Of Life" has a rockabilly feel, and the instrumentation of "Run Across the River" is inspired by the Caribbean setting in which the record was produced – but listen to that song's lyrics and see how they contrast with what at first impression sounds like airy island paradise melodies: "I'm a soldier of fortune, I'm a dog of war and we don't give a damn who the killing is for; it's the same old story with a different name – death or glory, it's the killing game." ("The Man's Too Strong," which deals with a dictator's thoughts upon being brought to trial, is similar in that respect; although the Caribbean sound is replaced by rhythm and steel guitars, with two single guitar riffs, sharp as bullets, accentuating the chorus.) The band also took full advantage of the advances in production techniques available to them at that time. The result was an album that drove home to even the last uninitiated chump out there that Dire Straits were a musical force to reckon with, and that the success of their prior albums had not been coincidence alone.
Among all the excellent songs on this album, it is the title track which stands out mile-high. From the growling thunderstorm opening, the sad and evocative electric guitar intro, and the first verse, more whispered than sung, through the slow and steady crescendo of the song's intensity to the closing guitar solo, Mark Knopfler's ode about war, in ancient Scotland and today, "civil" and otherwise, is nothing short of a true masterpiece. The interplay of Knopfler's vocals and his guitar. The sole riff introducing the guitar part after the line "and we have just one world but we live in different ones," tearing through the song's fabric like a sore wound breaking open. And of course, the closing guitar solo which completely defies description and makes any attempt to characterize it by words like "haunting" or "dramatic" sound like a shallow cliché.
"Brothers in Arms" was Dire Straits' most successful studio album, and one of the biggest-selling albums of the 1980, thanks to an exhaustive tour and the high exposure its single releases received on MTV. But more than anything, it helped define a decade; musically and otherwise. It has made rock music history, and it will always stand right up there with the best that anybody in the business has ever produced.
Dire Straits' last great live outing.There are voices, both human and instrumental, that you will always be able to pick out of a crowd of thousands. Mark Knopfler and his guitar are an example of that, and "On The Night" is one of the best albums ever released by Knopfler and friends. Recorded during their 1992 tour at two concerts in Nîmes and Amsterdam, the album shows that Dire Straits were a class act right to the end. While the band underwent multiple transformations in membership over the course of its existence, Mark Knopfler has always had the gift to surround himself with first rate musicians – this is true for the people who have joined him on his recent solo releases and the current "Sailing to Philadelphia" tour, and it was likewise true with regard to Dire Straits, in whatever configuration they existed at any given time. And yet, the excellence of the people who join him on stage and in the studio only serves to enhance the brilliance of the guy whose middle name might, for all intents and purposes, be "Fender Strat," and whose laid back, understated, gruff vocals are as crucial and distinctive to the typical Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler sound as is his guitar play. Like all great musicians, he thrives on the live atmosphere, and not bound by the restraints of studio recording, he and the band delve into the songs, particularly their instrumental sections, with an energy and deep feeling for each piece that lesser musicians are far from achieving even at the height of their careers.
The record opens, as did the band's shows (and as does Knopfler still on the current tour) with a powerful "Calling Elvis," and it is something like a live "best of Dire Straits" album (personally, I'd have wished they would also have included "Sultans of Swings" and "Telegraph Road;" which would of course have made it a "top 12" instead of the "top 10" song collection, though). Highlights include an incredibly soulful "Romeo and Juliet," one of the greatest love songs ever written in rock history, a very dark "Private Investigations," which goes from a slow, moody start to almost 5 minutes' worth of instrumental featuring a number of hard, edgy riffs, only to end on pensive notes again, and of course, "Brothers in Arms," to this day probably Dire Straits' greatest trade mark piece besides "Sultans of Swings," with a guitar solo which gives me goose bumps every time I listen to it.
"We need Dire Straits back," none other than Don Henley proclaimed during the last show of his own 2000-2001 "Inside Job" tour, "to counter all the crap that's playing on the radio now." "On the Night" more than proves his point. But as long as that's not going to happen, I'll at least take Knopfler solo, with whoever he chooses to play, and I hope he doesn't decide to stop touring any time soon.
Mark Knopfler's official website
Themis-Athena's Mark Knopfler page
Themis-Athena's select annotated Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits discography
Themis-Athena's Classic Rock guides: Part 1 and Part 2
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