Me on Love Over Gold: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/dire-straits-love-over-gold.html
― Here he is with the classic "Poème Électronique." Good track (Marcello Carlin), Thursday, 3 October 2013 17:40 (ten years ago) link
Very good review. This is one of my father's favourite albums and "Telegraph Road" one of his favourite songs.
I was particularly interested in your comparisons with Steely Dan; I'd never made that connection before, but in retrospect, it's easy to see with Knopfler's style of playing and early adoption of digital technology.
― arctic mindbath (President of the People's Republic of Antarctica), Thursday, 3 October 2013 18:38 (ten years ago) link
Nice job. But why skip over It Never Rains? That's one of the best Dire Straits songs.
― kornrulez6969, Friday, 4 October 2013 00:03 (ten years ago) link
Never mind, I take that back.
― kornrulez6969, Friday, 4 October 2013 00:04 (ten years ago) link
been diggin 'Beryl' today
― It's strange to me too. But we're talking about praxis, man. (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 11 February 2015 22:29 (nine years ago) link
Posted this on the "World" music 2015 thread, but it also kinda belongs here
http://www.afropop.org/22260/accounting-for-taste/
On air this week is “Accounting for Taste.” We’ll find out how the fluid guitar playing of ’70s rock band Dire Straits became massively popular in the Sahel, influencing Tuareg rockers like Tinariwen and Tamikrest. We’ll hear about the American country superstar Jim Reeves’ African career, and the unlikely story of how the pedal steel made it from Hawaii to Lagos, Nigeria. Finally, we’ll travel to Angola to explore that nation’s death metal scene. Produced by Sam Backer with help from Jesse Brent.
Mauritanian Noura Mint Seymali's guitarist husband told me he listened to Dire Straits. But his guitar playing is such edgier and funkier (than I recall from Dire Straits).
― curmudgeon, Saturday, February 28, 2015 7:34 PM (0 seconds
― curmudgeon, Saturday, 28 February 2015 19:37 (nine years ago) link
http://africasacountry.com/the-unexpected-popularity-of-dire-straits-in-north-african-tuareg-communities
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 14:36 (nine years ago) link
The guy who did the afropop.org radio story from February, wrote the later blog item. As I noted on the "world" music thread, when I interviewed Noura Mint Seymali's guitarist from Mauritania, he also noted that he listened to Dire Straits. But as the article notes, younger Tuaregs do not seem to listen to Dire Straits anymore because there are so many desert blues bands around. I wonder if Dire Straits are awarwe of their audience there?
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 31 March 2015 16:17 (nine years ago) link
Rep for "Six Blade Knife":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHIIivQnIsU
― ... (Eazy), Wednesday, 17 February 2016 06:12 (eight years ago) link
rep for the whole first album!
― lute bro (brimstead), Wednesday, 17 February 2016 06:15 (eight years ago) link
ber neh ber-neh ber-neh ber-ner-neh-nurUR
HA!
― Toof Seteltha (Sufjan Grafton), Wednesday, 17 February 2016 06:18 (eight years ago) link
good jj cale vibes on six blade knife
― François Pitchforkian (NickB), Wednesday, 17 February 2016 06:55 (eight years ago) link
btw it's fun to listen to 'lady writer' and pretend it's actually tom verlaine you're hearing
― François Pitchforkian (NickB), Wednesday, 17 February 2016 07:00 (eight years ago) link
Love Over Gold fucking rules.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Saturday, 2 September 2017 22:14 (six years ago) link
and 'Twisting By The Pool' is shite.
Love Over Gold is a good record indeed, I kept that and the debut in my collection
― niels, Sunday, 3 September 2017 11:16 (six years ago) link
although Telegraph Road is a... well, stupid is not the right word, but it's a weird song that's too ambitious for its own good and really doesn't deliver at all lyrically
sounds pristine tho
― niels, Sunday, 3 September 2017 11:19 (six years ago) link
It's strange - if people ever speak about this band these days, it's usually about the Brothers in Arms period or 'Sultans of Swing', and even then they seem to be one of those formerly huge bands that generally hardly ever crop up in musical discussions anymore.
Making Movies and Love Over Gold come across as the bands peak now, and both are very underrated these days.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Sunday, 3 September 2017 12:42 (six years ago) link
Making Movies, short a song maybe, is their masterpiece. Roy Bittan really livens things up, especially on "Tunnel of Love," which is also their peak.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 3 September 2017 13:27 (six years ago) link
Brothers in Arms was actually the end, IMO... I don't like the one LP they put out after, I'm not a fan of Knopfler's solo work at all and I fucking detest 'Walk of Life' more than 'Twisting by the Pool' ...
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Sunday, 3 September 2017 13:42 (six years ago) link
Will never miss a chance to repost this:
http://www.wolproject.com
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 3 September 2017 13:43 (six years ago) link
Communique is good too
― brimstead, Sunday, 3 September 2017 15:15 (six years ago) link
really good, dare I say
― brimstead, Sunday, 3 September 2017 15:16 (six years ago) link
Most of the self-titled first album too. "Six Blade Knife" and "Water of Love"...
― Eazy, Sunday, 3 September 2017 15:22 (six years ago) link
I don't like the one LP they put out after
The title track of On Every Street has the greatest guitar part Knopfler ever wrote, tho.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Sunday, 3 September 2017 15:40 (six years ago) link
Communiqué is far better than many would have you believe, yeah!
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Sunday, 3 September 2017 17:47 (six years ago) link
well yeah self titled is a total classic xxp
― brimstead, Sunday, 3 September 2017 18:38 (six years ago) link
communique may not be as tight or well written as the debut but the production is really nice and i love hearing those guy play
― brimstead, Sunday, 3 September 2017 18:39 (six years ago) link
Had heard the story that Tuaregs in exile in Libya had heard Dire Straits and been influenced by it, and now there’s 90s video evidence of Libyans playing "Sultans of Swing"
http://sahelsounds.com/2018/03/dire-straits-in-the-sahara/
― curmudgeon, Friday, 23 March 2018 04:42 (six years ago) link
Richard Thompson is convinced that Knopfler ripped off his guitar sound. He's very serious about it, I heard him discussing it in a recent interview...
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Friday, 23 March 2018 05:06 (six years ago) link
interesting, have a link?
Thompson's sound seems a lot more powerful to my ears
― niels, Friday, 23 March 2018 08:01 (six years ago) link
RTs soloing has an emotional violence to it that you just don’t find in Knopfler imo. I guess you could compare eg Walk Of Life with Tear Stained Letter, but that similarity would be down to shared influences
― i'm surprised to see your screwface at the door (NickB), Friday, 23 March 2018 08:24 (six years ago) link
Oh man, the audience watching that Libyan band doing SOS look bored as shit
― i'm surprised to see your screwface at the door (NickB), Friday, 23 March 2018 08:35 (six years ago) link
Niels – it was this podcast: http://www.wtfpod.com/podcast/episodes/episode_634_-_richard_thompson_lemmy_kilmister
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Friday, 23 March 2018 13:09 (six years ago) link
I don’t remember if it was Maron who brought the topic up (think so?); but I recall RT was definitely “salty” about it (as the kids say).
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Friday, 23 March 2018 13:11 (six years ago) link
I never really thought of them as similar guitarists. I guess they both play Strats and sort of apply folk techniques? Regardless, I say hats off to anyone able to ape Richard Thompson, there's more than mimicry involved there. And besides, Knopfler can write songs, too.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 23 March 2018 14:11 (six years ago) link
Good Knopfler interview(s) here: http://ds.mk-guitar.com/knopfler-interviews.htm
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 23 March 2018 14:17 (six years ago) link
I was in my 20s in the 80s and i cherishes this band at the time. But when the smiths came dire straits turned into pleasant mainstream without interest.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Saturday, 24 March 2018 22:36 (six years ago) link
I think at this point I'd probably rather listen to Dire Straits than The Smiths.
― Full of bile and Blue Nile denial (Turrican), Saturday, 24 March 2018 22:47 (six years ago) link
I remember seeing Richard Thompson live, maybe 20 years ago. He was quite funny, talking about movie soundtracks. He said "Here's how it goes with soundtracks. They always start out asking for Mark Knopfler. Then when he asks for too much money, they come looking for me."
― kornrulez6969, Saturday, 24 March 2018 23:13 (six years ago) link
Weird one-way rivalry. Not sure how Thompson’s grudge (whatever merit it may have) exactly squares with “avoiding ego” or what I understand to be other aspects of his adopted faith, but that’s none of my business....
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 24 March 2018 23:36 (six years ago) link
Hmm, both these guys are accomplished English musicians born in ’49 and have been awarded “OBE”. Maybe they’ve bumped against each other in other ways over time, or it’s one of those “too close for comfort” rivalries.
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Saturday, 24 March 2018 23:42 (six years ago) link
Tried recently to sell a friend on Dire Straits. Wasn't interested. I then played some Richard Thompson. She said it sounded like Dire Straits.
QED
― not quite as cool as seeing damo's wang but (contenderizer), Sunday, 25 March 2018 02:56 (six years ago) link
My children used to watch the show "Dinosaur Train."
If you are familiar with this show there are occasional appearances from a paleontologist, Scott Sampson.
His main fossil discovery was named after Mark Knopfler, apparently because the crew listened to his music a lot and found it inspiring.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masiakasaurus
(insert lazy joke about classic rock / dinosaurs here)
― bone thugs & prosody (Ye Mad Puffin), Sunday, 25 March 2018 03:07 (six years ago) link
Weird:
Classic rock fans rejoice, the music of roots rock icons Dire Straits will soon return to stages in the United States. For the first time in decades, all of the band’s hits and more can be experienced live, on-stage via the world-class contingent that is DSL Dire Straits Legacy. A celebration of the music of Grammy-Award-winning, multi-platinum-selling British rockers Dire Straits, DSL Dire Straits Legacy features four Dire Straits band members – Alan Clark (piano/keyboards), Danny Cummings (percussion), Mel Collins (saxophone) and Phil Palmer (guitar/musical director) – along with revered musicians, drummer Steve Ferrone (Tom Petty) and producer Trevor Horn of The Buggles and Yes (ABC, Tom Jones, John Legend, Cher, more) on bass, as well as Italian musicians Marco Caviglia (vocals/guitar) and Primiano DiBiase (keyboards).
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 10 September 2018 21:50 (five years ago) link
Kinda wish Knopfler had shown up at the RnR Hall Of Fame, played Les Boys and then cleared off again
― PaulTMA, Tuesday, 11 September 2018 00:11 (five years ago) link
As one of the few bands to break up and stay broken up, Dire Straits has sort of gotten brushed into the dustbin. Which, combined with the punchline ubiquity of their blockbuster years, kind of leaves them ... underrated? I just listened to Communique and Love Over Gold for the first time in ages and I think I enjoyed every minute. Some great mood, lovely playing.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 24 November 2019 16:44 (four years ago) link
I have mixed feelings about Dire Straits, but I love this version of Portobello Belle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sQO-CDV_LA
― Lily Dale, Sunday, 24 November 2019 17:26 (four years ago) link
I still like Making Movies and Love Over Gold a lot, as well as the live album Alchemy. But as far as ongoing presence, it's pretty much reduced to "Sultans of Swing" and "Walk of Life" on oldies radio as far as I can tell.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 24 November 2019 17:39 (four years ago) link
after a night on the booze, my goto 'end of session' album is now 'love over gold'.i used to actively hate this band due to their omnipresence when i was a teenager.clearly i have got old.that said, it is a bloody cracking late night album.
― mark e, Sunday, 24 November 2019 17:41 (four years ago) link