Not content with just releasing a superb new album, One Deep River, the guitar legend that is Mark Knopfler has just released a 4 track EP, The Boy, of “extra” tracks he had kicking around. There’s an official video (see first comment) of one of the tracks “All Comers”, which for me is up there as one of his best – a simple joyous track.
I know it may be staged, but the video comes across as a bunch of shit hot musicians simply enjoying making music. That opening guitar is instantly recognisable as MK……
Chrisf says
retropath2 says
I have preferred his Celtic fringe material to his rockier stuff. This sound like slower and tidier version of something by Oysterband, the Pogues or Ferocious Dog.
Interesting article in Mocut (or Unjo, they forever the Ant and Dec of music mags) where he suggests his guitar playing has atrophied by 20% or so, as he can’t be arsed to practice and has stopped touring. So much so he considers himself a writer rather than player.
Captain Darling says
Thanks for posting that lovely piece of music. The pipes are particularly nice.
On the subject of Mark Knopfler, Music Legends, his new Sky Arts show with Brian Johnson, where they interview people like Nile Rodgers, Carlos Santana, Cyndi Lauper, and, erm, Sam Fender (no, me neither), is worth checking out. See it to watch how easily MK can start playing practically any song that is either mentioned or demonstrated in front of him.
Brian seems a little over-awed or left behind sometimes, especially when MK and Nile are jamming, but their interview with Tom Jones is TV gold – his story about singing in a Mafia-stuffed New York club is fun. And by God Tom can still belt out a tune.
fitterstoke says
Thanks for the tip off, Cap – I’ll seek that out!
SteveT says
Mark Knopfler is a legend as far as I am concerned and his solo output doesn’t have any duff album.
His latest is possibly his best ever so if his playing has atrophied by 20 percent it is not noticeable to these ears
Bargepole says
Love his music but wish he wouldn’t put different sets of bonus tracks on the CD and vinyl versions of his albums.
Sitheref2409 says
This is an opportune post.
I was thinking about MK on one of my long bush walks with the dog. (Desert everywhere around you allows you to think about Big Things), and the fact that some of the RT fan clubs are very anti-, hinting that RT is as well.
A couple of tracks from ‘Philadelphia’ came on the playlist, and I thought: he’s very, very good, and I like an awful lot of his stuff. Then ‘Roadrunning’ came on, and I doubled down on that thought.
I came to the conclusion that if you asked me to give up my RT collection, or the MK collection, I’d have to give it some thought, and right now I think MK would come out ahead. His post-Straits stuff – actually, non-Straits – has been excellent and allowed him to indulge himself with whatever he fancies doing. You can always tell it’s a MK track, and if you’re ever in doubt, the production will tell you.
Sadly, I suspect he’ll never get the credit he deserves. I think his songwriting is on a par with RT or REK, which is where I hold the line.
Guiri says
I’m guessing given where we are that RT is Richard Thompson, but I’m stumped as to who is REK?
FWIW this is the first MK solo album I’ve ever listened to and I like it a lot. I was a fledgling indie kid when Brothers in Arms came out and it was my first introduction to Dire Straits. So in my head they’ve always been a bit naff mostly beacause of Walk of Life. But I’ve listened to them a fair bit in the intervening years and they go very well in the background while lying on the sofa with a cup of tea and a book. I suspect they’re probably a bit better than that.
On the other hand, I reckon this new EP is a bit too dull even for that. I’m clearly conflicted regarding MK.
duco01 says
Re: REK
I’m guessing that’s Robert Earl Keen
Mike_H says
Lazy b**tards who can’t be arsed to type someone’s full name ..
[wink smiley]
SteveT says
In terms of financial success he is streets ahead of RT mainly because of Brothers in Arms but also on a touring basis.
I have seen him several times at the NEC in Birmingham which he regularly sold out . RT wouldn’t even sell out the foyer.
I love them both and would hate to choose but if it came down to it probably MK for me too.
Boneshaker says
It’s a great track with the sort of post-video video that allows you to focus on just the music (despite the Phill Jupitus looky-likey drummer). Mark Knopfler is massively underrated for his work since Dire Straits, which in many ways is far better. I admire his distinctly unstarry ordinary bloke attitude these days. He no longer tours, but still knocks out belting albums for the sheer love of it, the quality of which is just as high as it ever was. I’m a little conflicted about Dire Straits. Hating them has never really gone out of fashion, but it’s probably time for a reappraisal. I can’t bring myself to listen to Walk of Life, and Sting’s execrable warbling over the intro to Money for Nothing sets my teeth on edge, coupled with the song’s dreadful lyrics (ironic or just crass?). So Brothers in Arms seldom gets an airing round my way. But Tunnel of Love, Romeo and Juliet and Sultans of Swing are still cracking tunes, and everything MK has done since DS more than cuts the mustard.
duco01 says
I only have one Mark Knopfler solo album, namely “The Ragpicker’s Dream”. It’s really good.
Where should I go next?
Jaygee says
The one with Emmylou Harris – All the Roadrunning
is gorgeous
fentonsteve says
I really like his (early work) soundtracks to Local Hero (1983) and, especially, Cal (1984). The soundtrack to many an afternoon staring out of the window of my university digs…
Boneshaker says
I’ve a soft spot for Kill to Get Crimson, and the new one, One Deep River. Oh, and Shangri-La…..pretty much any of them really!
Rigid Digit says
I came here to suggest Local Hero, but as it’s already been said I offer:
The Notting Hillbillies – Missing…Presumed Having a Good Time
and/or
Sailing To Philadelphia
retropath2 says
The duet with James Taylor, from StP, is worth the place on the pedestal alone.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Really like his solo work, especially the one with Emmylou, but even after all these years can’t listen to any Dire Straits whatsoever. Must admit my “He sounds so much like Bob Dylan , he so wants to be Bob Dylan but he’s really just Dylan Lite” sounded a tad hollow when he eventually teamed up with Mr Zimmerman. Still, can’t be Right all the time, can I?
Gary says
I’ll give you €3 if you listen to this. An extra €1 if you’ll admit it’s magnificent in every way.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
I’ll have the €3, please. I’m just dusting off my Dylan Lite caption. Actually that’s the most Dylan Lite I’ve ever heard him sing.
Gary says
Forget the singing, listen to his fingers. A million times better than whoever your favourite guitarist is and that’s an undeniable fact.
fitterstoke says
Well, no: that’s an undeniable opinion, Gary – yours, I believe…
Gary says
You can look it up on Wikipedia.
Jaygee says
@Gary
Fabulous track off their first album.
One of those rare tracks that still conjure up vivid memories for
me forty-%odd years after I first heard it
DS was all downhill for me after that
Gary says
Me too. Though I’m quite fond of Telegraph Road. I was talking about Telegraph Road to a friend just a couple of days ago. About how it starts with one man walking down a dirt track, building a cabin in the wilderness, then develops, via other travellers, churches, schools, lawyers, mines, up to “six lanes of traffic, three lanes moving slow”. That’s a goodun. Tunnel of Love and Romeo & Juliet are fab too. But that’s about it for me.
Hot Shot Hamish says
First few albums bring back great memories for me too. My sister was a fan of Dire Straits and all the albums up until Love over Gold remind me of trips to London to visit her. First album and Making Movies are my favourite DS albums, Walking in the Wild West End is just lovely.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Guitar playing is indeed fabulous. Ditch the Dylan Lite singing and, boy, he’s good.
TrypF says
Always thought Romeo and Juliet was his most Dylan song (imagine 80s Bob singing ‘laying ev’rybody loooow/With a love song thathemade’) and Telegraph Road was Knopfler’s Springsteen song, mythologising American history (again, it’s easy to hear Bruce sing ‘A long time ago, came a man on a track…’).
Captain Darling says
I have a relaxed attitude towards Dire Straits: the Brothers in Arms album is great, and I like the earlier epics like Private Investigations, but their first two albums have made little impact on me.
However, the live box set from a year or two back has been a revelation. I think they sound like a storming live act, with MK rocking out far more than on the albums. To me, it’s as if he’s been unleashed and is saying to the audience, “Let me show you what this guitar can *really* do.”
At the time, they passed me by, but now I wish I’d seen them on the BIA tour or maybe the mammoth subsequent tour.
Jaygee says
A mate of mine who was at Uni there in the late 70s never tires of telling me
he saw DS and Talking Heads together for 50p in Brighton
fentonsteve says
And the first DS album sounds a bit like early Talking Heads. Honestly.
duco01 says
I believe quite a few people here on the Afterword saw that Talking Heads + Dire Straits UK tour in early 1978, and I’m one of them. I was at the 3 February gig at St. Albans Civic Hall. The ticket cost £1.75 – so, erm, a fair bit more than your mate’s ticket for the Brighton gig. Did he really only pay 50p? Anyway – no matter. Both bands were outstanding. Indeed, Talking Heads tubthumper Chris Frantz, all these years later, actually mentions the St. Albans gig in his autobiography, “Remain in Love”, so it clearly made an impression on him, too.
Dire Straits? I like…
– All the first album. Brilliant record.
– a couple of tracks off “Communiqué”
– Most of “Making Movies”
– Most of “Love over Gold”
– Just about all of “Alchemy”
Thanks for all your Knopfler solo recommendations, Afterworders!
Twang says
This is my favourite MK moment. I’d just been in Israel for 6 months when they showed this on the Tube and found it tremendously moving, and it is obviously still relevant today. Not trying to start a debate by the way, the message is universal I think. And MK’s playing was never better.
Beezer says
It’s the lyrics. His guitar playing is astounding; the adapted folk claw hammer used to play blues and jazz licks, but it’s the lyrics.
They first pricked my ears right back at the start of the first album. Track one, Down To The Waterline’. Near misses on the Dog Leap Stairways. I knew where they were. A still perilous set of steep stone steps on the north side of the Tyne Bridge.
And Sultans of Swing. The Chuck Berry style meter of all those long vocal lines of the verses. Listen to them right from the off ‘You get a shiver in the dark, it’s raining in the park. But meantime…’
Meantime. The park in question was Greenwich Park. OK, a bit Sixth Form but many cuts above what I was used to.
He’s done little wrong in my eyes since. Though I never liked anything on Brothers In Arms at all. I think I missed the Strat.
Boneshaker says
“From Cullercoats and Whitley Bay” always did it for me.
Beezer says
Yes, that too. Some of the lyrics to Tunnel of Love have been engraved on the wall of the redeveloped Spanish City
Jaygee says
34 posts and no mention of the leg up they got from Charlie Gillett’s milkman?
Hamlet says
With reference to him no longer touring, I seem to recall Radcliffe and Maconie – in their Radio 2 days – telling the tale of when Knopfler was heading out on the On Every Street tour. He basically said to his girlfriend, “See you in two years.” Can’t blame the fella for relaxing a bit now.
TrypF says
Recently read John Illsley’s autobiography, a dry but entertaining enough read. He goes through at least one marriage, as do most of the rest of the band – the punishing schedule they were put on brought them mega-stardom, but at something of a personal price.
He also notes that, following the second album, Knopfler has to force himself to be less easy going and take charge more, which results in the firing of his brother. It’s certainly not a lot of fun and larks. After the Brothers in Arms tour they’re all in a state of disrepair, mentally and physically. Illsley fully expects to never see them again and is surprised when they give it another go in the early 90s. Money aside, that tour is even worse for them.