Knopfler and Dire Straits

G

Guest

Guest
Ok there were some comments made about Knopfler and co;) (Stannah chairlifts etc) on another thread. So in the interests of fair play come out :fight:and no low blows.

 

Boxer

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Do we need to say any more?????

Mind you I did see them in 1978, just before the first album was released, & they were pretty good - Knopfler played some ear-bleeding slide on a Telecaster - before they got into all the wanky guitar solos that went on for days...

Boxer

 
G

Guest

Guest
Its very easy to knock them, they are an easy target but Dire Straits and Love over Gold remain two top albums and some of Knopflers solo work and the guest contributors he attracts suggest much greater appeal than some may realise

 

Testure

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I think the triple back to back of Private Investigations at theJanuary backoff didn't help
wink.png


Testy

 

Papa Lazarou

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Testure wrote:

I think the triple back to back of Private Investigations at theJanuary backoff didn't help
wink.png
Testy
If you thought that was bad Testy - we had to suffer at least 6 runs of "Calling Elvis" with treated discs etc at the Cornwall Bake-off
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:Not Sure:

 
G

Guest

Guest
Papa Lazarou wrote:

Testure wrote:
I think the triple back to back of Private Investigations at theJanuary backoff didn't help
wink.png
Testy
If you thought that was bad Testy - we had to suffer at least 6 runs of "Calling Elvis" with treated discs etc at the Cornwall Bake-off
biggrin.png
:Not Sure:
ouch that can't be good

 
G

Guest

Guest
Duvet wrote:

Ok there were some comments made about Knopfler and co;) (Stannah chairlifts etc) on another thread. So in the interests of fair play come out :fight:and no low blows.
Well I quite like them but admittedly I don't play their material regularly these days aside from the album 'Dire Straits' which I think still sounds great, very lively and some great geetar. I have all the albums - and the remastered ones too !

I've a bit of Knopfler's solo stuff too, Golden Heart which I do like very much, Sailing To Philidelphia which has some great stuff on it but perhaps for me weaker, the Rag Pickers Dream which quite frankly I thought was absolute sh*te, whatever the next solo was called Shangrila ? which I have on SACD - shows how much I rated it as Istruggled to remember the title. I have just picked up the Knopfler/Emmylou Harris release too. Actually the MK/Harris release is quite decent. very well-produced and simple laid back country & western - it's not earth shattering but a decent 'mood' listen which sounds very, very good.

Crikey
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I just didn't realise how much of his stuff I have.

 

Boxer

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Brown Bottle wrote:

Guys bald but wears a head band, nuff said.
And he's a Geordie!!!!!! So you were never going to like him, were you Bottle?

Can't beat intra-North East rivalries can you?

Boxer

 

meninblack

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I was 17 when Dire Straits burst onto the scene - and even then it was the music you bought for your dad while you were listening to Joy Division!

Age has not withered it - there was no need! Age hasn't improved it either, mind.
tongue.png


I quite like the Knopfler/Harris collaboration - but I'm a lot older now. One day I'll be old enough to enjoy regular listens to DS, maybe as an accompaniment to having my colostomy bag emptied.
Bird.gif.e5ad7f48d8bb596824f2dfdd3446d314.gif


 

kennyk

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I like Dire Straits for their own merit:

First Album - Sultans of Swing. what a guitar solo.

Follow up - Communique. it's full of gems like Once upon a time in the west and Where do you think you're going.

Agree that the 'Private investigations at the demo' cliche is pretty accurate. it's akin to playing 'Stairway to heaven' when you try out a guitar in a shop.
wink.png


you can tell the hifi lovers as opposed to the music lovers by the music they bring. Dire Straits Love Over Gold does not necessarily mean 'here we go, another private investigations' but coupled with certain other tunes (Eagles - Hotel California to name one. the tape edit part way through is supposed to 'suck the sound out of the room'
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)

Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug...

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Brown Bottle

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boxer wrote:

Brown Bottle wrote:
Guys bald but wears a head band, nuff said.
And he's a Geordie!!!!!! So you were never going to like him, were you Bottle?

Can't beat intra-North East rivalries can you?

Boxer
Not your classic bar code shirt and tattoos Geordie though is he.

 
E

Effem

Guest
Don't look at how "good" Dire Straits are, but how "shite" the rest is. How many albums have you got that you can honestlylisten to end to end without wincing or skipping tracks, or can manage 4 poorly executed chords at best? Not many I'll bet.

Dire Straits when they first appeared on the scene all those years ago were ground breaking at the time with their unique style. I first heard them round a mate's house who was also well into hi-fi and from that very first album he confidently forecast they were to become very successful - and he was right.

To this day they are the one and only group whose albums I can pull out of the rack and slap it on the turntable or shove in a CD and actually enjoy listening to every bit as much as I did the first time.

It's by no coincidence that "Calling Elvis" has become my reference test track because there is so much going on inside the mix that few systems can play faithfully and accurately. So I suggest you don't listen "at" it in a cursory manner, but listen "into" it and pay attention to all the various intricate layers within. If the snare drum isn't coming out as a tight crisp 'thwack' that makes your hair stand on end, orif youfail to noticethe change from sticks to brushes by the drummer two thirds of the way through, then you either need your system looking at or you aren't listening in the same way I do. When that subterranean bass line gets objects rattling in your room yet you barely hear it your speakers are doing their job, conversely if it arrives as an overwhelming boom, you have a problem that needs sorting.

 

Brown Bottle

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meninblack wrote:

I was 17 when Dire Straits burst onto the scene - and even then it was the music you bought for your dad while you were listening to Joy Division!Age has not withered it - there was no need! Age hasn't improved it either, mind.
tongue.png


I quite like the Knopfler/Harris collaboration - but I'm a lot older now. One day I'll be old enough to enjoy regular listens to DS, maybe as an accompaniment to having my colostomy bag emptied.
Bird.gif.e5ad7f48d8bb596824f2dfdd3446d314.gif
I have similar feelings to MIB on this. When I was in the 6th form the middle class kids loved Dire Straits and we had it streamed endlessly in the common room, it put me off for life I think.

 

The Strat

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So they arenot fashionable - I ain't bothered!

brilliant songs, brilliant guitar player, some great albums. Problem I don't think so.

 

Chumpy

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DS recordingsalthough frowned upon at the time are IMO well worth having for occasional enjoyment-tiptoe through the old tunes.

Often remember late 70s-early 80s being in crucial memorable 'situation' and DS track playing somewhere in background-up mountain-in pub etc.

 

ClassikFan

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Effem wrote:

Don't look at how "good" Dire Straits are, but how "shite" the rest is. How many albums have you got that you can honestlylisten to end to end without wincing or skipping tracks, or can manage 4 poorly executed chords at best? Not many I'll bet.Dire Straits when they first appeared on the scene all those years ago were ground breaking at the time with their unique style. I first heard them round a mate's house who was also well into hi-fi and from that very first album he confidently forecast they were to become very successful - and he was right.

To this day they are the one and only group whose albums I can pull out of the rack and slap it on the turntable or shove in a CD and actually enjoy listening to every bit as much as I did the first time.

It's by no coincidence that "Calling Elvis" has become my reference test track because there is so much going on inside the mix that few systems can play faithfully and accurately. So I suggest you don't listen "at" it in a cursory manner, but listen "into" it and pay attention to all the various intricate layers within. If the snare drum isn't coming out as a tight crisp 'thwack' that makes your hair stand on end, orif youfail to noticethe change from sticks to brushes by the drummer two thirds of the way through, then you either need your system looking at or you aren't listening in the same way I do. When that subterranean bass line gets objects rattling in your room yet you barely hear it your speakers are doing their job, conversely if it arrives as an overwhelming boom, you have a problem that needs sorting.
I agree Dire Straits are generally V. Good, but lets not get too carried away. This is the band that brought us "Les Boys"

Love over Gold and Dire Straits are my favouriteist.

 

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