The 1982 Listening Post - Dire Straits - Love Over Gold

 Reviewed by Timothy Sprague

Released: September 24 1982 Dire Straits Love Over Gold Genre: Classic Rock Allen’s Rating: 4 out of 5 Tim’s Rating: 5 out of 5 Highlights: Telegraph Road Private Investigations Industrial Disease Love Over Gold It Never Rains It’s been too long since I have revisited Mark Knopfler’s simply wonderful guitar playing, which I pretty much took for granted during the 1980s because Dire Straits were such an AOR mainstay. His unmistakable sound really hits the spot when you need a strong dose of masterful git-picking and Love Over Gold does not disappoint. As I started work on this review I was listening to the album on YouTube but that was just not doing it justice, so I purchased a proper copy on the iTunes store. If that can be considered “proper.” Truth be told I am running out of shelf space for records and CDs so have gone digital with a lot of purchases and I’m not a fan of streaming services. Being assigned to review this album was a good excuse to fork over $9.99 for a Dire Straits album for the first time since I purchased Brothers In Arms in high school, one of the first clear cassettes I ever owned. It seemed really futuristic at the time. The magnum opus Telegraph Road gets things underway, clocking in at just over 14 minutes with layered piano and organ creating a sumptuous backdrop for Knopfler’s raspy storytelling. He lets if fly on his Shecter Strat to magnificent effect and the song feels like it ends too soon, despite it’s length. Private Investigations follows and Mark gets a chance to show off his acoustic prowess for a bit before the album’s hit Industrial Disease. This song always put a smile on my face when it would come on the radio and features another signature Dire Straits sound, the whirling organ of Alan Clark. Clark is no slouch as a musician himself and has an extensive list of credits that includes playing on albums by Bob Dylan, Phil Collins, Pet Shop Boys, Al Green, Jon Anderson and Lou Reed, as well as arranging Tina Turner’s smash hit Private Dancer, written by Knopfler for this album but left unused because he thought it needed a woman’s voice instead of his. Knofler’s production throughout this album is top notch with great little touches like the vibes on the title track. Full disclosure … I loves me some vibes! Another long track, It Never Rains, closes out the album and, as it finishes, I get a little sad that it’s only 41 minutes long. They truly do not make ‘em like this any more. Love Over Gold is a testament to the craftsmanship that bands used to put into their albums. Yes, I know I sound like a fossil but is there a young guitarist out there who even comes close to what we hear on this record? It makes me long for the lost days when being good at playing an instrument was more admired than how many tattoos a musician has. The grace. The subtlety. Attenton to detail. Dynamics. Love Over Gold has all of them in spades. I just can’t find anything I don’t like about this one. Damn it! Now I gotta buy the rest of the DS catalog at the iTunes store. At least I don’t have to get in the car to purchase music these days, so there’s that.

The 1980 Listening Post - Dire Straits - Making Movies

 Dire Straits - Making Movies

#419

by Paul Zickler

October 17 1980

Dire Straits 

Making Movies

Genre: Rock

Allen’s Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Paul’s Rating: 5 out of 5

Highlights:

Tunnel of Love

Romeo and Juliet

Skateaway

Expresso Love

Solid Rock

How well do I know this album? If I were to close my eyes and sit in a silent room, I believe I could “hear” every song from memory, including all the lyrics and most of the solos. I’ve owned two copies each of the vinyl and the CD. I very clearly remember taking the shrink wrap off the LP for the first time and placing it on my cousin Troy’s turntable in Vancouver, BC. “Deery straights?” he asked. I think I just grimaced and told him to listen. Just listen.

Mark Knopfler had two records under his belt and had forged a reputation as a guitar hero among critics and fans alike. He could’ve gone on making Sultans of Swing and Portobello Belle, showcasing his fingerpicked Strat solos and adding the occasional acoustic ballad. Instead, he started writing epic filmscapes, hired Springsteen’s producer and piano player, and made a London-via-Newcastle version of “Born to Run.” He also allowed drummer Pick Withers to step out of the shadows a bit, or maybe Pick just decided he was tired of being every bit the virtuoso as his more famous bandmate and just let it rip. Either way, we are all better for it.

Every song is a movie here, and all of them are feature film worthy. Even the lyrically dated Skateaway (yes, people were really that passionate about rollerblading in the ‘80’s) gets inside the head of a character we’d love to follow around for more than just six minutes. And God, what a chorus: “The music makes her wanna be the story / And the story was whatever was the song, what it was / Roller girl, don’t worry / DJ play the movie all night long.” Take out the skates and you’re every kid who ever owned a Walkman, all of us moving through our own movie, the music lifting us above the mundane world.

Tunnel of Love opens with the waltz from “Carousel” (personal side note: my senior year in high school I played Mr. Snow in that musical, and every time the orchestra played the overture, I heard Knopfler’s guitar kick in), and the song conjures both the romance and the seedy dark side of a rainy carnival sideshow. Romeo and Juliet introduces Mark’s National steel guitar (of later cover photo fame), paints an indelible portrait of abandoned love, and manages to avoid the bathos of every single cover version that followed. The opening 40 seconds of Expresso Love -- Bittan’s piano dancing lithely over Knopfler’s guitar -- hook the listener so effectively, it barely matters that the song is lyrically less satisfying. The narrator’s inability to express(o) his love (“I feel so good cuz I feel so good”) makes zero difference because the music tells the story so damn well. Hand in Hand gives Bittan’s piano even more focus, appropriately for a narrator wandering through the English rain, refusing to let go of a love in vain. It may not be as epic as Tunnel of Love, but the pain is just as real. Solid Rock just rocks. Les Boys finds Knopfler rewriting “Cabaret,” just to see if he can pull it off (hint: he can).

The penchant for epic-length movie songs would get a bit more extreme on “Love Over Gold,” and the ability to crank out rocking earworms would reach its peak on “Brothers in Arms,” but for me at least, “Making Movies” was that sweet spot where Dire Straits’ talent, exuberance and ambition came together to create a masterpiece.

https://open.spotify.com/album/7yTjsInNdNQJAlXAboi1nh?si=-TEnkPaaQiCC2Yv1esO1HA

The 1985 Listening Post - David Knopfler - Behind the Lines

David Knopfler - Behind the Lines

#285/919

July 1985

David Knopfler

Behind the Lines

Genre: Rock

1.5 out of 5

In 1999 I booked a pair of commercials for 1-800-collect. It was during the 800 number wars. Oh, man, that was the mother load. They ran the shit out of those things. I’d never made the kind of money I did on those spots in such a short time. It helped that Damon Wayans and Ed O’Neill were in them with me. They were reviled things. I made it to the “Jeers” in TV Guide’s Cheers and Jeers. They spelled my name wrong but, hey, I was in there!

There was another actor in those spots. Nice guy. Okay actor. Seemed like a nice enough guy. He was Scott Wolf’s younger brother. He reminded of his older brother, slightly. But not quite as charismatic. Almost. Not as talented but alllllmost. Not as charming but alllllmost. 

That’s this record. 

Mark Knopfler’s younger brother. The Gary Wolf of rock. 

This is awful. Imagine Mark Knopfler, a mediocre singer at best. Now imagine him tone deaf as well. 

Boom. 

I mean, vomit. 

Okay. The last song, which sounds like it was written by Roger Waters, was nice. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb3qi9Pp2I0&list=OLAK5uy_lSRJzwUDegzKGkQH1Rqzj3xkgduplgKTM

The 1985 Listening Post - Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms

#156

May 13 1985

Dire Straits

Brothers in Arms

Genre: Rock

3.25 out of 5

Highlights:

So Far Away

Money for Nothing

Walk of Life

First things that come to mind here are that, first off, I recall my brother, who had a state of the art CD player before I had even seen a CD (and he had insertable magazines that were preprogrammed to play certain orders depending on which magazine was inserted), had this on disc. It was supposed to be one of the highest rated digital recordings at the time. 

The other memory is that facocta computer generated video.

So, with all this attention to computer presentation how is the album as a whole?

It starts off with a monster assault. Lulling us into comfort with “So Far Away”, then “Money for Nothing” is perfect. It’s so fucking snotty. The personae who are the narrators are portrayed as lunkheads who condescend to the rich musicians they see on MTV. In a way Knopfler is mocking the viewers AND the performers that MTV made famous. It might be the best song of the era. 

“Walk of Life” is like an upbeat version of what Bruce Springsteen would try in a couple years on Tunnel of Love, it’s a simple rock tune elevated by a calliope of keys and bounce. 

But it all gets so noodle flabby around the middle. It’s as though, on “Why Worry” he’s almost daring us to fall asleep, challenging us not to pick up that newly purchased remote and move on to the next song. Interesting move, Mark. 

And it doesn’t pick up. It’s SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO boring. 

Ambient dullness that won a bunch of Grammys. 

Any goodwill built up by the opening is lost by the time the album gets close to being interesting again. “The Man’s Too Strong” tried to pick it up but it’s crushed under the weight of that responsibility and “One World” really isn’t any good. And the title track is like a long lost Roger Waters song, equally slow and plodding. 

What a letdown this was. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/brothers-in-arms/299545299