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Slowy wrote:

olegmcnoleg wrote: Both dead on. He is a fantastic musician and guitar player, and a great song-writer. He chose to go less commercial and folky/rootsy and I think a lot of his more recent music downplays his abilities a bit more than I'd personally like. But he's just a humble Geordie, after all...

Dire Straits was enough career for any musician; 6 hit albums.
Since he 'retired', Knopfler has made 9 soundtrack albums and 10 albums of original songs (soon to be 11).

What impresses me, is that unlike many growing older musicians, he keeps getting better. His focus now is more on the singer/songwriter than the guitarist and his song craft; lyrics, arrangements, production, musical diversity and melody are of the highest quality imaginable. His band is cherry picked from the world's finest musicians and they have a comfortable decade and a half of playing together. The band is a joy to listen to.

Even his voice has improved. As a young man, it had a rough distinctiveness. Compare that to his duet with the celestially voiced Ruth Moody. (Wherever I Go. Off the Tracker album).

I can spend hours just listening to how he puts a song together; it's never what you'd expect.

So I guess that means it's a from me.

Vince wrote:

Slowy wrote:
What impresses me, is that unlike many growing older musicians, he keeps getting better.

I've always been dead impressed that, rather than move to the country to cultivate an enormous drug habit, he simply went and jammed a lot with other guitarists. . As one does. And fuck the fame and the DS comeback tours.

Slowy wrote: He claims his current band is way better than DS ever was. And as for fame, every album has been accompanied by a sellout 30-40 date world tour by private jet. He's not exactly playing happy hour at the local pub.

Vince wrote:

Slowy wrote: He claims his current band is way better than DS ever was. And as for fame, every album has been accompanied by a sellout 30-40 date world tour by private jet. He's not exactly playing happy hour at the local pub.

Yeah, fair enough, but he would earn a lot more with a Dire Straits reunion tour. I think he's obviously happy where he is. Good, sane guy.

Slowy wrote:

HappyEnding wrote: Tried one of his solo albums and a few songs deep, there was no big "Money For Nothing" riff so I was out. Still not 'mature' enough to revisit it.

This is a fair comment. He's an old man now so it's reasonable to expect him to be writing old man music. Luckily for you, young HappyEnding, you have a treasure trove of delights waiting in your future.

HappyEnding wrote:

Slowy wrote:

HappyEnding wrote: Tried one of his solo albums and a few songs deep, there was no big "Money For Nothing" riff so I was out. Still not 'mature' enough to revisit it.

This is a fair comment. He's an old man now so it's reasonable to expect him to be writing old man music. Luckily for you, young HappyEnding, you have a treasure trove of delights waiting in your future.

Thanks. My more 'serious' listening phases were in my 20s. I have since regressed. But never say never.

Darth Sabbathi wrote: I cannot abide Brothers in Arms - it embodies everything I hate about the 1980s.