Entertainment For Lively Minds
Slow train coming
Posted by bargepole on 18 July 2011 - 8:35pm.
Bob Dylan and Mark Knopfler to play half a dozen UK dates later this year - an intriguing prospect or two old bores?
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Personally I think Bob Dylan
Personally I think Bob Dylan is still magic, releasing lovely music, with a great band, and is still touring. Whereas where I've always regarded Mark Knobbler as a brilliant guitarist I was rather taken aback on a recent BBC4 prog about him to find that he was so laid back that he appeared as though he would rather have been be compiling his wine choices for the Garrick. And his last few releases have been rather lacklustre. Let's hope they find a bit of a spark and give the likes of us something to cheer (er, that would not mean Slow Train Coming thanks chaps).
Could be amazing or
could be the most boring thing ever. Like most teenagers I hated Dire Straits back in the 80s. Looking back now though I was a bit harsh. There had many, many excellent songs (Sultans, Lady Writer, Romeo, Brothers In Arms) but also many I still can't stand. In fact really, really hate Money For Nothing, Walk Of Life, Calling Elvis etc.
Get the wrong MK setlist and Bob on a bad night and it could be truly dreadful. But get Bob kickin' and the Knopfler doing his Dylan thing and it could be sweet. Maybe they'll play Infidels from start to finish?
Actually, that's a point...are they playing *together* or just one after the other?*
*Edit: Just looked at MK's website - the band looks great and I bet he'll come up with the goods.
The ticket price though - £72!!
Money For Nothing, Walk Of Life, Calling Elvis, etc. certainly
are pretty poor, but the real outright mega-stinker in the Dire Straits canon is "Industrial Disease" off "Love Over Gold". An absolute prize turkey, and no mistake.
Why so?
I don't agree with the above assessment. Given your certainty, though, about its shoddiness, I am intrigued. Why do you feel that Industrial Disease is a turkey. And indeed Money for Nothing apart from the fact that it was a massive hit. As a song, exactly, what is wrong with them both, for you?
I raise it partly because a few years back on a podcast Andrew Harrison ( I am pretty sure) made the same observation (about MFN) with the same certainty that it was a universal view only for David to demur and say that he thought it was a good song. Good, memorable riff, clear and interesting lyrics.
So?
Great
This is wonderful news, although I may have to rob a bank to afford a ticket.
Infidels, by Eugene O'Neill
Make sure you calculate your swag carefully. Steal a little and they'll throw you in jail. Steal a lot and they will not only let you away with it, but probably festoon you with some kind of honorific title.
So that exclusive UK appearance for 2011
At the recent Feis festival wasn't quite the coup they made it out to be.
It's a tempting pairing, as it should (well, maybe) ensure some good versions of Infidels tracks. But ...arenas...hmmm.
Knopfler's solo work
I think that his solo albums are all very good, much the same in terms of quality and most of them with a fairly distinctive flavour. I have come to think of Knopfler as a more popularly successful Richard Thompson; I am not sure actually what distinguishes them in their approach. Knopfler has the 'massive' disadvantage of being, in a past life, monumentally commercially successful.
More to the point
and despite it all, their work together on Slow Train Coming and Infidels in 1979 - 1983 was great.