I'm in the minority here it seems but one of the reasons why I loved Dire Straits was the drum sound and patterns.
Of course they are technically different from the start with Pick to let's say Chris (fantastic to hear from you on these forums, a massive fan of your work.)
First two albums are organic. No need to add anything else.
Third album really went up 3 gears. That drum sound on Making Movies is excellent, even Pick talks about it in interviews regarding how tough it was getting sounds for the producer... Skateaway was an example he mentioned. But those songs are bombastic sounding. Wouldn't work with the sound of Communique.
Love Over Gold i've had disagreements on this forum regarding the drums where Pick does say in interviews that a lot of it wasn't natural... whether he played to programme drums (which is what some posters have suggested) or the programmed drums are what we are hearing (industrial disease is an example) i'm not sure about. But the songs on Love Over Gold were phenomenal and for once I wasn't necessarily air-drumming to the songs, more listening to the lyrics and playing my tennis-guitar.
Alchemy - whilst a fair few of the songs are perhaps a bit too long, I do like the arrangements and here we find Terry Williams giving it a bit more of a rocky feel. I'd like to mention that had the drums at this point sounded like Knopfler and his solo career, so very softly played, in slower / different tempos I wouldn't be interested.
Let's face it even from a young age apart from the Money For Nothing intro I knew Terry WIlliams wasn't on drums for the rest of the song and album. I thought there was something not quite right and it made sense that a sessioned drum player had overseen most of the drumming on BIA. Even as a 7 year old kid I wasn't having any of it, like when Def Leppard fans were shocked to find out that Pyromania wasn't Rick Allen on drums, but merely a drum machine. It's obvious to the ear but hey fans can either be more into the song (lyrics/vocals) and dismissive of drums and their sound.
The On Every Street Album didn't particularly have any exciting drum licks or sounds, Calling Elvis aside, that was quality in terms of percussion, the end of Heavy Fuel obviously had a few fills.... that's not to say that drum fills are the key to an album but a bit like the previous album it was Knopfler's craft that stood out. Even if the likes of Jeff Porcaro and Manu Kache featured.
This brings me onto the live album On The Night. Listen, I love a big hitter. I thought Chris did an outstanding job bringing a lot of the songs on the last few albums alive, and even his skills on the earlier stuff. It's stadium rock and you just can't have a bad drummer at those kind of gigs. Big, Bombastic. I mean Chris played alongside a percussionist and as usual Clark and Fletcher were on keys/piano. This was a massive band. Some posters have bizarre beliefs in that songs need to be in the style of Pick on drums for example. Well if that's the case get rid of the slide guitarist, 1 of the keyboardist etc. Dire Straits had moved on from the raw sounding animal we heard in 1978 or 1979. Chris was a phenomenal player and he reminds me of the arguments of old on the Led Zep forums. So when Jimmy Page and Robert Plant connected back in the 90's and the late great Michael Lee was on drums. Absolutely extroadinary drummer. I followed him from his time with the unknown underrated band The Little Angels. Lee was phenomenal and had drummed with the Cult, Echo And The Bunnymen, Bryan Adams, to name a few. His drumming on No Quarter and when Page/Plant went on tour was pehonemenal. Check out Jools Holland and The Wanton Song. Sadly a few dumb people criticised his playing for not having the groove of Bonham, I mean it's not 1975 it's 1995! Things move on. So of course I (and Michael by the sounds of things) was surprised that the Led Zep O2 reunion ditched Michael Lee for Jason Bonham. Unfortunately for Lee his personal heath declined badly and he passed away just a few years later.
I think the point i'm getting at is we need to respect the times. Listen, personally I'm not much a fan of Knopfler's solo stuff and a lot of it is down to the shuffle/country/folk style drumming. Not my cup of tea but I respect it. If Expressso Love was played in such style i'd have thrown the vinyl away. However this is the style of music Knopfler is into now. Ironically he was the one that wanted a big-hitter apparently for those big On Every Street tours and look what happened to Chris and his hearing. I find the criticism bizarre. It's almost as though Knopfler literally pulled the plug on the Big rock sound after 1992. But there you go. I'm from a heavy rock background and I also love alternative/grunge/pop/rock/80's new wave/industrial rock etc. I'm not a huge fan of folk, and most folk on here are, so perhaps that's why I can't relate to much of what is said. But that's fine we all love different music. Point being, On The Night wasn't ridiculously bad. It was ridiculously professional. To everyone's liking? Maybe not. But considering the environment at the time and the difficulties band members would have with the leader (and I'm hugely influenced by the leader) i'm not brainwashed enough to know that it has a huge effect on morale and performances. BUT the performances from my ears were absolutely spot on!! From all players, especially Chris!
