A Mark In Time
Previous Albums => Tracker (2015) => Topic started by: pete_w on March 03, 2015, 02:20:09 PM
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In order to avoid spoilers in other threads, I thought it'd be good to collect all reviews and/or links to reviews here.
Please only post reviews, discussions better be posted here:
http://www.amarkintime.org/forum/index.php/topic,3795.0.html (http://www.amarkintime.org/forum/index.php/topic,3795.0.html)
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First one:
hi to all!!!Review from classic rock!............................Former Dire Straits mainman ploughs the same solo furrow.
Mark Knopfler
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Actually this was the first: (translated by Holaknopfler)
Front page:
With Tracker, Mark Knopfler delivers a superior album that looks more like his work with Dire Straits than his previous solo cd's. Soundz had the opportunity to speak to the legend in his own studio in the English Chiswick.
West London has some beautiful neighborhoods, en Chiswick is one of them. Although, you wouldn't notice a big recording studio in a small street called British Grove. Even the neighbor doesn't know that there are superstars on daily base. 'I saw some expensive cars around, so I thought there was a car dealer'. At the door stands, Knopfler's manager Paul Crockford, a nice relaxed bloke, who takes care of Knopflers business for years. Above Knopflers stands waiting with a big smile. Jeans, black t-shirt and a shirt on top of it. Showing of isn't something for him. 'What do you think of British Grove?' are his first words. His blue eyes twinkle. Knopfler looks good. Hij points to the door of the studio. 'The Who is recording a new album here. Next week Eric Clapton comes for recordings. Until my accountant says that it's not profitable anymore, I just keep going on.' We sit down in the beautiful relax room of the studio and Mark looks through the last edition of Soundz and reads the traveling story from the south of North America. 'Wow. The Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. I've had some great moments there..'
That is a part of North America that seems to attract you a lot, isn't it? Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama.
'I've known the Muscle Shoals Studio and Alabama for the first time when Bob Dylan asked me to play on his record Slow Train Coming. He came to one of our first shows in L.A. and asked if I wanted to join. The record was made with producers Barry Beckett and Jerry Wexler, two legends for me. When there was decided to record it in the MSS in Alabam, it was too good to be true: recording with your idol in the most famous studio in the world. A young boy from Glasgow can only dream of that. The sessions were great, but there is one thing that stayed with me forever: Barry and I went out for dinner in the town Muscle Shoals. In a steakhouse. Barry is not a small guy, but he took a steak as big as my upper arm. Then a barge with fat grit en then he ordered a lot of ice, and emptied a bottle of coke over it. Everything went it really fast.'
Anyway there are some regions and countries where you like to come often. The Netherlands as well?
'Abolutely. Where are you from? Bergen op Zoom? I know that region: Breda, Antwerp... I love to travel with my wife through The Netherlands. I was in the '70's and '80's a lot in Hilversum, where of course where the Philips label and wisseloord studios. In that office and studio was always a great atmosphere. It sounds like a cliche, but the people are different there. Really friendly.'
Also on Tracker observations of places and people are central. I understand you really like the North west of England.
''Northumberland is the most beautiful part of the country. It looks a lot like France in terms of nature. Durham, Westmorland, and the Scottish Dumfriesshire. I already get emotional when I talk about it. I really like to come there and drive through it with my oldtimers. It also is a terribly inspiring surrounding, where I came since I was a kid. That's why my lyrics are so English. I really understand that people from outside England are having difficulties with my lyrics. There quite detailed.'
The album also goes about freedom of the individual. The song 'Skydiver' is a good example of that.
'As an artist, on a certain moment, you make the choice to live outside the society, not conforming to that what all other people do. I try to get into the heads of other characters. I love individuals who go completely there own way. And I'm really not only talking about musicians or artists. Someone who drops his bombs down and doesn't know what kind of damage occurs beneath him, lives also outside the normal life. 'Dive Bomber In The 2.15' I sing. A fighterplane has to drop his bombs at 2.15 km to be accurate. But the song also is about gamblers, who don't follow the rules'.
You are inspired by people, the landscape but also old cars and art.
'Do you see that enormous painting over there? It's from John Bratby. He was the most celebrated painter from England in the sixties. The called his style Kitchen Sink Realism. This is from 1959. When two years later the lines and circles became popular, it was done with his succes. I think that is fascinating. Look, I got really interested in the lives from artists in the last years, but also in the live from normal people who have a normal job.'
Basil also is an track which springs in the eye. Tell us something about your relationship with the writer Basil Bunting.
'At this age I can bring up much more understanding for the behaviour and thinking of Bunting. I was 15 years old when I met Basil for the first time. I had a job on saturday at the newspaper for which he wrote en he fascinated me. But if you're 15 you only care about yourself, so you don't understand his grumpy behaviour. At that age the world is at your feet and you've never heard of sarcasm. Basil was clearly unhappy. If he wanted a cup of coffee you heard a miserable dark voice 'BOY COFFEE!' He absolutely didn't fit in his surrounding. Later I read his autobiographical poem. That is actually a meditation at a young life and throwing away your dreams.'
River Towns can relate to anything. What is it with you and city's which are next to a river?
'A few years ago I've read Rising Tide, a great book about the floods from the Mississippi. They call the river The Old Man, in that region. The power of the water from the Mississippi is unknown. I find that region and the towns Natchez, Hastings and Memphis very mystical. Also this nummer goes about a person in a book, this time from Breed D'J Pancake, a writer of short fictious stories. It's about a crane operator who works in the haven and terribly lonely, but doesn't really care about that. Pancake killed himself when he was 26. Loneliness is a problem in the current society, that hardly gets any attention.'
The first single is called Beryl. That's about the writer Beryl Bainbridge.
'There was a period in England when a writer was only taken serious when you studied at Oxford or Cambridge - or Oxbridge, like we called it- but Bainbridge came from working class, and didn't study at all. Nowadays, writers can come from each layer of the people. Beryl was nominated five times for a big prize, but never won one. Only from the nineties she became commercially popular, when she started writing historical fiction. She really inspired me.'
With the opener Laughs and jokes and drinks and smokes you put the listener on the wrong leg. Do I hear Dave Brubeck?
'Haha, sure! Brubeck, what an hero! My drummer, Ian Thomas, came up with the idea. In my eyes he's the best studio drummer in England. This nummer came very naturally. I really have a fantastic band with Guy, Glenn, Phil. Besides I could use a great violists and flutists. It's my job to make the right decisions. How do I fill in a song? Who plays on it? It really is like choosing the best school for your kids.'
I saw some great vintage amps and instruments. Am I sitting in front of a collector?
'Guy and I really like old instruments and amps. At home and here I have a great collection. We can go on for hours with searching the right guitar for a piece. Then the instrumental filling in comes, do we take an accordion or an harmonium? Are we going to do it acoustic or a part electric? Trakcer is recorded with complete freedom. Some tracks were on tape in a day but for other songs I took a lot more time. I've been very productive the last years. In the current tour we don't do more then three gigs after each other. Not because I can't take it anymore, but I want to create and write in between.'
Can you live with your own limitations?
'Look, I know in which I'm good at. Writing songs, and making a good album. I'm not a singer in the literal way of the word. I've never been. In the beginning years with DS I got a lot of critics about it, but now the low voice seems to work haha!'
You fill the Ziggo Dome without doing musical concessions. Still the biggest concerthall in The Netherlands.
'Isn't that the hall from Leon Rademakers, the old boss of Mojo Concerts? We have been friends for years. It's funny that guys like Leon and Herman Schueremans are still on top of the business. I don't forget these things. For some things I have a very good memory. I was 18 months old when I first sang Rudolph the red nose reindeer. A bit lisping though. I sang a lot with my mother and all those children songs, I can still sing them for you now. I have a kind of scrapyard in my head.'
All your studio experience which is in your scrapyard now comes back in the BG studio.
'Certainly. You know, a recording studio is just a nice and noble tradition. Not only in England, also in America and France. I had to do it a lot earlier, but I'm sometimes a bit slow in understanding. When I started with the studio in 2006, I had a lot of idealistic motifs. I learned a lot from people I worked with in the past: Barry Beckett, Neil Dorfsman, Chuck Ainlay, Bob Ludwig. All of that experience, I wanted to put in the BG. All those people helped me realising this. We can do really anything here. We have the EMI REDD Desk standing over here. With that you can make recordings like in the sixties.'
You are playing with the best musicians in the scene, were the big steersman at DS and now you are the boss again, although you are very modest. It seems like a contradiction to me, or am I wrong?
'Nee, you are right. My musicians let me walk away with a lot of things. That happened in the time of DS and still is now. Like Keith Richards said one time: 'The singer is always right.' I didn't start with this to make money. I'm a songwriter in the first place, and then a guitarist. That's different for the guys who play in my band, they earn their money with playing. Because I've been in the studio since 1978, I learned a lot and I know what I'm doing. From who I learned a lot? From everybody actually. When I did Making Movies with Jimmy Lovine, he brought Shelly Yakus with him. That man did the technics for the most famous albums from John Lennon, Tom Petty, U2 and Lou Reed. Those are almost intimidating people, because of their knowledge. So good! I really like to hang out with such genius people.'
But the times of nights in the studio are gone?
'Yeah, now they are. But I look back to it with happy memories. I know we were recording love over gold in 1982 in The Power Station in NY. I was young and had so much energy. After a studio session with my technician Neil Dorfsman I drove home on my bicycle at four in the morning. Then I already saw the garbage trucks. Manhattan just before sunrise is so beautiful. I could go on forever and there was no brake on it. Those were great times. With Neil I did Brothers in Arms later on. That album we made here in the AIR studios and on the island Montserrat. That was also really great.'
Is that where Laughs and Jokes is about?
'Certainly, but the song goes back even further. As a teenager I didn't have any money. But I didn't care at all. So I couldn't buy an nice Fender or amp. We drank and have uncomplicated fun. I did a lot hitchhiking and was good at it. I discovered Scotland and England by hitchhiking. I had only one dream and that was having a band. You really have to want that badly, otherwise it won't work. My old bassplayer John Illsley, was my mate already at that time. He still is my best friend actually, a great human! His last album was recorded here.'
Now you've made more solo albums than albums with Dire Straits. How important is that history for you?
'Still very important. I wrote some nice tunes in that time. I still play those. We recently played in America TR and SFA en I still play them with the same intensity as 30 years ago. I now have a band that plays the songs from DS better than the original group. That is logical by the way. Also I became a better musician and performer. The Netherlands stays a special country to me. In 1991 we played three times a sold out Ahoy and now again in the Ziggo Dome. We've played there before actually. It was one of the better gigs we played in that tour. De atmosphere in your country is different and the fans know all songs. That gives me a very warm feeling.'
END.
So, there is the full transcription of the interview. Please mind that English is not my native language, so there could be mistakes here and there.
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And behind this link there was another review (it's now in archive)
http://www.hotpress.com/Mark-Knopfler/music/reviews/albums/Mark-Knopfler--Tracker/13560434.html (http://www.hotpress.com/Mark-Knopfler/music/reviews/albums/Mark-Knopfler--Tracker/13560434.html)
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And there is a German one (with translation), which can be found here: http://www.plattenladentipps.de/2015/02/25/mark-knopfler-tracker/ (http://www.plattenladentipps.de/2015/02/25/mark-knopfler-tracker/)
Eine kleine Stra
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Anything new in that one?
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15 pounds? I recall it was 50
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Please use the following topic for discussion, let's keep this one only for reviews
http://www.amarkintime.org/forum/index.php/topic,3795.0.html (http://www.amarkintime.org/forum/index.php/topic,3795.0.html)
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Any Italians around?
http://www.buscadero.com/mark-knopfler-tracker/ (http://www.buscadero.com/mark-knopfler-tracker/)
The Google stuff is quite accurate but Guy is accordingly playing the (computer) keyboard ;D
Any fuller and better translation of it all is most welcome!:)
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Any Italians around?
http://www.buscadero.com/mark-knopfler-tracker/ (http://www.buscadero.com/mark-knopfler-tracker/)
Google translate seems work. They italian journalists called 'Lights Of Taormina' the best track from the album. Why is that? :lol :lol :lol
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Any Italians around?
http://www.buscadero.com/mark-knopfler-tracker/ (http://www.buscadero.com/mark-knopfler-tracker/)
Google translate seems work. They italian journalists called 'Lights Of Taormina' the best track from the album. Why is that? :lol :lol :lol
Hahaha! :hmm
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Taormina = Italy.
Keep this thread clean from discussion, remember?
I hope for a proper translation because this review seems to be very detailed! I read the word "rock" at least twice which is not too bad nowadays...
LE
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Oh sh**.. almost every songs seems to be slow.
:disbelief
Sorry LE, I will rant about this is the large thread instead.
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thanks for hinting to google translator, always forget to use that one. It sounds not too bad. it seems many songs have long intros - which I like very much.
And the irish influences are mentioned, which is not the same as the scottish ones on the last albums, right?
LE
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Any Italians around?
http://www.buscadero.com/mark-knopfler-tracker/ (http://www.buscadero.com/mark-knopfler-tracker/)
The Google stuff is quite accurate but Guy is accordingly playing the (computer) keyboard ;D
Any fuller and better translation of it all is most welcome!:)
Google Translate:
Tracker is the eighth solo album by Mark Knopfler. Eighth, but in a fairly extensive discography that includes, in addition to the disks of Dire Straits, at least nine soundtracks (and is working on the tenth, for the film Altamira), collaborations with Emmylou Harris, Chet Atkins, Notting Hillbillies and various productions. Quiet Man Mark, speaks little, but acts. A disc every few years ago, when he songs, never gets upset and his music has the trademark of his quiet voice and his guitar: in fact he is one of the few musicians recognizable, both by way of singing that to play. Tracker is partly inspired by the trips that did, the places where he went to play, with songs like Lights of Taormina or Silver Eagle, or even writers like Beryl Bainbridge or Basil Bunting, with two songs that take the title from the names of the two writers. A disk read, intense, lyrical, profound, that slowly grows within us, making us enter, listening after listening, in every song.
Recorded in London, in British Grove studios, the album sees Mark joined by trust Guy Fletcher on keyboards, then by John McCusker (fiddle), Mike McGoldrick (flute), Glenn Worf (bass) and Ian Thomas (drums). Among the musicians are added the voice of Ruth Moody (the Wailin 'Jennys) in Wherever I Go, then Nigel Hitchcock on sax and Phil Cunningham on accordion. Recorded tracks for the album are eleven regular, but then Tracker is also published in De Luxe version (with four more songs) and in a limited edition box set (which will have six more tracks, four of De Luxe + other two) . Privateering, the previous album, it was the most beautiful album of Mark, for several years now. Less boring, less repetitive, even with various hints blues, and has also been one of its best sellers. Tracker becomes a priority in the US (as opposed to Privateering), and is still a Mr. disk. There is always a strong Irish influence, with the lyricism that permeates some folk songs, while our favors acoustic sounds or electro-acoustic, leaving aside the more rock.
Laughs and Jokes and Drinks Smokes and opens the disc in the best way. It 'a relaxed ballad in pure Irish style, sung and played with great intensity at your fingertips. A song that Knopfler has already given us, that we have already heard, but it's nice, warm, deep: the melody is impressive and draws distant islands, almost fairy-tale landscapes, with the Irish melody that wraps all the time, when the leader leaves the space instruments. Basil, dedicated to the poet Basil Bunting, is a story from the epic tone, engaging, always on a fairly slow but with a melody that is enhanced listening after listening. River Towns is no exception: slow intro, song soft that develops in the classical way, opening slowly, after the entry of the leader. There are Irish influences, but the track holds both from the point of view that the melodic lyrical part, thanks to the intervention of the sax, played by Nigel Hitchcock. Skydiver is more rock, although it is not particularly original. Better Mighty Man where you can still breathe the air of Ireland. Our guitar opens the song with an arpeggio very nice and immediately closes the song in a riverbed melodic hardly forgettable, which makes it even more impressive. Broken Bones is more rock, comes off decisively from the other and is partially influenced by the sound of 'Friend JJ Cale: a song that does not shine well built but for originality, but that still leaves listen. Long Cool Girl is rather slow, thoughtful. Very classical instrumental to dall'intro sung by Mark.
Lights of Taormina is however, in my opinion, the best of the disc. The long instrumental intro, led by the guitar wizardry of Mark, the opening speech, between folk and rock, the continuation engaging, make this turgid composition the most successful results. Still wants to make music Mark, and to high levels, given what proposes in this record: a song of this thick enough to make a disc Tracker unmissable. But then is not the only and the album, moreover, grows after listening listening. At first I was lukewarm, but then I heard it at the bottom and I was hooked. The instrumental part that concludes Lights of Taormina is the seal right to a song almost perfect.
Silver Eagle, always slow, is evocative, intense and profound, and as much of the disc, can be best appreciated in the long run. The use of the plane, discrete but continuous throughout the disc, is a strong ally in terms of sound. We are now at the end. Beryl, dedicated to writer Beryl Bianbridge, has the classic train to Dire Straits, electric and soft at the same time. It 'a normal song, but very well built, with a melodic base adequate and well-built development. Closes the album Wherever I Go, where our duet with one of the Wailin 'Jennys, Ruth Moody (author for more than a few discs to his name, among which I like to remember These Wilder Things, they appear Mark Knopfler, Jerry Douglas, Aoife O'Donovan of Crooked Still, The Wailin 'Jennys, Mike McGoldrick and John McCusker two well-known musicians Celts, who also play in Tracker). Wherever I Go is a beautiful ballad, Night, evocative, very well built, with two voices that duet in perfect harmony. Fitting end to a Mr. disk.
Tracker, as I said, it grows slowly, but grows. Give it a proper listen, let it grow and become a part of you.
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No mention of Bruce Molsky in any of the reports, that says a lot about his contribution...
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The amount of the word 'slow' is too damn high in this review. I don't hope that it's really th
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The amount of the word 'slow' is too damn high in this review. I don't hope that it's really th
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"Slow is exactly what I was expecting, slow is what we are getting since RPD was released on 2002 and nothing has changed except that MK is older."
Exactly. You cannot put it better than that!
To expect anything else is simply not realistic for more than 10 years now. The same holds for the setlist illusions that will soon start again. Besides that he still is the very best there is!
Edit: Sorry, wrong thread, won't happen again.
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"Slow is exactly what I was expecting, slow is what we are getting since RPD was released on 2002 and nothing has changed except that MK is older."
Exactly. You cannot put it better than that!
To expect anything else is simply not realistic for more than 10 years now. The same holds for the setlist illusions that will soon start again. Besides that he still is the very best there is!
Edit: Sorry, wrong thread, won't happen again.
You are not the only one :lol ;) No worries, we won't ban you :P
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Any one who is tired of 'slow' MK should check out The War on Drugs - I saw them live last week and they are awesome - great big wall of sound and great synth and guitar work - reminiscent of 85 DS if thats your thing - except maybe better!! I still love MK tho!!
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Oh dear, AMIT down and I actually had to do some real work ;D
Once back, I wanted to share a very nice Australian review. Didn't know that about the clock for example. And the door seems not to have been shut for SOS live or more albums in the future! :clap
Some mates says it's subscriber only, but it works for me.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/the-sultan-mark-knopfler-looks-back-in-his-new-album-trackers/story-fn9n8gph-1227249814538 (http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/review/the-sultan-mark-knopfler-looks-back-in-his-new-album-trackers/story-fn9n8gph-1227249814538)
(The "thinking MK in the rehearsal studio" picture headlines the article.)
Mark Knopfler’s concerts include Dire Straits songs but he has consistently ruled out a band reunion. Source: Supplied
A STRATOCASTER has been Mark Knopfler’s favoured guitar in a career spanning five decades. It brings that distinctive trademark tone to Dire Straits classics such as Sultans of Swing, So Far Away and Tunnel of Love, and to much of his solo and soundtrack recordings. He even has a Strat named after him. Yet there’s another instrument bearing the famous Fender logo that has a special place in the Englishman’s heart. It has pride of place in the west London studio where the 65-year-old muso spends a lot of his time. It’s a clock.
“It used to hang in a guitar shop in Newcastle,” says Knopfler, who moved to Tyneside from Glasgow when he was eight years old. As a teenager he spent many hours eyeing up the equipment in that shop, dreaming of one day putting it to good use. The clock, he explains, was “for the dealers. They used to get a clock. It was a blue and yellow diamond with the word Fender on it. I used to think it was the coolest thing. And I used to think there was no way you could ever own something like that because you have to own a guitar shop to get one.”
Well into his tenure as a gun guitarist and a rock star, Knopfler found one of the Fender timepieces. “To anyone else it’s just a daft old clock,” he says, “but for me it’s a connection and I still like to keep that stuff alive.”
There’s abundant evidence of that Knopfler nostalgic streak on his new solo album, Tracker, the eighth under his own name and one that was crafted from beginning to end within the walls of British Grove, the studio in Chiswick Knopfler built 10 years ago as “a monument to past and future technology”. Alongside his collection of vintage cars, which he drives and exhibits, his studio is his passion. “I’m only in here when I’ve got something to record,” he says, “but I wish I could be here more than I am.”
A journey through the 11 songs on Tracker encompasses pivotal points in Knopfler’s life, from the 15-year-old working as a copy boy on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle (Basil) to the revered veteran songwriter and musician touring across Europe four years ago with his friend Bob Dylan (Silver Eagle, Lights of Taormina). In between there are more observational and introspective pieces, such as Broken Bones, Long Cool Girl and Mighty Man. There’s also Beryl, a musing on English writer Beryl Bainbridge, focusing on the fact she received acknowledgment from the Booker Prize committee only after her death in 2010.
All of the songs bear that recognisable, slightly gnarled Knopfler vocal, with music that has equally familiar strains of Celtic folk, country and rock ’n’ roll within it.
Basil is inspired by Basil Bunting, a crotchety subeditor on the Chronicle but also a respected poet. “When I was still at school I was playing folk music with a girl from the lower form,” Knopfler explains. “We were a folk duo. Her big brother was a reporter on the Evening Chronicle and I thought that was quite glamorous.”
Thus the young aspiring journo found himself working as a copy boy on Saturday afternoons, sending sports stories down the line to the printers and trying to avoid Bunting’s wrath:
He calls for a copy boy, grumpy as hell
Poets have to eat as well
What he wouldn’t give just to walk out today
To have time to think about time
And young love thrown away.
“He was very grumpy and he fascinated me,” Knopfler says. “I didn’t speak to him. He would have addressed me very gruffly as ‘boy’ and that would have been it. Somebody told me he was a poet. While I was there he had a poem, Briggflatts, published and that allowed him to leave the Chronicle and he went to America as an academic. He was writing about time and now I’m at an age where time is more important to me too.”
Knopfler credits some of his skills as a songwriter to his brief career before Dire Straits as a journalist in Leeds. He worked as a junior reporter on the Yorkshire Evening Post after studying journalism at Harlow College in Esspam.
“I was glad I did journalism because it teaches you the way of the world and it also taught me how to condense,” he says. “If you have a lot of bumf to read you can make sense of it pretty quickly. And songwriting is very much about that. You are cutting it down to the essentials. You’re not using that many words in a song, even if you’re dealing with a big subject, so I think that really helped me. I wouldn’t have called myself a journalist, though. I was a cub reporter. I thought it might be an exciting life.”
As it turned out, excitement lay elsewhere. After a move to London in 1973, Knopfler cut his teeth in a handful of bands before forming Dire Straits with his guitarist brother David, drummer Pick Withers and bassist John Illsley in 1977. Sultans of Swing announced them as a band somewhat adjacent to the punk frenzy that was engulfing London at the time. Across the next few years albums such as Communique and Love Over Gold took them to a mainstream, worldwide audience.
It’s close on 20 years since Knopfler drew a line under Dire Straits. The band’s fifth album, Brothers in Arms (1985), remains one of the highest selling records, with sales of more than 30 million. Although more recordings followed in that album’s wake, in 1996, after a world tour, Knopfler decided the band had run its course and it was time to focus on a solo career. He has no regrets about doing so and has always dismissed any notion of a Dire Straits reunion. He still plays Dire Straits material in his shows
“If we do something like Sultans of Swing I like to do it the way we did it originally, as a four-piece, really stripped down,” he says. “So I’ll do that. I like playing those songs still.
“If you play Brothers in Arms or whatever … those songs mean a lot to people. You have to play them well.”
However, at the peak of the band’s fame Knopfler says, the scale of it was overwhelming.
“It was too big to handle,” he says. “It was massive. We were actually touring at one point with three big stages, leapfrogging around. But also the songs were changing. The kind of songs I was writing were very varied and very different. We had pedal steel and saxophone and percussion. I’d expanded as much as I wanted — and then too much.” A few years before Brothers in Arms, Knopfler took his first tentative steps into the world of film composition and that debut, with the haunting Celtic soundtrack to Bill Forsyth’s Local Hero (1983), including the hit theme song, Going Home, established his composing credentials.
He followed that up quickly with Cal, Forsyth’s Comfort and Joy (both 1984) and The Princess Bride (1987).
Multi-instrumentalist Guy Fletcher has worked alongside Knopfler on a regular basis since joining Dire Straits in 1984. That was soon after Knopfler had asked him to work on Cal and just before Brothers in Arms.
It’s important, Knopfler says, to maintain some musical consistency, whether in style or in execution. That’s why Fletcher is also co-producer and musical foil on this latest album.
Knopfler’s production credits other than on his own records include Aztec Camera, Randy Newman and Bob Dylan, for whom he took the controls on the 1983 album Infidels. The two songwriters have maintained a friendship since then and toured together through Europe and the US in 2011. “We’ve put in quite a lot of miles together,” he says. “If you’ve done that it’s always there.”
Lights of Taormina, a reference to the Sicilian coastal town, has a direct connection to His Bobness. “I was on tour in Europe,” Knopfler says, “and Bob had been to Taormina just before we were there. I stayed in the same hotel room he had stayed in. It was right up next to the venue, an ancient amphitheatre. I stayed out on my balcony for a long time after we’d done the show and it made me think of a whole lot of things.
“Then next morning I read some material that said Bob had spent a long time out on the balcony as well. I just knew it was the same kind of experience. I don’t know that I could have written that song without that experience. “
Knopfler is taking this new album out on the road this year, although so far there are no plans to play in Australia. “I’d love to come, though,” he says. In the meantime, the clock is ticking. There are more songs to write, when the mood or inspiration strikes.
“The trouble of being a songwriter is that you are a victim of the songs that turn up,” he says. His one ambition is “to be able to get a result; to make a decent record. The studio is the theatre of humiliation. It’s not easy, but I love it. If I can just keep going with the cycle, I’ll be happy.”
Tracker is released on March 20 through Universal.
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Love the clock tjing, thanks for posting.
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Maybe we should rename the forum to "Mark on time"?
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Any subscribers here for this one from The Sunday Times?
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/music/article1526399.ece (http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/music/article1526399.ece)
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Any subscribers here for this one from The Sunday Times?
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/music/article1526399.ece (http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/music/article1526399.ece)
It's described as "excellent", so here's hoping it has a 5 star rating! :)
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When people contemplate Mark Knopfler’s past, they tend to think of rock music on a stadium scale in the mega-platinum pomp of Dire Straits. He, on the other hand, remembers an earlier truth, inhabited by dodgy digs and even dodgier gigs, built on spit and sawdust, and hopelessly badly paid. Never mind them getting money for nothing — those were the days of nothing for money.
The songwriter and guitarist is not often given to overt reminiscence, but he does cast a glance over his shoulder in the context of his excellent new solo album, Tracker. More prolific, at 65, than any of his contemporaries, he has released nine studio albums since the band he co-founded, and steered to worldwide sales of 120m records, went on permanent hold in the mid-1990s.
Tracker is another charming alloy of Knopfler’s folk influences, the latest manifestation of the often acoustic sound that has naturally succeeded his reluctant years as a rock god. Yet there’s a deliberate nod to the Dire Straits sound in its single, Beryl, and the album opens with Laughs and Jokes and Drinks and Smokes, in which he recalls the first days of pursuing his dreams in London.
“Laughs and jokes and drinks and smokes was what it was all about when you were young,” he says. “You’re so resilient, you don’t even think about the wear and tear at all. I certainly didn’t. When we were going at the beginning, there was a pub circuit, but usually all the money we got went on hiring the PA system. There was nothing really left at the end of those gigs.
“I remember we did four shows at the Marquee, on Wardour Street, and I think we got £120 for the gig. The PA cost £100, so there was a fiver left each, then we’d buy some beer, and that’d be it. You’re just going from gig to gig, hoping to keep it all together.”
Knopfler grants interviews sparingly, and on our first encounter, nearly 25 years ago, he was a rather gruff figurehead, clearly unable to find inspiration in mere celebrity. But repeated meetings have revealed a softer, self-effacing, relaxed family man who appreciates everything he has, would rather talk about guitars and football than promote himself, and cannot wait to write his next song.
That London milieu of the 1970s was reportedly enveloped by new wave, but it was also nurturing other talent held together with more than a safety pin. I saw Dire Straits at what may have been the 10th or so gig they ever did, in a Covent Garden basement called the Rock Garden. It’s more than a rose-tinted memory to say that one could tell these real-life sultans of swing were going places.
“I remember the Rock Garden really well,” Knopfler says. “That was another place where you had to load in all the gear, going up and down the stairs to the street. I used to sweat so much on stage in those days, it came off me in sheets. That’s how the headband started. I literally couldn’t see — the sweat would sting my eyes and I used not to be able to see my chords through my tears.”
He laughs as the memory becomes clear. “You would have to make your own way to the gig. I remember one night at the Marquee, there were sheets of sweat going out into the crowd, and this little fella stuck a note up, and I read it. It said, ‘More liquid gumption, please.’ As my manager likes to say, it’s character-building. You’ve got to want to be there.”
Decades after Brothers in Arms conquered the world and removed the financial imperative from Knopfler’s agenda, he still wants to be there. It’s proved again by an international tour behind Tracker that starts in May and lasts for most of the rest of the year.
Laughs and Jokes barrels along like a sea shanty, appropriately for an artist who often talks about his own cherished band setting sail on another adventure. “Tracker is, in many ways, keeping track of time. Also, you’re on the trail of an idea, of a song. Writing songs and travelling around the world and doing all this stuff is a funny way of tracking time.
“I mean, look at my band — heavens above. We spend an awful lot of the time laughing anyway, so that keeps the whole thing rolling on. I’m a lucky guy, there’s no two ways about it.”
Knopfler is naturally, but not studiously, private. He has redrawn his career while retaining his huge audience with a low-key dexterity. Fans still come to enjoy Sultans of Swing and Telegraph Road, but each new record is welcomed so warmly, most of them no longer bother to ask whether Dire Straits will re-form — a pointless question given how much fun he has now as a front man.
“People are great, all around the world, so I haven’t really had to suffer too much in terms of all that,” he says. “There are always going to be those who want to know exactly what instrument you played and how you got the sound. Half the time, I can’t remember. I just plugged it in and fiddled about. In fact, I was looking today at the instruments I used on Tracker, and I couldn’t remember exactly which they were. So, if it’s years ago, then good luck.”
With such a healthy disregard for the trappings of success, Knopfler’s only touring proviso is that the itinerary doesn’t encroach on the school holidays. For all his inexhaustible passion for his work, his family life — with his second wife, the actress and writer Kitty Aldridge, and their daughters, Isabella and Katya — remains non-negotiable.
I ask if the kids ever mind their dad being away for long spells. “They’re much better off without me hanging around the house,” he laughs. “They do come out for strategic gigs. That’s always great, too, when we’re camped in one town for a bit.”
That is about as personal as Knopfler will be on the record with the fourth estate, even if he used to be a member of it. He depicts his days as a 15-year-old copy boy on the Newcastle Evening Chronicle in a new song, Basil, about the poet Basil Bunting, a reluctant staffer on the newspaper. It’s another vivid snapshot, juxtaposing the world-weary protagonist and the songwriter’s eager young self.
“It was clear that he’d rather be writing poetry than copy for the Evening Chronicle,” he remembers, “and he didn’t really fit. So it was the contrast between us — because, at that age, I had the whole world in front of me. I had a different way of looking at the world entirely. You’re thinking it’s all rosy promise.”
Knopfler has made that rosy promise into something of lasting substance, and anyone who thinks only of that MTV icon in a headband should know the toil that went before. “I remember once hitchhiking from a gig in Penzance on Christmas Day, trying to get back up to Newcastle from the southern tip of Cornwall,” he says, returning to those formative years. “I used to hitchhike then, climbing up into lorry cabs with bags and guitars. There was snow everywhere, and I got put off in the middle of the country somewhere — in the Midlands, I think — on a slip road off the motorway. I’m standing up there, and there’s nobody. I can see 360 degrees for miles all around, and there’s nothing moving, just the sun shining down on all this snow. And I remember getting a very clear idea of what I’d decided I was going to do with my life.”
Tracker is released by Virgin/EMI on March 16. Mark Knopfler and his band start a tour of the UK and Ireland on May 15
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Thank yooooouuu! :clap :wave
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The songwriter and guitarist is not often given to overt reminiscence, but he does cast a glance over his shoulder in the context of his excellent new solo album, Tracker. More prolific, at 65, than any of his contemporaries, he has released nine studio albums since the band he co-founded, and steered to worldwide sales of 120m records, went on permanent hold in the mid-1990s.
Ah, why bother changing a winning number? ;D
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I kinda like these new interviews. MK seem to be very open and talking about other memories than the regular smell of Fender catalogues, uncle Kingsley and his boogie woogie, the Hofner (priced 15-50 quid), blowing up the family radio and falling asleep playing.
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Thanks for that one. I quite enjoyed that too!
Makes me more excited in anticipation of the new album in that the songs tend to be written more about his own experiences and not about boring old books again. I've always felt his "reporter style" songs are his forte though.
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[...] blowing up the family radio and falling asleep playing.
Did he really do that?
...
Only kidding!
;D
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Thank you, MB! :wave
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Fantastic - I seriously can't wait until next Monday now!!!
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Nice review in German Rolling Stone magazine.
LE
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Nice review in German Rolling Stone magazine.
LE
Could you share it here?
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Busy today. Just had a quick look on my way to work this morning. I will try.
LE
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Busy today. Just had a quick look on my way to work this morning. I will try.
LE
Maybe it's in the internet edition and if it´s easier to share :)
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German Rolling Stone Magazine says:
a VERY private, intimate and warm album, ... reflection of his past ... not a rock record (!) -
reduced , with lot of room for all musicians
the guitar solo parts are more in the back, more important is the songwriting
so no surprise, but the review is very positive
friday we will know
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Rolling Stones, German edition, review:
Life in Songs – melancholy, warm-hearted: The Brit omitts some solos and concentrates on intimete details from his biography:
On his last album, Mark Knopfler saw himself as a pirate: setting sail into the sea and make a big haul in the concert halls. With this same band, Knopfler has recorded the most concise music of his solo career. The good thing about this album is the pointedly slowness in which Knopfler submerges during his historical tales, not seldomly linked with comments on current themes, Knopfler the historican, the romantic, the tale-teller.
On his new album, the focus has changed. Knopfler, mid-60, revues his own life, and tells stories of his own biography. No big analysis, more like small moments, stuck in the memory like fotographs forever and condense to a lifetime tale – just keeping track.
Knopfler as a youngster in London, founding a band, seeking a girlfriend. Knopfler as a copy boy, presumably in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, kissing a girl from Gateshead, having all his life ahead.
One song is about a boxer who stoically bears the strokes and the sewing of the wounds, another song is about a maltreaded worker, building Englands streets. Two times the protagonist is a rock star thinking about old loves, wishful and slightly resigned, tired from the audience masses.
At the final „Wherever I Go“ , a touching duet with the Canadian folk-chanteuse Ruth Moody, then the conclusion; Maybe I'm bound to wander/from one place to the next/heaven knows why/ but in the wild blue yonder/your star is fixed in my sky. To that a saxophone groans.
The music is deeply ranged with the wistfulness of reflexion, the quiet pondering that turns out more personal than on the previous albums. The thoroughly warm-hearted tone, the impressively reduced interaction of the band musicians, the outrageous humming silence: Everything stays at it is, even when Knopfler gives priority to his stories and omitts some solos: We are listening.
LE
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Thanks, LE, this is beautiful, because it adds another focus to the album. Nice thoughts!
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Guitarist magazine
April 2015
Mark Knopfler’s covered a lot of miles since the days when he walked
the Telegraph Road. His new solo album,
Tracker, is an essay in understated, eloquent playing – but it’s the
songs and the characters that inhabit them that linger in the mind
long after the record has stopped turning. In a world-exclusive guitar
interview, we joined Mark – one of the most down-to-earth rock stars
you could hope to meet – at his London studio to talk about everything
from songcraft to slide technique, amps and old archtops, and learn
why a ’58 Les Paul Standard is something you can rely on in life...
some sort of instinct leads you to the songs.
and then you have to follow them down and finish them
It’s a cold, bright morning at British Grove, Mark
Knopfler’s big, airy studio in West London.
Outside, traffic angrily inches forward on a
choked arterial road, but inside it’s a haven of
hospitable calm as we wait for the man himself to
arrive. In the corner stands a ’58 Les Paul Standard – a
real one – with a plain top and a sherry-red tint still
lingering in the Sunburst. There’s a fireplace and a long
oak table; yards of neatly varnished floorboards. It’s all
very low-key but, undeniably, the haunt of a guy who’s
sold one or two records in his time.
And, without any fanfare, here he is, greeting us with
a handshake and a steady, cautiously friendly gaze.
He’s just come from a Pilates session, a discipline he
says he gets a lot of benefit from, which quickly leads
uson to a discussion of how muscle tension can stifle
your playing.
“I’m still learning to relax my left arm, when I’m
playing,” he says. “The more you can learn to relax
that left arm, the more fluid you’ll be. If you tense up,
you’re just gonna slow down. And for a long time
I played that way – and I used to get pain all down my
forearm. I used to play Sultans...
like that a lot. It’s justhabit. Getting the urgency into the
playing getstranslated into tension, unfortunately.
But you’ve got to stop associating emotion with tension.”
Tension. The Zen-like calm of British Grove studios
seems calculated to reduce it to a background hum, like
the traffic, and leave Knopfler free to be creative in his
own time, on his own terms. The colossal success of
Dire Straits’ Brothers In Arms album in 1987, which
sold 30 million copies, must have been giddying, even
troubling, for a musician who today prefers to go
unrecognised in the street. It sold and sold, and as it
did Knopfler’s thoughtful writing and richly melodic
playing were reduced, by the shorthand of fame, to
thumbnail icons in the popular imagination: the
headband; the intro riff from Money For Nothing; the
shining ’37 National Style O guitar on the album’s cover
that looked as if it was being thrown into heaven by an
unseen hand.
Nearly 30 years on, Knopfler is about to release his
ninth solo album, Tracker.
Tender and downbeat, the songs are a portrait gallery of
people and places: odd nooks and corners of life as it’s
lived by deckhands and writers, penniless musicians and
Bentley-driving chancers.
With far less fanfare than in the Straits years,
his solo albums have sold in their millions and, arguably,
it’s Knopfler’s preference for a (relatively) down-to-
earth lifestyle that means his music still connects. He’s
got the same eye for character that made the London
nightclub life in Sultans Of Swing come to smoky,
jostling life, but the writing on Tracker seems to have
acquired, with the years, extra patina and depth like the
checked lacquer of an old guitar.
“You could see it in terms of time – tracking time,”
Knopfler says of the album’s title. “You get to that kind
of age and you have to follow something through to
finish it. You’re not necessarily sure of what it is that
you’re going after. But some sort of instinct leads you to
the songs. And then you have to follow them down and
finish them. So you’re the one that brings the stuff back,
who’s tracked it down and got it."
The album – co-produced by former Dire Straits
keyboardist Guy Fletcher – features top-drawer
performances from an exceptional band, and
from Knopfler himself, who sounds immersed in its
sparse but warm soundscapes. When he takes a lead, it’s
generally just a few judicious notes, perfectly placed.
“One of the things you find out over time is that if
you’re choosing between a few different passes over a
song, you learn to go for the one with fewer notes,” he
observes. “It usually says more."
Likewise, the subjects of the songs themselves –
ranging from the Newcastle poet Basil Bunting to the
broke-but-happy London musicians of
Laughs And Jokes And Drinks And Smokes
– are all brought to life with understated skill.
“The characters that I’m interested in are usually not
sorry for themselves,” he explains. “If you’re talking
about a retired navvy, or you’re talking about a young
man who works on a barge who’s alone at Christmas
time in a strange city, they’re not sorry for themselves.
You’ve just got to watch for being sentimental about it.
You’re interested in the truth.”
Does he reject a lot of songs? Or does he just turn
material over in his mind until he finds a way to
make it work?
“I certainly have a lot of songs that take their time
putting their hand up. So what I’ll do is I’ll just look at
them every now and again. Just drop in on them, you
know? And see if I can make them happen. Or see if
anything can happen. And sometimes something does
and sometimes it doesn’t.
“And I’m not sure if it’s part of the enjoyment of it,
but it’s the mystery of it that some things just happen
in their own time. And they manage to stand up and go
out into the light of day. But I don’t worry too much if
a song isn’t wanting to leave home just yet. I suppose
what I ought to do is just delete the damn thing, but
I don’t [laughs].”
The album abounds not only in memorable
characters, but timbres, too. Most of the
amplified sounds live in that just-breaking-up
zone in which all the clarity of clean tone is retained,
but with a cushion of extra warmth and grit to lend
character to each phrase, notably on standout track
Basil. It’s a tone some will know from the intro to
Brothers In Arms, almost a signature sound. What
amps did he turn to for the sessions?
“There were various amps. With something like
that, you’re talking about the Les Paul through
something like the Reinhardt Talyn, which is a great
amp that Bob Reinhardt built for me. Also Ken Fischer,
who built the Trainwreck amps, made me a Komet
before he passed away, a fantastic thing that he
christened ‘Linda’ when he built it. And I think he
wasn’t 100 per cent happy with the way Komets then
went on to be. But this one was personally built by him.
It’s extraordinarily loud, so for stage you’d have to find
a way of calming it down. Because it’s just such a beast.
But in the studio, of course, you can just let her rip.
That’s a fantastic-sounding amp.
“And for clean tones I’ve been using the Tone King
Imperial a lot. And I use the rhythm channel for that,
not the lead channel. I always go into the rhythm
channel to play lead on it. It’s very, very clear. For
that kind of sound, like the one I use on Beryl, with
a Stratocaster, it was always going to be a toss-up
between the Tone King and my old brown Tolex-
covered Vibrolux.
“But on the road, I was playing slide through the Tone
King as well – it’s great. And when I was playing with
Bob [Dylan], on his sets, I would just go straight into the
little Tone King. It’s a killer amp. And Mark Bartel has
made a new one [the Mk II version], which I tried
yesterday and it’s great – it’s right up there with my old
one, I’d say. So that will be coming on the road with me.
And I suppose Richard [Bennett, guitarist in Knopfler’s
band] will have one, too, because they’re terrific amps.”
when i was playing with Bob Dylan,
i would just go straight into the little tone King
It's a killer amp
Another striking feature of the album is how
much slide playing there is. It’s something
Knopfler says he’s enjoying more and more
with time, adding that he made a few minor
breakthroughs in his slide technique during
Tracker's recording sessions.
“I’ve been using the white [’64] Strat for slide,” he
explains. It’s just been beautiful to play, I realised
I could fret notes a little bit in front of the slide, too.
And that sort of just fell into place. I never thought I’d
be able to do that.”
Despite his association with vintage Stratocasters,
Knopfler says he doesn’t make a fetish of period-correct
details and is content if he can play a decent Strat that
has a few of his preferred features.
“I think I get on better with rosewood fingerboards.
Although having said that, I like heavy strings on my old
’54: I hit them with a pick for tone and use the tremolo
arm for that style of playing. But for most of the
ordinary stuff I don’t. I think they’re all much of a
muchness really. I don’t think it matters too much.
Early 60s ones are great, and I don’t think they’ve ever
got much better than that. I think my signature Strats
have been good and that’s what I use. It was just a good
combination of the bits they were making – because
they don’t incorporate anything particularly special.”
Does he play electric slide in standard tuning?
“No, never – I’d like to and I ought to really get on
with it. Because I love the possibilities of that. But
normally it’s either the open G tuning or an E tuning.
But playing slide in normal tuning is something that
I’m really looking forward to getting into. But I’m
always doing something else [laughs].”
It’s gratifying to hear that one of the world’s best
guitarists can’t, like most of us, find enough time in the
day to advance his technique as much as he’d like –
although you’d have to say he seems to have muddled
by okay, so far.
“The slides I use are a glass composite material,” he
continues. “But they’re the best ones I’ve ever used.
And I had a beautiful one that I dropped and smashed,
but the other ones that they’ve replaced them with are
just about as good. My favourite ones ever so slightly
taper; the hole is slightly offset, so you can have
different thicknesses. But I never really bother about
that too much, I just put it on and play it.
“And the Coricidin bottle slides, I’ve tried them
andthey’re good, too, but they’re a little bit lighter.
Originally, I started with a lot of steel and brass and
my dad, bless him, he made me some from brass
tubing.
He made me my first slides. And so, every now
and again, yeah, a piece of steel will do it – but I think
I prefer these ones that this company Diamond
Bottlenecks makes.”
Touching on slide, we ask if the well-known ’37
National Style O Resonator that has been with
Knopfler ever since his formative days playing
blues with Steve Phillips in Leeds made it onto the
new album.
“It nearly always does. I don’t know whether it did
this time but I tell you what has, on a couple of the
songs, is my mid-30s D’Angelico, and that’s just been a
fantastic guitar to record with. It’s an amazing thing,
sound-wise. But yeah, the National would always get on
things. Sometimes, it just occupies that ground between
a piano and a guitar.
“But I love using archtop guitars on records, too. They
just sound so good. And in fact I picked the D’Angelico
on a song called Silver Eagle and it sounds like a flat-top
with a pick on it – but it’s just that D’Angelico speaking.
And on River Towns I’d be strumming that, too. But
yeah, those mid-30s ones are just unstoppable. As good
as anything can be.”
His praise for archtops, often under-used in a purely
acoustic role, stems partly from his admiration for
master luthiers in the grand old Italian archtop-
building tradition, such as New Yorker John
Monteleone, whose patient skills Knopfler paid tribute
to in the song Monteleone from the 2009 album
Get Lucky. Today, Knopfler worries that the craft is so
exacting that it may die out for want of fresh blood.
“It’s a shame. John Monteleone is such a brilliant
builder but he doesn’t have an apprentice. Because
D’Angelico used D’Aquisto as his apprentice,” Knopfler
explains, speaking of the two most celebrated makers in
archtop history. “And D’Aquisto would do repairs
when D’Angelico didn’t want to be bothered with
repairs – when he wanted to be getting on with his
own ideas instead. And so the same thing happened
with D’Aquisto: when he wanted to get on with his
own ideas, he gave his repairs to John – Monteleone
being the only one he could trust to do them properly,
to his standards.
“And I was asking John about that. I said, ‘Who’s your
apprentice?’ Never found him. And I was also asking
[luthier] Stefan Sobell about that in Northumberland a
couple of years back. There was a young guy making a
guitar in Stefan’s workshop, and I said, ‘Is this your
apprentice?’ and he said ‘Oh, no – he’s a perfectly nice
young man. But no, I’ve never been able to find
anybody.’ And I think this is the story of modern times:
when you get somebody of that level of excellence, they
can’t find the youngsters capable of being disciplined
up to that level.”
You can hear in Knopfler’s strong performances
with these archtops an echo of his early days
playing trad-blues on unyielding acoustics in
pubs of the North. Knopfler’s a naturally left-handed
musician who grew up playing the guitar right-handed,
so that in itself has shaped his style to a degree, meaning
he’s not daunted by vintage guitars that require some
old-fashioned elbow grease.
“Oh yeah, there’s no question that playing cheap
acoustics and Nationals certainly played its part,” he
says. “Because they’d usually be strung up with stair
rods. You need to get some strength into your fingers.
When I was little, I was [miming] playing left-handed
guitar with a tennis racquet and my older sister, Ruth,
turned it round and made me play the tennis racquet
the other way instead. But the thing that really clinched
it was some unsuccessful violin lessons – although they
were successful in that they got me playing the guitar
right-handed. That can help you develop a style where
you have a strong left hand. I find that I can get vibrato
on three strings at once, that sort of stuff.”
The reputation he won as a guitar hero in the classic
mould, during the Straits years, will be how some
always think of him. But Knopfler says that he’s closer
to the plain acoustic songcraft of his early days
than ever.
“I think with me there’s two sides to it. Most of the
time I just use the guitar as something to help the
songwriting,” he explains. “It tends to be not
particularly demanding. But every now and again if
I’m sitting down and trying to learn something, moving
it forward a little bit, you realise the
depth of the thing –but that is more to do with being a musician.
“It’s a whole different thing being a musician from
being a ‘guitar player’. I think if I’d had to make a living
with the guitar as a guitar player, I think I’d have spent a
lot more time trying to achieve a rounded position with
it, where I could do more with it. But there was a spell
back there – a long time ago now – where I realised
I had to. I had to improve the vocabulary, just because
of the kinds of things that I was doing.
“And when you go into more sophisticated chordal
stuff, you’ve got to make yourself learn all that stuff.
J ust like you did when you were a teenager. And then
you can start to put more complex constructions
together, and in my case I just became used to the
sound of those things. Almost like learning a language
and starting to use longer words. So that a lot of their
mystique and the impossibility of it, this foreign
language... you start to slowly put it together a
little better.”
The point Knopfler makes about the distinction
between being a musician and a guitar player is
an interesting one. In common-sense terms, to
be a guitarist is, by default, to also be a musician. But
on another level, what instrument someone chooses
to play is not as important as the prime virtues of
musicality that exist in all of us to a greater or lesser
degree: being able to listen sensitively, to play only
what’s appropriate, to sound notes that have a
magical quality.
He’s generous with his praise for the musicians who
contributed to Tracker, and says they all possess that
high degree of musicality, including the extraordinary
Canadian singer Ruth Moody with whom he duets on
the album’s closing track, Wherever I Go.
“It’s always a joy to have great players around you,”
he adds. “And they let me get away with murder. So if
I make a mistake somewhere, the band will never
comment on it. And I said that to Richard one time:
I said, ‘I’m sorry about the greeny’ and he said, ‘The
singer is always right!’ So they let me get away with it,”
he concludes, with a smile.
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German BILD Zeitung (wtf) has a little track-by-track "review" today - although not judging, only describing which is a good idea. It's from the same author Jörn Schlüter who has written the German Rolling Stone review I posted yesterday. No time (as usual) to translate, but most of the stuff we know already.
Here is what seems new to me:
-River Towns, songwriter-folk, scuffling (indeed a slightly negative describtion, the german translation of "shuffle"), with a musing saxophone around
-Skydiver, airily humming song, compared with Penny Lane (Beatles) that's typical Bild Zeitung, mentioning that Penny Lane is a Beatles song... ;)
-Mighty Man, hymn-like epic, "same as Brothers In Arms once" with flute and violin
-Broken Bones, wha-wha guitar, about a boxer, most groovy song
Pretty friendly written. "Retirement age challenge" is what the headline would mean in English.
LE
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So Broken Bones is sonny liston 2. Same style and subject?
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Pretty friendly written. "Retirement age challenge" is what the headline would mean in English.
LE
I don't like that expression much.
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Guitarist magazine
April 2015
Mark Knopfler’s covered a lot of miles since the days when he walked
the Telegraph Road. .........
he concludes, with a smile.
Thanks a lot for the transcription of this article!!! :thumbsup :clap :wave
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Don't mean to be a jerk, but can we avoid quoting particularly long posts? It's bad enough to scroll through it on a computer, but on a mobile device it's hopeless. It's enough to refer to the interview, e.g. "Thanks for posting the XYZ interview".
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I think this is pretty cool review with individual tracks commentary. Let's see what Google Translate say to us here:
http://www.bild.de/unterhaltung/musik/mark-knopfler/so-hoert-sich-das-neue-album-an-40101374.bild.html
"Laughs and Jokes and Drinks and Smokes": between blues and folk - hardly anyone mastered this balancing act as Knopfler!
"Basil": The band plays in ¾ time, the guitar sighs Knopfler remembers the poet Basil Bunting.
"River Towns": Shuffling songwriter-folk with a hovering a thoughtless sunken saxophone.
"Skydiver": Unconcerned humming song in the style of "Penny Lane" (Beatles). :D
"Mighty Man" anthemic epic with slide guitar, violin, flute - as once "Brothers In Arms". :D
"Broken Bones": Knopfler plays wah-wah guitar, sings about a boxer. The grooviest song! :D Wah-wah!
"Long Cool Girl": heart poignancy love song . Knopfler's guitar acoustic chirps wistfully.
"Lights in Taormina": Another song about a Elapsed: Knopfler thinks of Sicily, the band plays subtle Latin rhythm.
"Silver Eagle": How condensed Knopfler to deeply touching songs little scenes in my head, is fantastic.
"Beryl": Monument to the writer Beryl Bainsbridge, in the style of "Sultans Of Swing".
"Wherever I Go": a duet with Canadian Ruth Moody, beautiful ode to the silence.
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Here is the translation of another German review (WAZ). You can find the original text here: http://www.derwesten.de/kultur/mark-knopfler-erfuellt-alle-erwartungen-aimp-id10443900.html (http://www.derwesten.de/kultur/mark-knopfler-erfuellt-alle-erwartungen-aimp-id10443900.html)
Mark Knopfler fulfills all expectations
London. "British Grove" in Chiswick, West London - this studio is according to Mark Knopfler"one of the best in the world". And not just because it belongs to him: "You can record analog or digital, use very modern equipment or equipment from the sixties, and you can also combine old and new, as I like to do it." Here the former Dire Straits head Knopfler recorded also his solo album no. 8 "Tracker".
When he's not touring, Knopfler spends his days to tinker about arrangements and to create the musical robes of the songs in "Britsh Grove". He cites the example "and Jokes Laughs and Drinks and Smokes", almost a drinking song to "Tracker", which is probably most clearly influenced by his Scottish roots. On this „Shanty Choir number“ a harp and bagpipes are used. Knopfler lay on thick as far as instruments in this track are concerned.
"That was very funny," smiles the Briton, who is diffident at the beginnig of a conversation and who talks too little rather than too much. In contrast to the furious start number the final song "Wherever I Go" is very slow, very delicate and quiet, a kind of a declaration of love to his best friend Nigel. "We know each other since we were nine."
In between "Tracker" has everything you expect from a Mark-Knopfler album: Beautiful, relaxing, and unique guitar playing, a pleasant sonorous voice in tracks like "Lights of Taormina" or "Basil", grippy Poprocksongs ( "River Towns") and also one or the other faster number such as "Beryl" (a dedication to writer Beryl Bainbridge, who died in 2010), which reminds the Dire Straits classic "Sultans of Swing". Knopfler: "The song plays in the seventies, so the era of 'Sultans of Swing'. She was neither a man nor she had studied in Oxford, nor she came of the upper class. Therefore, many turned up their noses. "
And the song "Silver Eagle" is named after the tour bus in which he and Bob Dylan went on tour in 2013, and for the first time in decades: "That was an adventure, not so bad. I kind of felt younger." He just turned 65th. (Original Text by Steffen Rüth)
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And the translation of another one, that you can find here: http://www.welt.de/print/welt_kompakt/kultur/article138275816/Achtes-Soloalbum-eines-unverwechselbaren-Knopflers.html (http://www.welt.de/print/welt_kompakt/kultur/article138275816/Achtes-Soloalbum-eines-unverwechselbaren-Knopflers.html)
Eighth solo album of a distinctive Knopfler
The man is a technology nerd. The countless Panels, recording devices and microphones in his studio in London's British Grove have thousands of knobs and sliders - and Mark Knopfler seems to know every single meaning. His new studio album "tracker" that will be released by the Dire Straits founder on Friday, sounds exactly like that: Highest quality, music, concerning even the smallest detail, the sound of the guitar, clear and pure, and Knopfler's unique voice.
In "Tracker" melancholy comes through in many places of the eleven songs. Knopfler observes his own past. At the opening title "Laughs And Jokes And Smokes And Drinks" for example, where the 65-year-old presents an ode to the good old days of youth. "We were young, so young, and always broke," it says in the chorus.
"The laughter, the jokes and the drinks are still here," said the musician. "Only smoking, I quit, about 15 years ago." But he doesn't think much about how he has to interpret the songs. "I do not think if I should recite them fast or slow, happy or sad," he says.
His record company doesn't give him requirements anymore. He does not know the pressure to publish Revival albums or to revive old music new. "You can always play once again the old things, but the charm is to deal with something new", says Knopfler. In "Tracker" he succeeded
The album "Tracker" appears on 13 March
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Here is the translation of another German review (WAZ). You can find the original text here: http://www.derwesten.de/kultur/mark-knopfler-erfuellt-alle-erwartungen-aimp-id10443900.html (http://www.derwesten.de/kultur/mark-knopfler-erfuellt-alle-erwartungen-aimp-id10443900.html)
Mark Knopfler fulfills all expectations
London. "British Grove" in Chiswick, West London - this studio is according to Mark Knopfler"one of the best in the world". And not just because it belongs to him: "You can record analog or digital, use very modern equipment or equipment from the sixties, and you can also combine old and new, as I like to do it." Here the former Dire Straits head Knopfler recorded also his solo album no. 8 "Tracker".
When he's not touring, Knopfler spends his days to tinker about arrangements and to create the musical robes of the songs in "Britsh Grove". He cites the example "and Jokes Laughs and Drinks and Smokes", almost a drinking song to "Tracker", which is probably most clearly influenced by his Scottish roots. On this „Shanty Choir number“ a harp and bagpipes are used. Knopfler lay on thick as far as instruments in this track are concerned.
"That was very funny," smiles the Briton, who is diffident at the beginnig of a conversation and who talks too little rather than too much. In contrast to the furious start number the final song "Wherever I Go" is very slow, very delicate and quiet, a kind of a declaration of love to his best friend Nigel. "We know each other since we were nine."
In between "Tracker" has everything you expect from a Mark-Knopfler album: Beautiful, relaxing, and unique guitar playing, a pleasant sonorous voice in tracks like "Lights of Taormina" or "Basil", grippy Poprocksongs ( "River Towns") and also one or the other faster number such as "Beryl" (a dedication to writer Beryl Bainbridge, who died in 2010), which reminds the Dire Straits classic "Sultans of Swing". Knopfler: "The song plays in the seventies, so the era of 'Sultans of Swing'. She was neither a man nor she had studied in Oxford, nor she came of the upper class. Therefore, many turned up their noses. "
And the song "Silver Eagle" is named after the tour bus in which he and Bob Dylan went on tour in 2013, and for the first time in decades: "That was an adventure, not so bad. I kind of felt younger." He just turned 65th. (Original Text by Steffen Rüth)
I am pretty sure I said that on day one after we learned the track names that Silver Eagle is about Bob's Bus.. ;D
Never heard that he knows Nigel for so long. If it's true, it is a nice story.
LE
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@Love Expresso - Cf. my post about quoting long posts, couldn't you just have included the last line of that review in your quote if you felt it was necessary to have a reference to "Silver Eagle"?
I know I haven't posted much around here, so forgive me for bringing stuff like this up. But these overly long quotes really are annoying.
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@LE: I don't think that he means Nigel Hitchcock. I've the feeling he talks about another Nigel
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@Love Expresso - Cf. my post about quoting long posts, couldn't you just have included the last line of that review in your quote if you felt it was necessary to have a reference to "Silver Eagle"?
I know I haven't posted much around here, so forgive me for bringing stuff like this up. But these overly long quotes really are annoying.
I guess you have to live with it.
I agree that sometimes posts are quoted that are directly above, means, the last ones, so there is really no sense in doing so. But when another poster has written something and that something was another review, I thought it would be nice to know what I was talking about and referring to.
Each as he likes, too strong regulations generally kill the fun of writing.
LE
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Here is the translation of another German review (WAZ). You can find the original text here: http://www.derwesten.de/kultur/mark-knopfler-erfuellt-alle-erwartungen-aimp-id10443900.html (http://www.derwesten.de/kultur/mark-knopfler-erfuellt-alle-erwartungen-aimp-id10443900.html)
Mark Knopfler fulfills all expectations
London. "British Grove" in Chiswick, West London - this studio is according to Mark Knopfler"one of the best in the world". And not just because it belongs to him: "You can record analog or digital, use very modern equipment or equipment from the sixties, and you can also combine old and new, as I like to do it." Here the former Dire Straits head Knopfler recorded also his solo album no. 8 "Tracker".
When he's not touring, Knopfler spends his days to tinker about arrangements and to create the musical robes of the songs in "Britsh Grove". He cites the example "and Jokes Laughs and Drinks and Smokes", almost a drinking song to "Tracker", which is probably most clearly influenced by his Scottish roots. On this „Shanty Choir number“ a harp and bagpipes are used. Knopfler lay on thick as far as instruments in this track are concerned.
"That was very funny," smiles the Briton, who is diffident at the beginnig of a conversation and who talks too little rather than too much. In contrast to the furious start number the final song "Wherever I Go" is very slow, very delicate and quiet, a kind of a declaration of love to his best friend Nigel. "We know each other since we were nine."
In between "Tracker" has everything you expect from a Mark-Knopfler album: Beautiful, relaxing, and unique guitar playing, a pleasant sonorous voice in tracks like "Lights of Taormina" or "Basil", grippy Poprocksongs ( "River Towns") and also one or the other faster number such as "Beryl" (a dedication to writer Beryl Bainbridge, who died in 2010), which reminds the Dire Straits classic "Sultans of Swing". Knopfler: "The song plays in the seventies, so the era of 'Sultans of Swing'. She was neither a man nor she had studied in Oxford, nor she came of the upper class. Therefore, many turned up their noses. "
And the song "Silver Eagle" is named after the tour bus in which he and Bob Dylan went on tour in 2013, and for the first time in decades: "That was an adventure, not so bad. I kind of felt younger." He just turned 65th. (Original Text by Steffen Rüth)
Thanks YonTwoCrows for the translation of this article!! Very funny to see that they're calling him the Briton because my Dad is a French Briton from Bretagne and his last name like mine is Le Breton which means the Briton!! I didn't know that you can call a Geordie like that also!!?? Anyway the fact that MK is very influenced by the Scottish Music is one of the main reason why I became a Fan!! :thumbsup :wave
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Edit: ^^^ Case in point ...
Strong regulation is too much said. I'm only suggesting using a bit of thought when quoting. Even when you edit the quote and post only the relevant parts of the original post, there's always a link to the original post, if someone wants to read it.
But hey, if that's how you guys roll around here, I'll shut up.
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@ Marijo58 - A Geordie is still a Briton, the same goes for a Scouser, from Liverpool, but we are both part of Great Britain! ;D :wave
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@ Marijo58 - A Geordie is still a Briton, the same goes for a Scouser, from Liverpool, but we are both part of Great Britain! ;D :wave
Thanks Superval I learned something today!! Great!! :wave :thumbsup
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@ Marijo58 - A Geordie is still a Briton, the same goes for a Scouser, from Liverpool, but we are both part of Great Britain! ;D :wave
Thanks Superval I learned something today!! Great!! :wave :thumbsup
Britons and Bretons - cousins perhaps? :wave
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Well in French Brittany is Bretagne and Great Britain is Grande Bretagne so...
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"I am pretty sure I said that on day one after we learned the track names that Silver Eagle is about Bob's Bus..."
LE
I remember you guessed that vey early and I hoped you would be right, beacuse it is such a beautiful and fitting title for a Bob related song.
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@ Marijo58 - A Geordie is still a Briton, the same goes for a Scouser, from Liverpool, but we are both part of Great Britain! ;D :wave
Thanks Superval I learned something today!! Great!! :wave :thumbsup
Britons and Bretons - cousins perhaps? :wave
I wish we were cousins but I don't think so, only in my dreams!! By the way have somebody heard that MK said once that Scottish landscape looks like France!! I think he meant our beautiful Brittany's landscape because it's true!! He must have travelled with his wife there!!
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My thoughts about the album.
Likes:
- River towns
- Skydiver (so Beatlenesque, but I think some italian pals will see some reminescences of Cesare Cremonini, non è vero?)
- Broken bones (though I sense that is a rework of Early bird)
- Long cool girl
- Lights of Taormina
- Silver eagle
- Wherever I go
But no one stands out for me.
Dislikes:
- Beryl ("lemme get the SoS solo and make a simpler song")
- Mighty man (may work with the Chieftains...)
- Basil (almost fited KTGC, almost fited GL. Ended up here)
I enjoyed a lot of songs, but I think no track from Tracker would be in a solo career personal greatest hits...
Despite this, there's more guitar licks than I expected. On the other way, too much saxophone in the first half of the record.
His voice improved, imho.
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So far and after three listens, for the very first time I have failed to find THE song I instantanously fall I love with, like Yon Two Crows or Silvertown Blues... :/
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So far and after three listens, for the very first time I have failed to find THE song I instantanously fall I love with, like Yon Two Crows or Silvertown Blues... :/
Basil?
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So far and after three listens, for the very first time I have failed to find THE song I instantanously fall I love with, like Yon Two Crows or Silvertown Blues... :/
Basil?
Not yet.
Dmg I'm puzzled that you love the album. I thought you were disappointed with Mark not playing guitar anymore... We are very far from TOL and TR here... Nice to listen but no "wow" factor for me yet. It might grow of course... But even KTGC had Punish the Monkey that I found great from day one...
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So far and after three listens, for the very first time I have failed to find THE song I instantanously fall I love with, like Yon Two Crows or Silvertown Blues... :/
Basil?
Not yet.
Dmg I'm puzzled that you love the album. I thought you were disappointed with Mark not playing guitar anymore... We are very far from TOL and TR here... Nice to listen but no "wow" factor for me yet. It might grow of course... But even KTGC had Punish the Monkey that I found great from day one...
I'm puzzled too but I just like it! It's a bit of a departure from the last few albums now that he's mostly ditched the Mc's and I think that's moved things on to a completely new level. Having these guys in the studio constantly have been holding him back and influencing all his songs in their direction I think. May well be wrong. In this album they've only been needed for a couple of songs and so they haven't been "hanging around" to exert any of their influence.
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Well in French Brittany is Bretagne and Great Britain is Grande Bretagne so...
True Robin!!! In French Brittany, we say that Scots, Irish and Welsh are our cousins because landscapes are similars and music as well!!! :wave
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http://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/mark-knopfler-tracker
Some differing views in this review! ;)
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This one is rather nice. And the author actually got that it's a very personal record.
http://drownedinsound.com/releases/18683/reviews/4148787 (http://drownedinsound.com/releases/18683/reviews/4148787)
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This one is rather nice. And the author actually got that it's a very personal record.
http://drownedinsound.com/releases/18683/reviews/4148787 (http://drownedinsound.com/releases/18683/reviews/4148787)
Great read that one!
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Just had a quick run through Tracker. First thing that strikes me is that the production is much crisper than on the last few albums which were a bit muddy and dense. Great high end sound and good instrument separation on this one.
As for the songs, it's good to hear him stretching out a bit from just re-writing You Can't Beat the House and Before Gas and TV over and over again (the snoozesome Mighty Man aside). I like the lengthy outros too, especially on Laughs and Jokes and Drinks and Smokes.
I will give it more time but I think it's potentially the best album for a while.
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Well now that I heard the songs, I'd say that it's true his voice has improved and that I've a very special feeling for Lights of Taormina!! Can't say exactly why!! Not really one title that I dislike!! Beryl and Basil are very nice ones as well!! Finally I'll say that he made a very good choice by asking again Ruth Moody to sing along with him!! Their voices match perfectly!!
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My favorite is Terminal of tribute to. Excellent melody and guitar solos !
Also Skydiver for the Beatles sound !
Skippers : Mighty Man : The Fish And The Bird meets Ry Cooder, Silver Eagle (boring).
Broken Bones could have been better with a little guitar solo, but it's too repetitive, a mix of Early Bird and No Can Do.
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Back to the media reviews then...
First one from Sweden, the tabloid "Aftonbladet". Freely translated.
"Suddenly a beautiful yellowed postcard came in the mail, drawn with reverb clear Strat-tones and a cheerful drumming. Just an arm length away from "Sultans of swing".
We could all agree on that the expectations got turned up with "Beryl", the first single from Mark Knopfler's eights solo album. Mark Knopfler's unique and airy songwriting does so often land perfectly just when he is approaching the core center of his career. Not everything, but a whole lot, is right up the alley for the legend of Dire Straits on "Tracker". The album doesn't splay as much as with the previous "Privateering" and most of the woody old man type of blues has give way for something less annyoing; the woody old man type of hifi-rock. When the songs are lurking around the neighborhoods of "Sailing to Philadelphia", as in the case of the pliable "Basil", then it is quite easy to consider the album to be some sort of a reawakening.
Best track: "Basil"
3/5
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http://www.rollingstone.com/music/premieres/hear-mark-knopfler-tracker-new-album-20150313
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@Love Expresso - Cf. my post about quoting long posts, couldn't you just have included the last line of that review in your quote if you felt it was necessary to have a reference to "Silver Eagle"?
I know I haven't posted much around here, so forgive me for bringing stuff like this up. But these overly long quotes really are annoying.
I guess you have to live with it.
I agree that sometimes posts are quoted that are directly above, means, the last ones, so there is really no sense in doing so. But when another poster has written something and that something was another review, I thought it would be nice to know what I was talking about and referring to.
Each as he likes, too strong regulations generally kill the fun of writing.
LE
too strong regulations are not amit.
but yes, i too was annoyed by that first long article when it got quoted.
so it can be asked once not to exaggerate doing it. a second time is not necesarry.
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Don't mean to be a jerk, but can we avoid quoting particularly long posts? It's bad enough to scroll through it on a computer, but on a mobile device it's hopeless. It's enough to refer to the interview, e.g. "Thanks for posting the XYZ interview".
go back to the original quote and notice the difference :-)))))
no need to thank me, all in a days' work...
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Edit: ^^^ Case in point ...
Strong regulation is too much said. I'm only suggesting using a bit of thought when quoting. Even when you edit the quote and post only the relevant parts of the original post, there's always a link to the original post, if someone wants to read it.
But hey, if that's how you guys roll around here, I'll shut up.
been there, done that (editing) pls do not shut up. continue!
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http://www.rollingstone.com/music/premieres/hear-mark-knopfler-tracker-new-album-20150313
interesting quote by mark:
A few years ago, former member of Dire Straits, calling themselves the Straits, began touring, playing the old repertoire that Knopfler himself often avoids onstage. "Poor souls," Knopfler says of that band, before softening his tone. "I don't know — it's not for me."
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http://www.rollingstone.com/music/premieres/hear-mark-knopfler-tracker-new-album-20150313
interesting quote by mark:
A few years ago, former member of Dire Straits, calling themselves the Straits, began touring, playing the old repertoire that Knopfler himself often avoids onstage. "Poor souls," Knopfler says of that band, before softening his tone. "I don't know — it's not for me."
Thanks Pottel!!! That's a great one as well, and now we know for sure what he thought about The Straits!! :thumbsup
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A disappointing review imo from The Telegraph's Neil McCormick! Yes, it was he who gave the latest Dylan album five stars! Disgusted to say the least! ::)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/cdreviews/11464751/Mark-Knopfler-Tracker-review-understated-refinement.html
He didn't even mention MK on his review of the Van Morrison album!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/cdreviews/11463868/Van-Morrison-Duets-review-Morrison-outshines-everyone.html
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A long interview by Robert Fröwein with Mark in the Austrain newspaper "Krone". The original Interview in german language can be found here: http://www.krone.at/Musik/Mark_Knopfler_Fehler_machen_das_Leben_spannend-Krone-Interview-Story-443122 (http://www.krone.at/Musik/Mark_Knopfler_Fehler_machen_das_Leben_spannend-Krone-Interview-Story-443122). I hope the translation is not full of mistakes...
Mark Knopfler: "Errors keep life exciting"
"Krone" interview
120 million albums sold, the title "Order Of The British Empire" and global recognition can not be wrong - born Scot Mark Knopfler is undoubtedly one of the greatest guitarists in rock music history. Songs like "Brothers In Arms" or "Sultans Of Swing" already provoke millions of amateur guitarists to excellence. To celebrate the release of his brand new studio album "Tracker" Mark Knopfler invited us in his London British Grove studio to talk about his groundbreaking career, Viennese coffee houses and the stress factor of time.
"Krone": Mark, with "Tracker" you publish now your eighth solo album. Are you at the age of 65 and your impressive career in mind still nervous when you publish some new things?
Mark Knopfler: No. (Laughs) It's just another album. It's fun to work on albums and to write the songs, but I'm now used to it to let them go at some point.
"Krone": The album title can be interpreted in different ways. What is your explanation?
Knopfler: There are many ways to interpret this album and its contents. The theme is also very versatile. Basically it deals with my personal place in our current age. You have to track a song till the end, chasing it until you are satisfied with it.
"Krone": The concept of "Tracker" fits probably to you as long as song writing and compiling an album is concerned. Are you someone who is always looking for the perfect sound?
Knopfler: I have some problems with the term "perfect". I'm not interested in finding something perfect. I'm just glad that I still have ideas and energy to write songs. I just want to write a lot more and "Tracker" could have been easily another double album.
"Krone": The predecessor "Privateering" was a double album, that had enormous success. So why is "Tracker" just a single album?
Knopfler: I really do not know it exactly. The whole story is mysterious. As it has happened and in the way it now will be released, it's probably the best solution. People nowadays want also bonus tracks and deluxe versions of albums - so I can deliver the other songs just in this kind of way.
"Krone": On the cover- artwork one can see you standing in a wide field. Somehow this motif reminds me on the subject of wanderlust.
Knopfler: The motif of this picture was the idea of my wife Kitty. But there is no special message intended.
"Krone": Are you a person who often feels wanderlust? A person who wants to break free?
Knopfler: Not always. Even when I tour I've actually always my family with me. But there is a kind of wanderlust-feeling that I can satisfy in that manner that my songs carry me in certain intervals around the globe. My career choice is also a deal which includes touring.
"Krone": Never mind touring!?
Knopfler: That's why I'm still on the scene. Why should I write songs, if I don't also want to show and play them? That would not make sense.
"Krone": So you prefer the tours to the writing and producing of songs?
Knopfler: I enjoy the whole package of my job. I like writing and recording as well as traveling around with my band and my friends. I think people realize that I like to come to them and play - with me you will never have the feeling that it is a kind of "must" for me to play live and travel.
"Krone": Your next big tour lasts from May to late October and will take you through the whole of Europe and North America. For two shows you come to Austria. Do you have good memories of the country?
Knopfler: Of course. Once you use the word "Austria", I'm already mentally in a Viennese café and watch the pedestrian zone downtown in front of me. (Laughs) I do have a lot of fond memories of Austria and for me touring through Europe is always a kind of homecoming.
"Krone": Are you inspired by several towns and tour experiences when you're on the go?
Knopfler: On tour I like to go for a walk and do this often. The nice thing about touring is that I can detect the changes of a specific place precisely. You have not been to a city for three or five years and then you realize immediately what has changed. It is a good way to make your own mark in the world.
"Krone": You're born in Scotland and you live in England for a long time now. Are there places you've seen while touring where you could imagine to settle down?
Knopfler: There are many places where I could imagine that, but I'd fail rather quickly due to the language barrier. This is a huge and important factor to settle somewhere. If you are touring as a musician, a singer or songwriter through the world, you feel almost anywhere at home. You can be happy everywhere because you carry your own music with you.
"Krone": Do you write songs even while you're on tour?
Knopfler: Yes, more and more often. For the upcoming tour, I even made sure that I have more days off between shows to be able to write songs. I play up to three days at a time, usually it was always five or six days. I love to write songs on tour. Nowadays I am often able to work on songs directly after a show. When I was younger, it would have been impossible. It was more important to me to drink with the boys and to party. (Laughs) I do not need more than my guitar and a couple of boxes. Everything else comes out of myself. For me, this is a simple way. Basically I need only a chair without armrests to be able to play the guitar, and maybe a table on which I can take notes. That's all.
"Krone": Wouldn't it be nice to write songs here in your beautiful British Grove Studio.
Knopfler: Here I write never. It is a recording studio, where I can not find peace and inspiration. Maybe I should try it here, but I have never thought of it. For me it's more a psychological thing. I like to bring the songs already completed to the band. From the beginning to the end. Would I do that with my mate Guy Fletcher, I would finish a song from beginning to end. There are in principle two different approaches in songwriting and you can only hope to make the right decision in each case. Sometimes I play only song fragments to the band and we all try to get into the song. It's always different.
"Krone": Are you a perfectionist when it comes to songwriting?
Knopfler: No, definitely not. You have just ideas and a certain percentage of them finally makes it on the album. You never know really, how the outside world will react and which effect a song will have, and when you're done with a song, you need to let it go. It is like a painting. Not every painting has the same value.
"Krone": How many songs or song fragments you throw away in the course of an album process?
Knopfler: A lot. I really have many half-finished songs or songs that I've just started with. They are somewhere on sheets or somewhere in my mind and they have never been recorded. I do not really know why. Sometimes I fall back on older ideas. I revive song fragments and add new ideas to them. Life would be so much easier if there would be a formula for real songwriting. (Laughs)
"Krone": Do you also have periods of complete lack of vision, complete emptiness?
Knopfler: I suspect so. But I don't panic when I fall in such phases. Sometimes I shave in the morning and have a really good idea then a little later when I sit on my bike, it's gone. But I don't worry, because it is perhaps a good thing that the idea has gone. (Laughs) It's no loss to the world. Recently I have got used to record my ideas with my smartphone. Almost the high-tech variant to capture my ideas for posterity. (Laughs) Me and my smartphone – it's everything you need. Without smartphone the chance that I forget my ideas is certainly very large. But in this case I always think, "Oh, the idea was bad anyway." (Laughs)
"Krone": You've spoken before of Guy Fletcher, who co-produced your past albums, and also plays the keyboards. Do you have some kind of a magical work relationship?
Knopfler: We are a pretty good team. Guy I work with now since my second movie soundtrack "Cal", 1984, after that he was quick in the band. We get on really well and he has become an excellent technician. We have a lot of fun in the studio. If you stand with a band in the studio, you do not have much time to experiment. You hope simply that everything is okay. This time we had also time for fun. A recording process has always something uncertain. You have several instruments and microphones and often you have to decide instinctively what would be the right choice for each song. But you do not always hit the mark. You do also not always make the right decision when it comes to your children. Error keeps life exciting.
"Krone": Are you always the man who makes the final decision during the process? Even if your colleagues have really good ideas?
Knopfler: Yes, because when it comes to hear different song layers or when it comes to a point where a decision has to be made, I just know what I prefer. Always. If you for example put two microphones in front of me, I can tell you quickly which one I prefer for the song. I do not even know how and why it works. I do not even know how a microphone works, but I can tell you what's good for the song. (Laughs) When musicians come together, they always work on textures and layers, and the more experience you have, the better and wiser you can select.
"Krone": In "Tracker" there are a lot of interesting stories. Is there a common thread that connects the pieces?
Knopfler: There are loose themes that are connected, but even that is mysterious in a way. You can make your mind when you listen to them and afterwards you can think about what feels right for yourself. In my case, time is playing a major role. For me, the past is becoming more and more important with increasing age, I see things from a totally different perspective. Take, for example, the song "Basil", it deals with me as a boy at the age of 15. I didn't care about anything, except about myself. I didn't give a damn about the world of tomorrow or about guitars – that meant nothing to me. "Basil" is a poet who writes for a newspaper to survive. He is unhappy with his situation and writes an epic poem about time. He and I were living under one roof and I did not understand what it was about him. Now that I'm older, I can understand his perspective. The time is just an important issue.
So also in the song "Beryl", which is about the Liverpool writer Beryl Bainbridge, which was once nominated five times for the Booker price, but never won it. Would she still write today, she would surely have success and win the prize. But at that time, in the late 70s and early 80s, when she wrote these great books, the literary establishment was rather inclined to the University of Oxford. Much more male-oriented. A woman from the working class who never went to college, had no chance. The editor, with whom she had an affair, pushed her novel properly. "Beryl" has concerning the sound similarities with the old Dire- Straits- songs. For me, it also reflects again a certain period of my life.
"Krone": Does it bother you that you are still compared with Dire Straits or that your solo work is somehow connected by some persons with Dire Straits despite your great success as solo artist?
Knopfler: No, that's totally fine with me. I can really be lucky that my career has run that way and I still love to play Dire- Straits- material live. I play "Telegraph Road" or "Brothers In Arms" at a concert and I see how it changes people what it throws at them. That's just great. Of course, you have to play well and with all your heart and soul, everything else would not be fair and would immediately stand out. I don't want to make a cabaret out of it.
"Krone": 2015 are exactly 20 years since the Dire Straits have ended their existence as a band. How many requests for a reunion you got so far?
Knopfler: Actually only by journalists, and not too few. But that takes only place in newspapers and magazines.
"Krone": On the other hand you stand on stage for a total of 50 years. What goes through your mind, when you think of this incredible period of time?
Knopfler: The older you get, the faster everything is. But I can look back also critical and I regret quite much. I definitely would respect my own talent stronger. When you're young, you're living just too lighthearted into the day and you do not pay attention enough to your talents - that is something I would do today. I am learning this at least now. This is certainly one of the reasons why I care more for the song writing and for the accuracy and the soundness of my songs. As a young man you burst through the world and just shove everything off which stands in the way. This was not always optimal. Anyway, I'm not nostalgic.
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This is an interesting interview; Strange to see appearing it in a quite low-level (but very wide spread) Austrian newspaper. Translation is fine. One interesting side note: He states that on this tour he personally insisted not to do more than 3 gigs in a row, argueing to need more time for song writing. I find that quite cool; maybe the gigs become a little fresher, and maybe longer, at least always over the 2 hours threshold (which was not always the case in last tour). Additionally if he wants to have more time for songwriting, the story will go on :thumbsup
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“I don't want to make a cabaret out of it”
On the road again in cabaret
Grey hair and Fenders
:lol
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"Krone": The predecessor "Privateering" was a double album, that had enormous success. So why is "Tracker" just a single album?
Knopfler: I really do not know it exactly. The whole story is mysterious. As it has happened and in the way it now will be released, it's probably the best solution. People nowadays want also bonus tracks and deluxe versions of albums - so I can deliver the other songs just in this kind of way.
:o :o :o
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He should fire that guy who has told him that. No, Mark, people certainly DON'T want this shi.., they want proper long albums with everything that is considered worth a release. :smack
LE
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Don't complain. This way everyone is happy.
Normal people buy the album, get a lifers either buy the bonus stuff or obtain it by other means, MK gets to release more than ten tracks, everyone is happy.
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He should fire that guy who has told him that. No, Mark, people certainly DON'T want this shi.., they want proper long albums with everything that is considered worth a release. :smack
LE
+1000
Bonus extra tracks is a marketing gimmick of the past, that is unfairly forcing fans to buy expensive useless stuff to get all the tracks.
Give all the music to all at a fair price.
Let those who want to spend $100 to get a numbered picture do so, but with no "extra tracks" privileged !!
Come on Mark ! This is not 1985 anymore !!
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The last sentence of the German MDR Podcast review: This year it will be almost impossible to find a warmer and more laid back record than this! ;D
http://www.mdr.de/mdr-figaro/podcast/cd/audio1116782.html (http://www.mdr.de/mdr-figaro/podcast/cd/audio1116782.html)
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Review from the Observer - simple but nice
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/15/mark-knopfler-tracker-observer-review-familiar-pleasures (http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/mar/15/mark-knopfler-tracker-observer-review-familiar-pleasures)
:wave
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Not too enthusiastic but you can't really argue with anything said:
http://news.yahoo.com/music-review-mark-knopfler-mellow-tracker-152309899.html
Val, the floor is yours! ;)
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A review from Yahoo! Can't really argue with anything in it:
http://news.yahoo.com/music-review-mark-knopfler-mellow-tracker-152309899.html
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Norways largest newspaper says 5/6 - "his best solo album to date"
http://www.vg.no/rampelys/musikk/musikkanmeldelser/plateanmeldelse-mark-knopfler-tracker/a/23415788/
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Not too enthusiastic but you can't really argue with anything said:
http://news.yahoo.com/music-review-mark-knopfler-mellow-tracker-152309899.html
Val, the floor is yours! ;)
Didn't he listen to "TOTT! Plenty of guitars there! ;)
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Not too enthusiastic but you can't really argue with anything said:
http://news.yahoo.com/music-review-mark-knopfler-mellow-tracker-152309899.html
Val, the floor is yours! ;)
Didn't he listen to "TOTT! Plenty of guitars there! ;)
It's not in the record... Just a bonus track that never get to the press.
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I included a link at the bottom if you wish to see the website.
Mr. Knopfler needs little introduction. Dire Straits were one of the biggest and best bands of the 80s, while his solo career has been far more than just a vanity project. He is of course one of the most gifted, unique and magical guitarists Britain has ever produced. His style of playing is so soulful and special it lights up everything he creates.
With age comes wisdom, knowledge and comfort, and all of these are deeply rooted in his current work. So, to his eighth solo record Tracker. It’s the sound of a talented musician growing old gracefully, proving himself to be consumed by music and its power. The sound is perhaps even more mellow than ever before, which is no bad thing. It opens with jazzy Irish-style number and the folk inflections of ‘Mighty Man’ – songs that are full of sentimental wishes to rewind the clock.
Knopfler is unlikely to win any new admirers here, but this record proves he still listens to his own heart and soul and it’s reflected in everything he does. He may have been
afforded such a luxury owing to his past band, but he only seems to respect how precious his position is and to look forward to what he can do next, to a bright and hopeful future. It shows. You really feel that from listening to his music, and this album is no different. While it isn’t the wildest or best album ever (or even of Knopfler’s own career) it’s solid, beautiful and charming as ever. It also feels like some of the most honest music and storytelling you are going to come across.
The wah-wah pedal in the funky ‘Broken Bones’ gives the album its most danceable moment. It is stretched out to the point of being hypnotic, and changes the vibe of the album to something much livelier. It’s a welcome change of pace. ‘Beryl’ is the obvious choice as the lead single with a guitar lick straight out of the back catalogue, striking a chord with listeners new and old. The song is a tribute to deceased British writer Beryl Bainbridge, focusing on what people do in their lives and how they aren’t acknowledged until after their passing. It’s a powerful statement, and should make everyone consider just what is being missed while following the crowds.
Knopfler has always seemed to possess a masterful control over his guitar and the restraint he shows here is a powerful tool in building songs. He knows just playing is easy, but it takes real thought, intelligence and expertise to know where and when to add flourishes that truly light up his songs, as if they were paintings, and the final piece is the frame that defines the whole work. It’s a class act indeed, the way less is often more, and it’s the same method that is applied perfectly throughout.
The cover shows Knopfler in a field with fluffy white clouds and a peaceful bright blue sky above. It permeates a deep sense of what lies within the record, a man at peace, with his abilities, with his life and the world he lives in. Yes, he is growing old, but he makes it sound like something to embrace and not fear. It’s a beautiful angle and has a wealth of music that any fan should hear. Beyond existing fans Knopfler could bring peace to some who don’t find it so easy to attain. Not a classic, but nevertheless a gorgeous record. At this stage of the game, to be producing this quality of work is highly admirable and should be an inspiration to all. As with the message of Knopfler’s ‘Beryl,’ it’s sure worth appreciating at the time and not just afterwards.
Saul
http://www.forfolkssake.com/reviews/31311/album-mark-knopfler-tracker
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That's a real honest and incredibly well written review.
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This is a nice interview. A lot we have heard before, but there is something a bit more personal at the end!
http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/mark-knopfler-let-the-music-do-the-talking-31064547.html
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A very good read, thanks for posting, val!
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http://www.laut.de/Mark-Knopfler/Alben/Tracker-95900
review from german side laut.de
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I do think that Mark's albums are subject to a bit of snobbery for want of a better word. I listen to a lot of music - and particularly Mark's peers - folk like Springsteen, Young, Dylan, Steve Earle, Tom Petty - if this exact album had been released by one of those I am sure it would be getting 5 star rave reviews rather than lots of 3 star "it's perfectly pleasant" style reviews - there is not the investment by the critics in Mark's history or work for me to be reflected in the reviews - compared to those other artists. Yet Mark is the closest we have in the UK to those sort of artists - more so than other brits like Clapton, Elton etc.
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A lovely review:
http://www.forfolkssake.com/reviews/31311/album-mark-knopfler-tracker
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Pop Matters review:
http://www.popmatters.com/review/191475-mark-knopfler-tracker/
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Rolling Stone Magazine - short but sweet!
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/mark-knopfler-tracker-20150317
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A lovely review:
http://www.forfolkssake.com/reviews/31311/album-mark-knopfler-tracker
That magazine's name ;D
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American Songwriter:
http://www.americansongwriter.com/2015/03/mark-knopfler-tracker/
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Uncut had a full page review, giving it 8/10 and very kind words. Also has 3-4 Q&A. Unfortunately I only have the magazine and can't locate any internet edition to provide you with. Mojo reviewed it in less than 10 lines (at their 3-4 column reviews) giving it 3/5 stars. Not bad, but you can read what you want between the lines...
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Here's one:
http://www.americansongwriter.com/2015/03/mark-knopfler-tracker/
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Uncut had a full page review, giving it 8/10 and very kind words. Also has 3-4 Q&A. Unfortunately I only have the magazine and can't locate any internet edition to provide you with. Mojo reviewed it in less than 10 lines (at their 3-4 column reviews) giving it 3/5 stars. Not bad, but you can read what you want between the lines...
hi vgonis
It's possible have a scan o it? Is in english?
thanks
:wave
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Very disappointed about French Medias, there is not a single word on the regular Press about Tracker even on The Guitarist french edition!! There's only going to be as right from the beginning of MK's carreer with DS, our french journalist Antoine De Caunes and his Grand Journal on canal plus who's inviting him to talk about his new album!! No wonder that he's making only 4 Gigs in France for this Tour!! Really strange!!
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Two reviews from Live for Live Music
http://liveforlivemusic.com/album-reviews/mark-knopfler-tracker-album-stream-review/
and from American Songwriter
http://www.americansongwriter.com/2015/03/mark-knopfler-tracker/
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http://www.kentucky.com/2015/03/23/3763830_critics-pick-mark-knopfler-track.html?rh=1
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This review is very positive!
It's funny how the reviewer refers to Dylan during his discussion of Lights, but doesn't seem to realize that it about Dylan!
SAUL
http://lamusicblog.com/2015/03/review/album-review-mark-knopfler-tracker/
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http://www.thespectrum.com/story/entertainment/2015/03/26/knopfler-sings-perfectly-poetic-story-songs/70459222/
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A nice review here:
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/28/mark_knopfler_this_getting_older_stuff_ain%e2%80%99t_for_wimps/
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Thanks, RKD, very good read. Interesting!
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Here is a nice informative and very positive review in my language:
http://www.animatomusic.com/article.php?id=687
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A nice review here:
http://www.salon.com/2015/03/28/mark_knopfler_this_getting_older_stuff_ain%e2%80%99t_for_wimps/
Liked this one! Nice to see he likes those talented girls of First Aid Kit (Sweden).
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A short observation by a Swedish paper, freely translated:
I remember a dull concert in the Scandinavium Arena when Knopfler and his band Dire Straits only had one hit- Sultans of swing - to lean against and did so for the next two hours.
Nowadays he has a large private songbook which he continually replenish with nice, laidback stories of life, performed without larger gestures along with a group of responsitive musicians - seasoned with his own superb guitar playing.
Younger colleagues would probably give anything to be able to show a similar musical authority, without losing the feeling of authenticity. A timeless, sterling craftsmanship of a musician who probably finds new song ideas just by looking out the window during the ongoing tour.
4/5
(http://www.vf.se/kultur-noje/skivor/mark-knopfler (http://www.vf.se/kultur-noje/skivor/mark-knopfler))
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That was a nice introduction! I'd kill to have been at that early gig!
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That was a nice introduction! I'd kill to have been at that early gig!
Yeah the first sentence was unnecessary. It was in -79 and a sold out gig. Anyone would have wanted to be there!
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That was a nice introduction! I'd kill to have been at that early gig!
Same for me. Some journalists seems to like more the Mark from the dullnest century than the young appetitized guitarist.
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That was a nice introduction! I'd kill to have been at that early gig!
Same for me. Some journalists seems to like more the Mark from the dullnest century than the young appetitized guitarist.
Yes but his quote about only one hit reveals what majority of concert goers think. They want to hear songs, which they recognize.
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I suppose he wanted to start his article with something that grabbed the attention but that was an easy way to do it. Apart from that not a bad article.
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A very good review from Uncut magazine
http://www.uncut.co.uk/reviews/album/mark-knopfler-tracker
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I think its funny...this reviewer doesn't even know the name of the album he's writing about! Tracking???!!!
What do expect from a Buffalo newspaper ;)
Shai
http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/listening-post-brief-reviews-of-select-releases-20150405
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This review is from the South China Morning Post. This also contains breaking news. It seems that Dr. Fletch changed his last name to "Cohort"! Or maybe that's how they say "Fletcher" in Chinese!!
Saul
Mark Knopfler
Tracker
Virgin
3/5
Growing up in the 1980s, like most kids of that generation, I mostly detested my parents’ music. Of course I had far worse tastes of my own at that age, but there was always one song that united the family: Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing. The tumbling snare and tom tom intro giving way to that fierce electric riff from Mark Knopfler’s guitar always brought wide smiles and the family’s collection of air guitars.
Tracker is the former Straits frontman’s eighth solo album, and while the tunes may have mellowed, the warm, gravelly voice and sixstring blues twang is instantly comforting. The aptly titled Celtic folk opener, Laughs and Jokes and Drinks and Smokes, wouldn’t sound out of place if the 65-year-old were reciting its tale to good ol’ friends over a couple of pints of bitter.
The poetic storytelling throughout Tracker is told with a voice both wise and sincere. The guitars may not be as rousing as they were three decades ago, but the understated finger picking blends harmoniously with the soulful keys of long-time cohort Guy Cohort. This is far more roll than rock.
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(http://amarkintime.org/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=3806.0;attach=1534)
Mark Knopfler on new solo album Tracker
A world-exclusive guitar interview
Jamie Dickson (Guitarist)
http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/mark-knopfler-on-new-solo-album-tracker-619018
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A short and sweet review.
Saul
https://www.relix.com/reviews/detail/mark_knopfler_tracker
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Mark Knopfler on new solo album Tracker
A world-exclusive guitar interview
Jamie Dickson (Guitarist)
Concerning a picture on the sixth page, does anybody know how to winkle it out from there?
I feel an irresistible impulse to get it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Mark Knopfler on new solo album Tracker
A world-exclusive guitar interview
Jamie Dickson (Guitarist)
Concerning a picture on the sixth page, does anybody know how to winkle it out from there?
I feel an irresistible impulse to get it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You mean this one?
(http://cdn.mos.musicradar.com/images/features/guitars/mark-knopfler2015/mark-knopfler5.jpg)
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I wonder how many classy photos was shot but not shown.
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You mean this one?
Yes, that's what I wanted. Thanks a lot!
I wonder how many classy photos was shot but not shown.
Sometimes it seems he goes for a photo-shooting like to Calvary. :)
To all appearance, he still didn't learn to trade his face properly.
But it looks like, here we deal with that rare occurrence, when the photographer caught the fortune by its tail. :thumbsup
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Mark Knopfler on new solo album Tracker
A world-exclusive guitar interview
Jamie Dickson (Guitarist)
Concerning a picture on the sixth page, does anybody know how to winkle it out from there?
I feel an irresistible impulse to get it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You mean this one?
(http://cdn.mos.musicradar.com/images/features/guitars/mark-knopfler2015/mark-knopfler5.jpg)
Wow, foma where did you get this?
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Wow, foma where did you get this?
Straight from the website source code, you need to investigate it a little bit and often you can find hi-res pictures on it.
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This lukewarm review is from Korea. Don't know if it's North or South, but either way, the reviewer is stuck on rock, and that's it!
Saul
“Tracker” is pretty. It’s also pretty subdued.
Mark Knopfler is on the cover of the latest issue of “Guitarist” magazine, but not because of anything he plays here. Knopfler assigns his instrument a minor role, and even when he tries to do his “Sultans of Swing” thing, on “Beryl,” he loses interest after three minutes and abruptly ends the song. And he sings throughout with the gusto of a fireside Perry Como.
However, Knopfler always has a winning way with a tune and an eclectic taste in topics. On “Tracker,” he sings about the author Beryl Bainbridge, the poet Basil Bunting and a commune in Sicily shrouded in “the mists of antiquity.” It makes for a melodious history lesson.
Despite the album’s consistently mellow mood, the musical range is wide. There’s a flute solo and other Celtic ornamentation, a bit of jazz, a tribute to JJ Cale and a lovely duet with Ruth Moody.
But, aside from the halfhearted “Beryl,” there’s nary a nod to rock. (AP)
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This review by the Kenosha News is both short and sweet!
That's the way you do it, Korea!
Saul
Former Dire Straits’ frontman Mark Knopfler has put out several really excellent albums in the past few years, going back to 2009’s “Get Lucky.” No longer burdened by the constraints of “playin’ the guitar on the MTV,” he has settled into the purposeful role of troubadour, contently playing whatever his heart is set on.
Knopfler’s voice has mellowed with age, enhancing his tuneful Bob Dylan baritone. As limited as his range is, though, expressiveness is certainly not an issue. In “River Towns,” he sings about a wasted life of hardship, and you’re hung on every word. His voice just begs you to listen.
As for his guitar playing, Knopfler remains one of the best. On “Mighty Man,” he trades licks with himself; first a bit of fingerpicking, then a burst of slide. His fretwork is concise, never too many notes, never too few. His taste in this regard is nothing short of masterful and reason enough to investigate “Tracker.”
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This review, from the Times of India, has to be one of the weirdest reviews that I have seen so far. Also, he seems to be mixing up "Dire Straits" with "Straits". THAT is a big no-no :o
Album: Tracker
Singer: Mark Knopfler
Music: Sony music
Rating: 3.5
Rock: It might not really seem so at the outset, but Mark Knopfler, known more for his easy-on-the-ears music rather than Led Zeppelin-like hell raising or having a Beatles-like appetite for consuming myriad substances with rapacious glee, has taken chances in his career. Think back to 1985 when Straits had just put out the 9x-platinum Brothers In Arms that preceded a mammoth world tour. The money rolled right in. It's another subject that Straits never had an album that big again, but Knopfler had had enough of the gravy train even then.
Saul
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Here is another chap who obviously doesn't know what great music sounds like. This is from a website called NOUSE (based in the UK).
I took the liberty to bold face some real pissers from this ignoramus. Does anyone have any idea as to how one can go about rebutting this review?
Saul
Album Review: Mark Knopfler – Tracker
One time Dire Straits songsmith continues to plod through an unremarkable solo career. Ben Phillips reviews
Rating: ?????
Mark Knopfler is a legitimate member of two halls of fame: those of both great songwriters and great guitarists. The legacy of Brothers in Arms and “Sultans of Swing” rides before his every release, and his membership of one of the most commercially successful bands of the ‘80s probably guarantees that this will not be his last solo effort. Unfortunately, the creative magic that produced those great Dire Straits albums is absent from Tracker, just as it has been absent from most of Knopfler’s solo work.
For starters, after several listens, there remains no stand-out track. There are many pleasant melodies, but every song is softly-spoken and, equally, they all run at very similar tempos. Indeed, many of the songs on Tracker sound very similar to many of the songs on its predecessor, 2012’s Privateering. Opener “Laughs and Jokes and Drinks and Smokes” bounces along nicely, and single “Beryl” is one of the catchier tracks, chiefly because it sounds like it could have appeared on a Dire Straits album. Knopfler’s signature finger-picked guitar style appears to its best advantage on these tracks, but it is sorely lacking from much of the middle of the album, which drags significantly. There is also a great deal of evidence throughout this collection of songs that Mark’s vocal talents have not improved since the ‘80s, particularly when set against Ruth Moody’s wonderful voice in the duet, “Wherever I Go.” This track features some beautiful saxophone work from Nigel Hitchcock, but is saxophone really what attracts you to a Mark Knopfler album?
Tracker is another instalment of what so often happens to solo careers of previously ‘great’ artists. Like Freddie Mercury or Noel Gallagher, Knopfler has lost the ability to write truly special material outside of the collaborative environment of the band that made him famous. In fact, there are parts of Tracker that sound like a Springsteen tribute, or a Knopfler guest spot on an early Mumford & Sons record. No doubt the devoted Knopfler fans will be happy with another solid yet slightly inconsequential release, but it will not attract many new followers and certainly will not register in the great back catalogue associated with the Knopfler name. Tracker does not necessarily spell the end for Mark Knopfler, and it is certainly by no means a bad album, but hearing those sparkling guitar phrases that were so at home on “Sultans of Swing” and “Lady Writer” sparingly scattered over a collection of very average songs does make the heart sink and the ears grow weary.
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That's what I kind of feel about tracker myself :( it's my least favorite album sorry to say.
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That's what I kind of feel about tracker myself :( it's my least favorite album sorry to say.
I have to say that I agree. Although it may not be my least favourite album overall, the review is the best and most accurate I've read so far.
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That's what I kind of feel about tracker myself :( it's my least favorite album sorry to say.
I have to say that I agree. Although it may not be my least favourite album overall, the review is the best and most accurate I've read so far.
Fortunately most reviews range between positive and outstanding (which is also my opinion).
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That's what I kind of feel about tracker myself :( it's my least favorite album sorry to say.
I have to say that I agree. Although it may not be my least favourite album overall, the review is the best and most accurate I've read so far.
Fortunately most reviews range between positive and outstanding (which is also my opinion).
Mine too! :thumbsup
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This review is from Redding.com. Redding is a town in California, hence the attraction to "mellow" Mark. This guy doesn't appreciate what a gift MK is to the world.
Saul
Mark Knopfler, "Tracker" (Verve)
"Tracker" is pretty. It's also pretty subdued.
Mark Knopfler is on the cover of the latest issue of "Guitarist" magazine, but not because of anything he plays here. Knopfler assigns his instrument a minor role, and even when he tries to do his "Sultans of Swing" thing, on "Beryl," he loses interest after three minutes and abruptly ends the song. And he sings throughout with the gusto of a fireside Perry Como.
However, Knopfler always has a winning way with a tune and an eclectic taste in topics. On "Tracker," he sings about the author Beryl Bainbridge, the poet Basil Bunting and a commune in Sicily shrouded in "the mists of antiquity." It makes for a melodious history lesson.
Despite the album's consistently mellow mood, the musical range is wide. There's a flute solo and other Celtic ornamentation, a bit of jazz, a tribute to JJ Cale and a lovely duet with Ruth Moody.
But, aside from the halfhearted "Beryl," there's nary a nod to rock. Knopfler has sold 125 million records and doesn't seem to care whether he sells 10 more, refusing to parrot his past.
That's to be admired, so hear him out.
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I lived in Redding for a few years as a young boy! Redding, Scotland though (a small village). There's one in England too, although it is rather bizarrely spelled Reading. I wonder what the sign outside their library says... Reading Reading Library?
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I wonder what the sign outside their library says... Reading Reading Library?
;D
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From The Sydney Morning Herald
Saul
Mark Knopfler
Tracker (EMI)
????
Unlike most of his 1970s/80s peers, Mark Knopfler's resisted the temptation to a) get the band back together and/or b) milk the Dire Straits back catalogue for every cent it can generate. (Having said that, reunion rumours are swirling around on-line.) Here, Knopfler settles in like some barstool philosopher during such standouts as Laughs and Jokes and Drinks and Smokes, and River Towns, atmospheric pieces that set the tone for much of this striking folk-meets-country-blues-via-way-of-Dublin hybrid. More often than not, Knopfler's point of view is that of the regular bloke, slightly broken down and world-weary. 'I'm looking in the mirror/at the face that I deserve', he deadpans during River Towns, a contender for lyric of the year. Elsewhere, he dreams of a 'long cool girl' and the 'lights of Taormina' and a heartbreaker named Beryl — relatively simple pleasures, really. Jeff Apter
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Very good review from the italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano
http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2015/04/27/mark-knopfler-il-suo-tracker-e-quel-che-ci-si-aspetta-da-lui-formula-di-sempre-eppure-non-ci-si-annoia/1627045/
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here is my review (in french) on the french TV site "culturebox" :
http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/musique/mark-knopfler-part-en-tournee-avec-tracker-un-albumtranquille-217869 (http://culturebox.francetvinfo.fr/musique/mark-knopfler-part-en-tournee-avec-tracker-un-albumtranquille-217869)
I put links to AMIT forum, Guy and Ingo' sites :)
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Check out this review from New Zealand.
Saul
Music review: Mark Knopfler, Tracker
By Tony Nielsen
Tracker employs Celtic undertones.
Mark Knopfler
Tracker (Rock)
Rating: 4 stars
There are very few so-called songwriters who use the medium to tell a story. Top of the list of those who do is Mark Knopfler.
On first listening Knopfler's records sound deceptively simple. Sure, his formula is straightforward: tell a story, throw in a few licks of understated guitar, and Bob's your uncle. Deceptive? Yes it is.
On Tracker Knopfler uses a similar approach to the one he has applied to a clutch of first-class albums over the past decade or so. Add in his longtime collaborator Guy Fletcher, and his trusty studio band, a notebook full of new stories to tell, and we're away on another journey.
Again Tracker employs Celtic undertones through the accompaniment of fiddle, cittern, whistle and wooden flute. There are also brilliant touches on sax and trumpet, even ukelele and washboard. In keeping with Knopfler's style the music is simple but subtle and with depth.
It's tempting to assume that there's an autobiographical aspect to the songs, but I think that's the secret to his writing.
Ahead of everything else he's just a brilliant storyteller who knows how to make every story stand out by the light and shade of his guitar playing, and the quality of the musicianship of his studio band.
On Tracker Mark Knopfler tells compelling stories about ordinary people. Each song is uniquely framed and delivered.
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2 new pics!
http://elpais.com/elpais/2015/05/07/eps/1431010890_666184.html
Anything new in the interview?
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2 new pics!
I like the first one, especially those well-worn suede shoes.
They give me a sense of stability.