A Mark In Time
Mark Knopfler Discussion => Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum => Topic started by: peterromer on January 10, 2022, 01:55:25 PM
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Hi
Which of MK´s (or DS) musicians is most successful as composer in terms of sales of their own material ?
I would guess that it is John Illsley. Then you have Guy Fletcher, David Knopfler, Richard Bennett, Alan Clarke, Phil Palmer and John McCusker. JM has done some stuff together with Mike. Alan and Phil did the 3 Chord Trick.
John, Guy, Richard and David has made several albums so that must count for a certain amount of good sales I would assume.
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Hi
Which of MK´s (or DS) musicians is most successful as composer in terms of sales of their own material ?
I would guess that it is John Illsley. Then you have Guy Fletcher, David Knopfler, Richard Bennett, Alan Clarke, Phil Palmer and John McCusker. JM has done some stuff together with Mike. Alan and Phil did the 3 Chord Trick.
John, Guy, Richard and David has made several albums so that must count for a certain amount of good sales I would assume.
I think that David could be the second, as he has 16 or 17 solo records (can't remember how much really...) and John Illsley is about to release his 8th...
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I think all of them are pretty niche and I never listen to any MK-related artist's albums more than once, with the exception of Richard Bennett. I just love his stuff! It's been on my playlist for more than 15 years now. I think from any other MK artist he has the most recognisable and well-established style. His sound is amazing, songs (or should I say tunes) are great and enjoyable to listen to, even though it's just instrumental music. I love his touch and style a lot! David? I don't know. Just not my cup of tea.
So David is probably the most successful in that regard, but my vote goes to Richard Bennett. Guy is the second, love his songs like "Different World", that's song is insane, "Inamorata" was also nice. Coincidentally, both feature MK on guitar.
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I would say that John is the most successful, but Guy is my favourite and I love all of his albums, so far. I have tried to like Richard Bennett, but everything sounds very samey. I have a few of the folkey boys albums, including the trio (john McC, Mike McG and John Doyle) and enjoy listening to them now and again. David's music does nothing for me, but I think he is 2nd.
So, John is probably the most successful, David is 2nd, but Guy is my favourite.
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Richard Bennett had some co-writes with Neil Diamond so he is probably the most financially successful.
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What about Chris White ? I only know his pretty-good and groovy Solo-Album Shadowdance from the early 1990s, but i think there is nothing more. Are there any professional recorded material by Pick Withers, released by his name, or by Hal Lindes ? And what about Terry Williams and Jack Sonni ?
:think :think :think
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I'm pretty sure that DK is the second.
He has some "successful" audience in Germany for example.
John is a rocker. He capture some DS/MK elements and fill the spaces in terms of show setlists. He cares about die hard DS fans.
David has good stuff. His firsts albums are... hmmm...not so good. :-\
After Wishbones, DK has making some nice works. The Ship Of Dreams album, im my opinion, is his best work.
He is the "poor" brother, because of that, his albuns are not so well recorded/produced.
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chris white on van morrisons lock down live filming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUF8JOGwzWc
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chris white on van morrisons lock down live filming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUF8JOGwzWc
Looks nothing like Chris White! Or he did some plastic surgery? :lol
Amazing music from Sir Van by the way, can't get wrong with him.
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So David is probably the most successful in that regard, but my vote goes to Richard Bennett. Guy is the second, love his songs like "Different World", that's song is insane, "Inamorata" was also nice. Coincidentally, both feature MK on guitar.
Pavel, i'm not sure about that. I seem to remember that David had to sell his beloved black Stratocaster to fund his new album.
The guitar is somewhere in France if i'm not mistaken. There's a video on Youtube where some guy plays it
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So David is probably the most successful in that regard, but my vote goes to Richard Bennett. Guy is the second, love his songs like "Different World", that's song is insane, "Inamorata" was also nice. Coincidentally, both feature MK on guitar.
Pavel, i'm not sure about that. I seem to remember that David had to sell his beloved black Stratocaster to fund his new album.
The guitar is somewhere in France if i'm not mistaken. There's a video on Youtube where some guy plays it
Yes, you're right... It's a tough topic indeed. Being a musician is tough, especially being a musician associated with another musician. Almost everybody on this thread is known because of MK. Don't get me wrong, some amazing players here, but who on Earth would buy Guy's album without his work for MK? Or John?
Guy on his forum says all the time he wants something original and don't want to discuss covers and whatnot. But not everybody was born to be an original musician or songwriter. I never understood that urge to make something original just because you play music. I'm a good example, I don't earn money from music so I can't care less about being original. I play somebody else's stuff and am happy with it. But others strive for originality.
I know I steer this topic in the wrong direction, but where else I can talk about that?
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chris white on van morrisons lock down live filming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUF8JOGwzWc
No, that is not Chris White. Must be wrong tagged for that video.
Yeah maybe Richard is actually the most successful. Personally I also think its all the same tunes more or less.
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chris white on van morrisons lock down live filming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUF8JOGwzWc
No, that is not Chris White. Must be wrong tagged for that video.
Yeah maybe Richard is actually the most successful. Personally I also think its all the same tunes more or less.
I don't know man. My mum says all Mark's songs sounds the same, I guess it just your prefrence. Obviously, for instrumental music you have even less expression than with voice, but Richard have quite a wide range of styles. He's got great ballads like "A Face No More", or "Tawny". Some pure rockers from the first album like the opening track, a lot of pretty hard core swing and bebop in Code Red Cloud Nine album. Folk music, movie-like music, some strings here and there, he's got a lot. And his melodies are very memorable, I think that's the most important thing for instrumental/jazz player. I mean it's not just scales back and forth, it's actual well written melodies.
I think in contrast with Chet Atkins, who, while being a genius and prolific guitar player, let's face it, made a lot of really cheesy and easy listening music, Richard clearly just enjoys guitar and write some beautiful melodies and never recorded something to please a wider audience. And I think recognizable style (also know as "all songs sond the same" argument) is actually a good thing. That's, at least, a style! It means a lot.
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So David is probably the most successful in that regard, but my vote goes to Richard Bennett. Guy is the second, love his songs like "Different World", that's song is insane, "Inamorata" was also nice. Coincidentally, both feature MK on guitar.
Pavel, i'm not sure about that. I seem to remember that David had to sell his beloved black Stratocaster to fund his new album.
The guitar is somewhere in France if i'm not mistaken. There's a video on Youtube where some guy plays it
Yes, you're right... It's a tough topic indeed. Being a musician is tough, especially being a musician associated with another musician. Almost everybody on this thread is known because of MK. Don't get me wrong, some amazing players here, but who on Earth would buy Guy's album without his work for MK? Or John?
Guy on his forum says all the time he wants something original and don't want to discuss covers and whatnot. But not everybody was born to be an original musician or songwriter. I never understood that urge to make something original just because you play music. I'm a good example, I don't earn money from music so I can't care less about being original. I play somebody else's stuff and am happy with it. But others strive for originality.
I know I steer this topic in the wrong direction, but where else I can talk about that?
I disagree that being a musician is tough. If it’s that tough they can get a “real” job, down a coal mine or something.
In reality they don’t know they’re born…
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People might know my love for Mike Oldfield, and his instrumental work and guitar has more expression than most, in fact his singing is the least of his musical expression, and I think with Mark, it's his guitar and song writing, his voice is good to, but not his most expressive trait.
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We are talking about most succesful in terms of sales, not the ones we like the most.
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John and Mike are very big and well known in the folk scene. John’s ex-wife, Kate Rusby, is very successful and probably helped launch his career a bit.
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I don't know man. My mum says all Mark's songs sounds the same, I guess it just your prefrence.
This is in my opinion (and absolutely no offense to your mum, Pavel) something someone with little knowledge of the artist would say.
I don't know your mum's musical knowledge of MK, ofcourse. So please correct me if i'm wrong.
But take my 2 nephews for instance,
One listens to The Beatles and The Traveling Wilburys
And the other one listens, almost exclusively, to Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Dominos etc.
When asked about their opinion on MK and DS they say: It sounds all the same, it's too slow and long and therefore it's boring to me
I bet you if i asked them they could barely name me 5 DS songs and maybe 1 MK solo song.
The songs they know are TR, SOS, WOF, MFN. The "mega" hits.
Yes, Telegraph Road is over 14 minutes with 3 guitar solo's. Yes, Brothers In Arms is a slow song. But these are some of the best songs ever written. And then to say the music is all the same and boring? Of course people have a difference in music taste but that, for me atleast, indicates a person with little knowledge of the artist.
Take Mark's "Golden Heart" album. Compare the title track GH and a song like "Darling Pretty". They're on the same album but the songs are so different
Take "Vic And Ray" and "Imelda". Again, same album and completely different songs.
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I don't know man. My mum says all Mark's songs sounds the same, I guess it just your prefrence.
This is in my opinion (and absolutely no offense to your mum, Pavel) something someone with little knowledge of the artist would say.
I don't know your mum's musical knowledge of MK, ofcourse. So please correct me if i'm wrong.
But take my 2 nephews for instance,
One listens to The Beatles and The Traveling Wilburys
And the other one listens, almost exclusively, to Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Dominos etc.
When asked about their opinion on MK and DS they say: It sounds all the same, it's too slow and long and therefore it's boring to me
I bet you if i asked them they could barely name me 5 DS songs and maybe 1 MK solo song.
The songs they know are TR, SOS, WOF, MFN. The "mega" hits.
Yes, Telegraph Road is over 14 minutes with 3 guitar solo's. Yes, Brothers In Arms is a slow song. But these are some of the best songs ever written. And then to say the music is all the same and boring? Of course people have a difference in music taste but that, for me atleast, indicates a person with little knowledge of the artist.
Take Mark's "Golden Heart" album. Compare the title track GH and a song like "Darling Pretty". They're on the same album but the songs are so different
Take "Vic And Ray" and "Imelda". Again, same album and completely different songs.
LOL! Totally agree with your post!
A similar thing happened between myself and one of my rather aloof neighbours. We had just returned home from an MK concert and I was telling him about it. With this sort of expression :( he said that he disliked Dire Straits music, so of course I told him that it wasn't Dire Straits anymore. I asked him which songs he knew by DS - his reply was that he didn't know any, but that he disliked them anyway! ;D :disbelief
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I don't know man. My mum says all Mark's songs sounds the same, I guess it just your prefrence.
This is in my opinion (and absolutely no offense to your mum, Pavel) something someone with little knowledge of the artist would say.
I don't know your mum's musical knowledge of MK, ofcourse. So please correct me if i'm wrong.
But take my 2 nephews for instance,
One listens to The Beatles and The Traveling Wilburys
And the other one listens, almost exclusively, to Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Dominos etc.
When asked about their opinion on MK and DS they say: It sounds all the same, it's too slow and long and therefore it's boring to me
I bet you if i asked them they could barely name me 5 DS songs and maybe 1 MK solo song.
The songs they know are TR, SOS, WOF, MFN. The "mega" hits.
Yes, Telegraph Road is over 14 minutes with 3 guitar solo's. Yes, Brothers In Arms is a slow song. But these are some of the best songs ever written. And then to say the music is all the same and boring? Of course people have a difference in music taste but that, for me atleast, indicates a person with little knowledge of the artist.
Take Mark's "Golden Heart" album. Compare the title track GH and a song like "Darling Pretty". They're on the same album but the songs are so different
Take "Vic And Ray" and "Imelda". Again, same album and completely different songs.
LOL! Totally agree with your post!
A similar thing happened between myself and one of my rather aloof neighbours. We had just returned home from an MK concert and I was telling him about it. With this sort of expression :( he said that he disliked Dire Straits music, so of course I told him that it wasn't Dire Straits anymore. I asked him which songs he knew by DS - his reply was that he didn't know any, but that he disliked them anyway! ;D :disbelief
Well, to be brutally honest, Mark's music is kind of... boring. Don't get me wrong, I love it and am a hardcore get-a-lifer when it comes to MK music, but realistically speaking, and when compared to the likes of Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers and people like that, Mark's music suddenly seems really boring, slow and yes, sounding almost the same. Especially if you don't know where to look. When people say Mark's music all sounds the same, they have something to compare it with and usually, the comparison is not in MK's favour.
It's just MK fans are people with different priorities it seems, we value soft and quiet music experience with slow and thought-provoking melodies and lyrics with very occasional bursts of true rock. "Darling Pretty" sounds rocky, yes, but it was still sung by Mark's "boring" voice and have that purposefully minimalistic guitar. And play some really slow and quiet MK song to a random guy, and chances are he'll fall asleep.
So I can't blame people who say MK is boring because he really kinda is. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and MK fans seem to don't mind.
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LOL! Totally agree with your post!
A similar thing happened between myself and one of my rather aloof neighbours. We had just returned home from an MK concert and I was telling him about it. With this sort of expression :( he said that he disliked Dire Straits music, so of course I told him that it wasn't Dire Straits anymore. I asked him which songs he knew by DS - his reply was that he didn't know any, but that he disliked them anyway! ;D :disbelief
Exactly, i took my red Strat to the shop one day for a setup and the owner told me he went to an MK concert back in 2013 or 2015. He told me: "If he (MK) ever goes on tour again make sure not to go. It was no fun, he only plays unknown songs".
The songs he probably meant were "Broken Bones" and "Skydiver" etc. I guess he was dissappointed and expected to go see MK for a DS setlist, lol
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MKs music is boring.?? :think :think :think :think :think
It is such a harsh word for the really marvellous sounds and compositions of MK and DS. What do you expect. ?? Should Mark play Brothers in arms like Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead, or Walk of life like AC-DC, Telegraph road like Nirvana ??? Please don´t compare potatoes with apples.
To me MKs music is NOT boring, and of course i also accept and like his "slow-tunes" from various albums of the DS and MK-periods. That is not a disadvantage for a musician or a band to play slow tunes, ballads and so on.
Best example: Metallicas Nothing else matters, a rock-ballad, very successful in the early 1990s. More successful than the much harder and louder stuff, they mainly played.
So it sounds a little bit superficial to me, to declare Marks music as "boring" on the subject of his ballads or slow tunes. :think
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Mark's music boring? if it was I wouldn't be such a huge fan and be listening as often as I do, if there are artists I consider boring, I just don't listen to them, but I don't think you can label Mark's songs songs sound the same, do these song sound the same? Sultans of Swing, Private Investigations, Follow Me Home, Les Boys, Why Worry, My Parties, that's just from Dire Straits, there are even more examples from his solo work, Mark is well known for being able to write in many different styles and genres, so how can it all sound the same? It's not like he is playing Blues songs or country songs on every album, the fact his songs are varied is for me a huge plus and proves how good a song writer he really is.
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Mark's music boring? if it was I wouldn't be such a huge fan and be listening as often as I do, if there are artists I consider boring, I just don't listen to them, but I don't think you can label Mark's songs songs sound the same, do these song sound the same? Sultans of Swing, Private Investigations, Follow Me Home, Les Boys, Why Worry, My Parties, that's just from Dire Straits, there are even more examples from his solo work, Mark is well known for being able to write in many different styles and genres, so how can it all sound the same? It's not like he is playing Blues songs or country songs on every album, the fact his songs are varied is for me a huge plus and proves how good a song writer he really is.
The people who think Mark's music is boring are those who only have a smattering of knowledge and only know one or two songs - if that!
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Mark's music boring? if it was I wouldn't be such a huge fan and be listening as often as I do, if there are artists I consider boring, I just don't listen to them, but I don't think you can label Mark's songs songs sound the same, do these song sound the same? Sultans of Swing, Private Investigations, Follow Me Home, Les Boys, Why Worry, My Parties, that's just from Dire Straits, there are even more examples from his solo work, Mark is well known for being able to write in many different styles and genres, so how can it all sound the same? It's not like he is playing Blues songs or country songs on every album, the fact his songs are varied is for me a huge plus and proves how good a song writer he really is.
Why do you guys always take AMIT discussions so seriously? Yes, I said MK's music is boring. But it's only boring when you compare it to something. We were watching TV with my wife recently and we came across Queen's 1986 show in Budapest. I said — that's certainly no Mark Knopfler! Their shows and music are just on a completely different level, volume-wise, in your face, it's a great show. People do not necessarily like this because of great lyrics, guitar playing and whatnot. MK is not a singer, period. He's not Freddie! He's not Brian May either, his solos are just not so flashy. But we don't care! We love this voice, we love his slow guitar playing and his slow songs. The general audience considers all this boring, that's my whole point. Not offending anyone here folks!
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Some people DO think MK and DS is boring, who cares? It's just different opinions. It would be boring if everyone liked the same things in life.
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Mark's music boring? if it was I wouldn't be such a huge fan and be listening as often as I do, if there are artists I consider boring, I just don't listen to them, but I don't think you can label Mark's songs songs sound the same, do these song sound the same? Sultans of Swing, Private Investigations, Follow Me Home, Les Boys, Why Worry, My Parties, that's just from Dire Straits, there are even more examples from his solo work, Mark is well known for being able to write in many different styles and genres, so how can it all sound the same? It's not like he is playing Blues songs or country songs on every album, the fact his songs are varied is for me a huge plus and proves how good a song writer he really is.
Why do you guys always take AMIT discussions so seriously? Yes, I said MK's music is boring. But it's only boring when you compare it to something. We were watching TV with my wife recently and we came across Queen's 1986 show in Budapest. I said — that's certainly no Mark Knopfler! Their shows and music are just on a completely different level, volume-wise, in your face, it's a great show. People do not necessarily like this because of great lyrics, guitar playing and whatnot. MK is not a singer, period. He's not Freddie! He's not Brian May either, his solos are just not so flashy. But we don't care! We love this voice, we love his slow guitar playing and his slow songs. The general audience considers all this boring, that's my whole point. Not offending anyone here folks!
You're not offending me at all! Everyone is different and, regarding Queen, I'm not a fan and I would be hard pushed to sit through a whole concert of Freddie cavorting around the stage and I really don't like Brian May's style of guitar playing either! In fact, a lot of their songs sound like barber-shop singing, another genre I dislike, but others would love.
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MK's 80s solos were flashier than Brian May, Sultans on Alchemy anyone???!
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MK's 80s solos were flashier than Brian May, Sultans on Alchemy anyone???!
Depends on your definition of flashy. Mark never had a wall of amps behind him, he never used any true "metal" or "hard rock" tricks like sweep picking, insanely fast picking, a lot of tapping and all sorts of things. His playing is very simplistic and minimalistic compared to pretty much anyone in the game, including Dr Brian May. Yes, Mark had his share of "guitar hero" moments, but I feel like it was as if he was forced to do it, especially on the last DS tour. Nothing truly hard to play there, but looking cool. Mark's playing is all about touch and emotion, not about presence, speed and volume. That's why it's easy to find somebody copying Brian May's solos exactly, and so many people failing to recreate Mark's sound.
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Back on topic, seems pretty clear that they have all been fairly unsuccessful.
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Back on topic, seems pretty clear that they have all been fairly unsuccessful.
Yes, and that's what I meant by saying that being a musician is tough. I'd hate to release an album, let alone a dozen of albums, only to receive mediocre attention. I hate when musicians struggle to make do with their music for a long time as much as old musicians who struggle to play but still do it.
Music is still a business and if your product doesn't sell a lot, that may simply mean it's not that good, to begin with. I know a lot of BS music is selling like crazy, but it sells because of good marketing and a dumb audience, so it's still a good "product".
If I were a session musician, I'd think 100 times before releasing a solo record because that means you lift yourself from being a musician to being an artist, and that's a completely different story.
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Back on topic, seems pretty clear that they have all been fairly unsuccessful.
Yes, and that's what I meant by saying that being a musician is tough. I'd hate to release an album, let alone a dozen of albums, only to receive mediocre attention. I hate when musicians struggle to make do with their music for a long time as much as old musicians who struggle to play but still do it.
Music is still a business and if your product doesn't sell a lot, that may simply mean it's not that good, to begin with. I know a lot of BS music is selling like crazy, but it sells because of good marketing and a dumb audience, so it's still a good "product".
If I were a session musician, I'd think 100 times before releasing a solo record because that means you lift yourself from being a musician to being an artist, and that's a completely different story.
Studio musicians often release their own music just for fun, not in order to start a career themselves, as their career is on the sessions really. Look Snowy White, he released a record that went quite well, and that was all, he went back to sessions.
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Back on topic, seems pretty clear that they have all been fairly unsuccessful.
Yes, and that's what I meant by saying that being a musician is tough. I'd hate to release an album, let alone a dozen of albums, only to receive mediocre attention. I hate when musicians struggle to make do with their music for a long time as much as old musicians who struggle to play but still do it.
Music is still a business and if your product doesn't sell a lot, that may simply mean it's not that good, to begin with. I know a lot of BS music is selling like crazy, but it sells because of good marketing and a dumb audience, so it's still a good "product".
If I were a session musician, I'd think 100 times before releasing a solo record because that means you lift yourself from being a musician to being an artist, and that's a completely different story.
Studio musicians often release their own music just for fun, not in order to start a career themselves, as their career is on the sessions really. Look Snowy White, he released a record that went quite well, and that was all, he went back to sessions.
Yes, and Bird of Paradise is a great song.
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Well, Bird of Paradise has 12 million streams on Spotify alone, that's QUITE a success! Don't think anybody from MK crew has that. By the way, my man Glenn Worf has no solo records!
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I don't know man. My mum says all Mark's songs sounds the same, I guess it just your prefrence.
This is in my opinion (and absolutely no offense to your mum, Pavel) something someone with little knowledge of the artist would say.
I don't know your mum's musical knowledge of MK, ofcourse. So please correct me if i'm wrong.
But take my 2 nephews for instance,
One listens to The Beatles and The Traveling Wilburys
And the other one listens, almost exclusively, to Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Dominos etc.
When asked about their opinion on MK and DS they say: It sounds all the same, it's too slow and long and therefore it's boring to me
I bet you if i asked them they could barely name me 5 DS songs and maybe 1 MK solo song.
The songs they know are TR, SOS, WOF, MFN. The "mega" hits.
Yes, Telegraph Road is over 14 minutes with 3 guitar solo's. Yes, Brothers In Arms is a slow song. But these are some of the best songs ever written. And then to say the music is all the same and boring? Of course people have a difference in music taste but that, for me atleast, indicates a person with little knowledge of the artist.
Take Mark's "Golden Heart" album. Compare the title track GH and a song like "Darling Pretty". They're on the same album but the songs are so different
Take "Vic And Ray" and "Imelda". Again, same album and completely different songs.
LOL! Totally agree with your post!
A similar thing happened between myself and one of my rather aloof neighbours. We had just returned home from an MK concert and I was telling him about it. With this sort of expression :( he said that he disliked Dire Straits music, so of course I told him that it wasn't Dire Straits anymore. I asked him which songs he knew by DS - his reply was that he didn't know any, but that he disliked them anyway! ;D :disbelief
Well, to be brutally honest, Mark's music is kind of... boring. Don't get me wrong, I love it and am a hardcore get-a-lifer when it comes to MK music, but realistically speaking, and when compared to the likes of Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers and people like that, Mark's music suddenly seems really boring, slow and yes, sounding almost the same. Especially if you don't know where to look. When people say Mark's music all sounds the same, they have something to compare it with and usually, the comparison is not in MK's favour.
It's just MK fans are people with different priorities it seems, we value soft and quiet music experience with slow and thought-provoking melodies and lyrics with very occasional bursts of true rock. "Darling Pretty" sounds rocky, yes, but it was still sung by Mark's "boring" voice and have that purposefully minimalistic guitar. And play some really slow and quiet MK song to a random guy, and chances are he'll fall asleep.
So I can't blame people who say MK is boring because he really kinda is. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and MK fans seem to don't mind.
I don’t want to derail the thread again but I was to offer some support to this brave but evidently controversial post. I agree entirely. I LOVE MK’s music but I do get that’s it’s quite samey. My dad thinks MK is very samey in comparison to Paul Simon who dad loves.
However, if you like the MK sound then you won’t mind-and that’s the boat I’m in.
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Mark's music boring? if it was I wouldn't be such a huge fan and be listening as often as I do, if there are artists I consider boring, I just don't listen to them, but I don't think you can label Mark's songs songs sound the same, do these song sound the same? Sultans of Swing, Private Investigations, Follow Me Home, Les Boys, Why Worry, My Parties, that's just from Dire Straits, there are even more examples from his solo work, Mark is well known for being able to write in many different styles and genres, so how can it all sound the same? It's not like he is playing Blues songs or country songs on every album, the fact his songs are varied is for me a huge plus and proves how good a song writer he really is.
Why do you guys always take AMIT discussions so seriously? Yes, I said MK's music is boring. But it's only boring when you compare it to something. We were watching TV with my wife recently and we came across Queen's 1986 show in Budapest. I said — that's certainly no Mark Knopfler! Their shows and music are just on a completely different level, volume-wise, in your face, it's a great show. People do not necessarily like this because of great lyrics, guitar playing and whatnot. MK is not a singer, period. He's not Freddie! He's not Brian May either, his solos are just not so flashy. But we don't care! We love this voice, we love his slow guitar playing and his slow songs. The general audience considers all this boring, that's my whole point. Not offending anyone here folks!
Comparing Queen to DS/MK - no question who I'd rather listen to/watch!! Queen - crap sameish, loud music with no appeal and DS/MK with outstanding music, thoughtful guitar/musicianship and songs with words that actually mean something!!! As for Brian May's guitar playing - no thanks....
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I don't know man. My mum says all Mark's songs sounds the same, I guess it just your prefrence.
This is in my opinion (and absolutely no offense to your mum, Pavel) something someone with little knowledge of the artist would say.
I don't know your mum's musical knowledge of MK, ofcourse. So please correct me if i'm wrong.
But take my 2 nephews for instance,
One listens to The Beatles and The Traveling Wilburys
And the other one listens, almost exclusively, to Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Dominos etc.
When asked about their opinion on MK and DS they say: It sounds all the same, it's too slow and long and therefore it's boring to me
I bet you if i asked them they could barely name me 5 DS songs and maybe 1 MK solo song.
The songs they know are TR, SOS, WOF, MFN. The "mega" hits.
Yes, Telegraph Road is over 14 minutes with 3 guitar solo's. Yes, Brothers In Arms is a slow song. But these are some of the best songs ever written. And then to say the music is all the same and boring? Of course people have a difference in music taste but that, for me atleast, indicates a person with little knowledge of the artist.
Take Mark's "Golden Heart" album. Compare the title track GH and a song like "Darling Pretty". They're on the same album but the songs are so different
Take "Vic And Ray" and "Imelda". Again, same album and completely different songs.
LOL! Totally agree with your post!
A similar thing happened between myself and one of my rather aloof neighbours. We had just returned home from an MK concert and I was telling him about it. With this sort of expression :( he said that he disliked Dire Straits music, so of course I told him that it wasn't Dire Straits anymore. I asked him which songs he knew by DS - his reply was that he didn't know any, but that he disliked them anyway! ;D :disbelief
Well, to be brutally honest, Mark's music is kind of... boring. Don't get me wrong, I love it and am a hardcore get-a-lifer when it comes to MK music, but realistically speaking, and when compared to the likes of Queen, Red Hot Chili Peppers and people like that, Mark's music suddenly seems really boring, slow and yes, sounding almost the same. Especially if you don't know where to look. When people say Mark's music all sounds the same, they have something to compare it with and usually, the comparison is not in MK's favour.
It's just MK fans are people with different priorities it seems, we value soft and quiet music experience with slow and thought-provoking melodies and lyrics with very occasional bursts of true rock. "Darling Pretty" sounds rocky, yes, but it was still sung by Mark's "boring" voice and have that purposefully minimalistic guitar. And play some really slow and quiet MK song to a random guy, and chances are he'll fall asleep.
So I can't blame people who say MK is boring because he really kinda is. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and MK fans seem to don't mind.
I don’t want to derail the thread again but I was to offer some support to this brave but evidently controversial post. I agree entirely. I LOVE MK’s music but I do get that’s it’s quite samey. My dad thinks MK is very samey in comparison to Paul Simon who dad loves.
However, if you like the MK sound then you won’t mind-and that’s the boat I’m in.
Paul Simon has gone out of his way to do different stuff.
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