The Mark Knopfler Songbook — Featured on MK's official YouTube channel

[quizzaciously]

When learning Mark’s songs, for me, this process has two types of outcomes: either it’s really hard to play, but probably played that way (like in the recently covered “Don’t You Get It” or “Sucker Row”), or it’s too hard or impossible to play, so it probably should be played differently. That happened to me in “Angel Of Mercy”, where I figured it must be Open G because it’s too hard to play in standard tuning. And once I got a thought like this, the song played itself. And what a happy song! And what a solo! Pavel.

[primi]

Oh, OK, that's new! 
12 string? Maybe, possibly I can hear something but I'm really trying to find excuses to be honest. Never in a million years I'd go "Aha!" except perhaps, now that you've mentioned it, during his solo there just might perhaps be something there, maybe!

I'll go listen to it for the 12th time tonight now.... 

[quizzaciously]

Oh, OK, that's new! 
12 string? Maybe, possibly I can hear something but I'm really trying to find excuses to be honest. Never in a million years I'd go "Aha!" except perhaps, now that you've mentioned it, during his solo there just might perhaps be something there, maybe!

I'll go listen to it for the 12th time tonight now.... 

Well, I think the 12-string on "Angel Of Mercy" is a well-established fact. Apart from all the resources stating it (MK-Guitar, oneverybootleg), it's just obvious when you hear the song. You can't possibly mistake this sound for another, save for 2 guitars with standard and Nashville tuning. And it's actually quite astonishing that Mark can go to such lengths to serve a song. Take a 12-string, tune it in a weird tuning, compose a brilliant solo for it, and use it only once in a set or whatever, and nobody will think something strange has happened. The ultimate "serving a song" scenario.

And the solo actually sounds dull in standard tuning, so no wonder Mark wanted to spice it up a little. It sounds just fantastic on a 12-string!

[JF]

and in 1979, he played it live with a bottleneck on the 12 string burn baldwin !

[primi]

That's why I need you guys to point out the obvious when it's not obvious to me. 

[quizzaciously]

That's why I need you guys to point out the obvious when it's not obvious to me. 

You're welcome. It's all relative, though. I make a truckload of mistakes in everything I do, sometimes I get stuck transcribing seemingly "obvious" things, so nothing's really obvious in the world of music. If it's not a perfectly recorded single instrument with a video, mistakes will happen. Let alone when you have a tightly recorded track from the 70s with multiple guitar parts, barely any or no live recordings, no recording testimony and certainly no videos.

[quizzaciously]

The song for today is "When It Comes To You" from Dire Straits' final album. Keeping the Open G tuning vibe from the previous video, I tried to break down my approach to playing this little obscured/underrated bluesy tune. As I said in a live stream, if I would hear this song on my search for new songs, it would go to my collection 10 seconds in. Pavel.