Hi everyone,
I wandered onto this site because I have only recently started listening to MK's solo albums.
DS was the first band I ever saw, as a 14 yo, on the Brothers in Arms tour. It totally blew me away, but the (comparatively) long gap between that album and the next meant that I'd discovered heaps of other music in the meantime and I lost touch. I never stopped listening to the DS albums up to BIA, but that was where it ended. About 18 months ago I saw a copy of The Ragpicker's Dream in a charity shop for £1 and picked it up on a whim. I played it a few times and liked it, so then started getting other solo albums (so far STF, KTGC, GH and S-L) plus I finally got round to buying On Every Street and On The Night.
I'm still getting to know these albums (impressed so far with what I have heard) but was wondering what the consensus is regarding the later ones I don't have, and also how well thought of the solo stuff is compared to the DS albums. I remember reading reviews over the years and I think that reviewers have accused MK of settling for an inoffensive middle of the road career since DS split.
On another note I decided to go and see MK last year, but when the dates were announced they clashed with a holiday and my son's birthday so I missed the chance. Here's hoping I get another opportunity.
Thanks
Chris
The funniest thing is that Dire Straits were less of a "band" than Mark's solo band he plays with nowadays because in the old days he had basically a benevolent dictatorship in the group and it was more "Mark Knopfler" than Mark Knopfler now with a lot of input from his band members, so my little theory is that it was his solo project all along and NOW it's a band, meaning that "inoffensive middle of the road career" probably was his ultimate goal.
With that said, and as Bob Dylan would say, Mark was a different person in DS times and wrote different music. I'll have you know that Dire Straits as a group only had 60 songs in its entire history, while Mark as a solo artist released triple the number of songs. Dire Straits discography was certainly about quality over quantity, especially considering the legendary 5-track Love Over Gold album, but it doesn't mean that now it's quantity over quality. Mark is, in my opinon, the most consistent songwriter who writes great music throughout his whole career. Everybody I can think of had their share of strange and uninspired records, but Mark... is always up to the mark.
As a guy who analysed Mark's music quite a lot, I can say that his solo stuff is far more elegant, more complex, deeper and more beautiful than his early music, but that's to be expected because the man is constantly in the process of perfecting his craft. It's just in DS times that were different times, Mark had songs that were catchy, with an accent on guitar playing because there were guitar heroes everywhere, and MK was no exception. He was in the top shape and young and created his most famous masterpieces back then. Think Brothers In Arms, Telegraph Road, Tunnel Of Love, etc.
But I mean I can't even pretend that I can compare the storytelling of Shangri-La to the lyrics from DS debut album, it's like night and day. The song like Wild West End leads to nowhere, whereas 5:15 am is a masterpiece with a story that's like watching a movie, and it's just one example. So you should definitely check out his solo music, for one thing, simply because it's far more songs to choose from, more variety, more input from other band members.
