MK and the Blues

[quizzaciously]

So with Hill Farmer's Blues and Silvertown Blues in mind (and Occupation Blues,  Miss You Blues and Millionaire Blues already mentioned) I guess it's safe to say that if the title contains the word Blues, it is definitely not one. 

LE

Also funny that the initial version of Secondary Waltz is not an actual waltz:



And I guess you can insert an obligatory joke here that if a country has anything to do with the word People in its official name, it's either communism or dictatorship.

[JF]

Anyway, Mark does jazz way better than blues, even though he's not a jazz player by any means, and jazz is a more mature and individual version of blues. Or as some jazz musicians put it, jazz is blues that graduated from university. Mark's jazzy songs are simply marvellous, and "Slow Learner" is almost pure jazz one could expect from the record coming from the Blue Note label. Besides, the rhythm section of Mark's band consists of jazz cats of the highest calibre.

Richard Bennett, who recorded an entire jazz album which KICKS BUTT, also Jim Cox who's a jazz piano magician with a solo album which is impossible to find online, Glenn Worf swings on upright bass like nobody else, and Ian Thomas knows a thing or two about jazz drums. Overall, it's a miracle these guys are kept so simple with their instruments and barely get used to their full potential, the musicianship and the song service are outstanding.

my two cents about Mark and jazz : https://textes-blog-rock-n-roll.fr/mark-knopfler-et-le-jazz/

[JF]

Fare Thee Well Northumberland is a blues(y) tune, and described as such by MK at the time. I love it! The long, slow, spoken/sung intro is odd, but the rest is killer. Why they never did this one live is beyond me.

I really love Fare Thee Well but it's kind of folky as well and that's why I didn't include it in my original list.

I feel like this is MK's strength - taking elements of different genres, making into a big old goulash, writing a good song around it and putting some cool guitar on the top. I feel like he's less successful when he makes a straight up attempt at one of these genres.

I'd rather put Fare thee well Northumberland in blues territory than folk

the only folkish ingredient in this song is Richard's bouzouki... but the tempo, the leitmotiv, the guitar, the piano, the voice, the mood, the lyrics, the theme... all sound more blues than folk imho

I think it's the song which illustrates the most Mark's quote "my idea of heaven is where the Tyne jojns the delta"

so indeed, kind of folk-blues so to say

[Robson]

"the only folkish ingredient in this song is Richard's bouzouki... but the tempo, the leitmotiv, the guitar, the piano, the voice, the mood, the lyrics, the theme... all sound more blues than folk imho

And Mike Henderson - harmonica:)

Yes, one of the most important i my favorite:

My idea of heaven is somewhere where the Mississippi Delta meets the Tyne

[dustyvalentino]

Fare Thee Well Northumberland is a blues(y) tune, and described as such by MK at the time. I love it! The long, slow, spoken/sung intro is odd, but the rest is killer. Why they never did this one live is beyond me.

I really love Fare Thee Well but it's kind of folky as well and that's why I didn't include it in my original list.

I feel like this is MK's strength - taking elements of different genres, making into a big old goulash, writing a good song around it and putting some cool guitar on the top. I feel like he's less successful when he makes a straight up attempt at one of these genres.

I'd rather put Fare thee well Northumberland in blues territory than folk

the only folkish ingredient in this song is Richard's bouzouki... but the tempo, the leitmotiv, the guitar, the piano, the voice, the mood, the lyrics, the theme... all sound more blues than folk imho

I think it's the song which illustrates the most Mark's quote "my idea of heaven is where the Tyne jojns the delta"

so indeed, kind of folk-blues so to say

I think you maybe argued against yourself there?!

The melody is more folky than bluesy than me - I'm not some musical expert about intervals and stuff, it's just the feeling the song evokes in me.

[Matchstickman]

Fare Thee Well Northumberland is a blues(y) tune, and described as such by MK at the time. I love it! The long, slow, spoken/sung intro is odd, but the rest is killer. Why they never did this one live is beyond me.

I really love Fare Thee Well but it's kind of folky as well and that's why I didn't include it in my original list.

I feel like this is MK's strength - taking elements of different genres, making into a big old goulash, writing a good song around it and putting some cool guitar on the top. I feel like he's less successful when he makes a straight up attempt at one of these genres.

I'd rather put Fare thee well Northumberland in blues territory than folk

the only folkish ingredient in this song is Richard's bouzouki... but the tempo, the leitmotiv, the guitar, the piano, the voice, the mood, the lyrics, the theme... all sound more blues than folk imho

I think it's the song which illustrates the most Mark's quote "my idea of heaven is where the Tyne jojns the delta"

so indeed, kind of folk-blues so to say

I think you maybe argued against yourself there?!

The melody is more folky than bluesy than me - I'm not some musical expert about intervals and stuff, it's just the feeling the song evokes in me.

It is a bit of a mix, but the harmonica is certainly bluesy, and in this song, like some others, Mark starts on the I chord, and later moves up to the IV chord. He also uses a IV-V progression. So, the chords are from a standard 12-bar blues, but the order is changed. There is also no V-IV-I resolution, which is true of many of Dylan's bluesy tunes as well.


I'm with JF on this one, the song screams blues. (Chord tension, harmonica, piano, mood.) Mark described it as blues upon release, so that was clearly the intention. And some folk thrown in - is not the quote about the Delta and the Tyne actually about this tune?

[Matchstickman]

So with Hill Farmer's Blues and Silvertown Blues in mind (and Occupation Blues,  Miss You Blues and Millionaire Blues already mentioned) I guess it's safe to say that if the title contains the word Blues, it is definitely not one. 

LE

Hehe! Well, Millionaire Blues is actually very bluesy. For some of the other songs, the "blues" refers to the lamentation of a character in the song, HFB being a case in point. The song expresses his blues, being low, down, troubled.

[dustyvalentino]

Also plenty of folk songs that are I/IV/V with harmonica.

As I say, for me it leans more to the folky side, but either way it’s the MK mix again and not the blues pastiche that tends to be less successful.

[Robson]

"Millionaire Blues is actually very bluesy. For some of the other songs, the "blues" refers to the lamentation of a character in the song, HFB being a case in point. The song expresses his blues, being low, down, troubled"

  Very good point. And that's what I was thinking about when I mentioned "Miss You Blues"

[Matchstickman]

Also plenty of folk songs that are I/IV/V with harmonica.

As I say, for me it leans more to the folky side, but either way it’s the MK mix again and not the blues pastiche that tends to be less successful.

Yes, it is great! Should have been played live.

[Iron Hand]

I like MK's blues. It's one of the things that turned me on to his solo work: While I generally liked hearing his singles on the radio ("What It Is" and "Punish the Monkey" in particular), the folky stuff didn't really speak to me like Dire Straits did. I felt that Privateering was shaping up to be another record in that vein until I heard "Don't Forget Your Hat". That made me take notice and listen.

Now, I'm someone who grew up on "the real thing" - Big Bill Broonzy, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and Little Milton were some of the guys I heard as a kid, then I was a BB King fanboy for a while (I think I actually first noticed the name Mark Knopfler on BB's 80 album!), and then started to explore rock music. So hearing someone from the rock world channel blues with such a degree of authenticity isn't something I'm used to; I don't require it - Gary Moore usually wouldn't be mistaken for someone from Chicago or Memphis, yet I love him - but it does appeal to me and in the case of that album felt like I was coming full circle a bit. Though when I listen to "Blood and Water" now, I also hear a lot of Peter Green (same goes for "Don't Suck Me In", which I didn't hear at the time).

As a result, Privateering was the first Mark Knopfler solo album I got (I already had some Dire Straits), and I still have a soft spot for it. And the fact that it's roughly 50% blues (love Kim Wilson's harmonica as well) really helped me to get into the other of his solo styles that are also present on the album, which then led to me reconsidering my view on his solo career as a whole. I guess this background (while I was a blues nut as a kid, most of my family is into jazz) also is a reason why I latched onto Down the Road Wherever. Speaking of which, when I played the track "Just a Boy Away from Home" to my jazz playing father who also knows quite a bit about blues, he was quite impressed at how authentic Mark's slide playing sounded.

If there was something that would bring Mark back to a gutsy style of electric guitar music that wasn't the DS sound, it's blues. "Gator Blood" with its slide attacks is a good example. "Hot Dog" as well (still puzzled at that track's non-inclusion on the 2009-2018 box set).

For the same reason, I'm also so happy that "I Think I Love You Too Much" was added to the new version of On The Night. That version is killer and better than the Knebworth one with Eric Clapton!

I think Clapton is more a Concert Guy than an Great Album Artist.
Of course he has great albums (most of them are from Cream, Blind Faith, Derek Dominoes and his Blues albums)
But he have awful albums like Backless, August, Behind The Sun, Journeyman, After Hours... his solo catalogue (studio albums), in my opinion, is weak.

After Hours?  And Journeyman is a great record. "Hard Times" sounds like it's five years too early for From the Cradle.