Dire Straits nominated for Brit Award

[draad]

Agree with you there Dusty. Alerting folk of the opportunity to vote if they wish isn't rigging. I know that some months back John McCuscker used his Twitter account to advertise the fact that you could vote for him/his girlfriend in some Irish Folk awards if you wanted. Same kind of thing really.

[qjamesfloyd]

I've voted 

[Banjo99uk]

Voted, so has my Gran, my cats and my dead Great Auntie.

[boboDS]

Anyway, I hear that BPDCEIDNP has started a Facebook campaign getting people to vote for the Phil Collins album.

     Maaaaan dusty, you misspelled it again, 

[Pottel]

found some interesting feedback on the official David Gilmour blog.
http://www.davidgilmourblog.com/2010/01/album-of-30-years.html

[Simon]

found some interesting feedback on the official David Gilmour blog.
http://www.davidgilmourblog.com/2010/01/album-of-30-years.html

Interesting article and I agree that the albums are not truly representative of the era they are from. And just for the record, Brothers in Arms is not one of my favourite albums, it is far from it. The reason it became so popular was totally on the back of Money For Nothing - and it became the most commercialised DS recording ever. Yes there are some catchy melodies on it, So far Away is amazing and Brothers in Arms needs no introduction but the rest, to me were just hangers-on. It was like a 'Best of Dire Straits 1985' album and it was squeezed so that every penny possible was gained from it. It also created a bandwagon and a new breed of followers that demanded single releases and it went against the whole ethos of what was, until then, Dire straits. The massive success of the album and the never-ending tour took it's toll on the band and led to them going their separate ways.

For me it was a sad era. The 'demise' of what once was my all time favourite band. Perhaps it is the 'trauma' of all the above that makes me distance myself from the album. Who knows!

[Pottel]

lol, but did you also read the comments from the readers of that blog?

[Tally]

Whereas I think that the BIA album represents some of Mark's best songwriting. It's interesting to hear positive things about the singles but negative things about the more serious stuff; I find it's often the other way round among the fans.

Ride Across the River a hanger-on? It has great lyrics, killer guitar playing, and atmosphere to die for. It's vintage Knopfler. And the jazzy Latest Trick, the folksy Man's Too Strong, slap bass in One World. It's easily the broadest album by DS.

[superval99]

Don't forget "Why Worry" - it's one of my all-time favourite MK/DS songs and although WOL has never been one of my favourites, it has been very popular over the years, even now!   

[Simon]

Sorry Val I forgot about Why Worry - class song. The thing with Walk of Life - even though I don't like to hear the song played I feel it is probably fun actually playing it. It has a rock 'n' roll 12 bar blues feel to it and is so easy that it must be so relaxing to play which is why a lot of bands do introduce some classic rock and roll into their sets just to let their hair down and get jamming! I remember early Queen used to play a rock n roll medley at the end of each set and it used to bore me to tears at the time but as I got older I appreciate those deviations more and think that they used it to escape from their 'day jobs' so to speak.

Perhaps i may have liked the album tracks more if I hadn't heard them played almost daily on the radio for the whole of 1985 and beyond. Perhaps I didn't have the inclination to go and listen to the album in a relaxing atmosphere after having the songs played down my throat. Perhaps the commercialism made me want to distance myself from it. I don't really know - psychology must play a big part here. But we all have our favourites and least favourites and some of us (including me) have our preference list(s) i.e. those tracks we/I prefer NOT to listen to 

[dustyvalentino]

Funnily enough, I listened to BiA myself the other day for the first time in a while.

Money for Nothing is still my favourite record of all time, and the build up at the intro literally makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck every time. I also have a ritual that whenever I by a new piece of audio gear, MFN is the first thig I play o it to test it out.

The production is good, if a little dated. All the songs are good, with the exception of One World, which is a terrible, terrible song.

Although I was young I can remember it when it came out, MFN would have been a smash anyway but the video really ramped things up another notch. Add WoL and it became a must have album. And remember, WoL is the only MK/DS song that people dance to at weddings, and for that we should be happy.

[Rollergirl]

It also created a bandwagon and a new breed of followers

including me!  , (although I had heard about them before by a mate who was totally obsessed, I really started to listen to them from BIA....)

[Simon]

Actually I just remembered something else. I lived in an upstairs apartment when BIA was released and my downstairs neighbours played it continually - even when they came in from the pub on a weekend right into the small hours. It literally drove me insane as I was sure it was the only CD they had (CDs hadn't long been out by then) and that they were going to wear it or the player out.

It's weird how our tatses differ so much even among a group of people who have a lot in common (i.e. MK) - for example Dusty's favourite track of all time is MFN and it probably is one of my least favourites - not just of Mks either.

[dustyvalentino]

Yeah, it's not even close to being my favourite song of all time, but it's an amazing recording. As I've mentioned, the intro is great, but MK's guitar playing is incredible too. I mean, it's a great riff, but if you listen to it, he's actually playing the same part twice, panned left and right, but he's so good it sounds like oe guitar part, until the ed and he starts having fun.

Normally I'm a harsh critic of Guy's 80s syths, but his "stabs" on the DX7 really add to the track.

It's never worked live though. 

[IrisRose]

I always enjoy listening to WOL, especially when my dog Lizzie is in the room.  She dances to it.   Your Latest Trick is one of his best understated masterpieces.