Sailing to Philladelphia as a Dire Straits album

[boriszhukov]

The OES tour was certainly not the first MK solo tour 

And the album was modelled on BIA, as has often been mentioned:
Walk of Life - The Bug
Money for Nothing - Heavy Fuel
Ride Across the River - Planet of NO
Man's Too Strong - Iron Hand

By the way, a very interesting thread, this.  If STP had been released as a DS album, nobody would have complained, that's for sure.

You can add Brothers In Arms - You and Your Friend   to that philosophy.



I don't neccesaraly see OES as the beginning of MK's solo career from a musical standpoint.  MK was very influenced by Nashville and country in those years, so OES had a lot of that. I remember dreading that GH would have the same since he had released three countryfied albums in a row (the Chet album, NHB and OES) but it turned out that he had moved away from country on GK and therefore it doesn't really have a strong connection with OES.  From a personal standpoint however I can see where people are coming from.  In 91 DS was basically MK. There was so much pressure on him at the time, both to deliver an album that was on par with BIA, both musically and commercially. On top of that all the expectations from the guitar community who saw him as one of the  greatest guitar players of the period. By 91 though MK and DS had grown out of mainstream and wasn't really cathing on with the younger demographic as they did in 85.  It was quite surprising with all the country influences once OES came out and it unsurpisingly didn't catch on as the previous album. It lacked the mainstream sound of early ninties maintream and it lacked the songs that could top the charts. The band also looked middle-aged and a bit out of place to the MTV target audience. MK was probably aware of all these things and realized that a change in direction musically (making more mature sounding music and trying to avoid it all being too mainstream) would be the way to go in order to get away from the pressure of stadium rock on a long term basis. In that sense it was the point where he shifted towards the direction of what he does now.

[boriszhukov]

So finally its here!!   

Damage Management Presents:

The Dire Straits comeback album "Sailing To Philadelphia" !!

The brand new album can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPwFgPkcmeg&index=1&list=PLYBaPsbPKtmJuL1tSKg3nCeRtwlM468xs
   

[ds1984]

Well if STP was a DS album we would have gotten AC keys sound style on WII instead of a genuine fiddle player. But the spirit of WII is clearly so Straitish and that is why a lot of people like me liked it.

[boriszhukov]

oh yeah the album would have been diferent with AC on it. It has been mentioned from many sides that he did have a lot of input to some of the songparts.

[ds1984]

oh yeah the album would have been diferent with AC on it. It has been mentioned from many sides that he did have a lot of input to some of the songparts.

Listening to recordings from the 1980/81 OLT show how important AC has been into modelling DS new sound.
I still wonder why Alan was not able to pursue a successful career after DS being disbanded.

[Jules]

oh yeah the album would have been diferent with AC on it. It has been mentioned from many sides that he did have a lot of input to some of the songparts.

Listening to recordings from the 1980/81 OLT show how important AC has been into modelling DS new sound.
I still wonder why Alan was not able to pursue a successful career after DS being disbanded.

He continued playing as a session player and as a musical directors for many artists, but after so major tours with Clapton and DS he needed to lower his profile to avoid the crazyness of big tourings, and he lost his train with big names in the meantime, keeping busy with less known artists andvwritting music for spots, documentaries (he did one with Guy Fletcher for a Ibiza documentary) etc

[dmg]

oh yeah the album would have been diferent with AC on it. It has been mentioned from many sides that he did have a lot of input to some of the songparts.

Listening to recordings from the 1980/81 OLT show how important AC has been into modelling DS new sound.
I still wonder why Alan was not able to pursue a successful career after DS being disbanded.

Maybe because his part in the DS sound wasn't a big as he'd have us believe.  Just speculating.

[boriszhukov]

Maybe because his part in the DS sound wasn't a big as he'd have us believe.  Just speculating.

I dont think so. Even if you were a menber of a band of DS size it is not guaranteed that you can to a high profile career as sideman forever after. It has to do with a lot of other things than musicality to do that. Having the right connections, luck and many other factors go into this.  I don't doubt that he had a big role in the sound/arrangements of the songs he was involved with. The sound os DS before he was there was night and day to what it became after he came in.

[dmg]

Maybe because his part in the DS sound wasn't a big as he'd have us believe.  Just speculating.

I dont think so. Even if you were a menber of a band of DS size it is not guaranteed that you can to a high profile career as sideman forever after. It has to do with a lot of other things than musicality to do that. Having the right connections, luck and many other factors go into this.  I don't doubt that he had a big role in the sound/arrangements of the songs he was involved with. The sound os DS before he was there was night and day to what it became after he came in.

I think his input has always been overrated.  There is no doubt that Mark's songs, in terms of style, were always evolving over the DS days, so I don't think that AC coming in suddenly made the telling difference because there would have been a difference anyway.  In any event it was Mark who brought in a keyboard player in the first place because he wanted to change the sound and not AC who told Mark he should join the band!  Well, we do know his ego... 

[boriszhukov]

No ofcourse Mk has always been the one with the main ideas for songs and could at any time do without AC. But that doesnt mean he didn't have valuable input. Terry Williams confirms this in the interview on soundcloud. It is notable though how MK/DS sound evolved in the years when AC came in. It is also very notable that he chose to bring AC in as the only DS member  for the Infidels sessions. There must be a reason for that.

[Masiakasaurus]

I don't want to go too much off topic here, but all this talk of OES and BiA, does anyone else prefer OES over BiA? I do... 

[herlock]

I don't want to go too much off topic here, but all this talk of OES and BiA, does anyone else prefer OES over BiA? I do... 

I think there are two factors to consider here: which one you consider to be the better song and which one you would prefer to hear live. They are not necessarily the same. For instance, I think TR is a (slighly) better song that TOL. But I would choose TOL over TR any time, because I've heard TR many times and I never got a chance to hear TOL live !
I've heard both BIA and OES in the past, and I think BIA is a more Mighty song than OES. Nonetheless I would prefer to hear OES, because it has never been played since the DS days and that would be quite an event !

[dmg]

I don't want to go too much off topic here, but all this talk of OES and BiA, does anyone else prefer OES over BiA? I do... 

Much prefer it;  heard BIA way too many times now.  I know I've heard Sultans more but somehow I just can't get enough of that.

[boriszhukov]

I like OES better apart from MFN BIA and WOL ofcourse.

[JF]

Herlock, I tink the question was about the album not the song....