Any songs you skip?

[Stanko]

In my opinion, Mark's greatest strengths are the songwriting and guitar playing, but as a vocalist he is lacking, and I don't mean technically. He just doesn't have the charisma or emotional delivery of people like Paul McCartney or Bruce Springsteen, and that's why I feel a lot of his slower, more tender songs don't really work and feel terribly boring. Especially when he decides to use his strongest weapon, the guitar, so sparingly. He was a lot better at it in the early days; Wild West End and Follow Me Home are slow, but there's emotion there! As he's gotten older, he often sounds like a grandpa, sitting comfortably on his sofa, strumming and singing some old-time songs without really paying attention. It doesn't have to be this way just because you're ageing. I guess with people like Paul and Bruce, who are born performers, these things come naturally. Mark needs to have a good day, and he needs to make an effort to make things happen. All to often, I feel he relies too much on experience and craft rather than bringing something fresh.

exactly, i can't tell explicitly what it is but i can't explain it.

[2manyguitars]

Ticket to heaven. I get what mark was trying to do with the music\arrangement, and as with all his work the tone fits perfectly with the content. It was just way to country for me in 1990, and I still can't stand it today....

aww, you are not fond of Irony key?

No, I get it completely, but look at it from the point of view of an 18 year old budding musician who was brought up swamped by all things Knopfler. Like I said, just too country....

[Jules]

Ticket to heaven. I get what mark was trying to do with the music\arrangement, and as with all his work the tone fits perfectly with the content. It was just way to country for me in 1990, and I still can't stand it today....

aww, you are not fond of Irony key?

No, I get it completely, but look at it from the point of view of an 18 year old budding musician who was brought up swamped by all things Knopfler. Like I said, just too country....

Genesis "Jesus he knows me" talks more or less about the same thing, and its rocker style provide more irony to the subject than the too mellow "ticket to heaven", which I always skip since 1991 to today. It would had fit well in a NHb record.

[Stanko]

Ticket to heaven. I get what mark was trying to do with the music\arrangement, and as with all his work the tone fits perfectly with the content. It was just way to country for me in 1990, and I still can't stand it today....

aww, you are not fond of Irony key?

No, I get it completely, but look at it from the point of view of an 18 year old budding musician who was brought up swamped by all things Knopfler. Like I said, just too country....

Well then, just wait until it gets you!
Things change with the age, and who knows, you might country now and then.
Phanta Rhei!

[quizzaciously]

Ticket to heaven. I get what mark was trying to do with the music\arrangement, and as with all his work the tone fits perfectly with the content. It was just way to country for me in 1990, and I still can't stand it today....

aww, you are not fond of Irony key?

No, I get it completely, but look at it from the point of view of an 18 year old budding musician who was brought up swamped by all things Knopfler. Like I said, just too country....

Well then, just wait until it gets you!
Things change with the age, and who knows, you might country now and then.
Phanta Rhei!

If country music is not your thing, I think even after 1000 years you won't like it. What I love about Ticket To Heaven is that strings were arranged by Sir George Martin... That's great. Imagine your song being arranged by The Beatles' producer. And recorded with a real orchestra, which is a very time consuming and expensive process. I can't say that this song is a masterpiece, however, as a country piece it's amazing, the pedal steel guitar fits very well. My favourite part, apart from the strings arrangement, is the acoustic guitar solo and beautiful outro, when it hits a minor chord on the turnaround... That's magic.

[qjamesfloyd]

I have always thought Ticket To Heaven is one of Mark's most beautiful songs, I love it, it was my mum's favourite song too. As has been said the strings arranged by Sir George Martin are gorgeous. And as for it being a country song?  I don't find it country whatsoever!!! Mark has made more songs that could be termed country in his solo career though.

[Pottel]

romeo (excl. outro, indeed) most of KTGC, Why Worry, Love over gold and Private I. live, shangri la, submariner, seattle, all slow songs with little or no guitar, boring as eff.

Love your bluntness there! Although I'm not a fan of Why Bother either, I enjoy the coda on the album version.  Agree about the slow/no guitar numbers though, hence my choices.

DS: One World, My Parties.
MK: Imelda, Don’t You Get It, Je Suis Désolé, Rüdiger, Who's Your Baby Now, The Last Laugh, Wanderlust, Sands of Nevada, A Place Where We Used to Live, Fare Thee Well Northumberland, You Don't Know You're Born, The Ragpicker's Dream, Daddy's Gone to Knoxville, Sucker Row, Song for Sonny Liston, Whoop De Doo, All That Matters, Don't Crash the Ambulance, I Dug Up a Diamond, Rollin' On, Love and Happiness, Beyond My Wildest Dreams, If This Is Goodbye, The Fizzy and the Still, Heart Full of Holes, We Can Get Wild, Secondary Waltz, Behind with the Rent, The Fish and the Bird, Madame Geneva’s, In the Sky, Hard Shoulder, You Can't Beat the House, Before Gas and TV, Monteleone, The Car Was the One, Don't Forget Your Hat, Miss You Blues, Go, Love, Hot or What, Seattle, Got to Have Something, Radio City Serenade, I Used to Could, Dream of the Drowned Submariner, Blood and Water, Today Is Okay, After the Beanstalk, Broken Bones, Long Cool Girl, Lights of Taormina, Wherever I Go, Nobody’s Child, Just a Boy Away from Home, When You Leave, Floating Away, Slow Learner, Heavy Up, Every Heart in the Room, Rear View Mirror, Matchstick Man.

why is everyone hating One World, including the writer himself? i always loved it, especially live.

[Pottel]

In my opinion, Mark's greatest strengths are the songwriting and guitar playing, but as a vocalist he is lacking, and I don't mean technically. He just doesn't have the charisma or emotional delivery of people like Paul McCartney or Bruce Springsteen, and that's why I feel a lot of his slower, more tender songs don't really work and feel terribly boring. Especially when he decides to use his strongest weapon, the guitar, so sparingly. He was a lot better at it in the early days; Wild West End and Follow Me Home are slow, but there's emotion there! As he's gotten older, he often sounds like a grandpa, sitting comfortably on his sofa, strumming and singing some old-time songs without really paying attention. It doesn't have to be this way just because you're ageing. I guess with people like Paul and Bruce, who are born performers, these things come naturally. Mark needs to have a good day, and he needs to make an effort to make things happen. All to often, I feel he relies too much on experience and craft rather than bringing something fresh.

Mark's voice complements his guitar-playing perfectly - I love his speaking voice too.   For me his voice has much more appeal than either Paul McCartney or Springsteen.  McCartney can't do a love song like MK can - Mark gives me goosebumps and that is the acid test

how about Gilmour speaking? always thought that Danny's voice sounded a lot like Dave's by the way.

[superval99]

In my opinion, Mark's greatest strengths are the songwriting and guitar playing, but as a vocalist he is lacking, and I don't mean technically. He just doesn't have the charisma or emotional delivery of people like Paul McCartney or Bruce Springsteen, and that's why I feel a lot of his slower, more tender songs don't really work and feel terribly boring. Especially when he decides to use his strongest weapon, the guitar, so sparingly. He was a lot better at it in the early days; Wild West End and Follow Me Home are slow, but there's emotion there! As he's gotten older, he often sounds like a grandpa, sitting comfortably on his sofa, strumming and singing some old-time songs without really paying attention. It doesn't have to be this way just because you're ageing. I guess with people like Paul and Bruce, who are born performers, these things come naturally. Mark needs to have a good day, and he needs to make an effort to make things happen. All to often, I feel he relies too much on experience and craft rather than bringing something fresh.

Mark's voice complements his guitar-playing perfectly - I love his speaking voice too.   For me his voice has much more appeal than either Paul McCartney or Springsteen.  McCartney can't do a love song like MK can - Mark gives me goosebumps and that is the acid test

how about Gilmour speaking? always thought that Danny's voice sounded a lot like Dave's by the way.

Possibly because neither of them has a noticeable regional accent.         Mark still has a slight Geordie accent which I find quite charismatic and appealing.

[dmg]

romeo (excl. outro, indeed) most of KTGC, Why Worry, Love over gold and Private I. live, shangri la, submariner, seattle, all slow songs with little or no guitar, boring as eff.

Love your bluntness there! Although I'm not a fan of Why Bother either, I enjoy the coda on the album version.  Agree about the slow/no guitar numbers though, hence my choices.

DS: One World, My Parties.
MK: Imelda, Don’t You Get It, Je Suis Désolé, Rüdiger, Who's Your Baby Now, The Last Laugh, Wanderlust, Sands of Nevada, A Place Where We Used to Live, Fare Thee Well Northumberland, You Don't Know You're Born, The Ragpicker's Dream, Daddy's Gone to Knoxville, Sucker Row, Song for Sonny Liston, Whoop De Doo, All That Matters, Don't Crash the Ambulance, I Dug Up a Diamond, Rollin' On, Love and Happiness, Beyond My Wildest Dreams, If This Is Goodbye, The Fizzy and the Still, Heart Full of Holes, We Can Get Wild, Secondary Waltz, Behind with the Rent, The Fish and the Bird, Madame Geneva’s, In the Sky, Hard Shoulder, You Can't Beat the House, Before Gas and TV, Monteleone, The Car Was the One, Don't Forget Your Hat, Miss You Blues, Go, Love, Hot or What, Seattle, Got to Have Something, Radio City Serenade, I Used to Could, Dream of the Drowned Submariner, Blood and Water, Today Is Okay, After the Beanstalk, Broken Bones, Long Cool Girl, Lights of Taormina, Wherever I Go, Nobody’s Child, Just a Boy Away from Home, When You Leave, Floating Away, Slow Learner, Heavy Up, Every Heart in the Room, Rear View Mirror, Matchstick Man.

why is everyone hating One World, including the writer himself? i always loved it, especially live.

Strange one.  Even by the time of the live versions at the beginning of August 1985 he had decided to change it, presumably because he didn't like the studio one, then it was gone again by the Australasian leg (probably).  I have to say I prefer the live versions but even they don't really do an awful lot for me and I wish SFA had been left in the set instead.

[hunter]

One World is one of those straight-ahead rockers (apart from the baroque-style bridge) that really is bonus disc material. "Can't get no antidote for - blu-u-u-ues. Oh, yea-ah." Horrible, to be honest.

[quizzaciously]

One World is one of those straight-ahead rockers (apart from the baroque-style bridge) that really is bonus disc material. "Can't get no antidote for - blu-u-u-ues. Oh, yea-ah." Horrible, to be honest.

One World is the most opportunistic track on the album. While the title track offers virtually no signs of the time period, One World just screams "eighties". Time tested it and indeed Mark still plays "Brothers In Arms", and I think One World is the least expected song in his setlist for the last 30 years. But I actually like this duality on the album... You have something from the 80s, in the other hand you have real drums, real sounds, so it's a great mix.

[2manyguitars]

One World is one of those straight-ahead rockers (apart from the baroque-style bridge) that really is bonus disc material. "Can't get no antidote for - blu-u-u-ues. Oh, yea-ah." Horrible, to be honest.

One World is the most opportunistic track on the album. While the title track offers virtually no signs of the time period, One World just screams "eighties". Time tested it and indeed Mark still plays "Brothers In Arms", and I think One World is the least expected song in his setlist for the last 30 years. But I actually like this duality on the album... You have something from the 80s, in the other hand you have real drums, real sounds, so it's a great mix.

One World is a great example of Mark as a songwriting magpie given that the chords are a straight lift from Dylan's Blind Willie McTell.

I often wonder how Sir Bob felt about that, although he's stolen enough tunes in his time!

[hunter]

One World is one of those straight-ahead rockers (apart from the baroque-style bridge) that really is bonus disc material. "Can't get no antidote for - blu-u-u-ues. Oh, yea-ah." Horrible, to be honest.

One World is the most opportunistic track on the album. While the title track offers virtually no signs of the time period, One World just screams "eighties". Time tested it and indeed Mark still plays "Brothers In Arms", and I think One World is the least expected song in his setlist for the last 30 years. But I actually like this duality on the album... You have something from the 80s, in the other hand you have real drums, real sounds, so it's a great mix.

One World is a great example of Mark as a songwriting magpie given that the chords are a straight lift from Dylan's Blind Willie McTell.

I often wonder how Sir Bob felt about that, although he's stolen enough tunes in his time!

These parts are similar:


OW:
... my blue guitar
I can't get no antidote for [blues]

BWM:
... from New Orleans
To Jerusalem.


Hardly theft, I'd say It's a very common chord progression, plus, I don't think Dylan would have cared one bit.

[Pottel]

One World is one of those straight-ahead rockers (apart from the baroque-style bridge) that really is bonus disc material. "Can't get no antidote for - blu-u-u-ues. Oh, yea-ah." Horrible, to be honest.

blasphemy....:-)