Love Over Gold (the song)

[rmarques821]

Hey everyone,

I created this topic because I would like to know the forum's opinion on Love Over Gold and I didn't find any other suitable, already existent topic.
One of my favourite songs from the Dire Straits period and one of Mark's most elaborate compositions on the guitar. I believe this song represents the closing of a painful chapter in Mark's life, the one related with Holly Vincent, of course. I also feel it is frequently undervalued as the fans normally don't mention it that much, and the reviews (from 1982 and also subsequently) seem to ignore it, devoting only a sentence for it.
I listen to this song from time to time and I recently came upon the concert in Tokyo, in 1983, where Mark played a fantastic solo on the classical guitar, with some lovely twiddly bits.
It's a mystery to me how they cut the song short live, just when it reaches the climax with the final outro (any theories on this, by the way?).

[Love Expresso]

I always thought it had to do with Romeo & Juliet being very similar live.. Also Portobello Belle was very long and same category of song. Same decision came up when What It Is became part of the set list in 2001 that the middle silent live part of Sultans was cut because it would have been the same more or less.

Also the live album was orientated after the double vinyl playing time. The VHS and later the CD got Love over Gold as a bonus track only.

LE

[Robson]

Love Over Gold? I adore.

[Knopflerfan]

LOG - Alchemy version is just awesome...

[Rivers Of Rain]

I love Love Over Gold the song, the interplay between the acoustic guitar and piano throughout the song is sublime, particularly towards the end of the track. I tend to think of this song as the standout example of Alan Clark's keyboards brought to Dire Straits, as his contribution is just as important as Mark's. I've never really thought that much about the meaning behind the lyrics, although it does feel like the more reflective counterpart to the angrier, more direct It Never Rains from the same album.

I agree it's a shame the outro was dropped on Alchemy, although the beautiful passage seamlessly linking the end of Romeo & Juliet with the start of Love Over Gold does compensate for this somewhat. I was aware that it wasn't included on the vinyl edition of Alchemy, which I always assumed was due to the limited running time for each side on vinyl, but it was only quite recently that I discovered that Romeo & Juliet swapped sides with Expresso Love for the CD version - was there any specific reason for this?