(8) Watch me gone

[dmg]

In the first moments of the song I thought, here we go, a beautiful Knopfler song. Then it fizzled out and went nowhere. It is a nice song that could have been so much better in another producers hands maybe.

Pretty much exactly how I feel.  Most of his albums recently have been creatively lacking on the production side of things.  Yes, they're sonically good but they're ever so dull.

Quizzy said some interesting stuff about the BG/96ers habits.  I totally agree with him.  Very much thinking 'inside' the box.

[dustyvalentino]

I mean  understand left as political direction of course but why should that be important in terms of producing music? So I guess it's another language-barrier-mystery to me 

LE

MK is pretty left politically. At least as left as you can claims to be as a multimillionaire with various mansions and sports cars.

So I don’t think it’s political.

Yes thanks. I couldn't imagine either. But as it was the only meaning I was aware of, I asked for another, more correct meaning. I guess Hugo's "left of field" sounds pretty good, thanks very much, Hugo97 

LE

I would need the original quote to get the context. I don’t remember the word left being used, but I remember Guy saying it would never happen.

[Robson]

Mark built his own studio and now Malibu? I understand that not everyone likes the sound, production, etc., but dreams also have their limits 

[quizzaciously]

Mark built his own studio and now Malibu? I understand that not everyone likes the sound, production, etc., but dreams also have their limits 

I don't see the problem here. The studio is just another instrument just like a guitar. It's a tool to express your creative ambitions, it's not a temple you've built to worship your music. The fact you have a studio doesn't make you restricted from entering other studios. Besides, nobody cares where the album is recorded, I doubt any normal fans are even aware Mark has his studio. But the studio has an enormous effect on the music. Location, rooms, crew, equipment... It's like "Going Home" on acoustic guitar, on a Les Paul or a Strat — they all may have 6 strings and the same tuning. But boy they surely sound different!

[quizzaciously]

Mark built his own studio and now Malibu? I understand that not everyone likes the sound, production, etc., but dreams also have their limits 

I don't see the problem here. The studio is just another instrument just like a guitar. It's a tool to express your creative ambitions, it's not a temple you've built to worship your music. The fact you have a studio doesn't make you restricted from entering other studios. Besides, nobody cares where the album is recorded, I doubt any normal fans are even aware Mark has his studio. But the studio has an enormous effect on the music. Location, rooms, crew, equipment... It's like "Going Home" on acoustic guitar, on a Les Paul or a Strat — they all may have 6 strings and the same tuning. But boy they surely sound different!

A producer is also an instrument. You use his creative force in conjunction with yours and amplify or decrease your ambitions. I'm not saying Mark must drop everything and close BG, what I'm saying is — there's a clear pattern here in the discussion of people getting bored with "the formula", that's all. And probably rightfully so. We just wish some things were changed at some point, however, Mark is focused on being as predictable as humanly possible.

All he could've done (Live at BG album, any live album, acoustic album, blues album, country album, experimental album) was exchanged for a seemingly copy-and-paste routine of recording albums with all the usual suspects and copy-and-paste tours. MK ought to be one of the greatest examples of wasted opportunities in music history. The setlist drama, the absence of live albums drama, the similarity of albums and tours drama, Guy's takeover drama — so many things to worry about in MK's world.

[Mossguitar]

Haha, I would say that MK is one of the most successfull persons in the music business ever. One may not like his choices, but I think they are choices, not missed opportunities. (And with every choice comes new opportunities and indefinite missed opportunities, of course.) I don’t see him as a victim of GF, BG studios or his own personality either, but one with intergrity not trying to copy other’s paths. And as I said, extremely successfull, both business wise and, I guess, as a person. Do I like all his choices? Not at all. Do I find extremely slow music a bit boring. Yes, I do. Am I a bit tired of MK making the Privateering record over and over again? Absolutely. Does he still inspire me? Yes, oddly enough.

[quizzaciously]

Haha, I would say that MK is one of the most successfull persons in the music business ever. One may not like his choices, but I think they are choices, not missed opportunities. (And with every choice comes new opportunities and indefinite missed opportunities, of course.) I don’t see him as a victim of GF, BG studios or his own personality either, but one with intergrity not trying to copy other’s paths. And as I said, extremely successfull, both business wise and, I guess, as a person. Do I like all his choices? Not at all. Do I find extremely slow music a bit boring. Yes, I do. Am I a bit tired of MK making the Privateering record over and over again? Absolutely. Does he still inspire me? Yes, oddly enough.

Well said! Of course, Mark inspires us, he's terribly efficient at it. We all oddly love MK because he's so unique, not despite this. And no matter what he does, he does it with class and success. Which is a bummer if you think about it. If everything he does is cool, one can lament over things he's never done. By missed opportunities, I meant I just don't understand what he gained from having his studio and a band that's more consistent than Dire Straits ever were.

With a studio, he apparently gained the ability to record music as technically perfectly as possible and a place to record his interviews. That's it. Even his British Grove Broadcast radio show lasted only for 24 episodes and went into obscurity. But the guy seemingly lives in his studio, right? And yet, no live albums, no change in the number of albums, their quantity and diversity. He recorded the same amount of albums if he never had BG in the first place.

With this band, he gained the ability to record songs at the speed of light and perform anything anywhere. But all he does with this spectacular band is give them the same set of songs year after year. And no live album to marvel at their art save for the 2006 DVD, a few miscellaneous recordings, and a whole bunch of questionable-quality concert recordings which are supposed to replace live albums. I just sometimes don't get it.

[Mossguitar]

I think he gained an even greater life for him, collegues, family and friends. So i totally get it. If he had listened to me, he would be unhappy. Like he was in 92

[Silvertown]

"Well, maybe I'll hit the road with Bob, or maybe hitch a ride with Van" or something like that, I like it.

[Robson]

It's good that this isn't the finale of the album. I hope the twelfth song will have more light and hope.

[Love Expresso]

It's good that this isn't the finale of the album. I hope the twelfth song will have more light and hope.

Well,  we can already hear snippets from track no. 12 in the video pt 1. What strikes me is that it seems to have almost the same instrumentation and sounds almost the same, same mood, same style, same tempo as Watch Me Gone, even the backing vocals sound as prominent in the mix, as if both tracks were "song twins". But they spoke about a wide range of variety in the video, so I have some hope left for some variety and diversity on the album. 

LE

[Robson]

Yes, but I also thought about the message of the song.

I prefer words:
You are one deep river, old friend One deep river, amen...
than:
watch me gone, watch me gone...

[Love Expresso]

I spent this morning listening to this song  a couple of times. The message, or statement it gives to me is: you have to make sacrifices if you really want to make your dreams come true. He looks back (indeed he does!) and realizes that he indeed has made some or almost all of his early dreams come true. He realizes that it cost him a marriage and reflects about it, maybe because he was in the same streets and places he used to live back then and this made his thoughts go off. It's not dark or sad per sé, it is some sort of cleaning up with the past. I guess he feels more for the "victim" of this hard course back then now that he is older but at the same time he knows he had no other choice.

A Place where We Used To Live and Pale Imitation have the same nostalgia about the past. I don't know why but maybe the reason for coming back was a sad one (funeral) and it gave the thoughts a darker note. That was why I first thought about this song being about his sister and the initial idea coming up at a family gathering when she died,  but that was wrong. Do we know what happened to his first wife? I don't as I always skip these gossip threads when they come up here at the forum.

Guy has called the album "deep" several times now and I begin to understand what he means with it. I wouldn't be surprised if his complicated relation to David would be a song theme somewhere on this record also.

LE

[Robson]

I really like reading such thoughts.  LE

[Iron Hand]

But nowadays, man... i miss Tracker.

I think one of the issues I have with Tracker is that the most energetic song (of the main album at least) was released first. It didn't turn out to be indicative of the album's overall feel. Whether or not there is anything similar to Beryl on One Deep River, at least I'm not going into a slow album expecting it to have more than one upbeat song.

a whole bunch of questionable-quality concert recordings which are supposed to replace live albums. I just sometimes don't get it.

Hopefully there will be one or several live solo box sets similar to the DS live one...