Knopfler
It is known on Daily Kos that I am Mark Knopfler’s biggest fan. There is a rather complete biography on Wikipedia so I won’t repeat his complete story. But I do have a few personal thoughts.
I first became aware of Dire Straits when I heard Sultans of Swing. I stood open-mouthed and could barely believe what I was hearing. I became a fan immediately and bought the CD. I couldn’t find the date via Google, but I attended his first Bay Area concert with my kids, who were still in high school. Oh, how I wish I had bought the poster which was signed by the band; it would have been $90 which was out of my range back then.
Since that time I have purchased every CD and pretty much memorized every song. He formed other groups, such as The Notting Hillbillies and the less well-known album from that group is one of my favorites. I attended another concert in Berkeley, and when I heard that he was going to perform right here in Santa Rosa I went a little crazy and stood in line in front of the ticket office of the LBC venue, and snagged from row seats. It was so fine.
Next year, on September 19th, he and his band will perform at the Greek Theater in Berkeley and I have two tickets. Front section was sold out but we’re in the next row. As I googled that I saw that tickets are already being scalped so if I had waited…….who knows?
A few facts: He wrote and has done the music for many movies, including the Kossack’s favorite, The Princess Bride. He wrote Tina Turner’s Private Dancer. He has worked with many other performers such as Emmylou Harris, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and Chet Atkins. With Chet, I can’t resist this track, demonstrating guitar virtuosity beyond compare.
Along with my tickets I received a copy of the latest release, called Down The Road Whatever. What a lovely album; I’m working on memorizing it now. The first time I listened I picked up the lyrical mention of hummingbirds and lemon trees….while hummingbirds buzzed around my lemon tree. And here it is.
It’s about moving from England to California, while poking a little fun at California. And as far as poking fun at a lifestyle, this is perfect.
Well it should be clear that I could go on all day about the world’s greatest guitar player (although I’ll allow that others might argue this). I should mention that I have requested that “Sultans” be played at my funeral, seriously.