Mark Knopfler “Golden Heart”
Mark Knopfler hates to rush and hates to make a fuss. He was once, briefly, capable of both. You can hear him rush on “Sultans of Swing.” And you can hear him make a fuss, and then hide behind the Sting of it, on “Money For Nothing.” Perhaps because of those two massive hits and the fame that ensued, it seems that Knopfler resolved, year by year, to move away from the rush and the fuss. His solos got more patient. His songs slowed down until they all began to sound like modern Country ballads on the soundtrack for an upscale romantic comedy. Then, as if it finally confirm once and for all, Mark Knopfler just skipped Dire Straits’ induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. No real reason given. He just didn’t feel like going. It probably involved a lot of rushing and fussing to travel, reconcile, prepare and whatnot.
It is worth noting that he did attend the Scottish Music awards the following year for a Lifetime Achievement award. Makes sense.
By the time Mark Knopfler released his first solo album, he was forty-seven. No rush. He had tired of the arena tours. He was enjoying professional life primarily as an elite film soundtrack artist. He had his classic cars and guitars and plenty of money. He was, in some ways, the most unlikely of rock stars. He was a journalist by trade and, on the basis of many of his songs, by heart. He was a coveted session guitarist. He was a virtuoso. He didn’t want to be a rock star, it seems. He didn’t need to be one. He simply wrote and played great. And it kind of just happened.
In 1996, Knopfler signaled that he was walking away from stardom. He disbanded Dire Straits. His was increasingly making a blend of Folk balladry and Country Rock that would be fully realized in “The Notting Hillbillies.” Despite his ambivalence about stardom and his desire for a pace befitting his middle age, though, Mark Knopfler had two major problems. The first was that fans and filmmakers wanted his songs. The second was that producing wonderfully, easy music (seemingly) came easily to him. What do you do when the thing you don’t want is a natural consequence of the thing that you are most gifted at? The thing that comes easiest to you? When your blessing is your curse?
If you are Mark Knopfler, you quietly release a massive, fourteen song, seventy minute solo debut that spans genres while retaining its songwriting and musicianship. In an age when most compact discs cost $19 and featured one single and forty minutes of filler, Knopfler did the opposite. He packed an album with no hits and over an hour of lovely songs.
“Darling Pretty” is the opening track and first single from the record. It’s a big and easy Country Rock song. The rhythm guitar has a pillowy softness on the distortion that provides a nice foil for the immaculate, clean lines of Knopfler’s solos. From the outset, the rock band sounds great. They sound big and open and jazzy in the way the Lou Reed, Robert Quine, Fred Maher band sounded in the 70s and 80s. Knopfler’s band is way more country, but the overall effect is not dissimilar.
The second track, “Imelda,” about the least lovable, shopaholic, thieving, dictator’s wife, is a fun rollick, with Hammond organ and a solo that sounds like 90s Clapton, but more inventive. Knopfler’s voice is flat and laconic but his words are sharp and funny. It’s am effect that I almost always enjoy. And while it can grow tiring on the wrong song, it’s also a great governor on the pace of his upbeat Rock songs.
With the first two songs of Rock and Roll dispatched, Mark Knopfler seemed intent to slow everything down and just ease his way into an hour of English Folk, beautiful soundtrack ballads, modern Country and everything in between.
By my count, there are at least six songs on this album that work behind Meg Ryan kissing Tom Hanks. Or Marisa Tomei kissing Christian Slater. Or, better still, Emma Thompson kissing Hugh Grant. The title track is reserved and sentimental in a very professional way. “A Night In Summer Long Ago” is the English folk variety of these soundtrack songs. “Nobody’s Got the Gun” is the most middle-aged of the lot -- a song about the dangers of trying to win against the one you love. And “Are We in Trouble Now” is the prettiest of the soundtrack species -- a track about two old friends realizing and fearing that they are falling for each other. Each of these are performed with care and precision. They all take their time. They go where they want to go. They often meander or stay a little too long. There are three accordion players. There is a sort of bagpipe that’s not actually a bagpipe. There were two types of guitars I’d never heard of. But this is the record Mark Knopfler was going to make. It was going to sound the way he wanted. It was all going to be very good. It was never in a rush and it was never a fuss.
In between all of the Romantic Comedy, there are more Country Folk songs, Country Polkas and Country Boogies. The songs all stretch near five minutes. There are long interludes. Slow outros. Open spaces that ask for a plugged in, turned up solo but don’t get an answer. It is almost certain that “Golden Heart” could have benefited from some editing. Inside many of these slow, Country workouts are perfect three to four minute songs. Likewise, this album has a few “good enough” tracks that made the cut but also drag things down. Neither of those suggestions concerned Mark Knopfler in 1996. He was a preternaturally musical and literate man who made easy sounding music with great ease. No rush. No fuss.