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Home » Open thread 8/18/21

Open thread 8/18/21

The New Neo Posted on by

I think this just might be my favorite live rock performance ever. Knopfler’s guitar work is stunningly melodic and inventive, and the drummer and the keyboard player add immensely to the mix.

The first time I ever heard this song it was the studio version, but it was one of those songs that immediately made me stop what I was doing, pick up my head, and say, “What? What is that great sound?” I loved the studio version from the moment I heard it, but this live version is even better. It that possible? Yes. As one YouTube commenter says: “The solo is the only reason aliens haven’t destroyed earth yet.”

Comments

Open thread 8/18/21 — 51 Comments

  1. I discovered this weekend what Mark Knopfler does in his spare time in recent years.

    https://www.historicsportsracer.com/gallery

    Under Geirheads Racing/Geir Ramleth

    This 1963 Lotus 23b is an ex. Alain De Cadenet (Le Mans and World Sportscar Championship driver) race car. It was also raced by Mark Knopfler (guitarist of Dire Straits) and Desiré Wilson (first female F1 race winner).

    He may have been in the Lotus 23b this weekend.

    A couple photos of racer Mark:
    https://direstraitsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Sir-Stirling-Moss-Mark-Knopfler.jpg

    https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5594/14123980574_68b802b7a2_b.jpg

  2. Most songs when I like them immediately dont seem to have staying power. I say immediatly. Most songs may take 2 or 3 listens. Some take 5 or 10. The ones that take 5 or 10 listens are the ones I seem to enjoy more with time. Genesis Battle of Epping Forest and Suppers Ready come to mind. Baker St. Muse by Tull. I call them movie songs.

    This song is an exception to that rule. I liked it immediately first time and still do. Walk of Life is a nice ditty too, among others.

  3. Saw that Dire Straits tour. They knocked it out of the park. Eric Clapton made a guest appearence.

    Great Music!

  4. I saw Dire Straits live in Tokyo during the Love Over Gold tour, 1983. My favorite rock concert of all time.

  6. Douglas Adams wrote, “Mark Knopfler can make a Fender Stratocaster hoot and sing like angels on a Saturday night.”

    He wasn’t wrong.

  7. I never thought about it until now, but Knopfler’s playing often has a flamenco style to it. I wonder if he studied flamenco or Spanish music? I believe Robby Krieger of The Doors started out playing flamenco.

  8. NEW RASMUSSEN POLL FINDS TRUMP WOULD BEAT BIDEN in 2024 election if held today.

    “The poll also asked who the respondent voted for in the 2020 election. An equal number, 45 percent, said they voted for Biden and Trump. But when asked, “If the next presidential election were held today, who would you vote for?” Trump now beats Biden by 43 to 37 percent.

    “Biden lost eight points; Trump lost only two.

    “When asked if they regret their 2020 presidential election vote, nine percent of Democrats said yes compared to four percent of Republicans.

    “The problems for Biden and the Democrat party are massive and two-fold: incompetence and chaos.

    “Say what you will about Trump’s personality; we had stability in the Middle East under his leadership. We even had peace breaking out with Israel. We also had stability at our southern border. Our economy was growing. The vaccine was on the way.

    “Well, look at things now.”

    — John Nolte at Breitbart
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/08/18/nolte-polling-shows-majority-blame-biden-for-afghanistan-trump-would-win-re-vote/

  9. He has gradually become one of my favorite and most listened to guitarists and musicians.

  10. Have you seen this video of Christopher Walken dancing through a hotel?

    That’s wild. Done 20 years ago. I hadn’t realized Walken is nearly 80 years old. He’s been in four films in the last couple of years, plus appeared in ten television episodes.

  11. Knopfler is a virtuoso. That flamenco sound comes from his finger picking style; the only other rock guitarist that I know who uses that consistently is Lindsey Buckingham. However, I think Knopfler is way above Buckingham. Also, unlike a lot of rock guitar soloists who rely on flash and speed to just dazzle, Knopfler has the flash and speed but the solos always fit in with the song musically.

    I’m “Guitar George”. 98% a chord guy and struggle with any solo work. Probably because I’m self-taught and never really worked on learning any scales. I’m totally in awe of guys like Knopfler.

  15. Fans may want to check out Knopfler’s album with Chet Atkins “Neck and Neck” — a personal favorite is their version of the Don Gibson classic “Just One Time”.

    But it’s all great. Two geniuses. Timeless music. And anyone who digs Mark Knopfler is almost sure to like Chet Atkins’ albums with Jerry Reed, too.

  16. The Germans’ like or dislike of American Presidents is fairly easy to guess.

    Makes America stronger – Germans dislike
    Makes America weaker – Germans like

    They’ll be back in Biden’s camp soon.

    Germany’s rank of U.S. Presidents in the past 40 years:

    Like
    1. Obama
    2. Clinton
    3. Carter

    Hate
    1. Reagan
    1. Trump
    (tie for the first spot)
    2. Bush II
    3. Bush I

  17. I knew nothing of Christopher Walken’s dancing. That hotel scene is great.

    I can’t think about Walken without remembering British actor Bill Nighy’s statement that his all-time favorite comedic acting performance is Christopher Walken’s dead-pan delivery in Pulp Fiction. “This watch is your family’s heirloom.” My wife noticed that scene on network TV this week.

  18. physicsguy,

    It’s not unusual for folks, especially guitarists, to lean more towards chords or single notes. And they are both important and essential in their own way. That’s why almost all rock bands have rhythm and lead (and also bass).

    There are plenty of greats who are good at both, but even they tend to favor one over the other. B.B. King famously claimed he could not play a single chord. Obviously that was hyperbole, but his single note playing was brilliant. He didn’t play a lot of notes, but every single note he played was the exact right note to play at that exact instant.

    You probably know guitar started out in “pop” music (jazz and swing) as strictly rhythm. My history may be wrong, but I think Django Reinhardt first introduced single not playing to dance bands and that was primarily due to an injury that made it difficult for him to play some chords. And, before pop music went “electric,” rhythm was still the predominant style. I suppose it’s because you can get a lot more sound out of the instrument’s body strumming multiple strings?

    So don’t despair. You are continuing a great tradition of guitar style!

    I’m not well versed in rock guitarists, but to my ears Stevie Ray Vaughn stands out as someone who was equally adroit and expert in both styles.

  19. Tommy Jay,

    Walken played a villain in one of the Bond films and I remember giggling a fair amount when he was on screen. I don’t know if he was intentionally playing the role for laughs (this was in the era when Bond was very campy), or he was just off his game, but I found him quite funny.

    On a hunch I just did a quick Youtube search and found this 3 second clip from the film: https://youtu.be/9fzM6ey9fo0

  20. For the past 31 years, my wife and I have lived in a small town 15 miles from Frederick, Maryland, a city of 71,000 people. Because of my wife’s civic involvement in Frederick, it’s fair to say that we have met nearly all of Frederick’s movers and shakers. Many of them grew up in the Frederick area, few of them attended elite schools, and none of them show any signs that they think of themselves as anything other than ordinary Americans. The civic life of Frederick in 2021 is energetic, optimistic, and fueled not by government but by a network of local voluntary associations. Alexis de Tocqueville would recognize it as a direct descendant of the American civic culture he described in the 1830s.

    I don’t think Frederick is exceptional. The traditional American civic virtues are alive and well in small-town and small-city America. Those communities are beset by some of the new problems that afflict the nation, especially increased drug addiction and family breakdown. But they are approaching those problems as Americans traditionally did and local institutions continue to function as they traditionally did. I will repeat what I have written elsewhere, because it has been my dominant thought for the last decade: The great divide in the United States is not political or racial. It grows out of the immense difference between daily life in the big cities and daily life everywhere else. That difference amounts to a chasm dividing Americans’ experience of their country. It also lies behind the political polarization that is tearing us apart.

    Charles Murray “Meritocracy’s Cost” Claremont Review of Books
    https://www.aei.org/articles/meritocracys-cost/

  21. Rufus,
    I’m from Hagerstown and worked at Fort Detrick (for National Cancer Institute) years ago. i get the feeling that Frederick is getting a lot of new residents from Montgomery County. I hope it doesn’t change things.

  24. I remember clearly the first time I ever heard “Sultans of Swing”- right after the Christmas break in 7th grade on the radio. I bought the 45 the next time I made it to the record store a week later. Still love it as much today.

  25. Pingback:Boomer Anthems: “The solo is the only reason aliens haven’t destroyed earth yet.”

  27. Yancey Ward,

    I’ve written about this before; I too remember exactly where I was when I heard it and, very oddly (it doesn’t even make sense to me*, and it was me who did it!), it motivated me to go out and buy a harmonica and learn to play, which was the start of a multi-instrument, decades long adventure in music that continues to this day.

    *There is no harmonica in the song. It has nothing to do with harmonicas. The only instruments mentioned are guitar and trumpet.
    ** Looks like I’m one or two years older than you.

  28. Based on the lyrics I’ve always assumed the song was based on a true event, or events. Knopfler trying to get established as a musician and going from pub to pub. It was his lyrical version of what it was like playing open mic nights or village battle of the bands type gigs where different groups would get a moment on stage to play one or two songs.

    Based on that reasoning I thought it was odd his band was named, “Sultans of Swing” while the song makes fun of “trumpet playin’ bands.” Maybe, like “Money for Nothin,'” he sings that line as a working class character watching from the pub?

    Now, off to the Internet to see if my assumption is correct…

  29. Well…

    I was quite a bit off, although it is based on a true event, so there’s that. While searching for the song’s story I found this quote attributed to Rick Moore of “American Songwriter.” Although I often find music criticism, especially rock music criticism, overly bombastic, I actually agree with what Mr. Moore wrote and found it an apt definition of what makes Mark Knopfler unique:

    With “Sultans of Swing” a breath of fresh air was exhaled into the airwaves in the late ’70s. Sure, Donald Fagen and Tom Waits were writing great lyrics about characters you’d love to meet and Jeff Beck and Eddie Van Halen were great guitar players. But Knopfler, he could do both things as well or better than anybody out there in his own way, and didn’t seem to have any obvious rock influences unless you try to include Dylan. Like his contemporary and future duet partner Sting, Knopfler’s ideas were intellectually and musically stimulating, but were also accessible to the average listener. It was almost like jazz for the layman. “Sultans of Swing” was a lesson in prosody and tasty guitar playing that has seldom been equaled since. If you aren’t familiar with “Sultans of Swing” or haven’t listened to it in a while, you should definitely check it out.

  30. I also learned the song is in the key of D minor. I’ve never tried to play it, and wouldn’t have guessed it’s in a minor key, but coincidentally, some of the Bee Gees and Leonard Cohen songs (as well as a few from other artists) Neo has singled out are in minor keys. I too am drawn to minor keys (probably not too unusual). I find there is just an extra layer of emotion in those chords that makes songs sound more mature or relevant.

  31. King Jay has slapped an indoor mask mandate back on Washington, for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people. And also mandated that public and private school employees get vaccinated or lose their job.

    Because let’s repeat the thing that didn’t work the first time AND be incoherent about vaccines. Why not?

    https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/inslee-brings-back-statewide-mask-order-and-mandates-vaccines-for-school-workers/

    (As usual, there’s no comment section on this article. I assume they got tired of being blistered over and over sometime last year.)

  32. So, Biden shows up in DC from wherever he was hiding since the beginning of the debacle in Afghanistan, and what does he talk about? Masks for kids going back to school and vaccines and booster shots. Took not a single question. Not only that, he took a shot over the bow at governors who don’t agree with his authoritarian approach to addressing the virus. We are in deep trouble as a nation.

  33. And, oh yeah, Knopfler is the best. Awesome guitar player and song writer, and a very good singer.

  34. Because let’s repeat the thing that didn’t work the first time AND be incoherent about vaccines. Why not?

    Pretty sure if you put together an annotated bibliography of the quick-and-dirty studies of the utility of masks you’d discover the median finding is that the benefits are too small to measure. He should have a research staff which can produce that for him. Either he’s too foolish to assemble a staff who can answer such questions or he has an ulterior motive and public health is an excuse. It’s the Democratic Party, so your best bet is a wager that it’s a sop to dunderheads in charge of the teachers’ unions. (We have a high school teacher among our shirt-tails. His panic porn peddling was so persistent that it left his 16 year old daughter anxious last fall about the possibility of dying of COVID, an absurd anxiety at her age).

  36. I’m a big fan of this version of Sultans of Swing from 1992. I was very fortunate to see this tour in Oakland CA. The saxophone and the tradeoff between him and Knopfler is special. Knopfler is not an improvisor, his solos are planned out beforehand, but no less brilliant.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFclpoxI_-M

  37. So, I’m back Bigger and Better and with my Amygdala dialed *down* to 11.

    To celebrate, here’s my borrowed Happy Thought for the Day.

    Was listening to the Academic Agent Podcast yesterday. He’s an economist and Recovering Lolberterian. Well no, he’s got an interest in Austrian Economics, yet has somehow noticed that humans are not fungible disembodied autonomous economic units, *and* his Dad did a runner from the Ayatollah, *and* he thinks he’s now ‘Welsh’. Go figure. Interesting chap. Sometimes does solo streams and often does panel chats.

    So one of his panelists who calls himself Semiogogue and has read too much Eco or something made the point in this chat that social media when you get down to it is just the Rwandan Radio Station but new and improved.

    Context for those who need it:
    https://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/2013/05/10/radio-in-the-rwandan-genocide/

    Put in simple words of few syllables, Twitter, FB, Mainstream Media are working themselves up to call down death and destruction on Flyover BadWhites. (Zaphod: Some super resilient Copers will replace Whites with Trump Voters because they won’t be able to See Race until the moment it bayonets them in the bowels. And maybe not even then.)

    Well that’s no great insight really. The Zaphod Special Sauce to go with this happy thought goes like this:

    Mass Media is a Memetic Killing Machine. Start at the Spanish-American War and proceed in a forward direction. Might even start in the 1850s with build up to Civil War. I take it no disagreements?

    Social Media is a Mimetic Killing Machine with amplifier and positive feedback. Once a signal gets above some small but critical level, it spikes from Zero to Congo in no time.

    ‘Free Speech’ in the age of social media —> Scapegoats will be invented, found and killed. It’s not just a feature of those two misshapen monsters, Dorsey and Zuckerberg. It’s an emergent feature of Us.

    Free Speech is something the Right needs right now as a matter of immediate survival. But in the long run, Changes Will Need to be Made.

    Gesundheit!

    PS: Thanks to Neo for exercising tolerance and to those entertainment-starved folks who voted me back on the Island.

  38. Zaphod on August 18, 2021 at 8:29 pm said:

    “Mass Media is a Memetic Killing Machine. Start at the Spanish-American War and proceed in a forward direction. Might even start in the 1850s with build up to Civil War. I take it no disagreements?”

    Sheeeeit. I have to check my last to Huxley in order to make sure that my two paragraph parallel remark’s time stamp was sufficiently prior to that so that there is no …

    Ah 7:58.

  41. Hey Zaphod,

    I was on the chopping block back in the 00s. It’s neo’s place and I wasn’t sure how to play it or whether you were even interested in returning.

    Plus, I have felt guilty about having too much fun with you and possibly shifting the comment section such that some regulars left. I’m glad to find DNW and Rufus back.

    Anyway. Good to see you again. Hat tip to neo!

  42. @huxley:

    Was not looking forward to missing our debates.

    I suppose there’s an art to spicing things up without over-egging the pudding. I must check that out one of these decades.

    This here is my Safe Space. I’m huge fan of American Digest, and have been following for as long as I have Neo’s blog. Briefly considered making Aliyah. But… there be a few grumpy old boys right out of Deliverance or at least the Taxidermy Barn manning the comments in those parts and I feared being crucified on a giant redwood if I pushed the envelope too much.

    Besides still some Lurking Lolbertarians and CivNats here. Can’t leave until they’ve all been stuffed and mounted. So… stealthy moderation is the watchword! Excelsior!

  43. Marisa:

    Over the years, I’ve watched a ton of live performances of the song at YouTube. They’re all great and they’re all somewhat different. It’s pretty amazing. Knopfler is a bona fide musical genius, IMHO. The tone of his guitar playing is so exceptionally beautiful. I can’t think of any other rock guitarist with such a beautiful beautiful tone.

  44. Zaphod on August 18, 2021 at 9:01 pm said:

    @DNW & @ geoffb:

    Signs and portents, I tell you!

    @DNW: Which thread?

    The parallel implication I made re the journos – which I wanted to make sure via time stamp could not be assessed as derivative?

    This:

    ” … as you may have noticed, most of the media outlets no longer allow responses to their postings. I guess they are tired of being told that their leap backwards into entropy is seen as a good thing by many of their audience.

    The contractors, of course, are another matter. They earn their money the old fashioned way; and the killing they do, if and when they do it, or contribute to it, is not sanctimoniously passed off as a noble, disinterested, act of public service.”

    https://www.thenewneo.com/2021/08/17/afghanistan-random-and-not-so-random-thoughts/

    Compared with the more direct:

    ““Mass Media is a Memetic Killing Machine. Start at the Spanish-American War and proceed in a forward direction. Might even start in the 1850s with build up to Civil War. “

    The upshot is that they are fake news flogging, self-serving, world roiling, murderers. They make their living off of the conflict, and death and panic, which they help to promote. Guess it is better as they see it than driving a tractor or sitting at a research bench. Assuming, the average journalist would be competent to do either.

    Speaking of “signs and portents”

    A quick search of The Old Scriptures returns us the themes and practices of these … murderers …

    “They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.

    … workers of iniquity, who speak peace to their neighbors while malice is in their hearts.

    For they do not speak peace, but they devise deceitful schemes against those who live quietly in the land.

    Like a club or sword or sharp arrow is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.

    … they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men.

    “They bend their tongues like bows; lies prevail over truth in the land … they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not take Me into account,” declares the LORD.

    Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in heart he lays his wait.”

  45. @DNW:

    One tries to keep the cynicism quotient down, but you may need to reconsider the Research Bench bit given Covid and Climate. I’ve got nothing against tractor drivers though.

    I couldn’t help noticing that yesterday in aftermath of the Kabul Classic, there was a flurry in my feeds about Ponies! Fusion Power! Soon! Just write them a check for another half an Afghanistan and the Brave WOCs will solve the critical problem — doubtless some mis-gendered quarks in an equation — and we’ll all be off to the stars.

  47. Zaphod:

    Ah, the Classic Coke “House of Cards.”

    I see they made the American one with Kevin Spacey as a Southerner with a slow drawling accent.

  48. @Huxley:

    Have not yet seen the Spacey one, so couldn’t possibly comment on his performance.

    But Spacey certainly seems to be a Natural Born Reptile if half the scuttlebutt is true. Perhaps easier for him. in the UK original, Sir Ian Richardson did the reptilian thing to a Shakespearean T. T for pure acting talent and timed delivery.

  50. “…New and Temporarily Improved…”

    Could it be that someone did a market survey?

    Actually, you are being a tad too modest.
    Why just last week, somewhat startlingly it is true, you went FULL Ecclesiastes on us.

    And one should NEVER, EVER go FULL Ecclesiastes…. (Although there are times, yes there are times…)

    Next thing ya know you’ll be marching around Times Square (or the HK equivalent) with a sandwich board urging your fellow spinners to repent—and let God figure it out?….

    If it’s Times Square, though, make sure to wear your Kevlar vest….

  51. @BarryMeislin:

    I do a pretty mean Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch style high church hieratic rendition of my fav bits of Ecclesiastes, I’ll have you know.
    Weddings, parties, funerals.. it’s got something for everyone.

    Yep. Those oriental tricksters built a mall here and named it and surrounds Times Square:

    https://youtu.be/pnw9sts6Tlw

    Hop and a skip from my office.

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