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keefriffhards

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Bungo
Absolutely love them. You can't say too much about that band. Knopfler is a genius. Too many incredible songs to list. I saw their Brothers In Arms tour (their last tour) and was absolutely floored. If you haven't seen the CD of this tour you will not be disappointed.

What makes Knopler's guitar playing so good and so unique was that he played the electric guitar without a pick and only used his bare fingers - typically 2 or 3 fingers at once - "finger picking". That's how he could play so fast. That technique gives him his very distinctive sound and style. Almost nobody uses that technique.

I think he got that technique from Chet Atkins, who got it from Merle Travis who got it from Django Reinhardt and Les Paul
I love it

Richard Thompson was on Marc Maron's podcast a few weeks ago and got very bristly when Maron brought up how similar Knopfler's sound and technique is to his own. Seems like there's some major friction there, at least on Thompson's side.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2015-10-06 20:17 by keefriff99.

I always thought he sounded a lot like JJ Cale, who also used his fingers.

Lindsey Buckingham also uses primarily finger picking, to often mindblowing results.

Wow thats hysterical, mainly cause I just said to my dad, who said he has all Mark's solo albums, "I wouldn't even know where to start. Its kind of like Richard Thompson, its all this extraordinary playing but the catalogue is so big its intimating." I do agree they are very similar, so its weird to see I guess they don't like each other.

Nice to see some fans here though! Yeah, I think they are really great and totally agree with Brothers In Arms being overrated. Probably my least favorite album of there's and easily the most boring and meandering so I was always surprised THATS the big one. After Walk Of Life, I don't know what casual listeners are getting into on that record.

As for the earlier stuff, its just brilliant. Making Movies and Love Over Gold are a classic one-two punch of studio albums, with me never truly being able to pick my favorite. Alchemy, as mentioned, is a perfect representation of all that early stuff, and agreed its one of the better live albums ever. I see what was said about a reunion not being worth it, and I don't listen to Mark's current stuff so he very well could be past that sound. But he does play key Dire Straits songs in his solo sets, and I just feel of all the bands, thats a very easy one to get back into. Its not like Zeppelin where it really is for young guys. As was mentioned, Dire Straits is great adult rock so I could see them very easily playing that material in their 60s and I'd just love to see a glory run, mainly cause I never got a chance to see them.

One of my favorites, didn't get to see them in the day but would love a reunion. They said it would work for The Police after Sting went solo but the 2007-2008 reunion tour quite nicely proved that theory wrong.

Telegraph Road is still one of the best songs of all time.

Thanks,

Mike


[www.flickr.com]

Love Making Movies, especially Tunnel Of Love and Romeo & Juliet. Sultan of Swing is great. But overall they bored me, I stopped listening to them long ago.

Big Fan of the band & Mark.

Fond memories of seeing them at the Cat Club in NYC afer their Radio City Music Hall gig. I took the train in from CT & met an old flame on the train who worked at the club. My plans were to go hear the Band at the Lone Star Cafe which I did & then walked over to the Cat Club at intermission & saw various band members jam a bit. I remember Mark was walking out the door & I stuck out my hand to shake his. Security hustled him past but he stopped walked back & shook my hand. I was (and still) impressed by that. A fun night in NYC to say the least.

Liked Dire Straits since I first heard them in college in the late 70s. Knopfler is a great guitarist.

Did you know...
Knopfler played on the Steely Dan (my other favorite band... btw) track "Time Out Of Mind" from Gaucho.

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RollingFreak
Wow thats hysterical, mainly cause I just said to my dad, who said he has all Mark's solo albums, "I wouldn't even know where to start. Its kind of like Richard Thompson, its all this extraordinary playing but the catalogue is so big its intimating." I do agree they are very similar, so its weird to see I guess they don't like each other.

I don't know if I'd go that far, but Thompson sounded a bit irritated when Maron brought Knopfler up, and said he understood why people see the similarity in their playing, and intimated that he ripped his sound off and there'd be tension between them if he knew him.

[www.wtfpod.com]

It's around 46:30 into the podcast.

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Bungo
Absolutely love them. You can't say too much about that band. Knopfler is a genius. Too many incredible songs to list. I saw their Brothers In Arms tour (their last tour) and was absolutely floored. If you haven't seen the CD of this tour you will not be disappointed.

What makes Knopler's guitar playing so good and so unique was that he played the electric guitar without a pick and only used his bare fingers - typically 2 or 3 fingers at once - "finger picking". That's how he could play so fast. That technique gives him his very distinctive sound and style. Almost nobody uses that technique.

lindsey buckingham from fleetwood mac is one of the only other guys i've seen play with that style

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keefriff99
Lindsey Buckingham also uses primarily finger picking, to often mindblowing results.

dang you beat me to it

I can´t stand the way how Mark Knopfler plays the guitar with his thumb.

I once saw him playing a double bill with Bob Dylan. His set was totally
clean and boring to my ears. Then Dylan came and half of the audience went away.
Dylan just did his thing and it was good.

This one was a massive hit (at least over here in Sweden) back in 1978. The guitar playing is sublime (Sultans of Swing):

[www.youtube.com]

Yes, I'm a fan, too!
Same history over the years, very similar to the Stones:

First 5 albums until/including "Brothers in arms" were fantastic and in fact MUSIC-HISTORY!

Then came the solo stuff and after that the fire was low.

The time after "Brothers in arms" until today:
Only here and then one, two or three great songs on an solo-album by Knopfler.
Rest mostly boring sleepy stuff! It's a little bit a shame.

For guitar nerds: [www.youtube.com]

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keefriffhard4life

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keefriff99
Lindsey Buckingham also uses primarily finger picking, to often mindblowing results.

dang you beat me to it

I saw Fleetwood Mac for for the first time this year at the L.A. Forum, and his guitar playing was amazing.
He's always been great on all the studio recordings, but to see him live was really stunning.
As a matter of fact, the show was so good I saw them again when they came back through the area several months later.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

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Hairball

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keefriffhard4life

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keefriff99
Lindsey Buckingham also uses primarily finger picking, to often mindblowing results.

dang you beat me to it

I saw Fleetwood Mac for for the first time this year at the L.A. Forum, and his guitar playing was amazing.
He's always been great on all the studio recordings, but to see him live was really stunning.
As a matter of fact, the show was so good I saw them again when they came back through the area several months later.

Yeah Buckingham is a masterful guitarest - In addition, Christie McVie is the heart of this band.

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Chris Fountain

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Hairball

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keefriffhard4life

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keefriff99
Lindsey Buckingham also uses primarily finger picking, to often mindblowing results.

dang you beat me to it

I saw Fleetwood Mac for for the first time this year at the L.A. Forum, and his guitar playing was amazing.
He's always been great on all the studio recordings, but to see him live was really stunning.
As a matter of fact, the show was so good I saw them again when they came back through the area several months later.

Yeah Buckingham is a masterful guitarest - In addition, Christie McVie is the heart of this band.

I had tickets to see them about 6 years ago without Christine Mcvie,
but something minor came up and couldn't make it so I gave the tickets away to a friend who said it was 'good'.
Glad I missed it then, as I may not have gone to see them this time around.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

Love them. Their first 4 albums are essential. Brothers In Arms had it's moments. On Every Street has a couple of good ones. Overall it's a great band.

Hate Knofflers voice. Sounds like he has a cold

Absolutely LOVE their first two albums (and corresponding live shows). After that, they increasingly developed into a major borefest.

never ever let 'em on me stereo .....



ROCKMAN

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Rockman
never ever let 'em on me stereo .....

aint heard from da outback of late- good

For me, Making Movies is in my top 10 of all time favorite albums

Dire Straits debut-album and Televisions Marquee Moon together with Costellos 2 first were the only albums that seriously could stole my ears from punk 1977 and 1978...

2 1 2 0

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Hairball

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keefriffhard4life

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keefriff99
Lindsey Buckingham also uses primarily finger picking, to often mindblowing results.

dang you beat me to it

I saw Fleetwood Mac for for the first time this year at the L.A. Forum, and his guitar playing was amazing.
He's always been great on all the studio recordings, but to see him live was really stunning.
As a matter of fact, the show was so good I saw them again when they came back through the area several months later.

I also saw Fleetwood Mac live for the first time this year at the Isle of Wight Festival, and was likewise blown away by Lindsey Buckingham's performance.

As for Dire Straits, I was a fairly big casual fan at one time (it sounds as though liking Brothers In Arms disqualifies me from proper fandom), and seeing this thread got me happily revisiting some favourite tracks. Mark Knopfler solo is something I've listened to on and off but never really got into, though I do dearly love the Local Hero soundtrack.

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keefriffhards

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Bungo
Absolutely love them. You can't say too much about that band. Knopfler is a genius. Too many incredible songs to list. I saw their Brothers In Arms tour (their last tour) and was absolutely floored. If you haven't seen the CD of this tour you will not be disappointed.

What makes Knopler's guitar playing so good and so unique was that he played the electric guitar without a pick and only used his bare fingers - typically 2 or 3 fingers at once - "finger picking". That's how he could play so fast. That technique gives him his very distinctive sound and style. Almost nobody uses that technique.

I think he got that technique from Chet Atkins, who got it from Merle Travis who got it from Django Reinhardt and Les Paul
I love it

Think he listened to a real lot of Richard Thompson.

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crholmstrom

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keefriffhards

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Bungo
Absolutely love them. You can't say too much about that band. Knopfler is a genius. Too many incredible songs to list. I saw their Brothers In Arms tour (their last tour) and was absolutely floored. If you haven't seen the CD of this tour you will not be disappointed.

What makes Knopler's guitar playing so good and so unique was that he played the electric guitar without a pick and only used his bare fingers - typically 2 or 3 fingers at once - "finger picking". That's how he could play so fast. That technique gives him his very distinctive sound and style. Almost nobody uses that technique.

I think he got that technique from Chet Atkins, who got it from Merle Travis who got it from Django Reinhardt and Les Paul
I love it

Think he listened to a real lot of Richard Thompson.

Yeah for sure

I've always liked the guitar/keyboard interplay on the Making Movies album, especially on Skateaway and Expresso Love. Producer Jimmy Lovine brought in the Professor, Roy Bittan, and he and Knopler meshed nicely.

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Hairball

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keefriffhard4life

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keefriff99
Lindsey Buckingham also uses primarily finger picking, to often mindblowing results.

dang you beat me to it

I saw Fleetwood Mac for for the first time this year at the L.A. Forum, and his guitar playing was amazing.
He's always been great on all the studio recordings, but to see him live was really stunning.
As a matter of fact, the show was so good I saw them again when they came back through the area several months later.

Although I enjoy their music, I wouldn't call myself a "fan" per se... That being said, after seeing them live back in 2003, they became a band that I will never "turn down the opportunity to see live". A bit of that is due to the obvious joy that Mick Fleetwood has during the show. The rest is because Lindsey Buckingham is a freak live. I never would have imagined. I'm not motivated to buy any additional albums, and probably wouldn't be the person who suggests going to see them, but I will see them any time, anywhere that someone else says, "hey, you wanna go see Fleetwood Mac live?" TWO BIG THUMBS UP for Lindsey Buckingham.

Peace,
Mr DJA