Love Over Gold [Original Recording Remastered, Import]

Habe zu meiner alten CD von 1983 mal dieses Remastering hier dazugekauft.
Auf dem Ghettoblaster mag die vielleicht besser klingen, aber wer eine Anlage hat, die Räumlichkeiten abzubilden vermag holt sich damit nur den totalen Frust. Damit verkommt die beste Hifi-Anlage zu Brülleimern.

Und hier ist es endlich drauf, das Lied mit dem tollen Txt. Lest euch den Text mal durch im Booklet. Es geht um einen Detektiv „Private Investigator", der in dem Stück besungen wird. Geschildert wird musikalisch und im Text das doch etwas mühseelige Treiben des Durchschnittsdetektives in einer Stadt. Nicht etwa zu vergleichen mit diesem anderen, dessen Serie just zu dieser Zeit gerade in die dritte Staffel ging ( MAGNUM P.I. ).

Da kommen da Passagen vor wie „ and what have you got, at the end of the day - what have you got to take away" . Und dies alles in eine Melodie eingehüllt, die so richtig von der Gitarre lebt. Macht euch ruhig den Spass und legt mal das booklet nebendran bei diesem Lied. Ist denn auch für mich das beste Stück von den Dire Straits.

Aber es gibt auch noch „Telegraph Road" mit über 14 Minuten. Da kommt die Gitarre noch besser. Was richtiges für abends im Bett mit dem DISC-MAN nebendran...

Zusammengefasst: Die sollte es sein von den DIRE STRAITS, wenn man die erste der Gruppe in die Sammlung holen will! (Dies ist eine Amazon.de an der Uni-Studentenrezension.)

Mark Knopfler obviously loves to write passacaglias -- pieces of music that start with a very basic theme, played by only one or very few instruments and, often over repeated crescendos and slow-downs, increasing in volume and instrumentation to a rousing finale, performed by either all instruments or the instrumental lead "voice;" in Knopfler's case of course his trademark Fender Strat. "Brothers in Arms" has elements of a passacaglia, and so does "Speedway to Nazareth" on his latest solo release, "Sailing to Philadelphia." His greatest achievement though, not only in this regard, has to be "Telegraph Road," the opening track of "Love Over Gold." In a little over 14 minutes, the song rises from a simple opening melody, evoking the loneliness of that man walking along a deserted track at the beginning of the song's story, to a final guitar solo which is among the most ambitious and evocative pieces of music written by anyone in recent decades, anywhere and in any musical category. In between, there are no less than two other guitar solos, each of them over a minute long; dramatic centerpieces in their own right in any song but this one. And like the song's instrumentation, its lyrics trace the story of civilization from that one man walking along a track to a modern city, with six lines of traffic (three lines moving slow), unemployment, desolation and anger; so apparent in Knopfler's coarse vocals in the final verse and echoed with even greater force in the instrumental finale.

"Telegraph Road" is followed by the sinister "Private Investigations," reminiscent of Alan Parsons's interpretation of the Poe classic "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" (listen to that steady beat underneath the instrumental part and tell me you don't hear the "Tell Tale Heart"), and as daring and elaborate in its composition as "Telegraph Road." Both pieces are made possible by the advent of Alan Clark and his skills as a pianist; and yet, here as there it is Knopfler's guitar play that takes front and center stage. Next is the wicked "Industrial Disease," followed by the album's title track, and last, "It Never Rains," Knopfler's bow to Bob Dylan, rendered in an interpretation so true to life that you inadvertently feel yourself transported back by a decade or more and expect him switch into "The Times They Are A-Changin'" any second. One may wonder why the record, given its mostly gloomy and cynical mood, was not named for one of the two equally stunning and dark first tracks. Perhaps, however, the answer lies in the title song's last verse: "It takes love over gold and mind over matter to do what you do that you must, when the things that you hold can fall and be shattered or run through your fingers like dust."

The album's cover rightly (although somewhat unnecessarily) describes "Love Over Gold" as "one of Dire Straits' most ambitiously conceived projects to date" and points out that it "reflects almost a year's worth of meticulous attention." Short of his film music (which he was not to start writing until a year later, with "Local Hero"), this album was the closest yet that Knopfler has come to classical composition; not just in the record's first two masterpieces but right down to little details like the xylophone air underneath the title track. It was a hard act to follow, even for a Mark Knopfler; and his virtually only choice was to take his music into other, and more diverse directions ("Brothers in Arms"). Listening to the remastered CD version of "Love Over Gold," you almost forget that unlike its mega-selling successor this recording was not "made for CD;" which in itself speaks volumes to the quality of the sound engineering and production and, more importantly, to the indeed "meticulous attention" given to every single instrumental and human voice of every single track on the album. In all of its 41+ minutes, and although it does not reflect as wide a range of musical styles as Knopfler's later work, "Love Over Gold" is one of the most complex pieces of recording he ever produced. It may have taken the release of "Brothers in Arms" to propel Dire Straits to worldwide fame forever. But it is impossible to listen to "Love Over Gold" and not recognize the unique talent of a man who, having found an initial foothold in the musical scene through the success of his band's first three albums, here made it clear once and for all just how much more the world had yet to expect from him.