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Summer or its proximity has played an important role in the career of the Dire Straits. In fact, besides being the preferred season for tours, it is also the chosen period for releasing albums. This was the case for this "Live At The BBC" which appeared on the market on June 26, 1995, composed of no fewer than six tracks taken from their first eponymous work, from "What's The Matter, Baby?" (a perfectly fitting link between "Sultans Of Swing" and "Lady Writer" and the only testimony composed by the then brothers Mark&David) and from a version of about eleven minutes of "Tunnel Of Love" performed in Germany on January 31, 1981.
This nice little disc brings back to light an evening in July 1977 during which the four-member formation of the DS (Mark Knopfler: vocals-lead&rhythm guitar, David Knopfler: rhythm guitar, John Illsley: bass, and Pick Withers: drums) almost entirely presents their debut work, giving tracks like "Down To The Waterline", "Six Blade Knife", and "Water Of Love" an ambiance not so different from the studio versions, yet equally fluid and pleasantly raw. The absence of keyboards (except for "Tunnel Of Love" where the runaway David is no longer present, but Hal Lindes on guitar and Alan Clark on keyboards) makes it so the basic instruments of every respectable rock band tattoo that sound which, for the Straits, will be like DNA for human beings. The veiled melancholy behind the performance of "Wild West End" reveals the less-known side of the band, helping the listener understand how vast the musical ground is on which to move; through "Lions" we are drawn to harmonious sounds where Mark Knopfler's country sympathies, filtered with the right electricity, yield remarkable results. The version of "Sultans Of Swing" (announced without applause), I believe, is one of the most beautiful live versions captured on CD, showing itself in its entirety enriched with a rougher sound and a typically aggressive rhythm that certainly does not lose the comparison with the original.
There is no doubt that with this release there was an intention to make up for the lack of worldwide release of "Live In U.S.A." (published only for the U.S. market in 1979), but also to satisfy that state of addiction of many ardent fans, who craved to know that very brief period of "non-popularity" of a band that almost immediately secured a permanent spot in the world rock firmament. In essence, to date, the only official testimony to appreciate the skill and mastery of... four craftsmen just doing their job: Making Music!
Tracklist and Lyrics
01 Down to the Waterline (04:09)
Sweet surrender on the quayside
You remember we used to run and hide
In the shadow of the cargoes I take you one time
And we're counting all the numbers down to the waterline
Near misses on the dogleap stairways
French kisses in the darkened doorways
A foghorn blowing out wild and cold
A policeman shines a light upon my shoulder
Up comes a coaster fast and silent in the night
Over my shoulder all you can see are the pilot lights
No money in our jackets and our jeans are torn
Your hands are cold but your lips are warm
She can see him on the jetty where they used to go
She can feel him in the places where the sailors go
When she's walking by the river and the railway line
She can still hear him whisper
Let's go down to the waterline
02 Six Blade Knife (03:47)
your six blade knife do anything for you
anything you want it to
one blade is for breaking my heart
one blade for tearing me apart
your six blade knife - do anything for you
you can take away my mind like you take away the top of a tin
when you come up from behind and lay it down cold on my skin
took a stone from my soul when i was lame
just so you could make me tame
you take away my mind like you take away the top of a tin
i wanna be free of that thing - i don't want it no more
i wanna be free of it now - you know i don't want it no more
everybody got a knife it can be just what they want it to be
a needle a wife or something that you just can't see
you know it keeps you strong
yes and it'll do me wrong
your six blade knife - do anything for you
05 Sultans of Swing (06:38)
You get a shiver in the dark
It's raining in the park, but meantime
South of the river you stop and you hold everything
A band is blowing dixie double four time
You feel alright when you hear that music ring
Well now you step inside but you don't see too many faces
Coming in out of the rain to hear the jazz go down
Competition in other places
Ah but the horns, they blowin' that sound
Way on down south
Way on down south, London town
Check out Guitar George, he knows all the chords
Mind he's strictly rhythm, he doesn't want to make it cry or sing
Yes and an old guitar is all he can afford
When he gets up under the lights to play his thing
And Harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene
He's got a daytime job, he's doing alright
He can play the honky tonk like anything
Saving it up for Friday night
With the Sultans
We're the Sultans of Swing
Then a crowd of young boys, they're fooling around in the corner
Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles
They don't give a damn about any trumpet playing band
It ain't what they call rock and roll
Then the Sultans
Yeah, the Sultans they played creole
Creole
And then the man, he steps right up to the microphone
And says at last just as the time bell rings
Goodnight, now it's time to go home
Then he makes it fast with one more thing
We are the Sultans
We are the Sultans of Swing
06 Lions (05:26)
Red sun go down way over dirty town
Starling are sweeping around crazy shoals
A girl is there high heeling across the square
Wind blows around in her hair and the flags upon the poles
Waiting in the crowd to cross at the light
She looks around to find a face she can like.
Church bell clinging on trying to get a crowd for Evensong
Nobody cares to depend upon the chime it plays
They're all in the station praying for trains
Cogregations late again
It's getting darker all the time these flagpole days
Drunk old soldier he gives her a fright
He's crazy lion howling for a fight.
Strap hanging gunshot sound
Doors slamming on the overground
Starlings are tough but the lions are made of stone
Her evening paper is horror torn
But there's hope later for Capricorns
Her lucky stars give her just enough to get home
Then she's reading about a swing to the right
But she's thinking about a stranger in the night
I'm thinking about the lions tonight
What happened to the lions.
08 Tunnel of Love (11:56)
getting crazy on the waltzers but it's the life that I choose
sing about the sixblade sing about the switchback and a torture tattoo
and I been riding on a ghost train where the cars they scream and slam
and I don't know where I'll be tonight but I'd always tell you where I am
in a screaming ring of faces I seen her standing in the light
she had a ticket for the races just like me she was a victim of the night
I put a hand upon the lever said let it rock and let it roll
I had the one arm bandit fever there was an arrow through my heart and my soul
and the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above
and I'm just high on the world
come on and take a low ride with me girl
on the tunnel of love
it's just the danger when you're riding at your own risk
she said you are the perfect stranger she said baby let's keep it like this
it's just a cake walk twisting baby step right up and see
hey mister give me two give me two now cos any two can play
and the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above
and I'm just high on the world
come on and take a low ride with me girl
on the tunnel of love
well it's been money for muscle another whirligig
money for muscle and another girl I dig
another hustle just to make it big
and walkaway walkaway
and girl it looks so pretty to me just like it always did
like the spanish city to me when we were kids
oh girl it looks so pretty to me just like it always did
like the spanish city to me when we were kids
she took off a silver locket she said remember me by this
she put her hand in my pocket I got a keepsake and a kiss
and in the roar of the dust and diesel I stood and watched her walk away
I could have caught up with her easy enough but something must have made me
stay
and the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above
and I'm just high on the world
come on and take a low ride with me girl
on the tunnel of love
and now I'm searching through these carousels and the carnival arcades
searching everywhere from steeplechase to palisades
in any shooting gallery where promises are made
to walkaway walkaway
to walkaway walkaway from cullercoats and whitley bay out to walkaway
and girl it looks so pretty to me like it always did
like the spanish city to me when we were kids
girl it looks so pretty to me like it always did
like the spanish city to me when we were kids
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By AJM
Listening again to what the Dire Straits initially were, here without piano, keyboards, saxophone... relying only on their original lineup oriented towards the stages of those small smoky clubs.
May Mark Knopfler continue to make music as long as he breathes, it can only do good to the world, but the Dire Straits should stay right where they are.
