Dire Straits: Every Album, Every Song

Por mais incrível que possa parecer, fora a autobiografia do baixista John Illsley, não há livros sobre esta banda. O que é inacreditável, levando-se em consideração sua importância artística e histórica., mesmo hoje, tantos anos depois de seu término. Consciente disso, o autor Andrew Wild aproveitou esta oportunidade para tentar responder às muitas curiosidades e dúvidas que os fãs do Dire Straits teriam sobre o grupo em geral e o seu líder, Mark Knopfler, em particular.Wild é definitivamente um fã e seu trabalho de pesquisa é incrível, mas também é, antes de tudo um escritor de primeira, que sabe apresentar um trabalho agradável e objetivo. Pra arrematar, ele também entende bastante de música, fazendo análises interessantes de cada faixa já gravada pela banda, mas, felizmente, sem se aprofundar demais em teorias. As ótimas letras de Knopfler (um ex professor de literatura inglesa) também são estudadas e dão uma excelente visão de suas idéias e temas, como a inspiração para escrever os hits Sultans of Swing e Money For Nothing, entre outras.Enfim, como disse outra pessoa resenhou aqui, é espantosa a quantidade de informações que ele consegue passar em apenas 140 páginas, ainda mais sendo 8 delas só de fotos.Embora não seja a proposta desta série, Dire Straits On track se torna, assim, uma pequena, mas rica e bem escrita, biografia, em ordem cronológica e contando com dezenas de citações do próprio Knopfler, membros do Dire Straits e de pessoas que participaram da história da banda, esclarecendo e informando a trajetória deste extraordinário grupo que brindou sua época e além com uma musica única e atemporal. Este volume é um dos melhores da série On Track e totalmente indispensável para qualquer um vagamente interessado na saga do Dire Straits.

Having just discovered this amazing band and Mark Knopfler only 7 months ago ( where have I been all these years?) this book was an invaluable source of information to me. ILearned a lot, and enjoyed hearing about all the connections and compilations with other performers such as Clapton, Vince Gill and Bob Dylan. The book discusses each song and provides MK’s inspirations, thoughts about the lyrics snd song meanings, and also contains snippets of interviews with other band members, producers, engineers etc. Being as I am in the US, I am not familiar with every song, or every version of every song, but this book goes into meticulous detail and research. I enjoyed the book very much. Fantastic read and very nicely done! I will now have the enjoyment of trying to hunt down some of the more obscure songs and performances!

And I thought Andrew's QUEEN...ON TRACK was excellent. This is exactly what this CASUAL Dire Straits fan was after. I have all of the studio CDs, the first 5 LPs, and rate LOVE OVER GOLD as a masterpiece. And Alchemy on DVD. But apart from the occasional interview and the wonderful TV programme with Brian Johnson (AC/DC), I have not gone out of my way to study the band. However, I do like to know where songs evolve from.This book is wonderful on all levels. Very well written. Plenty of official input from former band members. Wild roots out old interviews and selects the most relevant information from them.I can't believe how much information is held within the 114 pages taken up with the printed words about Dire Straits (+16 pages of photos, + several other pages of usual stuff). If you want to know about the chord structure and the musical notes, then this book may dissapoint (Mike Oldfield...On Track was more that way inclined). There is some mention of Chords and motifs but it's not overkill.This is a serious read. A job well done. And most importantly of all... a very enjoyable read. And of course, just like all the other "...On Track" books I have, perfect to dip in and out of.The photos I have included are deliberately not showing the full write-up bar 2 songs. Sultan's Of Swing has almost 3 pages dedicated to it.

Decent overview of the band's songs but there's nothing really new or exciting here. I read it once and that's enough.

As the Dire Straits discography is, shall we say, not large (but quality over quantity) this book is also a full history of the band, with extensive up-to-date interviews from band members (but not Mark Knopfler himself, although he is quoted from).Not being a superfan I don't know how accurate some of the stuff is, but for me this reference book is good value at around £11 and, as I have all the studio albums, it does me just fine and is all I need.