I’m feeling a little under the
weather today. This rarely happens to me and my usual approach is to ignore it.
And on that note, let’s get on to the music!
Disc 836 is….Kill To Get Crimson
Artist: Mark
Knopfler
Year of Release: 2007
What’s up with the Cover? An artful take on a row of
scooters. The guy on the left has parked his so it takes up multiple spots.
When you do this with a car it is called “high siding.” In either case it is
done by jerks.
How I Came To Know It: I love Mark Knopfler’s solo
stuff. When he puts out an album, I just go buy it. That’s what happened here.
Sorry there isn’t more mystery.
How It Stacks Up: I have eight Mark Knopfler solo albums, not
counting the albums he does in partnership with other artists. One of those
albums had to come in last and sadly, “Kill to Get Crimson” is the one.
Ratings: 2 stars
With pockets overflowing from his career in Dire
Straits, Mark Knopfler’s second career as a folksinger/songwriter has always
had the air of “I do whatever I want” about it. For the most part, I find
myself loving picking up what Mark is putting down, but on “Kill to Get Crimson”
he lost me a bit.
Knopfler has an innate talent to tell a story, and
he likes the stories of real historical people and characters that just feel real
enough to have existed with equal ability. It helps if you like a rambling tale
or two about ordinary folks getting by in the world, and generally I do. I also
enjoy the way Knopfler weaves intricate blue notes into the stories, letting his
guitar’s voice mingle with his to punctuate the tale.
Regrettably, while “Kill to Get Crimson” has the
same formula for success, I found the results uneven. There are tales of Second
World War boys learning to dance while waiting to ship out to D-Day, aging
boxers and struggling painters. It’s a rogue’s gallery that is perfect for
Knopfler’s insightful touch but I found I had to make an effort to get into these
songs. It might be the music more than the lyrics, but whatever it is, I wasn’t
drawn in.
“Heart Full of
Holes” does a better job, singing of a holocaust survivor. This song’s tune
didn’t blow me away but Knopfler’s ability to cover a topic in a dignified and
respectful way won me over nonetheless.
The best character study on the album is “The Scaffolder’s Wife” about an aging
wife of a local tradesman. She keeps the company books and goes into town once
a week in her big convertible Mercury:
“The quick little steps
In the stiletto boots
And the hair with the roots
She comes in as a rule
To get the nails done
And the tan for the sun
When the kids are in school.”
Knopfler’s vision of this person is a lovely palette
of hard and soft qualities. Here is a woman who is tough and blue collar, but
still wants to feel like a lady. If she spends a little bit of money on a nice
car and a few pleasantries, let’s remember she’s had a hard life and earned a
little luxury. By the end of the song I just want to give this woman a big friendly
hug she felt so real to me.
The other standout on the album is “Punish the Monkey” a song about how so
often the people who take the fall for something going wrong are not the
masterminds behind it at all. The song’s metaphor being that we punish the
monkey ‘but let the organ grinder go.”
While “The
Scaffolder’s Wife” has a lilted folk refrain, “Punish the Monkey” has Knopfler digging more into the blues, a
fitting musical form for betrayal and injustice. This song also shows the best
of Knopfler’s guitar work on the album. On other songs I felt like I’d heard
the solos before on earlier tracks, but “Punish
the Monkey” has a fresh feeling while remaining solidly in Knopfler’s
wheelhouse.
And more than anything, that is this album’s saving
grace; that Knopfler plays guitar on it. He is the best there is, and even when
he’s just ambling through a few new songs the result is better than what most
axe-men can muster.
I wanted to like this album more than I did, and I
even kept it on rotation for an extra day but I couldn’t bring it above two
stars. It could be that I am comparing Knopfler against his own work, which is
a tall mountain to climb. Whatever it was, “Kill To Get Crimson” was merely OK
for me.
Best
tracks: True Love Will Never Fade, The Scaffolder’s
Wife, Punish the Monkey
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