The missing decade

Near the end of the 70s, that turbulent era was about to splutter and enter the musical hell which I consider the 80s to be, similar in a way to how the late 90s just lost the plot and has still not recovered - in fact it's far worse.

But on the world stage, the end of the 70s and some way into the 80s produced one beacon of light at least - Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits. As with those old enough to remember JFK, people remember what they were doing when Dire Straits hit the scene.  I'd known about Sultans in the background, on the car radio into work, as my full-on career and new family life were in full flow and music was just something I had no time to pursue, not as in the 70s and then in the 90s.

Everyone knew of Brothers in Arms and that super-rock-star shtick, especially with that barefooted character I could not stand called Jack Sonni [maybe he's the nicest guy now] who was always trying to outshine Knopfler, the whole thing was too postulating for mine and Live Aid was the ultimate posing pits - all those people going along to give their money to third world warlords and despots for their palace renovations, plus I'd moved away from the left big time by then.

So it was not until the next odd numbered decade that I had a chance to actually listen to many songs by them I'd never heard and they weren't 'arf bad in places.  The ones I like best were the softer numbers where he played seriously but having said that, there's one fatal mistake rock bands make and that is - when the lead plays softly, for goodness sake, drummer - switch to brushes. 

Instead, what we got was some ethereal riff from Knopfler BASH of the drumsticks, various tones MK would then make which required silence about him, BASH, a soft build, BASH and so on - not the slightest cognisance on the part of the drummer as to what was going on.  So Far Away From Me was ruined because of that drum, just as with Roy Orbison and She's a Mystery, an otherwise brilliant song. Who on earth were the engineers?  

Never mind, it's all over now, the decades have passed and so are we passing.  Youtube of course do not give the best live versions of SofS - this was not too bad: