Despite these tough economic times, music fans are still evidently willing to fork over the big bucks to see their favorite artists perform. A confession: I attended four concerts this summer whose ticket prices exceeded $100.
But when you dig this deeply into your wallet, you expect to get what you paid for. You expect to hear at least some of the songs for which the performer you are seeing is best known.
Right?
Knopfler (above), the brilliant former lead singer, lead guitarist and songwriter for Dire Straits, is touring with Bob Dylan this fall. And I see from a set list posted online that in a concert this past weekend in Regina, Saskatchewan, Knopfler didn't play a single Dire Straits song.
Really, Mark? Not one?
I think it's safe to say that the majority of people who pay to see Knopfler in concert hope and expect to hear at least some of the songs that made him famous. Dire Straits, one of my very favorite bands, was deservedly one of the most popular bands in the world in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s.
One of the finest guitarists and songwriters we have, Knopfler is an enduring and prolific artist who continues to write amazing songs. He’s released eight solo records. But can you name one song from Knopfler's solo career without resorting to Google?
Chances are you can't. But I'll bet you can probably name plenty of Dire Straits songs. Just a few that come immediately to my mind are Sultans of Swing, Romeo and Juliet, Tunnel of Love, Making Movies, Private Investigation, Walk of Life, Lady Writer, Industrial Disease, Solid Rock, So Far Away, Down to the Waterline, Twisting by the Pool, and of course Money for Nothing.
I'm sure you’re getting my drift. As a singer-songwriter, I know it's an eternal quandary for a music artist, finding that delicate balance in concert between your newer material that keeps you feeling vital as an artist, and the older, more familiar songs most of your fans pay to hear but of which you may have grown somewhat weary.
I personally like hearing a few new and/or more obscure tunes by artists when I see them live. But like most fans, I also come to hear the tunes I know and love. Most artists honor that trust. Knopfler doesn't, and it kind of ticks me off.
And it seems to go beyond his desire to focus on the new. He seems hell-bent on erasing his past. If you go to
Even if Knopfler only devoted, say, half his show to his solo stuff and half to Dire Straits songs, I'd be fine with it. Even if he only sang four or five Dire Straits songs, I could still live with it. But that he plays only one Dire Straits song some nights and no Dire Straits songs on other nights is ridiculous.
It's is an insult to his longtime fans, especially since he's never had major commercial success with any of his solo work. While critics love almost everything he does - and so do I, for the record - none of the songs from his solo career have been big hits.
Here's Knopfler's set list from that concert over the weekend:
Even if Knopfler only devoted, say, half his show to his solo stuff and half to Dire Straits songs, I'd be fine with it. Even if he only sang four or five Dire Straits songs, I could still live with it. But that he plays only one Dire Straits song some nights and no Dire Straits songs on other nights is ridiculous.
It's is an insult to his longtime fans, especially since he's never had major commercial success with any of his solo work. While critics love almost everything he does - and so do I, for the record - none of the songs from his solo career have been big hits.
Here's Knopfler's set list from that concert over the weekend:
1. What It Is
2. Cleaning My Gun
3. Sailing to Philadelphia
4. Privateering
5. Redbud Tree
6. I Used to Could
7. Song for Sonny Liston
8. Done with Bonaparte
9. I'm The Fool
10. Haul Away
11. Miss You Blues
12. Marbletown
Terrific songs, all. But would you be happy with this set, no matter how well they were performed? I know I wouldn't.
A contemporary of Knopfler’s who does a better job of combining his familiar classics with his newer work is Colin Hay, lead singer and songwriter of another seminal 80s band, Men at Work. Hay is still making great music on his own, and he plays a lot of it in concert. But he doesn’t turn his back on his past.
Hay understands what made him famous. He knows what many of his fans want to hear. He still plays It’s a Mistake, Who Can it Be Now, Be Good Johnny, Overkill and other Men at Work classics. He still embraces his past while looking forward. In fact, this summer Hay released a newly recorded version of the the Men at Work classic Down Under in celebration of the song’s 30th year anniversary.
Dire Straits formed in England in 1977. It would be great if, on this 35-year anniversary of the formation of his band, Knopfler would follow Hay's lead and honor his own past, and his fans, by playing a few Dire Straits songs.
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