Comments on: Working for a living.

By: ER

ER — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 22:22:47 +0000

I never said I didn’t have political opinions. What I said was my opinions were abstract and academic. I don’t need to change the world. I just want to understand how it works so I can live in it. And so far, it’s working out just fine for me.

I don’t believe I am capable of changing others’ political opinions by talking about them and I certainly know I can’t change the political direction of a society by talking about it.

I went to college in a time when a lot of people were constantly whining publicly about politics, and I thought they were crashing bores then, even though I agreed with them more often than not.

By: TB

TB — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:15:57 +0000

Yep. Must be.

I wanna hear the story again about how I forced all those refried leftist ideas into the head of a nice, mild-mannered, apolitical guy.

Did you go out and buy a bunch of books after you started reading my posts?

By: ER

ER — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 20:58:16 +0000

It sounds to me like Knopfler knew exactly what he was doing, and you missed it.

By: TB

TB — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 20:53:00 +0000

Mark Knopfler:

Q: The layers of irony in “Money for Nothing” have certainly confused people.

A: I got an objection from the editor of a gay newspaper in London – he actually said it was “below the belt.” Apart from the fact that there are stupid gay people as well as stupid other people, it suggests that maybe you can’t let it have so many meanings – you have to be direct.

In fact, I’m still in two minds as to whether it’s a good idea to write songs that aren’t in the first person, to take on other characters. The singer in “Money for Nothing” is a real ignoramus, hard hat mentality – somebody who sees everything in financial terms. I mean, this guy has a grudging respect for rock stars. He sees it in terms of, well, that’s not working and yet the guys rich: that’s a good scam. He isn’t sneering.

- Interview in Rolling Stone, 1985

Sometimes the canals are on this end of the telescope.

By: ER

ER — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:38:51 +0000

I’m not a Dire Straits fan, but this malicious little ditty is a masterpiece. Musically it is quite interesting, a catchy tune and extremely well played. But it is the lyric that is so disturbing. DS has captured perfectly the rage and frustration of the dispossessed, the exploited and the helpless. They satirize the vicious anger and poisonous envy that is directed at them (not DS specifically, but to the entire artistic community, or more specifically, the entertainers the warehouse navvies somehow have confused with a ruling elite) and the undercurrents of sex, money, power, and even homophobia and misogyny that makes it up.
Dire Straits has composed an anthem of sympathy for the underdogs of the working class, and they have disguised it as an attack on its short-sightedness, its barely repressed violence, and its unwholesome and infinite hatred. But is not an attack. It recognizes them while lamenting their helplessness and confusion. The loading dock rats that inspire the tune have no political awareness, no understanding of what has happened to them, no appreciation of the conditions that led to their agony, no recognition of who their true class enemies are; so they pour their bile out on rock musicians. What a waste, what a masterpiece of pointless misdirection.
The rock stars get the money, the girls, the easy jobs; it’s all their fault. They are the ones to blame. Perhaps they are the ones who should be punished? Who taught them this? How did this all get so turned around? Dire Straits isn’t a particularly “political” band but they hit this nail right on the head. There’s a lot of hatred out there, looking for vengeance in all the wrong places.
Remember the movie “Joe” from a few years back, the one with a young Peter Boyle in one of the most powerful dramatic performances of the 60s? Or the film “Taxi Driver” with De Niro? These characters, like the workers in “Money for Nothing”, lash out tragically and brutally, but they are victims too. And the artist can see this, and respond to it.
This is good music, and it is great art, and I think we can be proud to have lived in an age where it was not only produced, but where it was distributed to and accepted by a vast public. Let’s just hope it reaches enough of us and is understood by enough of us, to make a difference. But even if it fails as propaganda or journalism or politics, it has succeeded as art. DS knew exactly what they were doing, and they cared enough to do it. They deserve credit for that. And times like this deserve great art.

By: ER

ER — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:34:58 +0000

There’s a lot of truth in Rock and Roll. That’s why our parents didn’t want us to listen to it.

By: RobVG

RobVG — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 18:21:17 +0000

"Now look at them yo-yo's, that's the way you do it..."

Dire Straights

By: bowser

bowser — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:55:08 +0000

Wow. And here’s one for you.

I’ve never listened to Huey before, and I love that. Bookmarked it. I used to wish for a new body – should have wished for a new drug.

My first wife is a physician but always wanted to be a rock ‘n’ roll singer. At one point she rented a huge drum set and put it in the basement. She’d band, pound and wail to her hearts content. (And she wondered why I drank so much!)

Thanks for opening my ears.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QQzbCmlZM4

By: ER

ER — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:22:40 +0000

And this one’s for Bowser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6uEMOeDZsA&feature=relmfu

Damn! I love rock and roll. I’d give my left nut if I could do that.

By: Jody

Jody — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 17:04:33 +0000