Dire Straits - Communiqué (1979)

 Warner Bros. Records ■ HS 3330

Released June 15, 1979

Produced by Jerry Wexler and Barry Beckett

Engineered by Jack Nuber

Mixing Engineered by Gregg Hamm

Mastered by Bobby Hata

Side One:	Side Two:
Once Upon a Time in the West News Where Do You Think You're Going? Communiqué	Lady Writer Angel of Mercy Portobello Belle Single-Handed Sailor Follow Me Home

If I'm going to talk about Dire Straits, which, in this case, I obviously am, the starting point is simple: Mark Knopfler is, stylistically, my favourite guitarist, bar none. Like many, I spent part of high school spewing obvious names for "best guitarist ever", but have long since abandoned this for two simple reasons: first, none of us knows all the guitarists, not even all the guitarists in popular music, nor what performances are comfortable for them versus extreme work, and second, I'm not a player myself, so how could I really judge such a thing? What I can do, though, is establish a sound that I personally like--and, of course, that is not a singular sound in all honesty. I've (more privately) expressed appreciation for the tone Jeff Beck achieved on his peculiar, semi-electronic records from the early '00s. Eric Johnson, too, is noted particularly for his tone. Andy Gill of Gang of Four has a wonderfully clangy, abrasive style, so on and so forth. But, given the option,  I choose Knopfler consistently, because I like the way he plays in-and-of itself, rather than as appropriate for a style, for virtuosity, or because it ends up with clear and pretty sounds--it does those, but is unmistakably a guy playing guitar at the same time.