Dire Straits - Alchemy - Dire Straits Live -1984 UK Press- Vertigo 2LP EX++
$
75
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Description
Please see all my AUDIOPHILE listings, I combine ship
1984 UK Press
Gatefold sleeve with original black poly-lined inner sleeves. Vinyl, inners and cover all Ex++
Track listing
Show track creditsDire Straits live at the Hammersmith Odeon, London. Recorded over two nights, 22-23 July 1983, while on the tour for the album Love Over Gold. Song listing: Once Upon a Time in the West; Expresso Love; Romeo and Juliet; Private Investigations; Sultans of Swing; Two Young Lovers; Tunnel of Love; Telegraph Road; Solid Rock; Going Home - Theme from Local Hero.
Superb. Excellent music, expertly performed and perfectly captured. There's an artistry to the whole event, from the minutiae of the performances, to the arrangement of the songs, to the song running order. Even the closing track is perfectly chosen!
there might be no better single document of Dire Straits’ early sound than the 1984 live album ALCHEMY. Recorded over two nights at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, ALCHEMY finds the band running through a smart set of early gems, stretching out and hitting the mark, in front of an audience of appreciative fans, who cheer and sing along throughout.
Not surprisingly, the best songs on the album are the longest. An 11-minute take on “Sultans of Swing” features a mid-song guitar solo in which Knopfler fingerpicks with even greater speed and dexterity than usual, followed by a breakdown that enables him to slow the song to a crawl before building the tempo back up again. The album’s rendition of “Tunnel of Love” covers 14(!) minutes, with an extended intro that gives the audience a bit of a breather (albeit a quite beautiful, melodic one) before the band unfurls the full drama of the song’s opening. And at 13 minutes, the aforementioned “Telegraph Road,” with all its dynamic changes and contemplative passages, builds in intensity and doubtless left the audience breathless.
There are other, shorter bursts that mark the record. “Solid Rock,” in particular, bounces with energy and palpable strength. “Private Investigations,” conversely, does wonders with quiet, as Knopfler’s fingerpicked gut-string guitar work sounds like three players are going at it instead of just one. And “Romeo and Juliet,” one of the band’s best story songs, is played with looseness and a bit of fun, much to its benefit.
Though not often spoken of when classic live albums are discussed, ALCHEMY captures Dire Straits at a high point before their biggest commercial achievement, and it’s well worth a spin today, to remind ourselves of that fact.
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