Why I admire Mark Knopfler
I always liked Dire Straits, but it was not until I took his solo album, SAILING TO PHILADELPHIA, out of the library, that I grasped the dimesion and intelligence and depth of interests of the man. The songs are mostly about America, in one way or another; there’s a ballad alternated wityh James Taylor, the title track, about Mason and Dixon, English surveyors who drew the Mason-Dixon line. There’s another about the cicil rights struggle, from the POV of an itinerant black preacher who’s “sung the word for 33 years,” that is both heartbreaking and affirmative. And on and on.
I listen to this CD over and over again: because it is great music and thoughtful music and always makes me think.
