Every Mark Knopfler album accommodates hidden clues about his musical make-up. By the early a part of the twenty first century, that generally unconscious factor of his songwriting was main him ever farther from the stadium-sized rock of Dire Straits and again in direction of the people and acoustic inclinations of his early years. The outcome, launched on September 30, 2002, was (not counting his intensive movie soundtrack work) his third solo album, The Ragpicker’s Dream.
The introductory single “Why Aye Man,” which got here out two weeks earlier, gave an correct preview of the album’s broad theme, one to which Knopfler continues to allude. These had been songs about itinerant, dignified working-class individuals and their tenacious willpower to outlive. The tune has remained notably outstanding, and served because the opening quantity for the Down The Street Wherever Tour in 2019.
“Why Aye Man” turned the theme for the third collection of the TV hit Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, and mirrored its theme of Geordie labourers travelling from Tyneside to Germany for work, through the years of the UK’s Thatcher administration. As Knopfler wrote: “We had no way of staying afloat, we had to leave on the ferry boat/Economic refugees, on the run to Germany.” One of many present’s stars, Newcastle-born Jimmy Nail, could be heard shouting the title phrase, which merely means an enthusiastic “yes” in Newcastle, the place Knopfler additionally grew up.
Elsewhere on the album, the writer-guitarist employed one other recurring system, tracing the parallels between journeys to the English and American south, each in social historical past and in his personal profession. “Going down from Newcastle to London is going south,” he advised this author, “and going south in America was the mythical thing. That was always calling to me. So I was interested in imposing some of my own geography onto the music, from a song like ‘Southbound Again’ on the first [Dire Straits] album all the way over to ‘Fare Thee Well Northumberland’ on The Ragpicker’s Dream.”
That tune’s feeling of the narrator being compelled to go away their beloved house was palpable: “So drive me down to the central station, I hate to leave my River Tyne, for some damn town that’s godforsaken, goodbye old friend of mine.” There was additional particular geography in “Hill Farmer’s Blues,” which made reference to the small County Durham city of Tow Regulation.
From Nashville to London
The album was recorded in Nashville and London within the first six months of 2002, and launched two years to the week after its much-loved predecessor Crusing To Philadelphia. One of many visitor stars on that set, James Taylor, later advised this author that he thought of the title tune on the brand new report to be a masterstroke. “Oh, man, that’s one of the most amazing modern songs I know,” he mentioned.
Knopfler shared manufacturing duties on The Ragpicker’s Dream with Chuck Ainlay, and the checklist of gamers included different such frequent co-workers as Richard Bennett on guitars, Jim Cox on keyboards and Chad Cromwell on drums. Man Fletcher, Mark’s confidant since Dire Straits days, was on board as ever, and Paul Franklin added distinguished pedal metal to a few tracks.
Different tracks contained nods to associates and heroes that had motivated Knopfler alongside the best way. A kind of, a hero from pre-teen days, was the Shadows’ grasp guitarist Hank Marvin. “The Shads was the first sound, one of the very first, pre-Beatles, that got me hooked, me and thousands of others of course,” he mentioned. “My first electrical guitar needed to be purple due to Hank’s guitar.
“Say on a song like ‘You Don’t Know You’re Born,’ it finishes with a playout which is Hank in sound. When I was thinking about what it might need, that sound came to mind because Hank’s sound to me was so powerful as a child.”
An American nation music staple additionally earned a tip of the hat. “I had the great pleasure of meeting Roger Miller shortly before he passed away,” mentioned Knopfler. “He was a very charming man. You got the impression he could have been president of the United States if he’d wanted to be. ‘Quality Shoe’ is my nod to his ‘King Of The Road’ a little bit.”
The album made an prompt impression, debuting at No.4 on Music & Media‘s pan-European Prime 100 Albums chart after Prime 10 debuts in no less than 9 nations across the area. Gold standing adopted within the UK, Germany and elsewhere, and it was a chart-topping platinum report in Norway.
‘I still manage to be writing away’
Knopfler’s plans to take the album, and his expansive catalog, on the street in 2003 had been scuppered by a severe motorbike accident in London. 9 damaged bones left him unable to play the guitar for months, and requiring intensive physiotherapy. However inside a yr, he was recording his subsequent album, 2004’s Shangri-La.
In a later interview, he mentioned that, regardless of the distraction or the inconvenience, he has at all times been in a position to compose songs. “I can be easily distracted,” he mentioned. “That’s what the teachers always said about me. But even with that, I still manage to be writing away. So I’m still the ragpicker, in a way.”
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