Four decades of hindsight reveal just how pivotal a release was Love Over Gold for Dire Straits (released 9/24/82), While it is not actually the first LP in which the ensemble ceased to function as a quartet or the first official instance of film scoring on the part of Mark Knopfler, in his role as titular leader of the group, the guitarist/songwriter/vocalist was quite emphatic in ushering in new directions on both fronts for the British group.
The transition from the four-piece lineup of the eponymous Dire Straits debut and Communique actually began during the recording of 1980’s Making Movies. Knopfler’s brother David departed early in the sessions for that album and after the older sibling recut the rhythm guitar parts, he and producer Jimmy Iovine (Springsteen, Petty, Patti Smith) brought in keyboardist Roy Bittan from The E Street Band to at least maintain the facade of a unified combo.
It is true that the score Knopfler composed for the movie Local Hero is actually his first formal such venture, but there’s no denying the cinematic quality of Love Over Gold. The fact its deeply evocative, the imagistic atmosphere has less to do with musicianship itself than the nature of the compositions, in conjunction with the production. As such, this fourth effort of the group reconfigures its creative framework.
This is mood music extraordinaire, the drama intrinsic to the songs amplified by the arrangements, with the instrumental interactions of the core group functioning more as punctuation and emphasis rather than fundamental exposition. There’s plenty of the readily-recognizable sound of Knopfler’s clipped, country blues electric guitar–it sets the stage for and amplifies the mood of each scene in the “Telegraph Road” opener–but that’s only slightly more prominent than the precise fingering of acoustic fretboards from which such performances as that one blossom.
Nonetheless, most of this album is as far removed from the bar band simplicity and economy of “Sultans Of Swing.” As is also the case with the greater proportion of the very next Dire Straits, Brothers In Arms. Still, that 1985 LP had the infectious likes of “Money For Nothing” and on its predecessor, only “Industrial Disease” comes close: in its Farfisa organ-dominated sound, it’s cut from the same cloth as “The Bug” and “Walk of Life” of that aforementioned blockbuster.
But while this tongue-in-cheek hook-laden cut was placed in the middle of the five on the ‘82 release–at that time the first track on side two of a vinyl LP–it is otherwise virtually overshadowed by its surrounding, most especially the haunting cut just prior. The lyrics of “Private Investigations,” together with the whispered instrumentation, sounds like the aural depiction of one of those despairing inner dialogues that beset Raymond Chandler’s iconic mystery man Philip Marlowe.
As with the subsequent album, where Knopfler placed emotional expression in the midst of travelogs, historical chronicles, etc., he leaves a final personal note here: “It Never Rains” is as foreboding as this album cover image of a dark night sky split by lightning. Like the title song, it is distinguished by the soft glow of Mike Mainieri’s vibes and marimba and further embroidered upon through the work of the quintet listed in the credits.
Guitarist Hal Lindes, bassist John Illsey, drummer Pick Withers and keyboardist Alan Clarke are all in vigorous motion together through the close of the track, effectively camouflaging the unmistakable aura of Bob Dylan’s influence on the author’s lyrics. And together the fivesome also fulfills a similar purpose at more than a few other junctures on Love Over Gold too, helping to mask, if not wholly transcend, some all too obvious nods to the melodrama of Springsteen.
Forty years on, Dire Straits has never sounded quite so overtly derivative as they do here. Nevertheless, the record reaffirms Mark Knopfler’s growing expertise in making records, so Love Over Gold remains stirring precisely because its whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.
