• Voto:
...il lupo perde il pelo ma non il vizio....
A dire la verità, non mi ha mai irritato il fatto che il sagace Mark Knopfler, da un certo punto della sua carriera in poi, abbia sempre cercato di dilatare i tempi intercorrenti tra le pubblicazioni dei suoi dischi, in quanto le anelate attese sono state sempre ricompensate dall'uscita di lavori pregevoli se non addirittura superlativi. Ne sono la testimonianza il valido "On Every Street" uscito a quasi sei anni e mezzo dal multi-seller " Brothers In Arms", e proprio quest'ultimo la cui uscita giunse a quasi tre anni dal magnifico "Love Over Gold". "Sailing To Philadelphia" non fa di certo eccezione a questa consolidata abitudine, visto che rappresenta il capitolo successivo al discreto "Golden Heart" comparso nelle vetrine più di quattro anni prima, per la precisione il 26 marzo 1996.
Un lavoro in cui Knopfler sembra essere stato illuminato e dotato di un nuovo spirito creativo, che ce lo fa apprezzare in una veste più vicina di quanto possiamo immaginare, a quel suono scivoloso e spontaneo che ha sempre contraddistinto l'eccellente livello della sua produzione, come la maggior parte del suo complesso percorso artistico. STP è un disco molto raffinato in cui convergono ricercatezza e perfezione stilistica, che non hanno nella maniera più assoluta la presunzione di forzare il raffronto con nessuno dei capolavori realizzati a nome Dire Straits. Un'elegante cocktail che trova nelle esplorazioni country venate di rock ed in quelle blues tinte di folk gli ingredienti più assidui, gli stessi che hanno contribuito ad una fluida stesura dei pezzi e ad una naturale sistemazione di tutti gli elementi, che in maniera molto ricercata ne hanno personalizzato in positivo il prodotto finale.
Parte il riff di "What It Is", un brano diretto in cui la scorrevolezza della strofa prepara il terreno per un ritornello dalla melodia ben strutturata come l'assolo ideale che segue, inducendo chi ascolta, a pensare che l'intera composizione non avrebbe affatto sfigurato su alcuno degli album dei DS. "Sailing To Philadelphia" (ispirata dal romanzo "Mason & Dixon" dello scrittore americano Thomas Pynch) è cantata a due voci con James Taylor (che impersona l'astronomo Mason) e Knopfler (che recita la parte del geordie Dixon), che dispiegano a pieno quel lato più musicalmente poetico, che ha sempre caratterizzato la loro comune ed innata disinvoltura esecutiva per uno dei brani più incantevoli di questo disco. Un'armonica sconsolata introduce "Balooney Again" che mostra senza tanti fronzoli la facciata più intima del più recente percorso musicale del chitarrista, mentre l'inizio chitarra/voce di "Who's Your Baby Now" trasforma gradualmente una ritmica ballata da saloon, in una perfetta sintesi tra i Notting Hillbillies e quelle pillole di country patinato presenti su "On Every Street".
Per chi abbia avuto il piacere di approfondire la "complicata materia Knopfler", si sarà sicuramente accorto che tra gli argomenti ricorrenti nelle sue lyrics del passato, si è parlato spesso di viaggi (Southbound Again), sviluppo (Telegraph Road) o del raggiungimento della consapevolezza (Love Over Gold), così come a tutt'oggi l'oscura "Prairie Wedding" (con l'aiuto Paul Franklin alla pedal steel) affronta proprio il tema della determinazione e la voglia di raggiungere una meta, in particolare se posta alla fine di un tortuoso percorso. L'impeccabile contributo di Van Morrison nella tenera "The Last Laugh", una di quelle tracce così ben riuscite da far pensare anche ad un intervento dell'illustre ospite anche in sede compositiva, supposizione nettamente smentita dallo stesso Mark durante le interviste di promozione al disco. Un'altra gran bella prova d'autore è data dalla springsteeniana "Silvertown Blues", la traccia che meglio racchiude la personificazione del mito americano, attraverso quella naturale inclinazione narrativo/musicale che riporta all'uniforme ritmo di "Where Do You Think You're Going", dove british roots e american rock confluiscono in un'unica anima.
Le amabili armonie di "Sands Of Nevada" ed il blues del Mississipi di "Junkie Doll" sono affiancate da "Speedway At Nazareth", il cui iniziale treno-ritmico, grazie alle voci di Gillian Welch e David Rawlings, anticipa un coro a tre voci a cui tutti gli strumenti contribuiscono per la stesura di un degno tappeto sonoro, la cui lodevole evoluzione è rappresentata dal perfetto amalgama che pedal steel, violino e chitarra riescono ad instaurare in pieno equilibrio, facendone un brano davvero esemplare.
Che altro dire, un lavoro in cui il leader dei Dire Straits non si pone come chitarrista in assoluto, ma più come songwriter dall'ingente bagaglio professionale sulle spalle, che mira alla ricerca dell'esemplarità compositiva (visti anche i numerosi e prescelti ospiti di cui si è avvalso), seguendo la strada delle proprie passioni. La stessa strada che affonda le radici in un rock americano vellutato che il gruppo dell'impeccabile "Communiqué" aveva reinventato, tracciando un percorso musicale che oggi riesce ad avere in questo disco un esaltante seguito a cui una maggior dose di vivacità non avrebbe di certo guastato.
............di comporre ancora un buon disco.
Elenco tracce testi e video
02 Sailing to Philadelphia (05:29)
[Knopfler]
I am Jeremiah Dixon
I am a Geordie Boy
A glass of wine with you, sir
And the ladies I'll enjoy
All Durham and Northumberland
Is measured up by my own hand
It was my fate from birth
To make my mark upon the earth...
[Taylor]
He calls me Charlie Mason
A stargazer am I
It seems that I was born
To chart the evening sky
They'd cut me out for baking bread
But I had other dreams instead
This baker's boy from the west country
Would join the Royal Society...
[Both]
We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
The Mason-Dixon line
[Taylor]
Now you're a good surveyor, Dixon
But I swear you'll make me mad
The West will kill us both
You gullible Geordie lad
You talk of liberty
How can America be free
A Geordie and a baker's boy
In the forest of the Iroquois...
[Knopfler]
Now hold your head up, Mason
See America lies there
The morning tide has raised
The capes of Delaware
Come up and feel the sun
A new morning is begun
Another day will make it clear
Why your stars should guide us here...
[Both]
We are sailing to Philadelphia
A world away from the coaly Tyne
Sailing to Philadelphia
To draw the line
The Mason-Dixon line
03 Who's Your Baby Now (03:06)
The rock your stood upon
Is broken up and gone
Hey baby, who's your baby now
On the slipway of your dream
Stands someone else's scheme
Hey baby, who's your baby now
Your baby now, baby now
Your baby now, your baby now
The ancient trade you ply
Ain't enough to get you by
Hey baby, who's your baby now
The yard is locked and closed
The old guard has been deposed
Hey baby, who's your baby now
Your baby now, baby now
Your baby now, your baby now
You always had to be the kind
To have to say what's on your mind
And hey, you really showed 'em how
You used to laugh about
How you used to dish it out
But hey, who's laughing now
'Cos the rock you stood upon
Is broken up and gone
Hey baby, who's your baby now
Yeh the rock you stood upon
Is broken up and gone
Hey baby, who's your baby now
04 Baloney Again (05:09)
We don't eat in no white restaurant
We're eating in the car
Baloney again, baloney again
We don't sleep in no white hotel bed
We're sleepin' in the car, baloney again
You don't strut around in these country towns
You best stay in the car
Look on ahead don't stare around
You best stay where you are
You're a long way from home, boy
Don't push your luck too far
Baloney again
Twenty-two years we've sung the word
Since nineteen thirty-one
Amen, I say amen
Now the young folk want to praise the Lord
With guitar, bass and drums, amen
Well I'll never get tired of Jesus
But it's been a heavy load
Carrying His precious love
Down a long dirt road
We're a long way from home
Just let's pay the man and go
Baloney again
The lord is my shepherd
He leadeth me in pastures green
He gave us this day
Our daily bread and gasoline
Go under the willow
Park her up beside the stream
Shoulders for pillows
Lay down your head and dream
Shoulders for pillows
Lay down your head and dream
05 The Last Laugh (03:21)
Laughs and jokes
And drinks and smokes
And no lights on the stairs
We were young, so young
And always broke
Not that we ever cared
Not that we ever cared
Well, the holes in the walls
Were such a lot
Welcome to London town
But when you’re new to it all
And you think you’re hot
You’re not planning on hanging around
People would go on their different ways
I left to start a band
A note came through the letter box
In your childlike hand
Oh, laughs and jokes
And drinks and smokes
And no lights on the stairs
We were young, so young
And always broke
Not that we ever cared
Not that we ever cared
One day I rode to where you were
The doorbell jangled a note
They buzzed me in
I climbed the stairs
In my boots and leather coat
There’s an old brass
Standing there at the top
Without her witch’s broom
It almost seemed like a knocking shop
When the girls came out of their rooms
And they all stood around
And stared at me
Two brunettes and a blonde
Then the old brass shrugged and said
We don’t know where she’s gone
Later on I picked up the ball
And I took off down the line
I suppose by then I’d realised
You’d run into hard times
Oh, laughs and jokes
And drinks and smokes
And no lights on the stairs
We were young, so young
And always broke
Not that we ever cared
Not that we ever cared
06 Do America (04:11)
Well I have been it every since I was a kid at school
Now they love me in Newcastle and in Liverpool
I am as hard as a pistol I can't do no wrong
I've been in Birmingham and Bristol to play my song
Take the 777 to the USA
Gonna party all night and gonna sleep all day
Seen the New York City cause I never been
New York City in a limousine
Gonna do America do do America
Do America do do America now
Take the 777 over to LA
Gonna party all night and gonna sleep all day
Wake up and try to ??? I get the coolest girl in town
Do america do do america
Do America do do America now
Now the people go nah nah
Another people go wah wah
Another people go gah gah when I
Do America do do America
Do America do do America
Do America do do America
Do America do do America now
Backstage passes for the food and booze
Sunglasses from the interviews
Statue of liberty
Everybody looking at me
Do America do do America
Do America do do America now
Do America do do America
Do America do do America now
Do America do do America
...
07 Silvertown Blues (05:30)
On Silvertown way the cranes stand high
Quiet and gray against the still of the sky
They won't quit and lay down though the action has died
They watch the new game in town on the Blackwall side
From the poisonous drains a vision appears
A new circle of cranes, a new reason to be here
A big silver dome rising up into the dawn
Above the church and the homes where all the silver is gone
If I'd a bucket of gold, what would I do
I'd leave the story untold Silvertown blues
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown
A silver dawn steals over the docks
A truck with no wheels up on the cinderblocks
Men with no dreams around a fire in a drum
Scrap metal schemes rusted over and done
If I'd a bucket of gold, silver would do
I'd leave the story untold Silvertown blues
And I'm going down in
Down in Silvertown
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown
When you're standing on thin and dangerous ice
You can knock and walk in for citizens' advice
They'll tell you where you can turn, where you can go
There's nothing they can tell me I don't already know
If I'd a bucket of gold, silver would do
I'd leave the story untold Silvertown blues
And I'm going down in
Down in Silvertown
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown
From the Caning Town train I see a billboard high
There's a big silver plane rising up into the sky
And I can make out the words 'seven flights every day'
Says six of those birds are bound for JFK
If I'd a bucket of gold, what would I do
I'd leave the story untold Silvertown blues
And I'm going down in
Down in Silvertown
Going down in Silvertown
Down in Silvertown
08 El Macho (05:28)
Your date has gone home
Now you're left on your own sweet own
Your tough - talkin' friend
Split on you in the bitter end
And you look like a fine thing Jerry
Yeh you look like a fine thing Jerry
They say you're a star
That's what the boys all say you are
I don't see much TV
So you don't mean shit to me
But you look like a fine thing Jerry
Yeh you look like a fine thing Jerry
They got a name for people like you
Yeh they do
And they got a name for people like me too
El Macho, El Macho
Now they want you to sing
Don't get shy or anything
The boys are all here
Gonna buy you another beer
'Cos you look like a fine thing Jerry
Yeh you look like a fine thing Jerry
El Macho, El Macho
09 Prairie Wedding (04:26)
We only knew each other by letter
I went to meet her off the train
When the smoke had cleared and the dust was still
She was standing there and speaking my name
I guarantee she looked like an angel
I couldn't think of what I should say
But when Adam saw Eve in the garden
I believe he felt the selfsame way
I handed her up on the wagon
And I loaded up her trunk behind
She was sitting up there with the gold in her hair
And I tried to get hold of my mind
Do you think that you could love me Mary
Do you think we got a chance of a life
Do you think that you could love me Mary
Now you are to be my wife
We finally headed out of the station
And we drove up to the home trail
And when we came to the farm she laid a hand on my arm
I thought my resolution would fail
And I froze as she stepped in the doorway
Stood there as still as could be
I said I know it ain't much, it needs a woman's touch
Lord she turned around and looked at me
Do you think that you could love me Mary
You think we got a chance of a life
Do you think that you could love me Mary
Now you are to be my wife
We had a prairie wedding
There was a preacher and a neighbour or two
I gave my golden thing a gold wedding ring
And the both of us said I do
And when the sun's going down on the prairie
And the gold in her hair is aflame
I say do you really love my Mary
And I hold her and I whisper her name
Do you think that you could love me Mary
You think we got a chance of a life
Do you think that you could love me Mary
Now you are to be my wife
10 Wanderlust (03:52)
Big black cloud
On a yellow plain
Sure enough it
Looks like rain
Packin' up all our
Faith and trust
Me and the wanderlust
Open window
Empty bed and chair
Who's that callin'
Ain't nobody there
I look behind me
And I see there's just
Me and the wanderlust
Dead of night
I had a dream
Sky was bright yes and the
Fields were green
I was down the road
In a cloud of dust
Me and the wanderlust
And I'm on the egde
Of an endless fall
Sure enough
He's come to call
Got to go now
Get on that bus
Me and the wanderlust
11 Speedway at Nazareth (06:23)
After 2000 came 2000 and one (2001)
To be the new champions, we were there for to run
From springtime in Arizona, 'til the fall in Monterey
And the raceways were the battlefields and we fought 'em all the way
It was in Phoenix in the morning, I had a wakeup call
She went around the without a warning and put me in the wall
I drove at Long Beach, California with three cracked vertebrae
And we went on the Indianapolis, Indiana anyway
Well, the Brickyard's there to crucify anyone who will not learn
I climbed a mountain to qualify went flat through the turn
And I was down in the might-have-beens and an old pal good as died
And I sat down in Gasoline Alley and I cried
Well we were in at the kill again on the Milwaukee Mile
And in June up in Michigan we were robbed at Belle Isle
Then it was on to Portland, Oregon for the G.I. Joe
And I blew off almost everyone when I my motor let go
New England, Ontario we died in the dirt
Those walls from Mid Ohio to Toronto they hurt
So we came to Road America where we burned up at the lake
But at the Speedway at Nazareth I made no mistake
12 Junkie Doll (04:35)
Turnpike Lane, Turnpike Lane
You spiked my arm
But you missed the vein
Now it's all gone
But the scars remain
Junkie doll, I was stuck on you
My junkie doll
Turnham Green, Turnham Green
You took me high
As I've ever been
Now it's all gone
And now I'm clean
Junkie doll, I was stuck on you
My junkie doll
And a little bit of this'd get you up
And a little bit of that'd get you down
A little bit of this'd get you up
And a little bit of that'd get you down
And a little bit of this'd get you up
A little bit of that'd get you down
A little bit of this'd get you up
A little bit of that'd get you down
Turnpike Lane, Turnpike Lane
You took my heart
Pan American
Now rain or shine
It's all the same
Junkie doll, I was stuck on you
My junkie doll
And a little bit of this'd get you up
A little bit of that'd get you down
A little bit of this'd get you up
A little bit of that'd get you down
And a little bit of this'd get you up
A little bit of that'd get you down
A little bit of this'd get you up
A little bit of that'd get you down
13 Sands of Nevada (03:58)
These tables are haunted
By the ghost of Las Vegas
Their chips were once mountains
But they came here to play
They could take me if they wanted
But I have nothing worth counting
And like the sands of Nevada
They go drifting away
Lady luck's still a mystery
With her head on my shoulders
And I don't know why
I still want her to dance
I guess that's all history
What it is is I'm older
And I'm still a fool
For a one-way romance
Her dice were red rubies
They rolled and they tumbled
And I never saw time
Running out with my roll
And in a wasteland of cut glass
My dreams have all crumbled
And I've paid with whatever
I had left for a soul
Now the dawn's broken even
On an empty horizon
No reason for folding
No reason to stay
It's too soon to be leaving
Too late for criticising
And the sands of Nevada
They go drifting away
14 One More Matinee (04:08)
Here's one of the two of us
In 1954 don't laugh
I keep all of the pictures
Are you going to take a photograph
Here's something nice for you
A dear old thing came to a show
Last time here we did
An interview on local radio
Make yourself at home my darling
Come on in
Hand me down that jar love
Can I offer you a gin
We're proud to be the oldest
Ugly sisters in variety
There's not the glamour now
You see what happened to society
There's another light bulb gone
They don't all answer to the switch
I don't know how we carry on
And her she couldn't care the bitch
But in a while the old boys
In the band begin to play
And in a while the houselights
And the curtains slide away
And something's going to happen
To make your whole life better
Your whole life better one day
Something's going to happen
To make your whole life better
Your whole life better one day
Now the landlady's all squared away
It's just a temporary deal
I'm afraid tonight it's take-away
You see there is no evening meal
Don't worry dear you shall go to the ball
I think the fairy said
These suitcases have seen it all
From under someone else's bed
You want to smile those tears away
Now don't you cry
You want to know what I say
I say never say die
'Cos something's going to happen
To make your whole life better
Your whole life better one day
Something's going to happen
To make your whole life better
Your whole life better one day
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Altre recensioni
Di Dune Buggy
"Questi detrattori avranno pure ragione, ma come si può biasimare un artista quando ci presenta lavori come questo?"
"Gli amanti del country-folk più caldo e puro potrebbero tenere nel cuore alcune di queste chiarissime ballate."
Di cacchione
Knopfler è di sicuro uno dei migliori chitarristi della scena mondiale, ma in questo album dimostra di essere anche un musicista completo, eclettico, difficilmente catalogabile.
Ti accorgi che stai ascoltando un capolavoro.
