"Once Upon A Time In The West" was released on Dire Straits second album, Communiqué, in June 1979. I have been a huge fan of this album since it was released, it's easily my favorite Dire Straits album, and I love them all. This song is one of the best. Play this one loud, because you've never heard it sound anywhere as good as the new MFSL hybrid SACD! Trust me here! ;-)
and....PLEASE like, comment n share it...or it'll get buried very quickly!?
The film is a stone cold masterpiece and if asked, it's often the one I list as my favorite of all-time. It is cinematic perfection....I've seen it probably over 100 times and I'm enthralled by every minute of it every time.
This is an update for one of my very first videos...the old, off pitch, uneven volume levels, and low bitrate .mp3 have been replaced here with a flac audio track sourced from the brand new Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs SACD. This various digital releases of this album have never approached how this record sounded on vinyl...until now. *From MFSL: Mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity's numbered-edition hybrid SACD of Communiqué elevates Dire Straits' sophomore album to an even higher plane. Reference-Level Detail, Depth, Soundstaging, Balance, and Presence: Communiqué Has Never Sounded Better.
What you hear on KZfaq (which will be very good!) will only be an approximation of what these CD's sound like fully uncompressed....STUNNING!
So this is a video I've been both anxious to make and also kind of dreading at the same time. It's always been one of my greatest KZfaq frustrations that my single most popular video (this one video accounts for over a sixth of the views I get on over 550 videos!) was one of the very first I ever made and it's always been just painful to watch (for me....thrilled that lots of folks enjoyed it!). I didn't think the video would get many views or be around long and I was really just experimenting as I learned keyframes, masks, layers, etc. So of course it needed an upgrade, I couldn't ever decide if I wanted to do a total update of the concept from the original, or mostly edit the film itself. I knew Leone's film would be more than I could probably handle editing into a 5 1/2 minute song (I actually considered using just the opening at the station to make the entire video! Not a bad idea actually! LOL!). I couldn't resist the temptation for more scenes, and in the end the editing doesn't make much sense, it's not in sequence, etc. just a random bunch of clips from a movie that it is too epic, and too perfect to be edited. Forgive me Sergio! ;-)
Besides the sketchy video used in the original, there is the issue of the audio, which is much more serious since it affects the music itself. Yikes! I've always felt a bit ashamed for having so many people hear the song with the audio as it was presented in the old video. First, the pitch was incorrect, and also there were several volume changes that occurred because I didn't really understand how to combine sound from individual clips with audio track. Only a handful of people ever commented on it, but it was pretty noticeable. Add to that the source was already a pretty shrill lower bitrate .mp3. So video bad, audio really bad! ;-)
I ended up finishing the update really quickly....and there were so many little odd and interesting things/effects that I occasionally chased....but again, you only got 5 1/2 minutes and you got Sergio Leone's "Once Upon A Time In The West"! And while I know the video could maybe have been worked to better effect.....the audio is absolutely the best this song has ever sounded.
The album produced the single "Lady Writer", which reached #45 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #51 on the UK Singles Chart. The album reached #1 on album charts in Germany, New Zealand, and Sweden, #11 in the United States and #5 in the United Kingdom. Communiqué was later certified gold in the United States, platinum in the United Kingdom and double-platinum in France.
I hope you enjoy the thing! Thanks for watching.
[Lyrics]
Some people get a cheap laugh breaking up the speed limit
Scaring the pedestrians for minute
Crossing up progress driving on the grass
Leaving just enough room to pass
Sunday driver never took a test
Oh yeah, once upon a time in the west
Yes it's no use saying that you don't know nothing
It's still gonna get you if you don't do something
Sitting on a fence that's a dangerous course
Ah, you could even catch a bullet from the peace-keeping force
Even the hero gets a bullet in the chest
Oh yeah, once upon a time in the west
Mother Mary your children are slaughtered
Some of you mothers ought to lock up your daughter
Who's protecting the innocenti
Heap big trouble in the land of plenty
Tell me how we're gonna do what's best
You guess once upon a time in the west
Oh yeah once upon a time in the west
Oh yeah once upon a time in the west
Oh yeah once upon a time in the west
Once upon a time in the west