Rock Drummer Reacts and Rates - Get ready for a rhythmic journey as a seasoned rock drummer, delves into the beats, fills, and musical intricacies of Dire Straits' live version of 'Sultans of Swing' - Alchemy
In this episode, I’ll break down the song's overall musicality. As the song unfolds, watch me react to the twists and turns and finish the video with an overall rating of the track.
Whether you're a fellow drummer or simply a music enthusiast, this reaction promises to add a unique dimension to your listening experience. Join me as we explore the beats that make the music come alive!
From Wikipedia:
Alchemy: Dire Straits Live is a double album and the first live album by the British rock band Dire Straits, released in March 1984[4] by Vertigo Records internationally, and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. Recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 22-23 July 1983, the album features songs from the band's first four albums, the ExtendedancEPlay EP and Mark Knopfler's Local Hero soundtrack. Many of the songs have reworked arrangements and extended improvisational segments. The album cover is taken from a painting by Brett Whiteley.
Alchemy: Dire Straits Live was remastered and reissued with the rest of the Dire Straits catalogue in 1996 for most of the world outside the United States and was remastered and re-released in the USA on 8 May 2001.
In November 2023, Alchemy was re-released and expanded for the box set Live 1978-1992.
Recording
Alchemy: Dire Straits Live was recorded live at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 22-23 July 1983, the final two concerts of Dire Straits' eight-month Love Over Gold Tour promoting their album Love Over Gold. The concerts were recorded by Mick McKenna using the Rolling Stones Mobile unit. The recording was mixed at AIR Studios in London in November 1983[2] where Nigel Walker was the engineer.
The opening track, "Once Upon a Time in the West" is preceded by an uncredited version of the "Stargazer" instrumental from the Local Hero soundtrack. "Tunnel of Love" is preceded by an otherwise unrecorded instrumental (actually faded in from the extended coda of "Portobello Belle", which was left off the album), already played on the 1981 tour, but here re-arranged to showcase Mel Collins' saxophone. It is followed by the brief "Carousel Waltz" intro and standard version of the song (with improvisation sections).
Cover artwork
The album cover artwork was adapted from a section of a painting by Brett Whiteley titled Alchemy 1974.[2] Alchemy is a hypothetical process once believed to turn ordinary elements into gold. The image of a guitar with lips held by a hand was added for the album design and covers sexually suggestive imagery in the original. The original painting, done between 1972 and 1973, was composed of many different elements and on 18 wood panels 203 cm x 1615 cm x 9 cm. In terms of media it used everything from feathers and part of a bird's nest to a glass eye, shell, plugs and brain in a work that becomes a transmutation of sexual organic landscapes and mindscapes. It has been regarded as a self-portrait, a giant outpouring of energy and ideas brought forth over a long period of time.
Critical reception
Reviewing retrospectively for AllMusic, critic William Ruhlmann wrote of the album "There is an interesting contrast .... between the music, much of which is slow and moody, with Mark Knopfler's muttered vocals and large helpings of his fingerpicking on what sounds like an amplified Spanish guitar, and the audience response. The arena-size crowd cheers wildly, and claps and sings along when given half a chance, as though each song were an up-tempo rocker." Ruhlmann concludes, "The CD version of the album contains one extra track, "Love Over Gold," which adds a needed change of pace to the otherwise slow-moving first disc."[5]
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