Love over Gold

Love over Gold
Studio album by Dire Straits
Released 20 September 1982 (1982-09-20)
Recorded 8 March – 11 June 1982
Studio Power Station, New York City
Genre Rock, art rock, progressive rock
Length 41:15
Label
Producer Mark Knopfler
Dire Straits chronology
Making Movies
(1980)Making Movies1980		 Love over Gold
(1982)		 ExtendedancEPlay
(1983)ExtendedancEPlay1983
Singles from Love over Gold
  1. "Private Investigations"
    Released: 23 August 1982
  2. "Industrial Disease"
    Released: 1983

Love over Gold is the fourth studio album by the British rock band Dire Straits released on 20 September 1982 by Vertigo Records internationally and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. The album produced two singles, "Private Investigations", which reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart, and "Industrial Disease", which reached number 9 on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States. The fourteen-minute opus, "Telegraph Road" has gone on to become a favourite on FM radio worldwide. The album reached number 1 on album charts in Australia, Austria, Italy, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom, and number 19 in the United States. Love over Gold was later certified gold in the United States, platinum in France and Germany and double-platinum in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Background

Following the end of the On Location Tour on 6 July 1981 in Luxembourg, Mark Knopfler began writing the songs for Dire Straits' next album. Alan Clark (keyboards) and Hal Lindes (guitar), who joined the band for the On Location Tour, would also be involved with the new album.

Recording

Love over Gold was recorded at the Power Station in New York from 8 March to 11 June 1982. Knopfler produced the album, with Neil Dorfsman as his engineer—the first in a long line of collaborations between the two.

Knopfler used several guitars during the sessions, including four Schecter Stratocasters—two red, one blue, and one sunburst—a black Schecter Telecaster, an Ovation classical guitar on "Private Investigations" and "Love over Gold", a custom Erlewine Automatic on "Industrial Disease", and his 1937 National steel guitar on "Telegraph Road". Knopfler also used Ovation twelve- and six-string acoustic guitars during the recording.

Several songs were written and recorded during the Love over Gold session that were not released on the album. "Private Dancer" was originally planned for the album, with all but the vocal tracks being recorded. Knopfler decided that a female voice would be more appropriate and handed the song to Tina Turner for her comeback album, Private Dancer.[1] "The Way It Always Starts" ended up on Knopfler's soundtrack to the film Local Hero, with vocals sung by Gerry Rafferty. "Badges, Posters, Stickers and T-Shirts" was cut from the album and later released in the UK as a B-side to "Private Investigations". It was subsequently released in the United States as the fourth track on the ExtendedancEPlay EP.

Release

Love over Gold was released on 20 September 1982 on vinyl LP and cassette. "Private Investigations" was released as the lead single from the album in Europe, It reached the number 2 position in the United Kingdom. "Industrial Disease" was released as a single in the United States, reaching the 75 position on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1983.

The album was remastered and released with the rest of the Dire Straits catalogue in 1996 by Vertigo Records internationally, and in 2000 by Warner Bros. records in the United States. The remastered CD features slightly altered cover art; the album title is rendered underneath the band name, both in larger type, rather than arranged across the top. The image of lightning is also somewhat zoomed in and made brighter, making for a more purple colour. It is the only remastered Dire Straits CD with altered cover art (the US remastered CD still retains the original vinyl LP art).

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]
Robert ChristgauC+[3]
Rolling Stone[4]

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album four out of five stars, noting that the addition of a new rhythm guitarist "expands its sounds and ambitions".[2] Erlewine added, "Since Mark Knopfler is a skilled, tasteful guitarist, he can sustain interest even throughout the languid stretches, but the long, atmospheric, instrumental passages aren't as effective as the group's tight blues-rock, leaving Love over Gold only a fitfully engaging listen."[2]

In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone magazine, David Fricke gave the album four out of five stars, calling the album a "statement of purpose" and "an ambitious, sometimes difficult record that is exhilarating in its successes and, at the very least, fascinating in its indulgences."[4] Fricke continued:

Two drastically different moods dominate the new album. One is sharp and fiery (like the bolt of lightning on the cover); the other is soft and seductive. That dichotomy is particularly explicit in "Private Investigations", a long, unorthodox ballad in which Knopfler plays a private detective hardened by a life of combing through other people's dirty laundry. Over a discreet synthesizer ring, gurgling marimba and a delicately plucked acoustic guitar, he grumbles into his whisky glass like Bob Dylan in a trench coat: "You get to meet all sorts in this line of work Treachery and treason There's always an excuse for it," he recites in a raspy nicotine snarl. Then John Illsley sounds a quiet warning with a stalking bass line before the song erupts in dramatic bursts of guitar gunfire and tragic-sounding piano playing. This wracking schizophrenia between the heart and the heartless, the loving and the pain, has always informed Knopfler's songs and arrangements. Love Over Gold, however, finds Knopfler casting further than ever for ways to articulate the frustrations that colour his romantic streak.[4]

Fricke praised the album's centerpiece, "Telegraph Road", which he characterized as a "challenge to the average pop fan's attention span" with its "historic sweep and intimate tension".[4] The theme of the building of America and the dashing of one man's dreams "enable Knopfler to deploy a variety of surprising instrumental voices, from the synthesized sunrise whistle at the beginning to the baroque piano motif in the middle."[4] Fricke concluded that "in a period when most pop music is conceived purely as product, Love over Gold dares to put art before airplay."[4]

In 1986, Love over Gold had sold 4.4 million copies in Europe, whereas the album had only reached gold status in the United States by that stage.[5]

Track listing

All songs were written by Mark Knopfler.[6]

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Telegraph Road"14:17
2."Private Investigations"6:47
Total length:21:04
Side two
No.TitleLength
3."Industrial Disease"5:50
4."Love Over Gold"6:18
5."It Never Rains"8:00
Total length:20:08

Personnel

Dire Straits

Additional musicians

Production

  • Barry Bongiovi – assistant engineer
  • Peter Cunningham – photography[7]
  • Neil Dorfsman – engineer
  • Mark Knopfler – producer
  • Alan Lobel – photography
  • Bob Ludwig – mastering
  • Michae Rowe – sleeve design

Charts and certifications

Albums

Love over Gold spent 200 weeks in the UK Albums Chart.[8] In Australia, the album was the twelfth best-selling album in 1982 and the sixth best-selling in 1983.

Chart (1982–83) Peak
Australia Albums Chart 1
Austria Albums Chart 1
Italy Albums Chart 1
New Zealand Albums Chart 1
Norway Albums Chart 1
Spanish Albums Chart[9] 6
Sweden Albums Chart 2
UK Albums Chart 1
US Billboard 200 19

Singles

Year Song Peak positions
US Hot 100 US Rock Australia Italy Sweden UK
1982 "Private Investigations" – – 19 28 4 2
"Industrial Disease" – 9 – – – –
1983 75 – – – – –

Certifications

Region CertificationCertified units/Sales
Canada (Music Canada)[10] Platinum 100,000^
Finland (Musiikkituottajat)[11] Platinum 64,912[11]
Germany (BVMI)[12] Platinum 500,000^
Netherlands (NVPI)[13] Platinum 100,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[14] 2× Platinum 600,000^
United States (RIAA)[15] Gold 500,000^

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone

References

  1. ↑ Official Community of Mark Knopfler Accessed 3 June 2007
  2. 1 2 3 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Love Over Gold". AllMusic. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  3. ↑ Christgau, Robert (2011). "Dire Straits". Robert Christgau. Retrieved 5 July 2011.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Fricke, David (11 November 1982). "Dire Straits: Love Over Gold". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  5. ↑ "Love Over Gold RIAA gold certification". www.riaa.com.
  6. ↑ "Love Over Gold". Discogs. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  7. ↑ Love Over Gold (booklet). Dire Straits. Burbank, California: Warner Bros. Records. 1982. pp. 2, 11. 947772-2.
  8. ↑ "Love Over Gold". Chart Stats. 22 June 1996. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 19 January 2012.
  9. ↑ Salaverri, Fernando (September 2005). Sólo éxitos: año a año, 1959-2002 (1st ed.). Spain: Fundación Autor-SGAE. ISBN 84-8048-639-2.
  10. ↑ "Canadian album certifications – Dire Straits – Love Over Gold". Music Canada.
  11. 1 2 "Dire Straits" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland.
  12. ↑ "Gold-/Platin-Datenbank (Dire Straits; 'Love Over Gold')" (in German). Bundesverband Musikindustrie.
  13. ↑ "Dutch album certifications – Dire Straits – Love Over Gold" (in Dutch). Nederlandse Vereniging van Producenten en Importeurs van beeld- en geluidsdragers. Enter Love Over Gold in the "Artiest of titel" box.
  14. ↑ "British album certifications – Dire Straits – Love Over Gold". British Phonographic Industry. Select albums in the Format field. Select Platinum in the Certification field. Type Love Over Gold in the "Search BPI Awards" field and then press Enter.
  15. ↑ "American album certifications – Dire Straits – Love Over Gold". Recording Industry Association of America. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Album, then click SEARCH. 
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.