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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." Track listingĪll songs were written by Mark Knopfler, except where indicated. 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. Reviewing retrospectively for AllMusic, critic William Ruhlmann wrote of the album "There is an interesting contrast. It has been regarded as a self-portrait, a giant outpouring of energy and ideas brought forth over a long period of time. 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. The original painting, done between 19, was composed of many different elements and on 18 wood panels 203 cm x 1615 cm x 9 cm. 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. Alchemy is a hypothetical process once believed to turn ordinary elements into gold. The album cover artwork was adapted from a section of a painting by Brett Whiteley titled Alchemy 1974. It is followed by the brief "Carousel Waltz" intro and standard version of the song (with improvisation sections).
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" 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. The recording was mixed at AIR Studios in London in November 1983 where Nigel Walker was the engineer. The concerts were recorded by Mick McKenna using the Rolling Stones Mobile unit. RecordingĪlchemy: 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 album cover is taken from a painting by Brett Whiteley.Īlchemy: 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. Many of the songs have reworked arrangements and extended improvisational segments. 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. Dire Straits - Alchemy Dire Straits Live.jpgĪlchemy: Dire Straits Live is a double album and the first live album by British rock band Dire Straits, released on 16 March 1984 by Vertigo Records internationally, and by Warner Bros.
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