Jesus H.--almost two weeks late...
I've noted this before (no idea which post, too many now for remembering some word of wisdom (?) that I dropped in the intro), but originally, I had planned to feature a lot more tunes that were album cuts that didn't get released as singles, or at best were a third or fourth single released when the moment had passed. Over time my top of the pops sensibilities got in the way, but there are still a few long-abandoned album tracks that I'm going to feature--like this week's tune....
I wrote about Dire Straits wondrous first single in Jukebox, Vol. XLVII, and as the band has been disbanded since 1995, and with Mark Knopfler again claiming just last year that he would never play with the Dire Straits again, the only thing to add is that they were finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. And that Knopfler--true to form--did not show up for the ceremony.
Fun Fact: In its listing of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time," Rolling Stone ranked Knopfler at twenty-seventh. In a completely unsurprising related note, I did not make their list at all.
"Communique" was the fourth song on Dire Straits second album, the rather communicatively entitled Communique. The song was not released as a single, but the album reached #5 in their native U.K., and #11 here in America. In Germany, however, the album debuted at #1, while their previous album was still at #3--so many cool kids in Germany!
As I was doing my half-assed research this week and listening to our featured tune a number of times, it dawned on me that "Communique" could conceivably be about Knopfler himself, who was never fond of his celebrity, and that the "communique" could actually be his songwriting, where he could be more deliberate that one normally can be with the press. Neither here nor there, I suppose, but I also noticed that the song in many ways foreshadowed their phenomenal success over the next ten years with its playful lyrics and Knopfler's wink, wink, nudge, nudge vocals. It was definitely in the vein of so many of their hit singles to come--top notch guitar playing, a catchy as all hell melody and equally so chorus, and the incorporation of more instruments to give a grander sound. All of which is to say, it's a great tune that time has forgot--but not here in the annals we call Friday Night Jukebox....
Lyric Sheet: "They want to get a statement for Jesus' sake/It's like talking to the wall/He's incommunicado, no comment to make/He's saying nothing at all..."
Enjoy:
Republicans = Nazis
Peace,
emaycee
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