Get On, Clip In, Fall Off

Albums of my life: Alchemy

There are some albums which feel like they've been with me my whole life, and I'm listening to one of them now. At the age of 11 or 12 I acquired (probably by pinching, sorry, borrowing from my brother) a TDK AD90 cassette tape holding a copy of Alchemy by Dire Straits and I've been listening to it regularly ever since. For those who don't know, Alchemy is a live album recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in July 1983 using the Rolling Stones mobile and released in early 1984, just before the vast global success of Brothers In Arms (which conveniently coincided with widespread adoption of CD players) changed the band forever.

At one-and-a-half hours for a mere eleven tracks you might be forgiven for thinking it's some kind of experimental prog rock album or Eno-esque ambient noodle. It's neither - some tracks are simply very, very extended when compared with the studio recordings, but Knopfler and co manage to make them interesting, storming through a "greatest hits to date" set including an epic 11-minute Sultans of Swing. The whole thing's recorded without overdubs or remixing, and it's a shame that what was presumably the limits of the original release format (double LP) led to some tracks from the original gig being omitted from the album. If those tapes are still in the vault, whoever now owns them could probably make a great deal of money re-releasing the album with the missing tracks restored.

I think that by now I must know every note of this album and probably every random yell from the crowd as well, but it still sounds as fresh and, more importantly, as rocking as it was when it was first released. Just don't look at the photos in the CD booklet, in which a headband-wearing Knopfler wearing a pastel-coloured jacket straight out of Miami Vice makes it very clear what decade the album was recorded in.

I bought my own copy at some point in the past and more recently bought it on CD so that old AD90 is long gone, but all I have to do is dial up Alchemy on my iPod and I'm transformed back to being an awkward 14-year old who doesn't take enough baths and thinks that quoting lyrics is the ultimate in profound discourse. Not literally, you understand - the last thing I want to be is 14 again, but you know what I mean - it's one of those albums which I can hardly remember ever not having around.

Alchemy is definitely what people who spend too much time in record shops would call a seminal live album. As a bonus, it's also the only Dire Straits album which it's not necessary to be embarrased to confess to owning. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to hammering out the piano part to Romeo and Juliet on my desk.

Posted by mpk at June 11, 2004 10:00 PM | TrackBack