Basil - Mark Knopfler (2015)

Описание: "Basil" was released in March 2015 on Mark Knopfler's eighth solo album, Tracker. Mark is such an amazing songwriter and guitarist and I'm happy to support his continued solo work which never fails to satisfy. Lots of solo stuff that I'd love to video....so doing a couple of my favorites from his last album. This one was just kinda thrown together as I haven't had much time lately for the vids. Hope you enjoy and thank for watching! 192kHz/24bit HD FLAC Audio!

The song is about Basil Cheesman Bunting (1 March 1900 – 17 April 1985), a British modernist poet whose reputation was established with the publication of Briggflatts in 1966. He had a lifelong interest in music that led him to emphasize the sonic qualities of poetry, particularly the importance of reading poetry aloud. He was an accomplished reader of his own work.

Basil tells the story of the singer-songwriter’s teenage days spent working as a copy boy for the paper in the early 1960's when Basil Bunting was a sub-editor; how he was paid 6/6d for a Saturday job, how he met a friend at a Newcastle ice cream parlour....and how he felt on top of the world after kissing a girl from Gateshead.

From Wiki:
According to the review aggregator website Metacritic, Tracker received generally favorable reviews, achieving a critical score of 70 based on 15 critic reviews. In his review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the album three and a half out of five stars, noting that the album is "scaled smaller" than his previous double-album effort Privateering, "easing its way into being instead of announcing itself with a thunder".Knopfler isn't pining for the past but he is looking back, sometimes wistfully, sometimes with a resigned smile, and he appropriately draws upon sounds that he's long loved.

In his review for American Songwriter, Hal Horowitz gave the album four out of five stars, observing:

Touches of Celtic, jazz, country and folk, but seldom rock, inform these lovely tunes that take their time as if on a leisurely stroll ... He's in no hurry telling these colorful stories that unspool slowly and deliberately. Like much of Van Morrison's best work, the relaxed pace provides the consistent thread that makes this a cohesive album instead of a batch of songs. The softly dignified pace, immaculately constructed lyrics and especially the immediately identifiable slithering guitar lines" all work to create "timeless songs that feel organic, measured and are clearly heartfelt as Knopfler crafts music that will sound as magnificent in 50 years as it does today."

Ken Capobianco, in his review for the Boston Globe, gave the album a positive review, writing, "Mark Knopfler continues his late-career resurgence with this skillfully crafted eighth solo effort, revealing a portrait gallery of quotidian and accomplished lives marked by yearning and reflection." Capobianco praised Knopfler's overall effort "delivering finely wrought, elegantly arranged songs of subtle depth and rich musicality". In his review for Rolling Stone, Will Hermes gave the album three and a half out of five stars, calling it "modest" and "multifaceted". Hermes noted, "Knopfler's quicksilver guitar is understated, and he delivers stories of stoic ache like an old watchmaker on a pub stool—quietly riveting."

In his review for The Telegraph, Neil McCormick gave the album three out of five stars, acknowledging the work's "understated refinement", but noting it "lacks the epic scope of Dire Straits". According to McCormick, there is a predictability to the album that undermines its effectiveness, noting, "Fans will find much to enjoy here, but it might be time for Knopfler to push himself out of his comfort zone." Ally Carnwath, in her review for The Guardian, also gave the album three out of five stars, observing a "predictable whiff of whiskey and rolling tobacco" about the effort. While Carnwarth notes Knopfler's inconsistency as a storyteller, she believes his music "remains a reliable source of warm bluesy guitarwork". In his review for Popmatters, John Garrett gave the album six out of ten stars, concluding, "It’s hard to nail down a specific identity for Tracker. The quality of each song is consistently good, but the album doesn't feel very cohesive when you step back to consider the whole package."

[Lyrics]
[Verse 1]
My Saturday job pays six and six down
A copy boy at the Chronicle
Five cigarettes and two silver half crowns
Meeting Vince at Mark Toney’s in town
Boy, do we get around

Basil sits there on the table for subs
But not a part of the Bri-nylon club
Ancient blue sweater, too old for the job
Bored out of his mind
With the Colins and Bobs

[Chorus 1]
I’m a jack and a lad
And I’m up for the world
And I’ve kissed a Gateshead girl

[Verse 2]
He calls for a copy boy, grumpy as hell
Poets have to eat as well
What he wouldn’t give just to walk out today
To have time to think about time
And young love thrown away

[Chorus 1]