Tracker es un álbum de Mark Knopfler, publicado en 2015. El disco incluye 11 canciones, entre ellas «Laugh And Jokes And Drinks And Smokes», «Basil», «River Towns» y «Skydiver».
Sobre el álbum
El octavo álbum en solitario de Mark Knopfler se titula "Tracker" y fue lanzado el 16 de marzo de 2015 por los sellos Mercury (en Reino Unido) y Verve (en estados Unidos), bajo la producción del propio Knopfler.El álbum fue grabado en los estudios British Groove Studios, en Londres, e incluye once temas de diferente temática, siempre con tono irónico, incluyendo dos temas dedicados a Beryl Bainbridge, un poeta británico que no obtuvo el reconocimiento hasta después de su fallecimiento, y Basil Bunting, al igual que el anterior, un poeta modernista que enfatizaba la sonoridad musical en sus poemas.
Mark Knopfler huye de discos para un público masivo. Eso era para Dire Straits. Ahora, en su carrera en solitario, prefiere temas más cercanos, susurrar letras acompañado de su guitarra y contar historias más íntimas.
Si bien es cierto que en alguno de los temas, como en "Broken Bones", Knopfler saca su vieja garra de guitarrista, la mayoría del álbum lo componen temas susurrados, de los que podríamos escuchar en una taberna en buena compañía y en una atmósfera relajada.
El álbum "Tracker" tiene influencias de jazz, de country, de folk y de música celta. El tema "River Towns" es un canto a la soledad, con un soberbio toque de saxo. La nostálgica "Silver Eagle" es interpretada tan solo por la guitarra desgarrada de Knopfler y toques de piano.
Un álbum este de Mark Knopfler que derrocha melancolía y que le sitúa en las antípodas de los sonidos de su anterior banda.
Listado de Canciones
- Laugh And Jokes And Drinks And Smokes6:39
- Basil5:44
Letra
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 I’m a jack and a lad And I’m up for the world And I’ve kissed a Gateshead girl 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 I’m a jack and a lad And I’m up for the world And I’ve kissed a Gateshead girl Starlings swarming A cloud over Grainger Street Over the black church Over the Black Gate And the shadowy Keep He peers through his wire rims At the fish and chip words He’s supposed to dish up and forget His drudgery now has become slightly blurred By one of his Players untipped cigarettes Bury all joy Put the poems in sacks And bury me here with the hacks In the summer the fair Will stretch over the Moor Lovers will lie and make out in the park Basil puts on his old duffel and scarf And goes out into the dark - River Towns6:16
Letra
I came in three days early To meet my boat It ain’t the life of Riley But it’s keeping me afloat It’s quiet over Christmas If you got no place to go I got my home from river rats The only home I know I found myself a flophouse And I hit the streets at nine Get some grub and drink a beer Maybe go down the line These chips will take your money Shake a young man down It’s the same in every one of these Sorry river towns River towns, sorry river towns River towns River towns, sorry river towns River towns Well I picked me up a bottle To take back to the room Then I saw a young girl standing In a doorway in the gloom We’d hardly started talking The old scenario And I just let her work me over Down by the Ohio River towns, sorry river towns River towns River towns, sorry river towns River towns When I asked her if she’d like to stay She was down my stairs so quick I never asked what got her started With the sorry river tricks So I get the bottle open But something’s hit a nerve And I’m looking in the mirror At the face that I deserve River towns, sorry river towns River towns River towns, sorry river towns River towns - Skydiver4:38
Letra
I’ve been banned from every racecourse in the country There’s something about the unsure thing Like scoring with a beauty of the county It always makes the old bell ring I like to go for broke and I’ll be randy It’s got to be the unsure thing In the Bentley Continental with the brandy It always makes the old bell ring And when it’s gone, all gone I’ll stand on a hilltop and sing I go where I want, I do what I want And I don’t give a damn about a thing Skydiver Today I lost a packet at Wincanton Dive Bomber in the 2.15 All on the nose and no-one counting Nothing wishy-washy in between Back when I made the pivotal decision To take a winding road that I could see It was just like being given an incredible permission The rules don’t apply to me And when it’s gone, all gone I’ll stand on a hilltop and sing I go where I want, I do what I want And I don’t give a damn about a thing Skydiver I’m not being brave, it’s my money, not my life When I need to take a break from the brushes and the knife And I always took a fancy to the ones Heading straight into the teeth of the guns Skydiver - Mighty Man5:55
Letra
A room on the top floor And the chest all but knackered Two fingers not working And the back’s shot to hell It’s a lifetime of digging trenches In the cold and wet weather And for laying half the roadway In England as well You’d finish in the one place It was straight to the next one And you never could settle And you were always alone Just a drifter in limbo I was best off away, son Just one of the thousands Who could never go home That’s your mighty man, son Your mighty man Well, the boat and the train ride In a misty November We had the worst of the lodgings And we hated the subs Ma’s face on the leaving I will always remember And we wouldn’t get paid Until they had closed up their pubs And I could stand up on horseback Was the man for the singing Put my hand up for boxing At the fairground on the heath I could play my accordion And charm all of the women And dance round the taproom With a chair in my teeth That’s your mighty man, son Your mighty man That’s your mighty man, son Your mighty man - Broken Bones5:30
Letra
She likes a man with a broken nose Lucky for me, I suppose Shots coming in like the monthly bills Soon they’ll be saying I’m over the hill Well the bell goes clang and you’re on your own You take your medicine and go home You take it like a man, on the chin And you don’t make a fuss when the towel comes in Now let me go home, got to lay in ice And I don’t want to hear no more advice Just give me my clothes Get me out of this place How many more stitches in my face? Those broken bones, you pick ‘em up and carry ‘em Broken bones, you carry ‘em home Broken bones, you pick ‘em up and carry ‘em Broken bones, you carry ‘em home He had the punch lines, I was the joke Every shot felt like something broke It was all much more than a man should stand And I finally went down to a big right hand Now let me go home, got to lay in ice And I don’t want to hear no more advice Just give me my clothes Get me out of this place How many more stitches in my face? Those broken bones, you pick ‘em up and carry ‘em Broken bones, you carry ‘em home Broken bones, you pick ‘em up and carry ‘em Broken bones, you carry ‘em home Broken bones, you pick ‘em up and carry ‘em Broken bones, you carry ‘em home Broken bones, you pick ‘em up and carry ‘em Broken bones, you carry ‘em home - Long Cool Girl5:05
Letra
All I do is think of you As I go around the world All I do is think of you Long, cool girl Long, cool girl I like to say her name Long, cool girl With a showgirl frame You took a look at me I took a look at you Now I just can’t see What a man’s supposed to do Long, cool girl I like to say her name Long, cool girl With a showgirl frame Me and you we’re 3 and 2 Something’s gonna happen now, it has to Me and you we’re 3 and 2 Something’s gonna happen now, it has to Pressure drop and weather change All around the world You got me at point blank range Long, cool girl Long, cool girl I like to say her name Long, cool girl With a showgirl frame All I do is think of you As I go around the world All I do is think of you Long, cool girl - Lights Of Taormina6:09
Letra
There’s laughter in the darkness Music floating in across the bay He’s half listening and wondering How he could have let her slip away So long ago but still he wants to know If anyone has seen her And he’s sitting out in the night Looking down upon the lights of Taormina They were young and love was shining Like the colours of the rainbow Desire felt like choking Love was smoking under the volcano He can still taste her kisses Sweet as the red wine from Messina Now he’s sitting out in the night Looking down upon the lights of Taormina Seems like another lifetime When they rambled along the shore Seems like another lifetime She used to call him her sweet senor Maybe in another lifetime On a pathway to the sea Maybe there they’ll be The crowd calls for the emperor Raise their hands to hail another king But he’s been so long a wanderer Another crowd can never mean a thing He came, he saw, he conquered Ten thousand voices roared in the arena Now he’s sitting out in the night Looking down upon the lights of Taormina He hears the chimes of history Myths of gods and men forever ringing Ancient dreams in all their mystery Wars for Sicily and Spartan women In the mists of antiquity Ships of war set sail from Carthagina Now he’s sitting out in the night Looking down upon the lights of Taormina Sitting out in the night Looking down upon the lights of Taormina - Silver Eagle5:01
Letra
It was so late and she’d be sleeping He came through her home town With the moonlight on the crossroads And the green light shining down And the bell at the railroad crossing And the horn from far away And his Silver Eagle passing Half a mile from where she lay At his feet a sea of faces Make devotions with their love Clap their hands and plead their cases Call for blessings from above Like the rolling waves forever massing To crash and foam and creep away And the Silver Eagle passing Half a mile from where she lay Road signs flow into the headlights Whisper names and fall behind He finds some honor in the darkness Hopes for grace and peace of mind And he thinks of how they’d lay together He’d run his fingers through her hair And he wonders if she’ll ever Come to know that he was there - Beryl3:10
Letra
Beryl was on another level When she got a Booker medal She was dead in her grave After all she gave After all she gave Beryl, every time they’d overlook her When they gave her a Booker She was dead in her grave After all she gave After all she gave It’s all too late now It’s all too late now It’s too late, you dabblers It’s all too late It’s too late, you dabblers It’s all too late Beryl, the tobacco overtook her When they gave her a Booker She was dead in her grave After all she gave After all she gave It’s all too late now It’s all too late now It’s too late, you dabblers It’s all too late It’s too late, you dabblers It’s all too late Beryl was on another level When she got a Booker medal She was dead in her grave After all she gave After all she gave After all she gave After all she gave - Whenever I Go6:24