Get Lucky

Mark Knopfler | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 15, 2009)
• Original Release Date: 2009
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros.
• ASIN: B002ELM5HY
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (116 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,244 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #5 in Music > World Music > Europe > British Isles > Scotland
  • #67 in Music > Folk > Contemporary Folk > Singer-Songwriters

Editorial Reviews

This is the sixth solo studio album from the legendary musician and follows 2007's highly successful Kill To Get Crimson, which Rolling Stone heralded as 'a gem' and USA Today described as, '...yet another unpretentious showcase for his unmistakable gifts as a musician, tunesmith and storyteller.'
Recorded at Knopfler's award-winning British Grove Studios in West London, Get Lucky was co-produced with longtime collaborators, engineer Chuck Ainlay and keyboardist Guy Fletcher and featured Richard Bennett, Danny Cummings, John McCusker, Matt Rollings and Glenn Worf. The 11-track album explores a lifetime of musical roots exemplified by the title track. 'The first itinerant person I ever met would sing in soul bands in winter, then work part-time in fairgrounds or 'go pick fruit down south' when the weather turned warm,' explains Knopfler. 'I was about 15 years old, stuck in school and envious. 'Get Lucky' came from him and other traveling characters I went on to meet in places I'd find myself working short-term, like farms, warehouses, building sites, before I got lucky with my songs.'

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

164 of 195 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 'I have become a bit of a veteran at this music thing' -- and it shows in every gorgeous note September 15, 2009

By Jesse Kornbluth TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Audio CD

"I'm writing too many songs, and then I have to put them out --- I'm sorry," Mark Knopfler said at the start of what seems like our annual phone call.

But if Knopfler is going to make CDs like 'Get Lucky', he can call me every few months --- these eleven songs are completely original short stories and character sketches, set against music by one of the planet's greater guitarists. That the quality is uniformly high is no surprise.

What did take me aback --- and what will make fans of Dire Straits and Knopfler's previous solo releases shake their heads --- is that Knopfler seems to have assembled this CD without regard for the commercial marketplace. Nothing that says "automatic Top 10" jumps out at you like 'Punish the Monkey (Let the Organ Grinder Go)' from 'Kill to Get Crimson' or 'Boom Like That' from 'Shangri-La'.

The likely result: The guy whose band sold 120 million records has made a CD that will be appreciated mostly by hardcore fans --- and the smallest cohort of music lovers: smart, literate grownups.

An unwillingness --- or is it an inability? --- to compromise. A curiosity, at 60, about songwriting that explores new personal territory. A concern, in all things, for authenticity. You don't have to talk to Mark Knopfler long before you realize that these are bred in the bone. Listen:

Jesse Kornbluth: Three words: Dire Straits reunion.

Mark Knopfler (audible sigh): These days, it does seem to be the style. But putting the brakes on when I did [he disbanded Dire Straits in 1995] was right. I'm happy with the way things are.

JK: We're talking about the easiest $300 million you'll ever make!...

MK: I'm looking to do more of what I do --- improve my recordings and playing the new music live, enjoying the variations that brings.

JK: At a conference, I heard Steve Jobs quote The Beatles: "You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead." I hear that idea running through your new CD. There's a lot of life experience --- people on the far side of young love, lost comrades, memories of a distant childhood.

MK: The road ahead --- yes, it's a different picture. I have become a bit of a veteran at this music thing, so there's some of what made me. One song, 'Cleaning My Gun', is from the vet's viewpoint, the survivor's viewpoint. I've made a couple of notes where it's possible to tell you the background of some of the songs. But I try not to interfere too much or explain. I don't want to spoil the songs for you; I'd prefer that it's going to be what you want it to be.

JK: In 'Remembrance Day', you sing the names of those --- war dead, it seems --- now under the "earthen roof". Are they men you knew?

MK: It's just a list of boys. It begins with a cricket team. In a lot of communities, cricket teams and football teams --- and in America, baseball teams --- were the kids who went to war.

JK: That's the closest you come to social criticism on this CD. There's no wry, angry song like "Punish the Monkey". Is Knopfler mellowing?

MK: The older I get, the more grouchy I become. I have some equally disagreeable friends who are walking partners with me in the morning. We get most of our bile out then. By the time I get home, I feel better.

JK: I think of a Bruce Springsteen CD that, according to his manager, had no obvious hit single. Bruce went home and dashed off 'Dancing in the Dark'. And the entire world bought 'Born in the USA'. In contrast, I fear that 'Get Lucky' will be under-appreciated because it's merely gorgeous.

MK: It does occur to me I need to have someone like that.

JK: I see you have one concert scheduled this month --- then your schedule looks blank until May of 2010. This can't be.

MK: I'm trying to work out a way to pop over to America and do Prairie Home Companion or Letterman, just by myself. And there will be a tour from April to July.

JK: Didn't Dire Straits once do 250 concerts in a year?

MK: When you're young and in a band, it's like you have a football under your arm ---- you're running. But some of that is running away.

JK: Fender has just launched the Mark Knopfler Stratocaster. Do you use it or just endorse it?

MK: I play it on stage instead of my old one. It works better. It has all the things I specified: a rosewood finger board, nice big smooth frets. Other owners seem to like it too.

JK: Michael Jordan wore a new pair of Nike shoes every night. Do you have more than one Knopfler Strat?

MK: I can make a lot of money for charity by playing one at an event and then selling it. So I'll generally be using a new one....

JK: I see your high standards as an affront to our rapidly deteriorating culture. They reassure those of us who care about these things that we're not alone, not crazy. In that sense, "Get Lucky" is a comfort. Can you relate?

MK: There's been an erosion, and not just in the United States. It becomes more important for people who regard themselves as having the ability to discern and feel to stand tall.

JK: So market-directed music....

MK: I'm sorry. Those words are meaningless to me.

'Get Lucky' is Exhibit A. Read more ›

51 of 58 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Remembrance Day September 19, 2009

By Old Blue

Format:Audio CD

From the days of Dire Straits to the present I have long thought that Mark Knopfler is a genius.

As for "Get Lucky": A guy I knew and worked with for many years was killed last year in Afghanistan. The first time I heard "Remembrance Day" I instantly thought of him and cried like a baby for a couple of minutes, something I hadn't done before, even at the time of his death. Enough said.

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Get Lucky review October 21, 2009

By D. Hill

Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase

I buy most every cd from Mark Knopfler. The last he did with Emmylou (Roadrunning - both the cd and live dvd) was fantastic, shangra la, and Crimson was excellent too. Get Lucky was highly anticipated especially seeing it packaged with a dvd. The dvd was a real extra treat. To see Mark walk thru the studio with his engineer describing the recording equipment was very interesting - a look inside the brains of legends. The CD Get Lucky is standard fare for Knopfler, but leaves you wanting to hear more. For me, I was wanting to hear more guitar solos. This cd has a celtic feel to it and is mostly mid tempo - a little too plodding for me. The cd cover with the vegas type of lights has you thinking it might be some up tempo music. But this is more a brooding slow to mid tempo celtic vibe type of music. Yes the remembrance song about the war victims was spine tingling - riviting music that may be worth the price of the cd. But several songs had me listening closely to see if there was any guitar in them at all. I just want to her more electric leads rather than acoustic. I know, this is not dire straits, but I still was longing for more electricity from Get Lucky. I refrained from reviewing this before I could give at least several complete listens. Well, after a couple weeks and listening through at 6 times, I am just not enjoying this one as much as Shangra La, Crimson, and Roadrunning. Get Lucky makes those cds seem all the more special. Mark may be going for the grammy with this one - because they usually honor the artist who has complete disregard for any popular sound - and one who strays from his past is usually looked at as a genious. Yes, this cd compared with a lot of music released by todays musicians is very good.... But with Mark raising the bar with his recent releases, this one comes up a little short. Bring back Emmylou for another round - and please, plug that guitar in and turn it up! Read more ›

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Mark Knopfler is home September 28, 2009

By Piperdoc

Format:Audio CD

I was explaining to my 13 year old daughter why Mark Knopfler is my all time favorite musician and artist. My explanation was that his music embodies all of the things that music can bring and add to one's experience when one matures. Mark Knopfler is at a point where he does not need to wow all with raging guitar solos. That is for the young. His themes have changed to clearly represent who he truly is and what he holds dear. When one is young, it is the gaining or losing of love, infatuation, and the enjoyment of youth and the promise for what one can become and the fear of not becoming something of merit. Mark Knopfler's earlier songs with Dire Straits had a higher percentage of these types of themes. They were also higher in octane over all, representing the stage of life he was in when he was performing in Dire Straits. He has moved past this in a way that reflects intelligence and subtlety and maturity, a very interesting maturity at that.

My belief is that through writing the soundtracks for Cal, Local Hero, Last Exit to Brooklyn, Shot at Glory, Princess Bride, working in the Notting Hillbillies, and Chet Atkins, all of these things enabled him to weave the musical culture and heritage of Northern England and Scotland, with American blues and country influences. This is where he is today. He is home with a style that is all his own. His songs are the stories that represent nostalgia of his youthful experiences and his formative time in the North of England/Scotland (the Car Was the One/Get Lucky/So Far From the Clyde/Before Gas and TV/Cleaning My Gun), as well as the sacrifice that others make on our behalf (Remembrance Day), the acknowledgment of great skill (Monteleone), the blues tinged You Can't Beat the House. But my favorite one of all is A Piper to the End.... Mostly because it uses images of a piper (his uncle in this case) as a representative of one's essence or your soul when we go off the great beyond, with his hoping that he can still meet the uncle he never did meet. But still this song is about hope, the hope for something better, ending up in a better place when it is all over, and faithful friends. This song is utterly gorgeous like this album. Read more ›