Post-hike musical interlude

Mark Knopfler in 2017

I'll be hiking along the Cornwall coast next month, as I've mentioned on occasion, with some of the same people with whom I hiked in Scotland last year -- Jim and Dorothy, and some of Jim's relatives.  Following the hike, some (or maybe all) of us will end up in London for several days before returning to the States.

So, I get an email from Jim informing me that, while in London, he and Dorothy plan to zoom out to Greenwich (of GMT fame) to see a concert by Mark Knopfler.  Would I be interested in joining them?  The more musically literate among you will be incredulous, but that name meant nothing to me.  He used to sing, play guitar, and compose for Dire Straits, Jim added -- the name of a group that did ring some historical bells, but no actual tunes, in my puzzled mind.

I should explain that my appreciation of rock and pop music was tragically truncated long ago.  In the late 1960s, while not a fan like many of my peers, I did listen to the music then currently in vogue, and tried to keep up.  It was clear that the times were a-changin', and that it would be suicidal to be left behind, musically and otherwise.

 Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.

Right? Exactly. And it wasn't just self-preservation.  I actually liked much of the music of the late 60s.  Not as much as I liked Bach, ok?  But the two weren't actively competing.

A quick perusal of old LPs -- remember, you had to actually buy albums back then, you didn't just go to YouTube -- reveals purchases of the Rolling Stones, John B. Sebastian, Joan Baez, the Beatles, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Country Joe & the Fish, Simon & Garfunkel.  Sort of a mixed bag, but my selection demonstrates the era I'm talking about.

But by 1970, I was no longer in school, and my interest in current hits, and even my opportunities to listen to the radio, were fading away.   My friend Jim -- with whom I'm hiking next month -- visited me in San Francisco in 1969, and we went to the Fillmore West, a well-known venue for current music.  I was fascinated by the place from a typically (for me) detached point of view -- doing a sociological study, and observing with interest the psychedelic light show effects.  But the music itself just seemed loud.

I think the Fillmore West visit is my last memory of seeking out or trying to understand contemporary music. And, of course, in 1971 I began law school. Life as I'd previously known it came to a screeching halt, and my mind was crammed full of 17th century English precedents. Nineteen seventy-one -- the year the music died.

But putting that all aside, and returning to the present, I told Jim sure, I'd be happy to join them at the Greenwich concert.  Jim said we could pretend we were all 20-year-olds again, which sounded a little problematic, but, hey, I liked his spirit.  And if I've learned anything in life, it is that doing things outside your comfort zone is rarely enjoyable at the time, but still pays off in the long run in your ability to regale others with stories of your daring and open-mindedness. So I'll be in Greenwich on May 28.

And then finally, tonight, I did what I should have done at the outset.  I went to YouTube and listened to several clips both of relatively recent Mark Knopfler concerts from the past ten years, and of Dire Straits from the 1980s.  I found Dire Straits quite tolerable (although I was a bit amazed at the worship that many of the comments paid to them), but the later performances by Knopfler himself, seemingly aged and mellowed, accompanied by his intelligent commentary discussing his approach to singing and playing, actually quite enjoyable.

I may actually have fun.  Despite myself.