Dire Straits - Private Investigations

What is there to say about Dire Straits' fourth studio album (1982) that hasn't already been said? Alan Clark had joined the group playing keyboards, and Hal Lindes added an extra guitar. For the second track, Private Investigations, Mike Mainieri played vibes and marimba.

While the epic Telegraph Road stole a lot of the limelight, the moody second track - released as a single that reached no.2 in the UK - has always been my favourite.

I can't do any better than quote David Fricke's assessment in Rolling Stone:

"Two drastically different moods dominate the new album. One is sharp and fiery (like the bolt of lightning on the cover); the other is soft and seductive. That dichotomy is particularly explicit in “Private Investigations,” a long, unorthodox ballad in which Knopfler plays a private detective hardened by a life of combing through other people’s dirty laundry. Over a discreet synthesizer ring, gurgling marimba and a delicately plucked acoustic guitar, he grumbles into his whiskey glass like Bob Dylan in a trench coat: “You get to meet all sorts in this line of work Treachery and treason There’s always an excuse for it,” he recites in a raspy nicotine snarl. Then John Illsley sounds a quiet warning with a stalking bass line before the song erupts in dramatic bursts of guitar gunfire and tragic-sounding piano playing."

Cartridge: Soundsmith Zephyr MIMC Star

Phono amp: Graham Slee Accession MC with Enigma power supply

Turntable: CTC Classic 301 / SME M2-12-R

Private Investigations

It's a mystery to me

The game commences

For the usual fee

Plus expenses

Confidential information,

It's in a diary

This is my investigation,

It's not a public inquiry

I go checking out the reports

Digging up the dirt

You get to meet all sorts

In this line of work

Treachery and treason,

There's always an excuse for it

And when I find the reason

I still can't get used to it

And what have you got at the end of the day?

What have you got to take away?

A bottle of whisky and a new set of lies

Blinds on a window and a pain behind the eyes

Scarred for life

No compensation

Private investigations