| Comfort and Joy | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Soundtrack album by | ||||
| Released | 27 July 1984 | |||
| Recorded | AIR Studios, London, March 1984 | |||
| Genre | Pop, jazz | |||
| Length | 11:30 | |||
| Label | Vertigo | |||
| Producer | Mark Knopfler | |||
| Mark Knopfler chronology | ||||
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Comfort and Joy is the third soundtrack album by British singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Knopfler, released in 1984 by Vertigo Records. The album contains music composed for the 1984 film Comfort and Joy , written and directed by Bill Forsyth.
Although the album consists of only three original pieces written for the film, additional songs from the Dire Straits album Love over Gold were used throughout the film. According to a review of the film by Philip Gillett, director Forsyth once acknowledged in an interview that he was "trying to mirror the tone" of the album by featuring the tracks "Telegraph Road" and "Private Investigations". [1] Dialogue in the film also makes reference to the band and song lyrics. After the main character Allan "Dicky" Bird's car has been vandalised, a colleague quips, "I hear the seven deadly sins and the terrible twins came to call on you"—a direct quote from the song "It Never Rains". Bird responds, "Dire Straits!"
All songs were written by Mark Knopfler.
The Comfort and Joy soundtrack was released as a three-song 12" vinyl record in 1984. It has never been released in CD format, but the songs were issued on CD as b-sides of two CD singles promoting the Screenplaying album (which doesn't include any of the Comfort and Joy tracks). [2] "Comfort" was the b-side of the 1993 "Going Home" CD single; "Joy" and "A Fistful of Ice Cream" appeared on the 1994 "Irish Boy" CD single.
Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler, David Knopfler, John Illsley and Pick Withers. They were active from 1977 to 1988 and again from 1990 to 1995.
Mark Freuder Knopfler is a British guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of the rock band Dire Straits from 1977 to 1988, and from 1990 to 1995. He pursued a solo career after the band dissolved, and is now an independent artist.
Brothers in Arms is the fifth studio album by the British rock band Dire Straits, released on 17 May 1985 through Vertigo Records internationally and Warner Bros. Records in the United States. It was the first album in history to sell over one million copies in CD format.
Making Movies is the third studio album by British rock band Dire Straits, released on 17 October 1980 by Vertigo Records internationally, Warner Bros. Records in the United States and Mercury Records in Canada. The album includes the single "Romeo and Juliet", which reached number 8 on the UK Singles Chart, as well as “Tunnel of Love,” featured in the 1982 Richard Gere film An Officer and a Gentleman.
Love over Gold is the fourth studio album by British rock band Dire Straits, released on 24 September 1982 by Vertigo Records internationally and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. The album featured two singles: "Private Investigations," which reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart, and "Industrial Disease," which reached No. 9 on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States. The title track was never released as a single, but two years later a live version from Alchemy: Dire Straits Live reached #15 in France, #29 in New Zealand, #43 in the Netherlands and #50 in the band's native United Kingdom. The album reached number one on album charts in Australia, Austria, Italy, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom, as well as number 19 in the United States. Love over Gold was later certified gold in the United States, platinum in France and Germany and double-platinum in Canada and the United Kingdom.
Alchemy: Dire Straits Live is the first live album by the British rock band Dire Straits, released on 16 March 1984 by Vertigo Records internationally, and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. Recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in London on 22–23 July 1983, the double album features songs from the band's first four albums, the ExtendedancEPlay EP and Mark Knopfler's Local Hero soundtrack. Many of the songs have reworked arrangements and extended instrumental segments. The album cover is taken from a painting by Brett Whiteley.
David Knopfler is a British musician. He was born in Scotland, but raised in Blyth, near Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Together with his older brother Mark Knopfler, John Illsley, and Pick Withers, he founded the rock band Dire Straits in 1977, serving as rhythm guitarist on their first two albums. After quitting the band in 1980 during the recording of their third album, Knopfler embarked upon a solo career as a recording artist. Knopfler initially created smaller record labels, publishing companies, and indie labels.
Extendedance Play is a studio 12" EP by British rock band Dire Straits, released on 14 January 1983 by Vertigo Records internationally, and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. The record contains three tracks on the international version and four on the U.S. version, which also included the song "Badges, Posters, Stickers, T-Shirts," an outtake from the Love over Gold sessions that had been released in other territories as the b-side to "Private Investigations".
Comfort and Joy is a 1984 Scottish comedy film written and directed by Bill Forsyth and starring Bill Paterson as a radio disc jockey whose life undergoes a bizarre upheaval after his girlfriend leaves him. After he witnesses an attack on an ice cream van by angry competitors, he is led into the struggle between two Italian families over the ice cream market of Glasgow. The film received a BAFTA Award Nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1985.
Guy Edward Fletcher is an English musician, best known for his position as one of the two keyboard players in the rock band Dire Straits from 1984 until the group's dissolution, and his subsequent work with Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler for his many solo releases. Fletcher was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Dire Straits in 2018.
Terrence Williams is a Welsh rock drummer. During the 1970s and early 1980s Williams was drummer with Dave Edmunds / Rockpile and Man. Rockpile split in 1981 and Williams joined Dire Straits from 1982 until 1988.
On the Night is the second live album by the British rock band Dire Straits, released on 10 May 1993 by Vertigo Records internationally, and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. The album features many of the band's later hits, including the singles "Walk of Life" and "Money for Nothing". The cover art of the album features dishes of the Very Large Array in central New Mexico.
Local Hero is the debut soundtrack album by British singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Knopfler, released in April 1983 by Vertigo Records internationally and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. It contains music composed for the 1983 film Local Hero, produced by David Puttnam and both written and directed by Bill Forsyth.
Live at the BBC is a live album by British rock band Dire Straits, released on 26 June 1995 on Vertigo Records internationally, and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. The album was recorded on 22 July 1978 at BBC Studios in London, with one track recorded on 31 January 1981. The studio versions of the first six songs were released on Dire Straits. Live at the BBC was the band's third live album, preceded by Alchemy: Dire Straits Live (1984) and On the Night (1993).
Hal Andrew Lindes is an American–English guitarist and film score composer best known for his time as a member of Dire Straits.
"Private Investigations" is a song by the British rock band Dire Straits from their album Love over Gold. It reached number 2 in the United Kingdom, and is one of their biggest chart successes in the UK. The track has appeared on the compilation albums Money for Nothing and Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits, and is the title track to the more recent 2005 compilation, Private Investigations: The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler.
Private Investigations: The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler is the third compilation album by Dire Straits and Scottish-born British singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Knopfler, released in 2005 by Mercury and Vertigo internationally, and Warner Bros. in the United States. Named after their 1982 hit single, the album consists of material by Dire Straits, with songs selected from the group's six studio albums from 1978 up through the group's dissolution in 1995. It also features work from the solo career of the group's singer, songwriter, and guitarist Mark Knopfler, including some of his soundtrack material.
"Down to the Waterline" is a 1978 song written by Mark Knopfler and first released by Dire Straits as the first song on their debut album, Dire Straits. It was also included on the demo tape that the band sent to Charlie Gillett, which led to their first recording contract. It was subsequently released as the B-side of the "Water of Love" single.
The Mark Knopfler discography consists of recordings by British singer-songwriter and guitarist Mark Knopfler, not including his work with Dire Straits. Knopfler began recording apart from Dire Straits in 1983, when he released his first soundtrack album Local Hero. That same year he produced his first album, Infidels for Bob Dylan. Between 1983 and 2016, Knopfler composed and released nine soundtrack albums, the last of which was with Evelyn Glennie.
Neil Dorfsman is an American sound engineer and record producer, best known for his work with Dire Straits, Bruce Hornsby, Mark Knopfler, Paul McCartney and Sting. He won Grammy Awards for Best Producer for Bruce Hornsby's Scenes from the Southside (1988) and Sting's ...Nothing Like the Sun (1987), a Grammy Award for Best Engineer for Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms (1985), as well as a nomination for Best Engineer for Dire Straits's Love Over Gold (1982). Further, he recorded two tracks on Sting's Brand New Day (1999), which won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Album. He mixed the East Village Opera Company's Olde School, which received a Grammy Nomination for Best Classical Crossover Album in 2009. In 1988 and 1998, Dorfsman won a TEC Award for Engineer of the Year.
