Mark Knopfler Shares ‘Piano Room’ Take Of Last Album’s ‘Good On You Son’
Knopfler is seen in the 2018 clip with his band, including longtime keyboard collaborator Guy Fletcher.
Mark Knopfler’s official YouTube channel has added a video of his performance of “Good On You Son,” from then BBC Radio 2 presenter Ken Bruce’s show in the network’s Piano Room.
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Live appearances on the mid-morning radio show were also filmed, and Knopfler is seen with his band, including longtime keyboard collaborator Guy Fletcher, in the clip from October 29, 2018. Mark’s own composition “Good On You Son” was the lead track on what was about to be his ninth solo studio album Down The Road Wherever, which was released on November 16 that year, produced by Knopfler and Fletcher.
The lyric of the song concerns a character from London who moves to California and makes it good, juxtaposing his American lifestyle with the grimy estate where he was born and bred (“Designer blinds above LA frame the perfect view, it’s gonna be another day of sun and shameless blue”).
“Good On You Son” questions the notions that Britons often sneer at those who have bettered themselves from modest upbringings. “We all come from somewhere,” said Knopfler about the song, in an interview with Uncut. “The thing with rockers and film kids is that the critics would much rather they remain stuck where they started. There’s a snobbery.”
Speaking to this writer at the time of the album’s release, Knopfler said: “You get to an age where it is a few songs. But Down The Road Wherever seems to be appropriate for me, just because it’s what I’ve always done. I’ve always tried to keep my own geography happening in the songs, that applies there as well.”
Knopfler and Fletcher have lately been mixing what will become the follow-up album, with Fletcher noting in a spring 2023 entry to his studio diary: “At the time of writing we are entering the mixing stage. Our control room has been joined by a fleet of Ampex ATR100 Stereo tape machines, each one a true masterpiece of engineering prowess and sonic wonder. As any seasoned recording engineer will attest, these machines are things of beauty and complexity, harkening back to the golden age of analogue recording in the 1980s.
“And, in keeping with our tradition for previous albums, we’ll be mixing our tracks to a range of analogue tape formats, from the 1-inch to the 1/2-inch and 1/4-inch, as well as exploring the digital realm. As we have found in the past, what works for one song doesn’t necessarily work for others.”
Buy or stream “Good On You Son” as part of Mark Knopfler’s The Studio Albums 2009-2018.
