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Old 08-28-2011, 04:54 PM   #1
Rainy Day Man
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Default "If It Should Please You" and "Calling Elvis"

A couple of days ago a friend of mine in Switzerland mailed me and asked: "Hey man, what other song do you think sounds like Lightfoot's "If It Should Please You" from Gord's Gold, vol. 2? Immediately I answered him: "Calling Elvis" by Dire Straits from 1991. There is a lot of similarity between these two songs, and I guess Mark Knopfler perhaps was a little inspired by "If It Should Please You" when he wrote "Calling Elvis"."
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Old 08-30-2011, 03:25 PM   #2
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Default Re: "If It Should Please You" and "Calling Elvis"

Interesting and amazing RDM
I have the vinyl album On Every Street with Calling Elvis on but had never spotted that particular similarity.
However that is by no means the only evidence of Lightfoot's influence on Mark Knopfler on that final Dire Straits album (On Every Street)
I did once record (back in the old days using a turntable hooked into my computer) back to back the instrumental breaks on another track on that album, (which was also the last vinyl LP I ever bought),together with the break on another Lightfoot song and you really could not tell where the join was. at the time of writing this I cannot recall either of the two songs in question, but will shortly try to retrace my thoughts and if I can replicate the recording I'll upload it and post a link.
(I now have On Every Street on DVD, so once I identify the two songs I will use Audacity to cut and paste to create the replica of my long lost earlier effort
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Old 09-02-2011, 12:00 PM   #3
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Default Re: "If It Should Please You" and "Calling Elvis"

Quote:
Originally Posted by johnfowles View Post
Interesting and amazing RDM
Quote:
Originally Posted by johnfowles View Post
I have the vinyl album On Every Street with Calling Elvis on but had never spotted that particular similarity.
However that is by no means the only evidence of Lightfoot's influence on Mark Knopfler on that final Dire Straits album (On Every Street)................
but I will shortly try to retrace my thoughts and if I can replicate the recording I'll upload it and post a link.
(I now have On Every Street on DVD, so once I identify the two songs I will use Audacity to cut and paste to create the replica of my long lost earlier effort
I checked the tracklist of On Every Street but the lightfootesque song title did not leap out at me ,then I remembered telling Wayne Francis of this matter when I first contacted him by one of my first ever emails way back in 1997.
After some concentrated searching I refound the dot matrix printer copy of that email.
I had decided to contact him on October 21st 1997 in an effort to get some (any) video of Gord and to let him know about some rare audio recordings that I had
Some of my comments therein are worth repeating:-
I had listed my concert going history that included two Royal Albert Hall (London) concerts in June 72 and May 81
"I would dearly love to see him one more time before he and I get too old and suspect that I may well have to visit North america to do so!!"
Jenney and the other "Ladies Of Doom" in the chat room some 18months later in May/June 1999 therefore should not have been too surprised at how quickly and easily I agreed to attend the first "Massey Hall Lightfoot Convention" that she so brilliantly organised for the November 1999 season,which was probably the most important decision I ever made in my life.
After listing the various recordings I had I continued thus:-
"What I have longed to have for years though is ANY video of GL in action... It has occurred to me that the BBC may well still have the tape(s) of the 1971 or 1972 broadcasts"......and that I had a neighbour who had a group the Yetties and who had a contact in the folk music side of BBC Radio 2


Thankfully of course the Beeb obliged so handsomely themselves last March

Later in that email I opined and/or postulated
"I have a theory, which may be a coincidental chain of events, of a circle connecting GL to the other artist whose work has filled my life. Before the BBC Radio 1 DJ Noel Edmunds began playing If you could read my mind and thereby helped it become GL's first UK hit, I was able to convert many of my english friends into GL fans. One of the first remarked when she first heard "Cotton Jenny" how much it reminded her of Buddy Holly's singing style - especially the "hiccup". From Buddy to GL. there is a link to Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. You may not have heard "when it comes to you" by Dire Straits on their final album ""On Every Street" -
the rythym and instrumentation is a dead crib of GL's "Gotta get away" on Salute. The circle is completed by a track on last year's C and W tribute to Buddy Holly album "Not Fade Away:"Learning the game' by Waylon Jennings PLUS Mark Knopfler (which has to be the most sincere tribute ever recorded and from a man who was almost with Buddy on his tragic plane crash.)
I have yet to refind a printout of Wayne's reply to that but I seem to remember that he confirmed that he was aware of the similarity.
Further to my circle theory since then I have learned of the April 1979 Long Island charity concert when Gord shared the stage with Waylon and Harry Chapin

see also a thread I started about Waylon at
http://www.corfid.com/vbb/showthread...ghlight=waylon
OK now that I have reidentified the two tracks I will try to find time to do some audacity type editing as intimated before

Last edited by johnfowles; 09-02-2011 at 09:35 PM.
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Old 09-03-2011, 11:21 AM   #4
formerlylavender
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Default Re: "If It Should Please You" and "Calling Elvis"

I just listened to "Calling Elvis" on youtube, and I totally agree about the similarity to "IISPY".
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Old 09-04-2011, 08:04 PM   #5
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Default Re: "If It Should Please You" and "Calling Elvis"

Certainly sounds similar, so much so I was waiting for MK to say "if it should please you".
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Old 09-05-2011, 06:26 AM   #6
Jim Nasium
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Default Re: "If It Should Please You" and "Calling Elvis"

Just listened to "Calling Elvis" on Youtube, where would we be without Youtube? I sure can hear the similarity. Now, some years ago a couple of DJs on the Beeb were discussing what they perceived as a similarity between Sister Sledge's song Frankie and IYCRMM, then to burn this into the listeners ears they played the 2 songs back to back. It may be my ears, but I cannot detect any hint of a connection between these 2 songs. I cannot recall the date I heard this discussion it may have been April 1st.

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Old 09-06-2011, 03:50 PM   #7
Rainy Day Man
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Default Re: "If It Should Please You" and "Calling Elvis"

Quote:
Originally Posted by johnfowles View Post
Interesting and amazing RDM
I have the vinyl album On Every Street with Calling Elvis on but had never spotted that particular similarity.
However that is by no means the only evidence of Lightfoot's influence on Mark Knopfler on that final Dire Straits album (On Every Street)
I did once record (back in the old days using a turntable hooked into my computer) back to back the instrumental breaks on another track on that album, (which was also the last vinyl LP I ever bought),together with the break on another Lightfoot song and you really could not tell where the join was. at the time of writing this I cannot recall either of the two songs in question, but will shortly try to retrace my thoughts and if I can replicate the recording I'll upload it and post a link.
(I now have On Every Street on DVD, so once I identify the two songs I will use Audacity to cut and paste to create the replica of my long lost earlier effort

I guess the most obvious influence one artist have had on another, when it comes to song writing, must have been the influence Gordon Jenkins’ song ”Crescent City Blues” from the ”Seven Dream Album” recorded in 1953 and performed by Beverly Maher, had on Johnny Cash, when he changed the lyrics and titled the song ”Folsom Prison Blues”. The influence was absolutely noticeable, and Cash paid Jenkins off in 1970 with 75 000 dollars.



A lot of tunes and melodies are floating around in the air, and sometimes there will be similarities, when singers and songwriters comes up with new material. And by the way, perhaps there is a similarity between Johnny Cash’s ”Ballad Of A Teenage Queen” and Lightfoot’s ”Don Quixote”?

”Ballad Of A Teenage Queen”

”Don Quixote”
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