Telegraph Road Pt. 1

And so, On XM Fine Tuning, which plays classical stuff alongside progressive rock, alongside the Duhks, I hear the song, "Telegraph Road." [This song is one of my favorite Dire Straits tunes for a few reasons. I'm a sucker for a slow tune that builds into a rocking tune by the end. It clocks in at 15 minutes without an outrageous drum solo. Hell, they must be talking about something dramatic, right?]0:00 InstrumentalAct I Scene i [Melancholy piano and guitar over held strings and thunder. Nature? Before man?]1:33 Act I Scene ii: Something’s happening[Rimshot drums and bass kick in. Piano riffs. Strings linger. Bass. Throw in some bongos along with classic sound of the Knoplfer Electric Lead... Revisit thunder and melancholy piano for unity.]2:13 Act I Scene iii: [Enter the Lyrics, accompanied by piano only]A long time ago came a man on a trackWalking thirty miles with a sack on his backAnd he put down his load where he thought it was the bestMade a home in the wilderness [enter mandolin]2:31 Act II Scene ii [Bass, mandolin, drums, lead electric guitar: that’s the stuff]He built a cabin and a winter storeAnd he ploughed up the ground by the cold lake shoreAnd the other travellers came walking down the trackAnd they never went further, no, they never went back[The settlers arrive, uplifting chord changes]Then came the churches then came the schools[We come back down]Then came the lawyers then came the rulesThen came the trains and the trucks with their loadsAnd the dirty old track was the telegraph road3:10 All gets quiet. Our symbol of the original road is brought down to scale, as deliverance of both good and potentially evil.3:19 the 1/16 note that takes the listener off guard3:24) Act II Scene iii [Back to the music of arrangement of Act I, Scene ii but we’ve added some instruments: things have happened, but it’s the same old town, right?] [The normal single is over by now.]3:31 Act II Scene iv [The raping of the land]Then came the mines - then came the oreThen there was the hard times then there was a warTelegraph sang a song about the world outsideTelegraph road got so deep and so wideLike a rolling river. . .3:51 Act II Scene v InstrumentalSomething grand is happening. People are living up to their potential. A city is born. The song builds to the level of a song at climax. 4:07 Act II Scene v [A soaring guitar solo ensues, which moves into more intricate parts for piano, bass and guitar. Organ parts come in. Drums ground us in the original part with a few fills whose energy are matched by the guitar part.]4:43 Act III Scene I [A mellow part that harkens back to the earlier melancholy part with some more energetic guitar and piano fills. Yet added in is the 1/16 note disruption which actually brings the song down in energy.] 4:58 And my radio says tonight its gonna freezePeople driving home from the factoriesThere’re six lanes of trafficThree lanes moving slow. . .5:21 [The song slows to an earlier time, solo piano, bringing back the first act. ‘Wha’happen to my small town?’]5:50 [Here we are. Things are not much better than the melancholy early days. A Guitar solo proves it.] 6:40 [The organ returns. Have we learned something from this song?