Mark Knopfler on vinyl (or lack thereof)

Some of his solo efforts have not seen the "light of black" (Golden Heart, Sailing To Philadelphia)...and others like The Ragpicker's Dream and Shangri-La have only seen an initial (original) release and are quite expensive if currently found/offered for sale.

I'm curious as to everyone's take on why we have not seen reissues/repressings for his earlier efforts on vinyl. I for one would be totally in on a box set as I only have his last two releases on LP.

Thoughts?

 

Interesting question. My guess is that the humongous Dire straits fan base never really followed him in his solo career. I mean that yes, he has a very big following as a solo artist but nothing like the impact Dire straits had and still have sales wise. Of course this following is not small and I bet younger artists would love to have such sales.
But given that his latest 4-5 records have been widely available and are still circulating at very modest prices, I believe that his two records that were never released on record and the other four that were limited editions, might not be of a financial interest for the artist, since most fans don't have the vinyl fetish and are satisfied with HDCD or SACD editions he puts out.
Of course I would love to have his first two records on vinyl, (I have the rest) although I have so overplayed them on CD, that it would be more of a collecting fetish rather than actually buying to listen to them.
And I still believe that maybe in 2025-2026 a 30 year boxset with all of MK releases will become available, like the Dire straits box 7 years ago.

 

There is hope -

Mark Knopfler Solo Albums 1996-2007* Box Just Announced*

Box set of Mark's first 5 solo albums.

I own none yet on vinyl so is ideal for me. But maybe these will eventually be released individually....

 

The additional disc of B Sides is very exciting...

 

I think only Golden Heart and Sailing To Philadelphia never got released on vinyl. I never understood STP not getting one, as it's his finest solo album, in my opinion.

As far as reissues, Local Hero just got one released, done at Abbey Road, and MoFi is supposed to release one.

 

I have not followed Knopfler's albums since Get Lucky. I saw him on that tour, and it was a fine show.

I think he's released three studio, non-soundtrack albums since then. How would you rate them, in terms of how essential they are, and the order in which you'd pick them up? They're all available on vinyl for now.

 

Tracker is a must have. Brilliant album, and second to Sailing to Philadelphia, IMO.

 

STP has been my favorite post-DS albums. He's gone more introspective. He's written some great songs since then, but also written so average ones, in my opinion.

I started to listen to Privateering, for example, and the first couple of songs didn't grab me at all.

 

I personally think his last 3 records have been some of his best work post Dire Straits. I played Privateering and Tracker to death, and you get the added bonus of them both being excellent sounding albums on digital and vinyl.

 

For me, those earlier albums, probably up to Shangri-La, are where its at. Though there’s certainly good stuff on all the subsequent albums.