Dire Straits with "PRIVATE INVESTIGATIONS" from their album "Love Over Gold" released in 1982.

1 year ago
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This video was made using MAGIX Movie Edit Pro MX Plus.
I made this video at a very bad time in my life. It took me a very long time to plan and record. I remember talking to a good friend of mine at the time and I said to her, "Listen to the lyrics of this song, They speak volumes." She encouraged me to make a video using this song to tell my story. Although I was loathe to do so, I went ahead and made this video, which became very popular in a smaller website in which I was active and on Google Plus when it was still around. On those two websites, the kind of thing I had been dealing with, was rife at the time and I know that many people were suffering through similar struggles.

Well, my struggle of the time, is no longer relevant to my life. Years have gone by and I have healed. But I know that this is a common malady in life, and other people go through similar pain and heartache, even today. So, I will eventually be taking down the original channel on which I posted this video, as this video belongs with me here on Afrikitty. It is my story. And possibly yours.

Just a few words to those who might not understand the gist of what I have portrayed in this video -- it needs to be told that the devil is in the details of all evil that goes on in life. He draws the weak like moths to a flame. He hides in such sweet and lovely places. If you look carefully, you will see him hidden in this video. Look carefully - he is not so hard to find. And once you realise who he is and what he is up to, then you will be set free, just as I have tried to portray my own freedom at the end of the video. I know the pain he causes is terrible, but I promise you, you will heal and life will resume some semblance of normalcy again. And may it be so for you who watch this video.

"Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love."
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

• Dinah Washington & Max Richter-This b...
This bitter earth
Well, what fruit it bears
Ooooo, This bitter earth
And if my life is like the dust
Oooh that hides the glow of a rose
What good am I
Heaven only knows

Lord, this bitter earth
Yes, can be so cold
Today you're young
Too soon, you're old
But while a voice within me cries
I'm sure someone may answer my call
And this bitter earth
Oo may not
Oohh be so bitter after all

This bitter earth
Aaahh this bitter earth
What good is love
Mmm that no one shares
And if my life is like the dust
Ooo that hides the glow of a rose
Then what good am I
Heaven only knows

{Dinah Washington}

With love from Afrikitty.

"Private Investigations" is a popular song by Dire Straits from their album Love Over Gold. Although it was not released as a single in the US, it reached the number 2 position in the UK (despite its length), and is one of their biggest chart successes in the United Kingdom, on a par with "Walk of Life". Similarly, the album it came from, Love over Gold, only sold 500,000 copies in the US, though it was well-received elsewhere. The track also 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, The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations.

The song begins with a sinister, deep pitched synthesizer orchestration, leading into a slow piano progression accompanying a classical guitar. Throughout the several spoken verses, Knopfler expresses the disillusionment and bitterness of a betrayed lover, likening his position to that of a private investigator uncovering scandal: "A bottle of whiskey and a new set of lies / Blinds on the windows and a pain behind the eyes.....Scarred for life, no compensation / Private investigations."

After the verses, the song opens up into a slow, bass-driven beat, with strident electric guitar chords at the end, before the gradual diminuendo featuring extended interplay between Mark Knopfler's acoustic guitar and marimba played by Mike Mainieri.

On the Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits DVD, Mark Knopfler said this about the song: "It's just about the Private Investigations... "What have you got at the end of the day" - Nothing more than you started out with..." It is said the song was inspired by author Raymond Chandler.

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