"Boom, Like That" by Mark Knopfler (cover)

[Glennwillow]

I have always thought that Mark Knopfler's story and his guitar tones were terrific in this 2004 song about Ray Kroc and early McDonald's history. I do not have Ray Kroc's "killer instinct" but I have known a few people who do and this song tells a good story about this kind of personality. I used my Rickenbacker 360 electric 12-string for the rhythm part of this song while Mark Knopfler used an electric 6-string. For some reason I wanted a little bit more of that ring from the 12-string. I did try to get as close as possible on the Knopfler tones on my 2002 Gibson Les Paul. The Les Paul and the Ric 12-string are sure pretty guitars. I did put chord diagrams up for those interested. Thanks for listening. I hope all are well out there!

- Glenn

[Jeremy]

This was cool, Glenn! A little attitude in this one. I like it.

[Honkycat]

Really good Glenn! Lovely vibe and the sound and playing on the Les Paul is perfect.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Jeremy

This was cool, Glenn! A little attitude in this one. I like it.

Thank you Jeremy!

Yes, the song really does have attitude, but I think that's because so many of the phrases used in the song came right out of Ray Kroc's autobiography that Mark Knopfler had read.

Thanks for taking the time to listen and comment, Jeremy. Much appreciated!

- Glenn

[raysachs]

Jeez Glenn, that was basically perfect. As noted, some real attitude in the vocals, and even a potentially evil little grin a couple of times. You really nailed Knopfler’s feel on the lead guitar parts. And the video production work is also insanely good. I’m kind of out of superlatives with your videos. They’re just so good.

Keep em coming!

-Ray

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Honkycat

Really good Glenn! Lovely vibe and the sound and playing on the Les Paul is perfect.

Thank you Honkycat! I really appreciate your watching and your kind comments!

Mark Knopfer kind of redefined how a Les Paul could sound with his music over the last decades. I really had fun with this, and with figuring out how to come up with an amp sound that came close the MK's sound. My Les Paul is a 2002 "Standard," a very nice guitar, pretty, but with typical pickups for that era. It's not a 1959 Les Paul like MK plays. It does go to show that you don't need a fortune to make good music.

In fact, you probably don't even need a Gibson Les Paul to pull out those tones. The neck pickup on a good Epiphone Les Paul is probably close enough when used with the right amp.

I used Guitar Rig 7 from Native Instruments to come up with an amplifier model. I just recorded the guitar signal direct and then used Guitar Rig to find an amp that was close. Then I kept tweaking on the settings until I felt that I was pretty close to what I was hearing on his original studio recording.

The little riffs that fall between verses and lead into the Les Paul solos do not have anywhere near the same kind of overdrive on the amp as the solos do. So I used separate tracks for the riffs and modified the guitar amp to, again, match the sound Mark Knopfler was getting.

This was a fun project although it stretched out longer than I had intended. In the middle of this project I had to have a fairly serious medical procedure done and recovery took me about a week. So this project kind of languished until I could get back to it. The medical procedure went well, by the way, so I am well.

And I hope you are, too, Honkycat! Thanks for your kind words!

- Glenn

[Railroad Bum]

That was great, Glenn! Sorry to hear about your health scare. You really nailed the Knopfler guitar tone with the Les Paul. And I love that Rick, of course. Awesome stuff, as always--Tim.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by raysachs

Jeez Glenn, that was basically perfect. As noted, some real attitude in the vocals, and even a potentially evil little grin a couple of times. You really nailed Knopfler’s feel on the lead guitar parts. And the video production work is also insanely good. I’m kind of out of superlatives with your videos. They’re just so good.

Keep em coming!

-Ray

Thank you Ray! I really appreciate your supportive and kind comments above.

I did have fun with this project. I have been using Guitar Rig for a while, but the latest version, Guitar Rig 7, is very much improved with the use of some new technology for helping them obtain guitar amp characteristics and sounds much closer to real amps. It's a terrific program for the studio and gives a person access to a huge array of amps and effects for about $200.

Also, in retirement, as you are, too, there is plenty of time for exploring things. I took a whole morning just going through a tutorial on Guitar Rig 7 that really opened my eyes about all the things this program can do.

The vocals on this song are quite easy. I'm sure Mark Knopfler would be the first to admit that he is not a particularly talented vocalist, and this song is more like "Sultans of Swing," more of a talking kind of song. And that makes it quite easy and also accessible to a lot of guitar players. Even on an acoustic guitar, that chord progression for the song sounds good.

Regarding video production, I have been messing around with video since 2016 so I've had plenty of time to learn some techniques and approaches.

You would probably have fun with this song, Ray. These are the chords and lyrics from ultimateguitar.com.

Thanks for your kind support, Ray. I hope all is well for you and your family.

- Glenn

[SalFromChatham]

What a song. Love MK. Excellent Glenn. Looks like you had a lot of fun with it too.

[MCDEMO1]

Great job in all areas - playing, vocals, audio and video recording, and editing.
Very enjoyable cover.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by Railroad Bum

That was great, Glenn! Sorry to hear about your health scare. You really nailed the Knopfler guitar tone with the Les Paul. And I love that Rick, of course. Awesome stuff, as always--Tim.

Hi Tim,

Thanks for taking time to watch and comment! Much appreciated. I really enjoyed working on this project and I learned a ton of stuff, as I usually do on these cover projects.

I did not have a health scare, however. I have had a problem that has been going on for a couple of years and I finally hit the date I had scheduled to go into the hospital and have it taken care of. There was some risk but I felt that it was worth taking that on to resolve the problem. And all came out well, so I am as good as could be expected for my age, probably a little better according to the surgeon. So, really, I am good.

I am extremely lucky to have a bunch of really nice guitars. I sometimes think I don't deserve most of them, so I keep working to get better so that I can finally feel that owning some of these great guitars is justified. I feel good about this latest Mark Knopfler cover, because I learned a pile of things that will make me just a little more accomplished on the guitar than I was before.

I hope all is well for you and Jack, Tim.

- Glenn

[Coler]

Fantastic Glenn. Superb tones and playing. Voice sounds great too. I enjoyed this is a lot.

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by SalFromChatham

What a song. Love MK. Excellent Glenn. Looks like you had a lot of fun with it too.

Hi Sal,

Thank you for your generous comments. It is a really different kind of song, isn't it? Mark Knopfler is quite a story teller. I'm so glad you enjoyed this cover.

And I did have fun with it. I had my share of technical glitches while I was doing this project, so I may have to update some stuff in my computer, but in spite of all that, I had fun.

I hope things are well for you, Sal.

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by MCDEMO1

Great job in all areas - playing, vocals, audio and video recording, and editing.
Very enjoyable cover.

Hi Mark,

Really great to hear from you! Thank you for taking the time to check this out and to offer support here on the AGF. I am so pleased that you thought this came out well!

And I hope all is well for you!

- Glenn

[reeve21]

Very cool, Glenn, I love the LP tone you get and that is a neat song I was not familiar with.

More importantly, I’m glad you are A-ok ✅