UPDATE - 3/23@1:44PM: Knopfler also posted this official music video for the song, which features visualizations of all the included artists' names (thanks RushFanForever). Alex Lifeson's name appears around the 45-second mark:
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UPDATE - 3/15@9:59AM: The entire, 9-minute track is now available for listening on YouTube here:
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UPDATE - 3/7@11:13AM: There's now also a 1-minute teaser available here (thanks RushFanForever).
Former Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler has recruited an impressive lineup of all-star guitarists for a new recording of his classic 1983 solo single Going Home (Theme from Local Hero) to help raise funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust and Teen Cancer America. The song will be released via BMG under the project name Mark Knopfler's Guitar Heroes on March 15th. In addition to Rush's Alex Lifeson, the song's lineup includes David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Ronnie Wood, Brian May, Bruce Springsteen, Tony Iommi, Eric Clapton, Joan Jett, Joan Armatrading, Hank Marvin, Slash, Tom Morello, and the very last recording by the late Jeff Beck. It was produced by Knopfler's longtime collaborator Guy Fletcher. From the announcement:
... "What I really want to do, more than anything else, is just to thank each and every one for this sterling response," says former Dire Straits frontman Knopfler. "I really had no idea that it was going to be like this. It hit Guy and I quite early on that we had to extend this piece somehow, to take in the number of people who joined in. Before I knew where I was, Pete Townshend had come into my studio armed with a guitar and an amp. And that first Pete power chord...man, I tell you. We were in that territory, and it was just fantastic. And it went on from there. Eric [Clapton] came in, played great, just one tasty lick after another. Then Jeff Beck's contribution arrived and that was spellbinding. I think what we've had is an embarrassment of riches, really. The whole thing was a high point." The new version of the song, an instrumental theme to the 1983 Scottish comedy-drama Local Hero, was recorded at British Grove Studios, in West London, with some artists taping their contributions in person, and others sending in sound files from their own studios. Guy Fletcher then edited the contributions into a nine-minute piece. Speaking of Jeff Beck's participation in the recording, Fletcher says, "It was absolutely meant to be. And what he did with it, it just brings you to tears." The song also features Ringo Starr on drums, Sting on bass, and Teenage Cancer Trust patron Roger Daltrey on harmonica. ...
You can listen to a 15-second preview snippet of the track on YouTube here, and pre-order it here. Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.
