ALCHEMY
 
Artist Dire Straits
Release date 16th March 1984
Recording Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK, 23rd July 1983
Format 2CD
Label Vertigo
Cat.no. 812 243-2
Tracks CD 1
  1. Once upon a time in the west
  2. Expresso love
  3. Romeo and juliet
  4. Love over gold
  5. Private investigations
  6. Sultans of swing
Tracks CD 2
  1. Two young lovers
  2. Tunnel of love
  3. Telegraph road
  4. Solid rock
  5. Going home
Front & back cover

cardboard cover

          
Front & back cover CD 1     
Front & back cover CD 2               
CD´s                       
Additional comments Original edition. Two seperate jewel cases in a carton box.

The cover of the album is an adaptation of 'Alchemy - 1974', painted over a two-year period (1972-1973) by the late Australian artist and personal friend of Mark Knopfler, Brett Whiteley, who died on 15th June 1992. The painting is actually a self-portrait and consists of a series of large separate panels which, when fully displayed, extend around several walls of a studio. The vertical lines separating the frames can be seen on the album cover. There are many panels to the work and most are not seen here. The adaptation includes additional artwork and photographs of the band and some collage like a guitar with lips held by a hand. One prevalent feature in Brett Whiteley's work are arrows going in opposite directions, they feature in various paintings he has done and presumably this is where the four arrows you see on the album cover originate. Apparently Mark Knopfler was an admirer of Whiteley's work. In an interview on the Australian TV programme '60 Minutes' he said he was 'saddened' to hear of his death.