Haha yes!
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 17:02 (six years ago) link
Those paintings really are a marvel
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 17:03 (six years ago) link
is there Mark Knopfler fanfic?
said this on another thread, but I think Dire Straits is the secret special sauce of the War on Drugs. No one in the US or UK wanted to sound like DS for 30 years after BiA, but the standard WiD long jams sound like Love Over Gold/ Making Movies' more expansive tunes.
― veronica moser, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 17:33 (six years ago) link
This helps explain how Knopfler tickets are like $100 when he tours to my local downtown theater.
― Eazy, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 17:44 (six years ago) link
there's gotta be a Princess Bride element to Knopfler fandom
― nomar, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 17:45 (six years ago) link
I tell you what would improve this record is if they had steve ignorant reciting the lyrics of 'how does it feel to be the mother of 1000 dead' over the top of the guitar solos on the title track
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 18:32 (six years ago) link
Re-listening to 'Your Latest Trick' again now... ah, now that's a sax lick.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 18:33 (six years ago) link
i think this album hit at the precise right time, it has a bit of everything for everyone who was a major record buying audience in 1985. some slick roots rock, MTV sheen, Miami Vice moodiness, and even that sax lick...it sounds like Dire Straits but it also sounds like half a dozen other major, vv popular acts (and evokes other pop culture touchstones) hitting right around the same moment in time.
― nomar, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 18:42 (six years ago) link
lots of aspects of the album sounded familiar to me even as a ten year old hearing it for the first time when my parents spun the vinyl. i'm also pretty sure this was the last record my folks bought, and the first they'd bought in awhile for themselves and not for my brother and i.
― nomar, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 18:43 (six years ago) link
I hadn't noticed until recently how many rock songs are about a befuddled, probably overweight/out of shape singer throwing his love away on loose women and prostitutes. How many prostitutes do rock stars meet? It represents the paucity of their imaginations, the sorry state of their sex lives, or both.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 19:04 (six years ago) link
Well, yeah.
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 19:05 (six years ago) link
I think it's more that they think all women are whores, regardless of whether they actually are or not
xp
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 19:06 (six years ago) link
it's this thing where they're acting like the raconteur admiring women from afar, appreciating them, commenting on their appearance, playing the gentleman but acting the possessor, ah don't you know women are just these beautiful mysterious things who we can't comprehend and sometimes they do these baffling things, but we love them anyway....wanting the solid home base but also wanting the mystery lady who's out there in a bar somewhere waiting for you. i mean that's obv a common rock star thing but boy i know a lot of men (especially from my parents' generation, it seems) who are like this IRL all the time.
― nomar, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 19:12 (six years ago) link
just be thankful he's not singing about les boys again
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 19:40 (six years ago) link
I really like the extended outro on the full version of 'Why Worry' - the vinyl version just feels like half a song to me now. They could have easily have lopped off 'Walk of Life' to make room for it.
If I remember correctly, Neil Dorfsman argued with the band over 'Walk of Life' because he felt it didn't warrant a place on the album. He was right.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 19:45 (six years ago) link
It's the title song for me. When "Brothers in Arms" came out I was studying in Munich and a friend who was a big Dire Straits fan taped it for me. I listened to it when I went to bed. And I usually got to the last song before falling asleep and it was always a perfect lullabye and so tender, I loved it to pieces. I think this song was also playing in the car stereo of that guy we had met in a Munich pub. We had not slept the night and were coming back from the Starnberger See in the afternoon and the guy fell asleep for a second and missed the curve and we went straight into a field. In that moment my sister's friend who was the 4th passenger thought about our poor parents who were about to lose their two only children in that accident. It didn't happen though, the car stopped in the middle of that field without turning over and somehow we even succeeded in putting it back on the road. As you see that album and especially that song is linked to sleep in my memory.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 20:47 (six years ago) link
wow
― ToddBonzalez (BradNelson), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 21:08 (six years ago) link
― plp will eat itself (NickB),
that's the way to do it!
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 21:41 (six years ago) link
great post
voted the title track, I wonder if Gilmour ever heard "Brothers in Arms" and was like damn headband boy beat me at my own game
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 21:41 (six years ago) link
ugh Knopfler is about as sexy as a moist jockstrap
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 21:56 (six years ago) link
.. odd i was just thinking today that i could go the rest of my life not hearing "Money For Nothing" ever again.
― bodacious ignoramus, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 22:09 (six years ago) link
xpost otm
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 6 September 2017 22:23 (six years ago) link
I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that this album was one of first albums I ever bought with my own money, based on the 3 catchy singles that open the album. Then it turned out those were the only 3 songs I liked on the album. An early lesson in record-buying disappointment.
― o. nate, Thursday, 7 September 2017 02:41 (six years ago) link
The title track works great in that Miami Vice episode, which is also the only Miami Vice episode I've ever seen.
― JoeStork, Thursday, 7 September 2017 02:46 (six years ago) link
Btw I didn't even know sting was on "money for nothing" ! What's the story ?
Sting sings the line "What's that — Hawaiian noises?"
― crüt, Thursday, 7 September 2017 02:51 (six years ago) link
that ain't workin
― mookieproof, Thursday, 7 September 2017 02:52 (six years ago) link
the intro to money for nothing is breathtaking in a special fx fireworks kind of way
most of these songs are just too damn long and not interesting
― brimstead, Thursday, 7 September 2017 02:54 (six years ago) link
really sad that every Dire Straits discussion has to devolve into a discussion of their LOOKS, they are actually not just pieces of meat for you to rate in your online beauty contest they are TALENTED MUSICIANS who WRITE THEIR OWN SONGS
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 7 September 2017 02:54 (six years ago) link
as a child, i was not aware that sting was a native english speaker
― brimstead, Thursday, 7 September 2017 02:56 (six years ago) link
Sting actually can only speak English phonetically
― Neanderthal, Thursday, 7 September 2017 03:00 (six years ago) link
― brimstead, Wednesday, September 6, 2017 10:54 PM (twenty-five minutes ago)
otm -- it's as simple as that for me.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 7 September 2017 03:21 (six years ago) link
tbh I like this album and generally like this band, though for me they're strictly an atmosphere and mood band who sometimes managed to get a good hook in there.
― nomar, Thursday, 7 September 2017 03:54 (six years ago) link
i really just like listening to those dudes kill it on their instruments on the earlier albums and they don't sound like much of a band here.. plenty of atmosphere but it's just interspersed with too much lameness, imo
― brimstead, Thursday, 7 September 2017 04:52 (six years ago) link
tbf this album def sounds like the MOR radio of my childhood
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 7 September 2017 05:05 (six years ago) link
tbh I like this album and generally like this band, though for me they're strictly an atmosphere and mood band who sometimes managed to get a good hook in there.― nomar, Thursday, September 7, 2017 3:54 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― nomar, Thursday, September 7, 2017 3:54 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
OTM - Dire Straits always seemed a weird stadium band, pretty much the majority of their output is downbeat.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Thursday, 7 September 2017 06:04 (six years ago) link
eheh, otm.I remember being so impressed by it as a kid with the dad's hifi system at high volume !
― AlXTC from Paris, Thursday, 7 September 2017 08:10 (six years ago) link
This was the first album of Dire Straits' "headband era", wasn't it? (He started wearing it circa 1983) ... Apparently, it was for practical rather than aesthetic reasons.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Thursday, 7 September 2017 10:21 (six years ago) link
Talking about Sting, I find him singing "MONEH FOR NOTHING! CHIX FOR FREEEEEEE!" over the outro in his falsetto rather comical, given how pretentious his own lyrics can be.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Thursday, 7 September 2017 11:28 (six years ago) link
― brimstead, Thursday, September 7, 2017 4:52 AM (six hours ago)
By this album, they'd become The Mark Knopfler Project. 1st DS album is superb esp. "In the gallery"
― Well bissogled trotters (Michael B), Thursday, 7 September 2017 11:45 (six years ago) link
otm. Pretty funny how anonymous the other band members were/are for such a stadium-sized band
― licorice oratorio (baaderonixx), Thursday, 7 September 2017 12:33 (six years ago) link
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Wednesday, September 6, 2017 11:04 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yeah it's weird they're like Pink Floyd but with this fake american heartland thing going on
― brimstead, Thursday, 7 September 2017 15:14 (six years ago) link
and headbands
― brimstead, Thursday, 7 September 2017 15:15 (six years ago) link
Funnily enough, the title track of this album kinda reminds me a little of Gilmour-era Floyd.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Thursday, 7 September 2017 15:37 (six years ago) link
Heh, I see upper mississippi said as much upthread!
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Thursday, 7 September 2017 15:38 (six years ago) link
Knopfler has a really narrow range as a singer, too.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Thursday, 7 September 2017 15:40 (six years ago) link
also the floyd album that came out prior to BIA is obviously about the falklands war too
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Thursday, 7 September 2017 16:09 (six years ago) link
Related to guitar, there are stories that Knopfler was going for Billy Gibbons' ZZ Top guitar tone for "Money for Nothing."
― Eazy, Thursday, 7 September 2017 17:31 (six years ago) link
I think Knopfler may have asked Gibbons about his guitar tone? Well, according to Gibbons anyway. Unsurprisingly, Gibbons didn't tell him anything - guitarists are generally a bit funny about how they achieve their guitar sounds.
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Thursday, 7 September 2017 17:37 (six years ago) link
I waaaant myyyyyI waaaant myyyyy eeeemmm teeeee veeeee!
*drum solo*
― more Allegro-like (Turrican), Thursday, 7 September 2017 18:01 (six years ago) link
I really hope there is an earnest academic treatise out there on the Geordie creation of late 20c adult oriented pop rock - from Ferry through Sting to Knopfler and Mcaloon. If not I may have to write it.
― Stevie T, Thursday, 7 September 2017 18:13 (six years ago) link