DIRE STRAITS c or d

And "Sultans" has to be one of the few songs in rock history (maybe any-music history) to deal expressly with audiences disagreeing about the definition of a musical genre. (As in "They don't give a damn 'bout any trumpet-playing band/It ain't what they call rock'n'roll"; pretty sure Knopfler disagrees, but at least he lets the pub-rocking-hating trendies in their brown baggies and platform soles have their say.)

But the band is much more jazz than rock'n'roll, isn't it? I thought those lines were just to show that they're at the bar to get drunk, and will ignore anything outside of their chosen genre, even if the music is far superior to whatever they listen to.

Guess you could read it that way -- They're called the Sultans of Swing, after all, and they obviously have trumpets -- but I've always thought of them as more of an eclectic roots band, if anything. Harry with the daytime job "can play honky-tonk like anything"; "The Sultans played Creole"; the whole verse about George knowing all the chords but just wanting to play rhythm on his old guitar, which is all he can afford. So yeah, it's possible I've always read too much into it -- but it's more interesiting my way, so I'm gonna stick with it.

Didn't Dire Straits come up through the British pub-rock scene, though? Seems to me roots bands are would've played in those places, maybe often in front of glammy trendy drunk kids. But I could be wrong (and just because those bands played those places doesn't mean that's who he's singing about. But Knopfler obviously has a thing -- see "In The Gallery," "Money For Nothing" -- about pitting the salt of the earth against what he seems to see as the artsy hipster phonies of the world. The Harry in "In The Gallery," who crafts bareback riders and coal miners out of clay and stone but can't get into museums where abstract art gets shown, might even be the same Harry who plays in the Sultans!)

So now I've pretty much decided that, even without a song as great as "Sultans Of Swing," and even though it's sort of a rehash in some ways, Communique is a more consistent LP than the debut -- easier to attend to all the way through, thanks to more songs that stick and Knopfler frequently pushing his tasty guitar atmosphere to the forefront. Very sweet solos in "Where Do You Think You're Going?" and "Portobello Belle," and I also like his Latin stuff in "Angel Of Mercy" and country boogie in the otherwise kinda draggy title track and especially the spaghetti western with which he appropriately opens "Once Upon A Time In The West" -- the latter also being one of the two catchiest tracks along with "Lady Writer", which once again are both side openers and the ones that I think got AOR airplay back then. On the second side he seems obsessed with Catholic girls, not that he he seems all that incisive about the issue -- lady on TV talking about Virgin Mary while hair falls down upon her face as he remembers his fall from grace in "Lady Writer," angel who's gonna save his soul in "Angel Of Mercy," Irish girl taking part with a blind guy (bluesman maybe?) in what seems like it might be a halfway decent short story if I listened closer in "Portobello Belle." Also haven't figured out yet whether the sailor in "Single Handed Sailor" has one hand because he's jerking off or he has a hook or what. Mostly like the words of "Once Upon A Time In The West," which I gather is about L.A. rather than the Wild West End, though it seems peevish how Knopfler opens the album whining about people scaring pedestrians by exceeding the speed limit when his music's main problem is that it frequently could afford to go faster. Still, tempos do pick up some in general here, which helps.

Actually, guess I mean he seems defensive. And come to think of it, it might not be so much that BPMS increase a little ("Sultans of Swing" still feels like their most propulsive song by far) as that, in the non-single/filler tracks, he's enunciating more, and his writing and playing come off less perfunctory than on the first album.

He probably does better with less arty blues-shuffle stuff like "Setting Me Up" and "Southbound Again," but I'm really not buying the schtick of those; just can't see him as the Delta blues codger he's pretending to be

i always thought he was going for more of a j.j. cale, "tulsa sound" kind of thing...

Also haven't figured out yet whether the sailor in "Single Handed Sailor" has one hand because he's jerking off or he has a hook or what.

That made me laugh. Don't really know who or what the song is about, but the whole thing is set around this boat, which is in dry dock in Greenwich in London.

Agree with yr overall assessment of this album's worth btw.

(which i think he does rather brilliantly)

i should re-listen to Communique and Making Movies; i suspect they would stick to my ribs a little better now than they did 12-13 years ago when i was obsessing over s/t

xx-post

I've got 'Single Handed Sailor' stuck in my head now and I'm thinking that the tune is a lot like Dylan's 'Oh Sister'.

So okay, what's the deal with the Twisting By The Pool EP, from 1983? (Or, as my copy says on the cover, ExtendedDanc"EP"lay -- not sure what its official name is supposed to be; Joel Whitburn's book lists it as the former.) Contractual obligation, frustrated sellout move, record label pressure to go more "pop," bid for the European market, or what? Title track might be the lightest, most frivolous thing they ever did, and it didn't chart Hot 100 at all in the States (EP went to #53 on the album chart), but I remember it being pretty ubiquitous in Germany when I lived there. (Actually, just checked Wiki -- only #31 Germany, but #14 UK, #1 New Zealand, #2 Australia, #11 Italy; apparently got "rock" airplay in the States, but only reached #105 pop.) And I guess, yeah, a dance song, though who would actually be "twisting" in 1983? Stray Cats fans? Except the lyrics says they're on holiday at the beach, dancing to "the Eurobeat" (first time I ever heard that word, I think, but living in Germany I thought it was a perfect genre name.) Song doesn't sound cynical, but knowing Knopfler, it's gotta be right? Maybe a template for Brothers In Arms (which I haven't listened to in entirety for decades so this could be way off), as in: moving away from uppity literary aspirations toward putting out dumb records the masses will buy. Three other songs on the EP, most substantial being a talked-not-sung five-minute diddy-bebop quasi-jazz (as in Steely Dan maybe) workout called "Badges, Posters, T-Shirts," about fans looking for merch and (I think) claiming they could drum better than the drummer. The B-side songs really do sound like B-sides, pleasant but forgettable, one sax based and maybe very slightly jump-bluesy ("Two Young Lovers"), the other piano based and possibly an attempt at Blonde On Blonde era Dylan. Did anymore care?

"Did anybody care?," I mean. (Actually, I was thinking they were on a career downswing by that point, and just fishing for whatever they could get, but I just noticed in Wiki that Love Over Gold from 1982 -- which I know basically nothing about -- apparently went #1 all over Europe, their first album to do so, but peaked at #19 in the States just like Making Movies before it had. So it's possible that, by this point, they figured the Euromarket was their future.)

"Two Young Lovers" - haha, that's the yakety sax song right?

Sax is by Mel Collins of King Crimson btw iirc

Contractual obligation, frustrated sellout move, record label pressure to go more "pop,"

A little of everything perhaps? The video for the title track was in pretty heavy MTV rotation and I recall that Rolling Stone had a very prominent review (I'm sure paid for). Love Over Gold was a complete non-entity in the US (despite the charts).

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/faggot-to-be-removed-from-dire-straits-song-20110114-19q9m.html

i never even knew that word was in the song until i read about that this morning!

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/faggot-to-be-removed-from-dire-straits-song-20110114-to-be-replaced- with-leftover-nigger-from-huck-finn-19q9m.html

guilty lol

guilty post

I think "Twisting by the Pool" EP is mostly an example of how they liked to play with American idioms. One interesting thing about Dire Straits, which connects w/ what someone said about Thin Lizzy, is how at their best they interpret and put their own spin on very "American" sounding rock'n'roll. Dire Straits did this a few different ways-- from proggy Springsteen-style epics to "yackety sax" kind of stuff-- and their fortunes in the U.S. really hinged on where their sound was at any given point and how well if fit with emerging, early-80s ideas of what "classic rock" meant.

"Twisting by the Pool" was also a harbinger for the boomer nostalgia of the 80s. For people of a certain age, it sounded like the music they heard as kids.

I've always suspected that "Twisting by the Pool" came about partly because they had just hired ex-Rockpile drummer Terry Williams, who was born to wail frantically on songs like this.

Sarcasm and irony is inappropriate in 2011?

Me on Love Over Gold: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/dire-straits-love-over-gold.html

Very good review. This is one of my father's favourite albums and "Telegraph Road" one of his favourite songs.

I was particularly interested in your comparisons with Steely Dan; I'd never made that connection before, but in retrospect, it's easy to see with Knopfler's style of playing and early adoption of digital technology.

Nice job. But why skip over It Never Rains? That's one of the best Dire Straits songs.

Never mind, I take that back.

been diggin 'Beryl' today

Posted this on the "World" music 2015 thread, but it also kinda belongs here

http://www.afropop.org/22260/accounting-for-taste/

On air this week is “Accounting for Taste.” We’ll find out how the fluid guitar playing of ’70s rock band Dire Straits became massively popular in the Sahel, influencing Tuareg rockers like Tinariwen and Tamikrest. We’ll hear about the American country superstar Jim Reeves’ African career, and the unlikely story of how the pedal steel made it from Hawaii to Lagos, Nigeria. Finally, we’ll travel to Angola to explore that nation’s death metal scene. Produced by Sam Backer with help from Jesse Brent.

Mauritanian Noura Mint Seymali's guitarist husband told me he listened to Dire Straits. But his guitar playing is such edgier and funkier (than I recall from Dire Straits).

― curmudgeon, Saturday, February 28, 2015 7:34 PM (0 seconds

http://africasacountry.com/the-unexpected-popularity-of-dire-straits-in-north-african-tuareg-communities

The guy who did the afropop.org radio story from February, wrote the later blog item. As I noted on the "world" music thread, when I interviewed Noura Mint Seymali's guitarist from Mauritania, he also noted that he listened to Dire Straits. But as the article notes, younger Tuaregs do not seem to listen to Dire Straits anymore because there are so many desert blues bands around. I wonder if Dire Straits are awarwe of their audience there?

Rep for "Six Blade Knife":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHIIivQnIsU

rep for the whole first album!

ber neh ber-neh ber-neh ber-ner-neh-nurUR

HA!

good jj cale vibes on six blade knife

btw it's fun to listen to 'lady writer' and pretend it's actually tom verlaine you're hearing

Love Over Gold fucking rules.

and 'Twisting By The Pool' is shite.

Love Over Gold is a good record indeed, I kept that and the debut in my collection

although Telegraph Road is a... well, stupid is not the right word, but it's a weird song that's too ambitious for its own good and really doesn't deliver at all lyrically

sounds pristine tho

It's strange - if people ever speak about this band these days, it's usually about the Brothers in Arms period or 'Sultans of Swing', and even then they seem to be one of those formerly huge bands that generally hardly ever crop up in musical discussions anymore.

Making Movies and Love Over Gold come across as the bands peak now, and both are very underrated these days.

Making Movies, short a song maybe, is their masterpiece. Roy Bittan really livens things up, especially on "Tunnel of Love," which is also their peak.

Brothers in Arms was actually the end, IMO... I don't like the one LP they put out after, I'm not a fan of Knopfler's solo work at all and I fucking detest 'Walk of Life' more than 'Twisting by the Pool' ...

Will never miss a chance to repost this:

http://www.wolproject.com

Communique is good too

really good, dare I say

Most of the self-titled first album too. "Six Blade Knife" and "Water of Love"...

I don't like the one LP they put out after

The title track of On Every Street has the greatest guitar part Knopfler ever wrote, tho.

Communiqué is far better than many would have you believe, yeah!

well yeah self titled is a total classic xxp

communique may not be as tight or well written as the debut but the production is really nice and i love hearing those guy play

well yeah I just meant cuz calstars likes bars, I wasn’t implying they were a “bar band” I just mean ~vibes~

“tunnel of love” is awesome.. lyrics aside it always sounded really... dangerous to me, like some violence is about to pop off idk

well yeah I just meant cuz calstars likes bars, I wasn’t implying they were a “bar band” I just mean ~vibes~

wtf is that video for Tunnel of Love

and the first three Dire Straits albums are bar ambient if there ever was, Knopfler soloing on a Strat is what beer tastes like

Heh, tell that to Eric "Michelob" Clapton, who basically personified "cheap beer in the '80s." Knopfler soloing is the sound of you getting home, thinking about what you did or didn't do.

“Bar ambient” ?

Brian wino

Lol

And "Romeo and Juliet" is neither bar nor ambient.

bar ambient is equally good if you ignore it or focus drunkenly on it in an attempt to remain upright

The fuck is bar ambient tho

That Tunnel of Love clip might be the most Yawnsomely Literal music video I've ever seen.

love over gold is basically an ambient album

Love over Green World

My wife: "Dire Straits were dad rock before I knew what dad rock was."

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMYMhS78R/