Dire Straits

[Freypower]

I'm still waiting for it to arrive.

[Glennsallnighter]

I hope it arrives soon! Enjoy it when it does FP! Its been a good year for you musically, and with the Eagles DVD promised, its not over yet!!

[Jonny Come Lately]

I am a big fan of Dire Straits - Mark Knopfler is one of my favourite guitarists and the band has many great songs, often defined by clearly defined storytelling with recognisable characters and situations.

The first song I heard was Sultans Of Swing, which I heard many years ago when my Dad (who owns the Money For Nothing compilation album) played it on our home hi-fi system. I immediately loved the song and I would play it over and over again, only discovering later that they had many other great songs. Sultans definitely remains a favourite though, I never get tired of the classic outro solo.

I think the Dire Straits albums can be split into two distinct eras - these being 1978-80, when they were making predominantly tight-knit guitar-led music with R&B influences and released an album every year, with the debut being followed in relatively quick succession by Communique and Making Movies, and the later 1981-91 era when they released the same number of albums over a decade, with the sound expanding significantly to include more keyboards and synthesisers, although Knopfler's guitar remained the nominal lead instrument.

My ranking of the six albums is as follows:
1) Love Over Gold
2) Dire Straits
3) Making Movies
4) Communique
5) Brothers In Arms
6) On Every Street

The top three albums are my favourites and with one exception (Les Boys from Making Movies) I like all of the songs from these records. Love Over Gold is my favourite Dire Straits album, I thoroughly enjoy all five of the tracks but above all it contains Telegraph Road, which is my overall favourite track. I love the atmosphere, the lyrics and all of the guitar solos. Private Investigations is also stunning, Industrial Disease provides energy while also being clever and funny, the title track is beautiful and It Never Rains builds, with increasing bitterness, to what I think is a great guitar solo.

It is quite close between numbers 2 and 3 on my list and part of me wants to put Making Movies above the debut. However, I do love the laid-back and organic sound of the debut album and I think there's much more to the album than Sultans - Down To The Waterline, Six Blade Knife and In The Gallery all stand out as great songs to me, and I often listen to it from start to finish. Nonetheless, side one of Making Movies is one of the best album sides ever I think, Tunnel Of Love, Romeo & Juliet and Skateaway being an exceptional sequence of songs, and side two is strong as well. Roy Bittan's piano playing adds a lot to the album I think, as does the cinematic style of writing.

I like Brothers In Arms but it only ranks fifth on my list. This might be somewhat surprising but out of the three major hits the only one I regard as being a Dire Straits classic is Money For Nothing - So Far Away is very pleasant but not one of my absolute favourites while Walk of Life gets old fairly quickly for me. I prefer side two of the record as I really like the war-themed songs, with the seminal title track standing as my favourite, In any case, I've always rather liked Communique, which unusually was actually the first album I got for myself - Lady Writer came on the radio and having enjoyed that song I decided to check out the album it originated from. I love Once Upon A Time In The West and Where Do You Think You're Going but my favourite has to be Singled Handed Sailor, which is among my very favourites in no small part due to Knopfler's terrific outro solo.

I must admit I am not all that familiar just yet with On Every Street, having only added it to my collection fairly recently. On the whole I think it's a pleasant album if not their absolute best. The title track is a highlight to me, the first half is beautiful and the guitar in the latter part is excellent.

I also own the Live At The BBC album, consisting of six tracks from the debut album with the non-album track What's The Matter Baby and a later performance of Tunnel Of Love. It's a very good live set I think, with my favourite performance probably being Six Blade Knife which prominently showcases the song's excellent bass line.

The only solo Mark Knopfler album I own is Sailing To Philadelphia, although I think it is an excellent album in its own right - I particularly love What It Is, Silvertown Blues, Speedway At Nazareth and the titular duet with James Taylor as well as One More Matinee (I don't think this is on the international edition, shame as it's a fine closer).

For newcomers I would say Making Movies is probably the best album to start with - it's more focussed than the first two albums or On Every Street and has several of their very best songs. Brothers In Arms is probably the most obvious choice, but the hits on it are not representative of most of the rest of that album, or indeed their sound in general in the case of Money For Nothing. As highly as I rate Love Over Gold, I think it just isn't a sensible place to start unless you a progressive rock fan as all of the songs are quite long and feature lengthy instrumental sections.

[Freypower]

Thank you JCL. Did you read my rankings of the DS albums & songs on page 5 of this thread & the MK solo songs on page 6?

Love Over Gold is my least favourite album but even as I say that, the wonderful Industrial Disease assails my ears. I like Private Investigations, especially when it gets to the guitar explosion, and as for Telegraph Road I love it if I'm in the mood for it.

Making Movies is the masterpiece. Everyone should hear it. Romeo & Juliet is the most extraordinary piece of songwriting as is Tunnel Of Love. Solid Rock is my personal anthem. If I feel down I listen to it.

I'm not that good with musical analysis. I can do lyrics if I really take some time. I am with you on Side 2 of Brothers In Arms although One World isn't quite up to the standards of those other songs. The title track is absolute perfection.

My favourite songs on the first two albums tend to be the quirkier ones, apart from Sultans which is in a class of its own. They would be Down To The Waterline, In The Gallery, Lions, Communique, Once Upon A Time In The West & News.

On Every Street, apart from the superb title track & How Long, doesn't have all that much going for it. I expected a great deal more of Planet Of New Orleans than that wonderful title delivers. Heavy Fuel is fun (the video is a classic). Iron Hand is about the miners' strike.

You made the right choice with STP but I suggest you also go for Shangri-La & Get Lucky. I would say my least favourite solo album is Kill To Get Crimson, but each album has some great tracks. I will list my favourites & perhaps you might want to check them out.

Golden Heart - Done With Bonaparte
STP - Silvertown Blues but the title track is utter perfection
The Ragpicker's Dream - Why Aye Man (Geordie anthem)
Shangri-La - The Trawlerman's Song
Kill To Get Crimson - In The Sky
Get Lucky - So Far From The Clyde (I love his 'seafaring' songs)
Privateering - title track

The new album, Tracker, will be out this year.

You might also want to check out All The Roadrunning, the album of duets with Emmylou Harris. It is far superior to the much vaunted Raising Sand by Plant/Krauss, most of which is not even duets.

You don't mention ever seeing DS or MK live. I saw DS twice, on the BIA & OES tours. I saw Mark on the Shangri-La tour in 2005. It's criminal that he hasn't come back here.

[Jonny Come Lately]

I have read your rankings FP - nice lists, your top four songs are all very high up my list too. My top ten would definitely include Romeo & Juliet, Brothers In Arms, Tunnel Of Love and Sultans Of Swing. I would also include Telegraph Road and Single Handed Sailor in this group of clear favourites. I'd probably find it easier to rank some of the albums first than give an overall ranking though, so here goes (with a few of my thoughts where I have something additional to say):

Dire Straits
1) Sultans Of Swing
2) In The Gallery (great song - I love the lyrics especially the 'then you get an artist who says he doesn't want to paint at all' verse. It's funny but with a message)
3) Down To The Waterline
4) Six Blade Knife
5) Water Of Love
6) Wild West End (really like the bit where Mark starts laughing while singing - listen to the part after 'I think I wanna marry you' line. I also like the 'Conductor on the number 19' verse)
7) Lions
8 ) Setting Me Up (not the best lyrically, but a decent guitar workout so I like it)
9) Southbound Again

Communique
1) Single Handed Sailor
2) Once Upon A Time In The West (I love the extended Alchemy version too)
3) Where Do You Think You're Going
4) Lady Writer
5) Angel Of Mercy (As much as I like Lady Writer, this would have been my choice of single from the second album)
6) Portobello Belle
7) News (underrated - I like the guitars on this one and I like the story)
8 ) Follow Me Home
9) Communique (not bad but find it gets a bit dull towards the end)

Making Movies
1) Tunnel Of Love
2) Romeo & Juliet
3) Expresso Love (one of their best riffs I think)
4) Skateaway
5) Solid Rock (I agree it's an uplifting song, I like the lyrics as well)
6) Hand In Hand
7) Les Boys

Brothers In Arms
1) Brothers In Arms
2) Money For Nothing (love it, only complaint is the overly long 'I want my MTV' part at the beginning - the brilliant guitar intro makes it worthwhile though)
3) Man's Too Strong
4) So Far Away
5) Ride Across The River
6) One World (I like this one quite a bit - in a way it's a bit like Setting Me Up in being a guitar workout, though the lyrics aren't bad to me either)
7) Why Worry?
8 ) Walk Of Life (I like it every once a while but gets old quickly compared to most Dire Straits songs I think)
9) Your Latest Trick (like the lyrics but musically isn't my favourite, just doesn't grab me I guess. I don't think it's bad or anything though)

Ranking Love Over Gold is difficult for me as Telegraph Road would definitely be my number one but the others move around and I find it hard to place any of them last. This closely mirrors my feelings about Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here album (another absolute favourite of my mine) where I know I love Shine On You Crazy Diamond the most but can't really rank the other three as I love them all too. On Every Street is too new to me for to be able to rank it definitively just yet.

I also noticed that you had the Theme From Local Hero (Going Home) in your top twenty, I love it as well although on my iPod I actually downloaded the soundtrack version so I tend to think of it as a Mark Knopfler song rather than a Dire Straits one. Although it is typically associated with Newcastle United, I go to a few Tranmere Rovers FC games every season and hear it being played at the end of matches there too.

I can't really analyse music properly, I just try to describe what I hear I guess - I'm not able to rank guitar solos technically, for instance, so a great solo to me is one that really stands out to me, rather than necessarily the most complex.

Thanks for listing your favourites from his solo career, I'll be quite busy over the coming week or so but I'll definitely check those songs out. I had no idea he had a new album coming out, haven't seen any mentions in the press or anything lately.

I never had a chance of going to see Dire Straits live as I believe their final concert was in October 1992, about two years short of my date of birth. I've never seen Mark live either although I would certainly like to.

One last thing - I noticed your comments on Mark touring with Bob Dylan and thought you might be interested to hear that I know one guy from another forum who is a big Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler fan and went to see this show and said that while Mark was excellent, the Dylan show was one of the worst things he'd ever seen.

[Freypower]

I have read your rankings FP - nice lists, your top four songs are all very high up my list too. My top ten would definitely include Romeo & Juliet, Brothers In Arms, Tunnel Of Love and Sultans Of Swing. I would also include Telegraph Road and Single Handed Sailor in this group of clear favourites. I'd probably find it easier to rank some of the albums first than give an overall ranking though, so here goes (with a few of my thoughts where I have something additional to say):

Dire Straits
1) Sultans Of Swing
2) In The Gallery (great song - I love the lyrics especially the 'then you get an artist who says he doesn't want to paint at all' verse. It's funny but with a message)
3) Down To The Waterline
4) Six Blade Knife
5) Water Of Love
6) Wild West End (really like the bit where Mark starts laughing while singing - listen to the part after 'I think I wanna marry you' line. I also like the 'Conductor on the number 19' verse)
7) Lions
8 ) Setting Me Up (not the best lyrically, but a decent guitar workout so I like it)
9) Southbound Again

Communique
1) Single Handed Sailor
2) Once Upon A Time In The West (I love the extended Alchemy version too)
3) Where Do You Think You're Going
4) Lady Writer
5) Angel Of Mercy (As much as I like Lady Writer, this would have been my choice of single from the second album)
6) Portobello Belle
7) News (underrated - I like the guitars on this one and I like the story)
8 ) Follow Me Home
9) Communique (not bad but find it gets a bit dull towards the end)

Making Movies
1) Tunnel Of Love
2) Romeo & Juliet
3) Expresso Love (one of their best riffs I think)
4) Skateaway
5) Solid Rock (I agree it's an uplifting song, I like the lyrics as well)
6) Hand In Hand
7) Les Boys

Brothers In Arms
1) Brothers In Arms
2) Money For Nothing (love it, only complaint is the overly long 'I want my MTV' part at the beginning - the brilliant guitar intro makes it worthwhile though)
3) Man's Too Strong
4) So Far Away
5) Ride Across The River
6) One World (I like this one quite a bit - in a way it's a bit like Setting Me Up in being a guitar workout, though the lyrics aren't bad to me either)
7) Why Worry?
8 ) Walk Of Life (I like it every once a while but gets old quickly compared to most Dire Straits songs I think)
9) Your Latest Trick (like the lyrics but musically isn't my favourite, just doesn't grab me I guess. I don't think it's bad or anything though)

Ranking Love Over Gold is difficult for me as Telegraph Road would definitely be my number one but the others move around and I find it hard to place any of them last. This closely mirrors my feelings about Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here album (another absolute favourite of my mine) where I know I love Shine On You Crazy Diamond the most but can't really rank the other three as I love them all too. On Every Street is too new to me for to be able to rank it definitively just yet.

I also noticed that you had the Theme From Local Hero (Going Home) in your top twenty, I love it as well although on my iPod I actually downloaded the soundtrack version so I tend to think of it as a Mark Knopfler song rather than a Dire Straits one. Although it is typically associated with Newcastle United, I go to a few Tranmere Rovers FC games every season and hear it being played at the end of matches there too.

I can't really analyse music properly, I just try to describe what I hear I guess - I'm not able to rank guitar solos technically, for instance, so a great solo to me is one that really stands out to me, rather than necessarily the most complex.

Thanks for listing your favourites from his solo career, I'll be quite busy over the coming week or so but I'll definitely check those songs out. I had no idea he had a new album coming out, haven't seen any mentions in the press or anything lately.

I never had a chance of going to see Dire Straits live as I believe their final concert was in October 1992, about two years short of my date of birth. I've never seen Mark live either although I would certainly like to.

One last thing - I noticed your comments on Mark touring with Bob Dylan and thought you might be interested to hear that I know one guy from another forum who is a big Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler fan and went to see this show and said that while Mark was excellent, the Dylan show was one of the worst things he'd ever seen.

1. Yes to both. I would love to know who or what events inspired the story of Harry in In The Gallery. He comes to a sad end, much as his namesake does in New York Minute! Wild West End along with Baker Street is one of the best songs written about London, which is my favourite city (Hence why I also love Sultans & Silvertown Blues so much).

2. I see Going Home is both a group & solo effort because it appeared on Alchemy & the On The Night DVD, although it first appeared as a solo track on the Local Hero soundtrack. I love it with a passion; it's one of the most uplifting things I've ever heard.

One complaint which could be made about both Money For Nothing & So Far Away is they both go on too long. I suppose he had to make sure his fellow Geordie Sting featured promninently. Not Brothers In Arms though... it could go as long as Telegraph Road & it wouldn't be long enough.

For a straightforward rock song with no trimmings, just sheer excitement, my favourite is Expresso Love ('all fired up on it! HA! Expresso Love's alright)!

(Wish You Were Here is my favourite Pink Floyd album but I am nowhere near as big a fan of them as I am of DS).

[Jonny Come Lately]

I think I might be able to help with In The Gallery, according to this web page Harry refers to Harry Phillips, a sculptor from Leeds who died in 1976, two years prior to the release of the debut Dire Straits album:

http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=10824

I must admit I've sometimes thought that In The Gallery could serve as a metaphor for the rise of punk, with the modern art representing a perception of artless punk music made with little care or attention with Harry's excellent sculptures representing the finer, old-school Dire Straits approach. However, I think this is unlikely to have actually come into Mark's thinking when writing the song, especially as it was the band's first album and they were making their own name rather than making a stand for the old order.

I'm not sure how well Mark Knopfler knew Harry but he certainly knew his son well - Steve Phillips, who I believe first knew Mark when he was a journalist in Leeds before later joining Mark in the Notting Hillbillies in the 1990s:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Phillips_(musician)

One interesting little story I noticed on Steve's Wikipedia page was that he apparently sold Mark Knopfler the famous National Steel guitar featured on the Brothers In Arms album cover. This reminds me a little of the story about Joe Walsh selling Jimmy Page his iconic sunburst Gibson Les Paul guitar.

Fair point about Going Home, it could be seen as being either a solo or band song, or indeed both. I agree about Expresso Love, if I want to listen to a Dire Straits song that rocks that's often the one I'll go for, especially if I want to hear the classic Stratocaster sound rather than the Les Paul of Money For Nothing.

[Freypower]

Thank you so much for that - hence the line 'in London, yes & in Leeds'.

Newsflash:

The first song to be released from Tracker is called 'Beryl'. It's hardly 'Juliet'?! That was my great aunt's name. The album comes out on March 16.

http://www.vevo.com/watch/mark-knopf...FxGHVG%26s%3D1

You can hear the Shadows influence; I think he might be playing the Strat on this one.

Here's the track listing. There's a track called 'Basil' which calls to mind Prunella Scales hissing at John Cleese!

[ame]http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tracker-Mark-Knopfler/dp/B00S1M7KXO/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1421445132&sr=1-1&keywords=mark+knopfler+tracker[/ame]

[Freypower]

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/pr...album-20150313

It is high time RS gave Mark a cover.

[Funk 50]

It's not one of my favourite Knopfler songs but Henley obviously connected with A Night in Summer Long Ago. He included it one or two of his Inside Job shows back in 2000.

http://www.setlist.fm/stats/don-henl...nside+Job+Tour

He has sang some David Gray non hits, in the past, too. (Shine and Disappearing World)