Dire Straits were never fashionable. They emerged from South London with two albums – Dire Straits and Communique – in a post punk scene where their melodic rock and Mark Knopfler’s virtuosity were totally out of place. These two albums are not really worth searching out, apart from the song that looked like it would define their careers (but didn’t) The Sultans of Swing. Beautiful, shimmering and mesmeric, it was hard to believe that they would ever do anything better. But they did.
I first encountered them due to the singles from their third album – Makin Movies. Tunnel of Love, Skateaway and Romeo and Juliet. One whole side of the album. The other side was not as good but featured a song called Les Boys about a gay bar in Berlin – something astonishing to me at 15.
It looked like they would be a big act, despite swimming against the tide of fashion. Yet they managed to make a follow up album that featured only five tracks (Love Over Gold). The lead single – Private Investigations – is over six minutes long and is musically sparse with sound effects. The best track – Telegraph Road, is a 15-minute story of a town becoming industrialised.
Their fifth album Brothers In Arms was released quietly and the first single, So Far Away, was a small hit. It was the second single that launched their career into the stratosphere. Money For Nothing, with Sting on backing vocals, was the perfect song for the MTV generation; coming with a part cartoon video it had heavy rotation on TV and made them a worldwide stadium band.
Not only that it was the kind of intricate, crisp album perfect for the new medium of the Compact Disc. The music industry marketed CDs as a more robust media than vinyl or cassette (and do not let vinyl aficionados say that is not true; vinyl scratched so easily and could not be played in a car). That may have been true but what it gave the industry was a chance to release all their old material and sell it over again to consumers.
They used every shitty trick in the book. The first time an album came out on CD they would just take the old masters and stick it out. A few years later there would be a remastered version with the sound cleaned up. A few more years and that version would come out with some bonus tracks (B sides, demos or live music). A few more years for the biggest bands and there would be a special anniversary multi disc release.
CDs were also able to contain more material than vinyl – one disc being around 78 minutes long. Until then albums had run 40 to 60 minutes. Now there was a perception that not filling a disc was somehow short changing people. Some record companies used the length to charge a massive mark up for a ”long play” CD – like Queen’s Greatest Hits. Gouge away.
The industry was making money hand over fist with this model, until streaming arrived and put a real crimp in their act. Not only was the back catalogue not so valuable they were not able to monetise this change in format to make money the way they had with CDs. I do not advocate illegally obtaining music, but the music companies should look at how they treated music fans from 1985 to 2000 and think that maybe they fostered a certain amount of resentment.
It is hard to follow up such a massive album and it was the nineties before On Every Street was Dire Straits’ last studio release. In many ways it is their best album. Iron Hand (about the 1984/5 miners’ strike) shows an unexpected political side whilst The Planet of New Orleans is a beautiful composition that builds in swirls and layers.
Consigned by many as vapid, disposable soft rock, Dire Straits actually have an enviable legacy of finely crafted songs. From Makin’ Movies, the closest thing the album has to a title track. I love this song.
Skateaway
Playlist:
- Sultans of Swing
- Once Upon a Time in the West
- Tunnel of Love
- Skateaway
- Romeo and Juliet
- Expresso Love
- Solid Rock
- Les Boys
- Telegraph Road
- Private Investigations
- Love Over Gold
- Money For Nothing
- Brothers In Arms
- On Every Street
- Fade To Black
- Heavy Fuel
- Iron Hand
- Planet of New Orleans
Five Miles Out 