{"id":29575,"date":"2025-07-22T05:30:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T09:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29575"},"modified":"2025-06-06T15:41:45","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T19:41:45","slug":"five-classics-from-dire-straits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/22\/five-classics-from-dire-straits\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Classics from Dire Straits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Along with U2 and The Police, Dire Straits was among the most successful bands from the British Isles in the 1980s. Their fifth studio album, 1985\u2019s Brothers in Arms sold in staggering numbers, earning Platinum or Diamond status in ten countries, storming to the number one spot on album charts each and every time. Yet in many ways, it was a last gasp for the beloved band; they\u2019d take six years to record and release a followup, and by that time, popular tastes had changed, with grunge all the rage. (1991\u2019s <em>On Every Street<\/em> still made it to #1 in eight countries, no mean feat.)<\/p>\n<p>The overwhelming success of <em>Brothers in Arms<\/em> tends to overshadow the catalog of fine work Dire Straits had already created. So on the 40th anniversary of the release of<em> Brothers in Arms<\/em>, here are five great Dire Straits tunes from the records that came before it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cOnce Upon a Time in the West\u201d from <em>Communiqu\u00e9<\/em> (1979)<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter the slow-burn success of Dire Straits\u2019 self-titled debut LP, <em>Communiqu\u00e9<\/em> was met with a more modest reception. But the album arguably built on the first record&#8217;s strengths. The understated \u201cOnce Upon a Time in the West\u201d added some reggae textures to the band\u2019s rootsy approach. The song would remain a staple of Dire Straits\u2019 live set; it featured prominently in an epic version, opening their 1984 live album (see below).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KIa56_PHorE?si=pCNDU2jJHSHVNycy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cTunnel of Love\u201d from <em>Making Movies<\/em> (1980)<\/strong><br \/>\nOpening with the strains of Rodgers and Hammerstein\u2019s \u201cCarousel Waltz,\u201d Dire Straits\u2019 \u201cTunnel of Love\u201d signaled Mark Knopfler\u2019s move toward grand, sweeping musical works. The evocative song showcases emotional depth, exceptional instrumental work and some of Knopfler\u2019s finest lyrics, rivaling Bruce Springsteen (who would write a \u201cTunnel of Love\u201d of his own a few years later).<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gAirINwjaxE?si=qqPJDflKWuImMXk7\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cTelegraph Road\u201d from<em> Love Over Gold<\/em> (1982)<\/strong><br \/>\nMark Knopfler\u2019s gift for creating wide-screen, epic songs continued on Dire Straits\u2019 fourth studio LP. The album\u2019s single, \u201cIndustrial Disease\u201d would be the only tune on the five-song album to come in under six minutes. Yet at fourteen minutes plus, \u201cTelegraph Road\u201d never wastes a second. Knopfler\u2019s lyrics were inspired in part by the Nobel Prize winning novel <em>Growth of the Soil<\/em> by Norwegian author Knut Hamsun.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_D1PtJiat3g?si=5SSl_TTcifVicKcx\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cTwisting by the Pool\u201d from <em>ExtendeDanceEPlay<\/em> (1983)<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Brothers in Arms<\/em> displayed some playful humor in songs like \u201cMoney for Nothing,\u201d but the MTV hit wasn\u2019t Dire Straits\u2019 first tune with a bit of whimsy. A three-day recording session in Fall 1982 yielded four new songs for the group, including this fun and uptempo track. The uncharacteristic \u201cTwisting by the Pool\u201d made it onto the singles charts in the U.S., UK and New Zealand; it reached the #1 spot in the latter.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DsJ5aYK-S6Y?si=dlN0d0W94WpxcY7y\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cGoing Home: Theme of the Local Hero\u201d from <em>Alchemy: Dire Straits Live<\/em> (1984)<\/strong><br \/>\nWhile guitarist and songwriter Mark Knopfler formally launched his solo career after Dire Straits broke up in 1995, he had already been active outside the band for more than a decade. His first recorded work outside the group was composing, recording and producing the soundtrack for the well-received 1983 film <em>Local Hero<\/em>. On tour, Dire Straits featured the movie\u2019s stirring instrumental theme song in a full-band version; it\u2019s a highlight of the Alchemy album.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6uSGvy6nKDw?si=eO_JZKlEGVfJG9Sj\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Along with U2 and The Police, Dire Straits was among the most successful bands from the British Isles in the 1980s. Their fifth studio album, 1985\u2019s Brothers in Arms sold [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[687],"class_list":["post-29575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","tag-dire-straits","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29577,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29575\/revisions\/29577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}