POLLIN' for nothing and yer chicks for free - Dire Straits - BROTHERS IN ARMS

i saw them on this tour. i fell asleep. to be fair, i was really drunk and they played for 8 hours.

This was the moment that Dire Straits went "full '80s" - digital recording, more keyboards than usual etc. I think Knopfler knew the band was over the moment it sold ten gajillion copies.

Title track all the way, best song on the album by far

my dad must've played this in the car a zillion times but I just can't remember tracks 6, 7 or 8 at all

first two songs are great, the rest sucks

I listened to this a couple of nights ago... I still think 'Walk of Life' is a complete piece of shit that threatens to set off my gag reflex, but it's also the worst thing on here by miles. 'One World' isn't a highlight either, but at least it's inoffensive.

Knopfler sounds as if he's straining to sing on 'Why Worry', too... the song sounds as if it was recorded in the wrong key for him.

At the moment I'm thinking either 'So Far Away' or 'Your Latest Trick', which is a beautiful use of the saxophone.

I pretty much lump together "Why Worry" and Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush's "Don't Give Up."

May vote "Ride Across The River." Really like the "Your Latest Trick" lyrics.

"So Far Away" is the only single I'm not sick of, and it's pretty.

how's the title track?

The title track isn't too bad, I can see why those fond of earlier Dire Straits work like it.

Also, I heard the vinyl version of this album long before I ever heard the CD version. When I eventually did, I was surprised by things such as the extra intro on 'Your Latest Trick' and the long outro on 'Why Worry' - there's parts of the LP here and there which feel a little padded. On one hand, I guess they were taking advantage of the extra run-time that CD's offered, but on the other they gave birth to the type of CD bloat that was common in the '90s where everyone seemed hell-bent on making 55-79 minute long albums.

Massive #1 MTV-baiting single, a sense that their moment had come after a few years of success, "CD-era curiosity," blah blah, but how the hell did this album wind up so huge?

almost diamond-certified in America, nine weeks at #1

the title track is a long epic thing that's probBly been used in some TV show finale by now

Didn't someone on here recently post a behind-the-scenes studio making of? Iirc it told of the band being suitably impressed that session pro Omar Hakim flew down to the Caribbean and knocked out all the drum parts in basically three days. Also, Mark Knopfler allegedly did many of his vocal takes with a cigarette actually in his mouth.

XP IIRC, it did such a deed in an episode of Miami Vice

Ah yes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wtw_4eKowN0

So Far Away, I think. Can't deny those first three tracks.

Between Walk of Life and the title track for me. I was driving in Italy a couple years ago, listening to the radio, and Walk of Life came on--it took that random bit of happenstance for me to remember how much I loved that song, and its rollicking rockabilly and its cheesy stadium organ.

The title track is just an incredible melody and chord progression, with Knopfler's best vocal and guitar performances on the album. The hushed way he sings perfectly complements the overwhelming atmosphere--it's one of those songs that will always change the chemistry of whichever room it's playing in.

It's not happenstance, it's cosmic design!

http://www.wolproject.com

Anyway, I like that song a lot, but Mark was definitely listening to Bruce.

"Money for Nothing," but why the hell did they stretch it out to eight minutes??? The whole intro I'm just thinking "Okay, when are they gonna get to the fucking DRUMS!!!"

I never realized how ugly that album cover is.

First 5 tracks are superb. Intro to Money For Nothing is utter ledgebagosity

Worth listening to "Private Dancer" in the context of this album — written by Knopfler around the same time, same languid tempo, lyrics setting a scene close to "Your Latest Trick."

So Far Away - that riff is so good, i love it. also i amuse myself singing "SOFA away from ME" etc yknow, sofas

But Brothers in Arms is beautiful so it might get my vote. So atmospheric & tender & gives me goosebumps

I saw Metallica cover Brothers in Arms at Bridge School & it was so good, idk if ppl itt give a crap about Metallica tho

https://youtu.be/NfPxU88Qqkg

I can't hear the opening lick of "So Far Away" without seeing the silver edge of a spinning CD in a Technics CD player.

I like Omar Hakim's contributions to this record (and Neil Dorfsman was less than complimentary towards Terry Williams drumming in some "making of" article I remember reading somewhere) but a part of this bands soul died when Pick Withers left... his drumming on the first four Dire Straits albums is OTM.

v otm

Like, there's this one fill on 'Sultans of Swing' which is just perfect.

his fills are super weird but effective. Drumming on self-titled may be my favorite on any album.

aaah I remember my dad bought this CD upon release and played it all the time in a "listen how GREAT this modern CD thing sounds !"
he also thought MK was the greatest guitarist of that time.
I haven't cared listening to the whole album ever since but for all the hating for this band/album, "Brothers in arms" is clearly classic and a beautiful and moving song.

oh and the album is only 9 tracks !
funny how in those days, huge acts could release 9 tracks albums (ditto "Thriller")...
nowaday it would be 15 !

Wasn't BIA the first CD to be certified platinum?

also i amuse myself singing "SOFA away from ME" etc yknow, sofas

omg twinsies!!

I wish "Money For Nothing" would crawl under a rubbish bin and set itself on fire.

I don't mind it, even if it is a little overinflated. The 3D effects in the video haven't aged well, though... and of course there's the controversial verse...

I like the bit where Knopfler's vocal drops out on one of the choruses and you just hear Sting's harmony.

Listening to "so far away" : it reminds me of... the go-gos !

It's like an alternate version of "our lips are sealed" !

who was it that called Invisible touch the bald thriller? this record…is thriller with a headband…

I think 1986 was the point at which AOR radio yielded to classic rock…and at least in Louisville Ky, several of these cuts were played on the AOR station in town circa '85, '86… I know "the man's too strong " and "One world" without ever having listened to the record per se…the only ones I don't know are "Why Worry" and "Ride across the river"…

BiA and Hysteria are outliers in the UK. In the mid 80s, absolutely enormous records concerned with genres —expensive roots rock, pop-metal— that would continue to be big business in the US for several years, but were so hideously unfashionable and counter to the Smiths and whatever else the NME approved of that that any existing or nascent pop metal or roots rock movements din't make it out of the gate. Like, it's unlikely that Simon Reynolds has a fondness for Knopfler, much less Steamin' Steve clark…

Btw I didn't even know sting was on "money for nothing" ! What's the story ?

Listening to it now with that in mind it's almost a duet ! Should have been "a featuring Sting" credit !

Was So Far Away a single in the UK? The title doesn't ring any bells but fucked if I'm going to listen to it to find out. Walk Of Life is a crime against humanity. Title track is corny but the guitar playing is lovely.

sting was everywhere in 1985

Sting sang the line "I Want My MTV" on "Money for Nothing", a 1985 hit by Dire Straits ... In 1985, Sting provided spoken vocals for the Miles Davis album You're Under Arrest, taking the role of a French-speaking police officer. He also sang backing vocals on Arcadia's single "The Promise", on two songs from Phil Collins' album No Jacket Required, and contributed "Mack the Knife" to the Hal Willner-produced tribute album Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill

xxxpost:

He was apparently on holiday on Montserrat - The Police had already recorded a couple of albums there at AIR. So it was pretty much a "same place at the same time" kinda thing, but NickB is right... Sting was everywhere as much as Phil Collins was.

'So Far Away' wasn't just a single in the UK, it was the lead single.

Dream of the Blue Turtles was recorded in Barbados at around the same time as BIA, so only a short hop away. that also had Omar Hakim on drums btw

I've totally forgotten it. Hum it for me (xp)

xpost:

It's kinda funny how neither album sounds as if it was recorded in the Caribbean!

Cover version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ihqk7iapM8

Compass Point Monserrat is the New Jersey of recording studios

Seriously. Remain In Light like the least recorded in the Caribbean album ever.

Btw I didn't even know sting was on "money for nothing" ! What's the story ?

― AlXTC from Paris, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 15:03 (fifty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Listening to it now with that in mind it's almost a duet ! Should have been "a featuring Sting" credit !

― AlXTC from Paris, Wednesday, 6 September 2017 15:05 (fifty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

meant to say, you probably noticed he's basically singing 'don't stand so close to me' right?

microwaaaaaaave ovens

I can imagine Remain in Light being recorded in the Caribbean, buf definitely not this.

xxpost:

That's why he got the co-writing credit!

i remember at my primary school there was a crossover in 1985 where some boys wore headbands bcz of Mark Knopfler and some wore headbands because of Turbo in the movie Breakin'

looking back it was a v odd venn diagram, lol

Boogaloos In Arms

i just listened to 'ride across the river' and you can definitely hear the ghost of sly and robbie there. could've been an out-take from nightclubbing, albeit a boring one.

i like the new age keyboards and guitar flourishes on Why Worry

at least half a dozen of these songs have some super iconic bit. the opening to Ride Across the River must have been used in a million things.

yes I instinctively voted for "So Far Away" but listening it's "Why Worry" that stands out. I like the fretless bass in particular; now I hear it on other tracks (like "One World") but I don't think it's as prominent elsewhere as it is on this track.

they should've put a les paul on the cover of this thing cos those are the songs that really leap out for me guitar-wise. what does he even play the national on?

you know there's a surprisingly high number of Mark Knopfler paintings out there

http://saimg-a.akamaihd.net/saatchi/771185/art/2797596/1867489-ESEHXBZL-7.jpg

https://images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large-5/mark-knopfler-stefan-kuhn.jpg

https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/1/mark-knopfler-dire-straits-dan-haraga.jpg

the old guitarist

https://t11.deviantart.net/bvWynN1wGURydLQPgBXcHpqNu5k=/fit-in/700x350/filters:fixed_height(100,100):origin()/pre03/9915/th/pre/i/2014/267/3/b/mark_knopfler_drawing_2013_by_lilie1111-d65pewc.jpg

https://orig02.deviantart.net/f9a2/f/2014/185/4/0/guitar_hero_mark_knopfler_by_lilie1111-d6ywrxc.jpg

I thought that second last one was Sinatra.

they should've put a les paul on the cover of this thing cos those are the songs that really leap out for me guitar-wise. what does he even play the national on?

Climate of Hunter.

Haha yes!

Those paintings really are a marvel

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.

This helps explain how Knopfler tickets are like $100 when he tours to my local downtown theater.

there's gotta be a Princess Bride element to Knopfler fandom

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

Re-listening to 'Your Latest Trick' again now... ah, now that's a sax lick.

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.

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.

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.

Well, yeah.

I think it's more that they think all women are whores, regardless of whether they actually are or not

xp

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.

just be thankful he's not singing about les boys again

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.

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.

wow

just be thankful he's not singing about les boys again

― plp will eat itself (NickB),

that's the way to do it!

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

ugh Knopfler is about as sexy as a moist jockstrap

.. odd i was just thinking today that i could go the rest of my life not hearing "Money For Nothing" ever again.

xpost otm

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.

The title track works great in that Miami Vice episode, which is also the only Miami Vice episode I've ever seen.

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?"

that ain't workin

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

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

as a child, i was not aware that sting was a native english speaker

Sting actually can only speak English phonetically

most of these songs are just too damn long and not interesting

― brimstead, Wednesday, September 6, 2017 10:54 PM (twenty-five minutes ago)

otm -- it's as simple as that for me.

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.

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

tbf this album def sounds like the MOR radio of my childhood

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

OTM - Dire Straits always seemed a weird stadium band, pretty much the majority of their output is downbeat.

the intro to money for nothing is breathtaking in a special fx fireworks kind of way

eheh, otm.
I remember being so impressed by it as a kid with the dad's hifi system at high volume !

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.

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.

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, 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"

otm. Pretty funny how anonymous the other band members were/are for such a stadium-sized band

OTM - Dire Straits always seemed a weird stadium band, pretty much the majority of their output is downbeat.

― 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

and headbands

Funnily enough, the title track of this album kinda reminds me a little of Gilmour-era Floyd.

Heh, I see upper mississippi said as much upthread!

Knopfler has a really narrow range as a singer, too.

Funnily enough, the title track of this album kinda reminds me a little of Gilmour-era Floyd.

also the floyd album that came out prior to BIA is obviously about the falklands war too

Related to guitar, there are stories that Knopfler was going for Billy Gibbons' ZZ Top guitar tone for "Money for Nothing."

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.

I waaaant myyyyy
I waaaant myyyyy eeeemmm teeeee veeeee!

*drum solo*

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.

i voted for so far away on here but i don't think i've heard the whole album since it came out. the only DS i still listen to every blue moon is the first side of making movies which is perfect and i will always love it. i wouldn't be able to vote in a poll for that though because i just think of that side as one long song. there was probably already a poll anyway...

xps: when i relistened i sort of thought 'one world' was a bit zz toppish too, reminded me of i dunno... tv dinners perhaps? the character in that song sounds like he stepped out of a top song anyhow

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.

don't leave chris rea out stevie!

McAloon and Rea aren't geordies, for one thing...

but Neil Tennant is!

Yes, he is, although you wouldn't think it by the way he speaks. Same with Sting.

Ferry isn't a geordie, but TGPT is.

there goes my idea for a geordie aor tribute act, dire rea

lol

Rea is a smoggie.

Scott OTM re: the first side of Making Movies - it's perfect. Yeah, there was already a poll for it and unsurprisingly 'Les Boys' didn't win.

Listening to this album again now and... the bass playing on 'One World' is slap-tastic... I don't seem to recall any slap bass on any other Dire Straits LP... is that really Illsley or some session player?

wiki sez that Tony Levin is on the record, and that sure as hell sounds like him on "One World." sessioneer Neil Jason is on it too, so that means that John Illsley, the only other guy to stay in the band and one lucky-ass dude as such, probly got the gas face for most of the record.

"stay in the band the whole way"

Yeah, now that you've mentioned it, I think 'One World' is Levin... and I'd guess that Neil Jason played on 'Your Latest Trick' and the outro to 'Why Worry' ...

I think Illsley and Knopfler are still friends, whereas Knopfler and his brother who played on the first two (possibly three) Dire Straits records still haven't spoken since he left the band. There was some article only 2 years ago about David Knopfler where he mentioned they were still estranged.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I really like all of Dire Straits total Gilmour/Floyd type epics like "Brothers in Arms".

I recall this being THE album for showing off how pristine those newfangled CD players sounded back in 1985.

And everyone OTM about Making Movies - one of the all-time worst album closers blighting an otherwise exquisite record.

nick cave should do an ep of dire straits piano covers. think romeo & juliet would work really well, brothers in arms too. also les boys in the style of nick the stripper

This is my favorite album to play at a maximum volume setting of "2" when I want music playing but don't care very much about what the music is.

future ILM poll right there

Anyone else find it weird that the first song on the album is So Far Away rather than Money for Nothing, which seems almost designed to start a record?

'So Far Away' is more representative of the record, though...

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Five votes for 'Walk of Life'!

Anyone else find it weird that the first song on the album is So Far Away rather than Money for Nothing, which seems almost designed to start a record?

definitely ! I wonder how they could decide otherwise since MFN is basically just an intro... a bit like the THX opening big sound test !

As a kid I had this album as a tape copied by my uncle with an edited version of the Money for Nothing compilation on the other side and had assumed (up until now!) that the weird running order of BIA was an artefact of his editing.

I wish "Money For Nothing" would crawl under a rubbish bin and set itself on fire.

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, September 6, 2017

This one too.

boooooo

Nope

FUN HATER

Would have voted "So Far Away", love how Knopfler can just toss off a cool little lick over 3 chords and have it be as epic as Springsteen ever did.

jsut the thought of that timeless synthline makes me wanna dance :P

good work alfred

to quote Knopfler, WOO HOO

"Walk of Life" is not the worst song Dire Straits released, it's the worst song anyone's released.

Walk of Life reminds me of everyone stomping their feet to it on the coach on our year 7 trip to Normandy in 1991, much like The Lost Boys it's a pleasant memory from that week which I have absolutely no need to revisit.

Again, the versatility!

http://www.wolproject.com

Alfred OTM. That keyboard lick makes me gag.

There's a blank steel-y nothingness to "so far away" that I find vaguely conpelling

compelling

I have no fondness for "Walk of Life," though my sister's longtime hatred of it might have colored my reaction.

There's a blank steel-y nothingness to "so far away" that I find vaguely conpelling

― brimstead,

otm

Alfred's baseball theory checks out, this was a song that was used as bumper music back in the corny '80s and even into the '90s on the local Cubs broadcasts (along w/Centerfield and, uh, a Beach Boys re-recording):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Ann

In 1987, the group re-recorded the song as "Here Come the Cubs" with re-written lyrics about the Chicago Cubs.[3] It became the team's official theme that year, replacing "Go, Cubs, Go".[4]

Maybe not the best place to post this, but whatever. Heard this song on classic rock radio today at work, and noticed that they bleeped the word "faggot." My immediate reaction, at least after noticing it (as this is a song I would otherwise not notice), was "whatever, no one needs to hear that stupid fucking word." But then I started to think about what a hollow gesture it is for the station to censor a lyric in a song that literally every person has already heard a million times. I tried to imagine any kind of person I know--queer or otherwise--feeling better, or safer, hearing that word omitted, and I could not think of a single example. I imagine the sudden omission of the word after decades of hearing it on radio and MTV could potentially alienate and even incense the core classic rock radio demographic--and maybe that alone is a good thing, I dunno--but is there a brain on Earth that does not automatically mentally fill in the blank when that verse comes up?

Don't get me wrong: I am very happy we live during a time in which we are beginning to more carefully consider the way words like "faggot" are hurtful while at the same time no longer bleeping Tom Petty singing about "roll(ing) another joint" or Pink Floyd singing about "goody goody bullshit." But something about this gesture seemed insincere to me, like a pandering concession to something that has nothing to do with social justice (and not just because Knopfler is writing not as himself but "in character," which is a cop out defense I am tired of hearing).

Does the word "faggot" in "Money For Nothing" bother you? I ask about this song in particular simply because it is so ubiquitous, and I have literally never heard a person in real life question the use of the word in this song. (I believe there are other threads to discuss similar slurs in songs by X and The Fall and Patti Smith and...)