Bloggerhythms

"Sultans of Swing," the first single released by Dire Straits in 1978 climbed all the way to #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was a unique song that helped me become the huge Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler fan that I am today. The following year, the original quartet - composer, singer and lead axeman Knopfler; his brother and second guitarist, David Knopfler; bassist John Ilsley; and drummer Pick Withers - released their sophomore LP,  Communiqué . It sounded so much like the group's eponymous debut that I believed they shouldn't have bothered.  In other words, it was all filler, no killer. "Lady Writer," the album's lead single, felt like it was an exact clone of "Sultans." Perhaps that is why it only peaked at #45 even though today radio plays it almost as often as its superior predecessor. A now defunct English music magazine, Smash Hits , was brutal in its assessment of the song.  "Look, the only way you'll wa...

Normally, bands strike while the iron is hot, but it took Dire Straits six years to follow up their blockbuster  Brothers in Arms  CD that sent "Money for Nothing" screaming up the charts and turned the band into a household name. On Every Street - the last album by Mark Knopfler's British quartet that by this time was really nothing more than the leader's backup band with a very fluid lineup - went to #1 in much of the world and #12 in America.  Knopfler said that one of the reasons he shut Dire Straits down the first time in 1987 is that while he wanted to be successful he wasn't fond of the superstardom that went along with it.  In 1988 he  told Rolling Stone   "A lot of press reports were saying we were the biggest band in the world.  There's not an accent then on the music, there's an accent on popularity. I needed a rest," but he eventually reorganized the group with original bassist, John Ills...

I was a Dire Straits fan from the very beginning. Their first single "Sultans of Swing," from their debut album released in 1978, knocked me off of my feet. The band's third and fourth albums, Making Movies (1980) and Love Over Gold (1982), were among the best rock records I heard in the 80s. Both were big hits in the U. K. and America. I have to admit I was a little smug when the rest of the world suddenly discovered the band a few years later with "Money for Nothing" from their 1985 album Brothers In Arms . I said to myself, "This album is good but you haven't any idea what you missed." The band's leader, Mark Knopfler, consistently mixed classy guitar playing and singer-songwriter intelligence within the framework of a rock 'n roll band. The combination placed Dire Straits way above many long forgotten 80s synth rock bands, hair bands, and punk rockers. To this day Knopfler remains my favorite guitarist. As much as I liked Dire Str...

To these ears there has never been a more outstanding guitar player than Mark Knopfler. What he does better than most of the men who shred for a living, and are revered for it, is that he frequently plays with tasteful restraint. It's not that he can't break your eardrums, he most certainly can, and he proved it with the phenomenal "Telegraph Road" from Love Over Gold but even when he demonstrates his virtuosity with one of his great solos it's always in service to the song, not merely an attempt to show off his chops. Why? Because the Scotsman is a very good songwriter too. Knopfler has had four separate careers. Early on he was the leader of a quartet that started out as a little pub band. You should all know that outfit as Dire Straits. Secondly, Knopfler is also a talented composer of movie soundtracks. Local Hero , Cal , and The Princess Bride are just a few on a larger list. Most of this music can be listened to as entities unto themselves rathe...