Together we became “Sultans of Swing”

Dire Straits was founded in London in 1977 by brothers Mark and David Knopfler. They were fantastic together, and in period of just a few years, they made Dire Straits to be one of the most cult bands of the 20^th century. Everyone has listened to some of their songs, but some people didn’t know how the timeless hits had been created.

Sultans of Swing – is of course one of the best songs from Dire Straits from their debut album of 1977. This song was “born” in an interesting way, when Mark Knopfler at the time had been in one London pub where one band was playing. The audience had negative comments about the band and in one moment no one even listened to them. At the end of the concert, the musicians thanked to the visitors with words: “We’re sultans of swing”, which was a delight for Knopfler.

With a little of instrumental improvisation and under great pressure, Mark began to improvise the text of that evening in the pub. Later, he was looking for a recording tape of that performance and he just transcribed the words of the song. And that is how “Sultans of Swing” was born and became one of the best songs of 20^th century.

Money for Nothing – is another best known song of Dire Straits from the “Brothers In Arms” album of 1985. “I didn’t know that you are listening to Knopfler”, “Who I listen?”, “Mmmm, nothing”. This is fact that even those who didn’t known who are Dire Straits, know this song.

In a New York hotel room, Knopfler had heard one worker how he complains about his job, while others play at MTV, earn easy money and women love them, and it would be better for him to learn to play the guitar.  Mark talked about that and said that he wrote every single word from the worker and from that he has made timeless hits. At the beginning of the song, Sting was lead vocal, and the music video of the song was the first video broadcasted on MTV Europe.

Walk of Life – Mark respected all the others musicians and especially he was fascinated by the unsophisticated bands and street musicians. The song “Walk of Life” is dedicated to them, to the street musicians. About the music video of this song, Knopfler asked the director not to record him from the profile, because he didn’t want people to see his big nose. This is also a song from their fifth album “Brothers In Arms”. This song was mostly listened to in Ireland, where it was at the first place, South Africa and of course in United Kingdom where it was at the second place.

Brothers In Arms – was title song of the fifth studio album of Dire Straits and for many people this is maybe the best song from this band. The song is dedicated to the victims of Falklands War, a ten-weeks war between United Kingdom and Argentina in the South Atlantic. By the way, this is not the only song with theme like BiA written by Knopfler. On his 7 solo album “Privateering” is song “Redbud Tree”.

Romeo and Juliet – is song from “Making Movies” album of 1980. Under the pressure of the break-up affair with Holly Vincent, and inspired by Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Knopfler made this love song in which he also complained because they had not meet at the right time. Otherwise, this was one of the last songs recorded by the Knopfler brothers together.