That there was such a thing! Brothers In Arms was the UK’s best-selling record of all time, meaning before The Dark Side Of The Moon. It was number one on the EVERYWHERE album charts in 1985. For years she was in the popularity polls of music magazines. Dire Straits embarked on a world tour with more concerts than Mumford & Sons could ever imagine. In between they appeared at the Live Aid Festival, they were the most successful band on the planet – and left no impression.
But they NEVER made an impression other than that Mark Knopfler had thinning curly hair AND wore a headband. They didn’t have to make an impression because Money For Nothing was EVERYWHERE. The video for the song was the epitome of video. And the song HANDELT by MTV and mocks the little people’s dream of rock star life: “Money for nothing and your chicks for free.”
Sting, the rock star Sting, sings, “I want my MTV/ I want my MTV.” He was reportedly vacationing in the same (probably Irish) countryside as Knopfler and accepted an invitation to sing along to a play. Both men used to be teachers. So a teachers’ conference spawned the quintessential ’80s song: Two rock stars who were teachers and are now rock stars sing about people who want to be rock stars and who want chicks for free: “Now that ain’t workin’, that’s.” the way you do it/ Lemme tell you them guys ain’t dumb (…) We gotta move these refrigerators/ We gotta move these color TV’s, Lord.”
Knopfler and Sting sing this from a superior position, you might say – but the lyrics are pure Randy Newman, they’re the last word on rock ‘n’ roll, they HAVE to be sung by rock stars. That’s his perfidy, that’s his greatness.
But of course it didn’t matter, nobody wanted to know for sure, because Mark Knopfler’s guitar riff propelled “Money For Nothing” into every radio station and on MTV (they loved it that they were on the song, of course). It’s an irresistible riff, it had probably been played by Johnny Winter, Jimmy Page, Ry Cooder, Eric Clapton and Angus Young and Muddy Waters and Leslie West too – but now it was there in a way no riff had ever been. “Brothers In Arms”, it was immediately announced, was produced DIRECTLY for the CD, which is why the songs on the CD are longer than on the LP. “Why Worry” is way too long – but the eight minutes of “Money For Nothing” are unbelievable: Sting whines for two more minutes “I want my MTV”.
Vintage skirt? classic rock? dad rock?
Nevertheless, nothing was surprising about the triumph of Dire Straits: “Love Over Gold” (1982) was already fantastically successful and the paradigmatic album on this side of “Thriller”. Knopfler combined his vast knowledge of music with a love for the songs of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Willy DeVille, which were better in their own right but never quite as compelling and ubiquitous.
The george and lyrics of “Walk Of Life” are Springsteen’s “Glory Days” just as Knopfler’s “Telegraph Road” is a variation on “Thunder Road”. So Far Away, the first song (and first single) from Brothers, is quintessentially Willy DeVille (whose Miracle album was produced by Knopfler two years later). And “Ride Across The River” is Dylan pus Ireland. Or Scotland. “Brothers In Arms” of course qualifies as what is now called “vintage rock”, “classic rock”, “dad rock”, but Knopfler’s songs are much richer in their eclectic texture. “Your Latest Trick” has been wonderfully finely engraved by Knopfler, and the saxophone playing is NOT classic rock.
As long as the songs are – one is not long enough. “Brothers In Arms”, one of the most enchanting ballads in rock music, a tear-jerker to die for, still has a fade-out on the album’s 20th anniversary edition that should be an ad infinitum. Dire Straits are long gone, but Knopfler still plays this eternity song at every concert. And stones cry.