Thursday 26 March 2015

Dire Straits ['Sultans Of Swing' The Very Best Of Dire Straits]

Well to start off with i need to explain the the track listing label on the back inlay, i didn't actually agree with the track list for this release, they added stuff i detest 'Calling Elvis' yuck, and 'Heavy Fuel' really!, very best of?, plus they then leave out stuff which is essential 'Down To The Waterline' and 'Skateaway', so of course the obvious solution is to record my own disc!, and so here's my take for what it's worth.

Dire Straits is the brainchild of Mark Knopfler, and it's hard to separate the two, of course Dire Straits have ended, and Knopfler is now 65, yes all the Young Rockers become Old Rockers eventually.

So the tracks i liked the best were 1, 3-5, 10 & 12, it certainly brings back memories, i used to own some of these as 45 singles, 'Sultans Of Swing' takes me back, used to be my favourite Dire Straits song, and 'Your Latest Trick' is an ingenious later song i really love, but the very best track is 'Tunnel Of Love', which always sticks in my mind, the lyrics are filled with double meanings, there's a longing and nostalgia there, i guess it talks of a real life experience by Knopfler, visiting an amusement park in Whitley Bay called the Spanish City, meeting a girl there, and they both decide to remain anonymous, at the end they part with a kiss, never to meet again, and then the subsequent searching / yearning to re-create that feeling of an event in the past that is just simply impossible to re-live, each time i hear it i also feel the sadness / happiness that an event was bottled up into a package, never to be opened again, you love that you've created something untouchable, yet at the same time you're sad that you can't get to touch it again.

Here's Dire Straits playing 'Tunnel Of Love' on YouTube.