Dire Straits (band)

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Dire Straits are a British rock group active since the late seventies. They have had a large rotation of members throughout their history, but the core of the band is lead guitarist, singer, and songwriter Mark Knopfler. They are best known for their hits "Money for Nothing", "Brothers in Arms", "Walk of Life", "Sultans of Swing", "So Far Away", and "Telegraph Road". They released six studio albums before breaking up in 1995, though Face of the Band Mark Knopfler has continued to release solo albums since then.

Discography:
  • With Dire Straits:
    • Dire Straits (1978)
    • Communiqué (1979)
    • Making Movies (1980)
    • Love Over Gold (1982)
    • Brothers in Arms (1985)
    • On Every Street (1991)
  • Mark Knopfler solo:
    • "Neck and Neck" with Chet Atkins (1990)
    • "Golden Heart" (1996)
    • "Sailing to Philadelphia" (2000)
    • "The Ragpicker's Dream" (2002)
    • "Shangri-La" (2004)
    • "All The Roadrunning" with Emmylou Harris (2006)
    • "Kill To Get Crimson", (2007)
    • "Get Lucky", (2009)
Dire Straits (band) is the Trope Namer for:
Dire Straits (band) provides examples of the following tropes:
  • Age Progression Song: "Telegraph Road"
  • Animated Music Video: "Money for Nothing". This video is of special note as the first fully computer-animated music video. The animators later went on to found Mainframe Entertainment. It also won the 1985 Grammy for Best Music Video (beating A-ha's "Take On Me" in an arguable Award Snub).
  • Epic Riff: One of the hallmarks of the band are Knopfler's guitar riffs, but "Money for Nothing" and "Sultans of Swing" particularly stand out. "Walk Of Life" is also known for its distinctive synth riff.
  • Epic Rocking: "Money for Nothing", "Telegraph Road" and "Tunnel of Love"
  • Garfunkel: Everyone except Mark Knopfler.
  • Greatest Hits Album: Three of them to date.
  • I Am the Band: Mark Knopfler
  • Keep Circulating the Tapes: ExtendedDancEPlay, an EP released by the band, has never been released on CD. "Twisting By The Pool" and "Badges, Posters, Stickers, T-Shirts" have been released as B Sides as well as a live version of "Two Young Lovers" on Alchemy. "Twisting By the Pool" has also appeared on the Sultans of Swing and Money for Nothing greatest hits compilations (the latter in remix form). However, "Two Young Lovers" and "If I Had You" have not appeared on CD in their studio versions. In a similar manner, there's "Eastbound Train" a live B side to "Sultans Of Swing", which has not appeared on CD either.
  • Lyrical Dissonance:
    • In "Money for Nothing", the word "faggot" pops up a couple of times. Knopfler says it's because the song's written from the POV of an unambitious dude who moves appliances around for a living and snarks at MTV in his spare time, and those guys don't tend to care very much about political correctness.
    • The band's big hit, "Sultans Of Swing" is a rock and roll song rather than swing, although justified in that the "Sultans Of Swing" themselves are a swing/blues band, shown in the following stanza:

And a crowd of young boys, well they're fooling around in the corner
 Drunk and dressed in their best brown-baggies and their platform soles
They don't give a damn about any trumpet playing band
It ain't what they call rock and roll
And the Sultans
Yeah, the Sultans play Creole
Creole blues

  • Minimalistic Cover Art: Making Movies
  • Money Song: "Money for Nothing"
  • Not Christian Rock:
    • Both the music and lyrics of "Solid Rock" sound incredibly churchy, but it doesn't have any specific Biblical or God-related references.
    • "Ticket to Heaven", where the (imaginary) singer is clearly sincere about his belief, though the song itself is a pretty cynical jab at televangelists.
  • One-Scene Wonder: Sting's guest appearance in "Money for Nothing".
  • Physical God: Knopfler's status among professional guitar players.
  • Rockstar Song: Pretty much all of their singles touch on some facet of this. Subverted by their debut single "Sultans of Swing", a song about a band that's never going to make it big and doesn't really mind.
  • Self-Titled Album: The band's debut album.
  • Something Blues: "Millionaire Blues", the B-side to the On Every Street single.
  • Sophomore Slump: Somewhat. "Communique" is more laidback and less commericial than their first album with few obvious singles (these being Lady Writer and Portobello Belle). It wasn't nearly as commercially successful and many people were unaware it existed until the remastered CDs were released. The album has quite a cult following due to its obscurity.
  • Take That: Knopfler's solo song "Boom Like That" is a vicious slagging of the McDonald's corporation... using Ray Kroc's own words.


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