80's Classic Music Review: Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms

After their debut in the late 1970's, the British blues rockers Dire Straits did not become a household name in rock music until their 1985 smash CD Brothers In Arms. You could not turn on a radio for long or tune MTV on your TV without hearing the huge single Money For Nothing.

For classic 80's music, one of the first albums or CDs that springs to mind is Brothers In Arms. This 80's classic CD catapulted the band into stardom, at least for awhile. It's been awhile since Dire Straits has been heard from on the rock charts, but Brothers In Arms holds up well after all these years as an 80's music classic.

Some listeners might be offended by one particular word in Money For Nothing, the "F" word that got Isaiah Washington banished from Grey's Anatomy a couple of years back. The song is a satirical version of a diatribe overheard by Mark Knopfler, the frontman of Dire Straits, in a Sears store, I believe it was.

It seems an Archie Bunker-type bigot who worked in the appliance department was loudly protesting rock music and the rockstar lifestyle to anyone who would listen as MTV played in the background. In the video, produced just as music videos were becoming huge, a singer who looked a lot like George Michael was the subject of the diatribe. Urban legend has it that George Michael sued Dire Straits over the resemblance, it might even be true. I cannot attest to that one way or the other.

Dire Straits 80's classic CDBrothers In Arms starts with So Far Away. The song seems to be the lament of a singer on the road touring with his band who cannot be with his significant other. I'm tired of being in love and being all alone, when you're so far away from me, I'm tired of making out on the telephone, and you're so far away from me....the song goes.

As singer Danny O'Keefe put it in The Road, made famous by Jackson Browne's cover version on Running On Empty, well, it isn't for the money and it's only for awhile...Hopefully Knopfler got it all worked out.

It's the 2nd cut on this classic 80's CD that made it famous. The aforementioned Money For Nothing. By now, surely all but the youngest rock fans are familiar with the famous guitar intro to this song as it explodes onto the airwaves with the "I want my MTV chant". Now look at them yo-yos, that's the way you do it, you play the gee-tar on the MTV, that ain't workin', that's the way you do it, money for nothing and the chicks for free.

Then later in the song: I shoulda learned to play the guitar, I shoulda learned to play them drums, look at that mama, she got it stickin' in the camera, man we could have some fun; what's that Hawaiian noises?, he's bangin' on the bongoes like a chimpanzee, that ain't workin', that's the way you do it, money for nothing and your chicks for free.

I suppose the man probably never recognized himself in the song as he was too busy "installing those microwave ovens and movin'' them refrigerators". Most likely with pants at half mast, well before it was in style.

The catchiest tune on the Brothers In Armsclassic 80's CD is the third track, Walk Of Life. There were two different videos to this song, one with a downtrodden singer/guitarist playing for tips outside a tunnel and the other with sports bloopers intertwined.

Here comes Johnny and he'll tell you the story, hand me down my walkin' shoes, here come Johnny with the power and the glory, backbeat the talkin' blues, he got the action, he got the motion, yeah the boy can play, dedication, devotion, turnin' all the nighttime into the day.

I dare you to play this song and not hum it for awhile afterward.

It's here that Brothers In Arms segues into more of a jazzy mode with Your Latest Trick. I don't know how it happened, it was faster than the eye could flick, but now all I can do is hand it to you and your latest trick

The fifth track on this 80's classic CD is Why Worry. Continuing in the jazz vein, this is a love song that concludes: why worry, there should be laughter after pain, there should be sunshine after rain, these things have always been the same, so why worry now.

Ride Across The River could be misinterpreted as a call to arms, when actually it is anti-war. It's the same old story with a different name, death or glory, it's the killing game...

The Man's Too Strong Even though this song was written over two decades ago, it is still relatable to our time with talk of torture, war criminals and legalized robbery. Oh Father please forgive me, for I have done wrong, the man's too big, the man's too strong.

One World continues the slow, bluesy feel of the latter part of Brothers In Arms. Can't get no remedy on my TV, there's nothing but the same old news, they can't find a way to be one world in harmony, can't get no antidote for blues.

This 80's classic CD concludes with the title cut Brothers In Arms. Another blues based song in contrast to the more uptempo beginning of the CD. Don't expect all the songs to be like the famous Money For Nothing, Brothers In Arms, like much of Dire Straits' work over the years is blues/rock with lead singer Mark Knopfler sounding somewhat like a British Bob Dylan.

So concludes our 80's album review with a few lines of the song: let me bid you farewell, every man has to die, but it's written in the starlight, and every line on your palm, we're fools to make war on our brothers in arms.

Brothers In Arms is a full digital recording, not a given in those days, and all lyrics came from the liner notes of the CD.

www.tower.com/brothers-in-arms-dire-straits-cd/wapi/106413221

www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1102457/a/Brothers+In+Arms.htm

www.cdalbumworld.com/acatalog/direstraitsbrothersinarms.html

www.last.fm/music/Dire+Straits/Brothers+in+Arms

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