Dire Straits

Dire Straits was one of the most successful bands in the history of rock, and one of the strangest in its greatness, because its leader was the opposite of a rock star.

Mark Knopfler did not shout, did not smash guitars, did not take drugs on stage. He was a quiet man, with the face of a teacher —because he had been one—, who stood there with his guitar and played in a way that sounded like nobody else.

His clean, warm, melodic sound, and his songs, which were stories told with intelligence, made millions of people fall in love with a band that never needed scandal in order to shine.

All it needed was that guitar.

The guitar without a pick

The first thing to say about Mark Knopfler is how he plays, because that is where his signature lies.

Most rock guitarists use a pick, that little plastic triangle, to strum and pluck. Knopfler dropped it. He plays with bare fingers, pinching the strings directly with his hand, something more common in folk or country than in rock.

And out of that technique comes his unmistakable sound: round, warm notes that seem to sing, with phrasing that is pure feeling.

He does not play fast to show off. He plays exactly right, melodic, like someone telling you something.

Just listen to the end of "Sultans of Swing" to recognise it: nobody sounds like that. He is one of the most admired guitarists in the world, and he got there without a single speed trick.

The reporter, the lecturer and the pub band

Knopfler's story has a charming detail: before he was a star he was an ordinary man with ordinary jobs.

Scottish by birth, raised in Newcastle, he was a junior reporter at the Yorkshire Evening Post between 1968 and 1970, took a degree in English at the University of Leeds, and afterwards taught English at a college of further education in Essex, with adult students.

A shy, well-read man, who taught by day and played by night in the pubs of south-east London.

And that is where his first great song was born. One night Knopfler saw a modest dixieland jazz band playing to an almost empty pub, in Deptford. When they finished the set, the musicians announced themselves with a grandiose name that clashed with their shabby appearance and with the deserted room: the sultans of swing.

Out of that contrast came "Sultans of Swing", a love letter to the musicians who play on a Friday night to a handful of people who barely pay attention to them.

Knopfler understood them because he was one of them.

The single came out in May 1978 and flopped. It was reissued in February 1979 and then it worked: number eight in the United Kingdom, number four in the United States.

That gaze —the observer who tells stories about ordinary people, with tenderness and with detail— runs through all of his work: "Romeo and Juliet", "Tunnel of Love", "Private Investigations". He did not sing about himself as a god; he told other people's stories, like the good narrator he was.

The album that sold the CD

And here comes the fact that gives Dire Straits a unique place in history, beyond the music.

In May 1985 they released "Brothers in Arms", their masterpiece, with "Money for Nothing", "Walk of Life" and the heartbreaking title song. The album was a worldwide phenomenon: more than thirty million copies, fourteen weeks at number one in Britain, nine in the United States, and the best-selling album of the eighties in the United Kingdom.

But what matters is when it came out, and how it was made.

Right at that moment a technology was being born that people still eyed with suspicion: the compact disc. And "Brothers in Arms" was not a vinyl record transferred to CD: it was recorded, mixed and edited entirely in digital, on a twenty-four-track Sony machine, at a studio on the island of Montserrat.

It was digital native. That is why it sounded the way it did on the new format.

It became the first album in history to sell a million copies on CD —a record recognised by Guinness—, and the first whose compact disc edition outsold its vinyl edition.

It helped that its label belonged to Philips, co-inventor of the format and a manufacturer of players, which also sponsored the tour. A CD single of the title track was even released with the explicit purpose of promoting the machines.

CD sales overtook vinyl sales in the United States in 1988, three years later.

The shy lecturer's band ended up being the one that pushed humanity towards the digital era of music.

The irony of "Money for Nothing"

There is another delicious twist in that same period.

"Money for Nothing" was born out of something Knopfler overheard in an appliance shop in New York: an employee ranting in front of a television showing MTV, against those rock stars who, according to him, got money for nothing playing the guitar while he was hauling boxes.

Knopfler wrote the diatribe down almost word for word and turned it into a song, co-written with Sting.

And then the best part happened. The track had one of the first computer-animated videos in history, directed by Steve Barron, won MTV's video of the year award in 1986, and became a pillar of the channel. It was even the first video MTV Europe broadcast.

In other words: a song that mocks the easy stars of MTV became one of MTV's biggest hits.

Knopfler, the ironic observer, surely enjoyed the paradox.

What to remember

The band broke up in 1988, came back in 1990 and split for good in 1995. Knopfler went on with a long solo career and as a composer of soundtracks. When Dire Straits entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, he did not go to the ceremony: a gesture perfectly in keeping with everything else.

If you put on "Sultans of Swing", "Romeo and Juliet", "Brothers in Arms" or "Walk of Life", you are going to hear a guitar that sounds like no other and a supremely fine storyteller putting the lives of ordinary people into songs.

A discreet man who became one of the biggest stars on the planet without ever stopping being, deep down, someone who only wanted to play well.

And who, along the way, with a single album, pushed the entire world towards a new way of listening to music.

He never shouted. He did not need to: the guitar spoke for him.

Sources

Dire Straits, British rock band formed in Deptford, in south-east London, in 1977, with Mark Knopfler (guitar, vocals and songwriting), his brother David Knopfler, John Illsley and Pick Withers. Mark Knopfler was born in Glasgow on 12 August 1949 and raised in Gosforth, Newcastle; he was a junior reporter at the Yorkshire Evening Post in Leeds between 1968 and 1970, took a degree in English at the University of Leeds in 1973 and taught English as a lecturer at Loughton College, in Essex, a college of further education with adult students —he was not a primary or secondary school teacher. He is famous for playing with his fingers, without a pick, a technique he adopted through evolution and which he combines with the occasional use of a pick for strumming and acoustic tracks. "Sultans of Swing" was inspired by a dixieland jazz band that Knopfler saw playing to an almost empty pub in Deptford and that announced itself with that name at the end of its performance; the single was released on 19 May 1978 without success and reissued on 16 February 1979, reaching number 8 in the United Kingdom and 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Brothers in Arms" (17 May 1985) sold more than 30 million copies, spent fourteen weeks at number one in Britain and nine on the Billboard 200, and was the best-selling album of the eighties in the United Kingdom; it is certified 9× platinum by the RIAA and 15× platinum by the BPI. It was recorded, mixed and edited entirely in digital at AIR Studios in Montserrat, with a 24-track Sony digital recorder. It was the first album to sell a million copies on CD, a record recognised by Guinness World Records, which dates it to 1986, and the first whose CD edition outsold its vinyl edition. Its label, Vertigo/Phonogram, belonged to PolyGram, part of the Philips group, co-inventor of the compact disc and a manufacturer of players, which sponsored the album's tour. CD sales overtook vinyl sales in the United States in 1988. "Money for Nothing", co-written with Sting, came out of a diatribe Knopfler overheard from an employee at an appliance shop in New York in front of a television tuned to MTV; its video, directed by Steve Barron with computer animation by Ian Pearson and Gavin Blair, won MTV's Video of the Year award in 1986 and was the first broadcast by MTV Europe on 1 August 1987. The song spent three weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The band announced its break-up in September 1988, reunited in 1990, released "On Every Street" (1991) and split for good in 1995. It was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, a ceremony Knopfler did not attend. Externally authored text, edited and verified for Rebobinados. Interpretations of the meaning of their work are offered as the author's reading. No song lyrics are reproduced, for copyright reasons. Information drawn from Wikipedia, Guinness World Records, Guitar World, Louder Sound, Billboard and other press coverage.