Happy 30th: Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms
30 years ago today, Dire Straits released the best album of their career. Yes, of course, it’s all a matter of opinion, but that’s likely the predominant opinion as far as the unwashed masses are concerned. You’d be surprised – and probably a little disappointed – as to just how few people could tell you the name of another Dire Straits album beyond Brothers in Arms. Then again, when an album sells 30 million copies worldwide, it’s not exactly a shocker that a whole bunch of people have come to be familiar with it.
Released in 1985, Brothers in Arms became a MTV sensation as a result of an MTV-mocking video, wherein Mark Knopfler extolled the virtues of “money for nothing and your chicks for free,” while Sting turned in a guest vocal which found him singing, “I want my MTV!” While music video as an art form has all but been forgotten in 2015, “Money for Nothing” continues to be viewed as a classic, as well it should, what with it having been a #1 hit.
But, of course, that’s far from the only song on the album to have become a hit: “Walk of Life” hit #7 on the Billboard Hot 100, “So Far Away” hit #19, and “One World” and “Ride Across the River” found substantial airplay on US Rock radio. Meanwhile, the album’s title track was also a top-20 hit in the UK, while “Your Latest Trick” was a #1 hit in France. Go figure.
Brothers in Arms was an album which proved so successful that Dire Straits were put in a position where there was virtually no way they could ever deliver a follow-up that would match it, which may be why the band took six years to emerge with another studio album – 1991’s On Every Street – and slowly but surely wound to close in the wake of its release. Since then, Knopfler has continued to work regularly as a solo artist, but Dire Straits’ legacy lives on, and while there are plenty of songs from their earlier albums which have helped them maintain their status as rock legends (three words: “Sultans of Swing”), Brothers in Arms sure hasn’t hurt them any.
