Rocktrospectiva: Dire Straits' Final Studio Album "On Every Street" Turns 35

Released on 9 September 1991 "On Every Street" was the 6th., and final studio album by British rock band Dire Straits. It was the follow-up to the band's massively successful album Brothers in Arms, On Every Street reached the top of the UK Albums Chart and spawned the singles "Calling Elvis", "Heavy Fuel", "On Every Street", "The Bug", "You And Your Firend" & "Ticket To Heaven."

On Every Street was released more than six years after the band's previous album, Brothers in Arms. On Every Street reached number 12 in the United States and number one in the United Kingdom and numerous European countries. The album was produced by Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits. Curiously, the band was about to released a record for what turned out to be the last time. 

By this time, the band consisted of Knopfler, John Illsley, Alan Clark and Guy Fletcher, and the album features session musicians including Chris White, Paul Franklin, Phil Palmer, Danny Cummings and American drummer Jeff Porcaro from Toto, who was asked to play the band's subsequent world tour, although he declined because of other commitments, both with Toto and as a studio musician.

Dire Straits promoted the album with a 14-month world tour which comprised 216 shows in Europe, North America, and Australia, sold 7.1 million tickets, and lasted from August 1991 to October 1992. This was documented in the group's second live album, On the Night, which was recorded in May 1992 at Les Arenes in Nîmes, France, and at Feijenoord Stadion in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, and was released in May 1993. Dire Straits disbanded permanently in 1995, after which Mark Knopfler pursued a solo career.

The LP arrived all of six years and four months after their record-smashing, multi-million-seller of 1985, Brothers In Arms. It was that gruelling itinerary that made Mark Knopfler realise once and for all that the world of stadia shows, giant arenas and massive touring entourages and rigs was no longer one he wanted to live in.

As we know, Dire Straits never issued a formal statement to announce that they were splitting, but a strong clue had arrived with his 1990 splinter group the Notting Hillbillies, and their album Missing…Presumed Having A Good Time. By 1995, Knopfler was committed to his work outside of Dire Straits, and finally released his first non-soundtrack solo studio record, Golden Heart, a year later.

On Every Street produced a number of memorable songs, notably the lead single "Calling Elvis," one of many showcases for Mark's ever-nimble rock guitar lead lines. Three further releases from the album followed in the characteristically rocky "Heavy Fuel," the reflective title track, and the rock n' roll-flavored "The Bug." And perhaps some lesser-known gems such as "Fade To Black" and "You And Your Friend", the track "Iron Hand" relates to the Battle of Orgreave during the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike, with Knopfler remarking on how the police charge on horseback into the crowd of striking miners had reminded him of the savagery of medieval times.

 

On Every Street Track List:  

 

1. Calling Elvis

2. On Every Street

3. When It Comes To You

4. Fade To Black

5. The Bug

6. You And Your Friend

7. Heavy Fuel

8. Iron Hand

9. Ticket To Heaven

10. My Parties

11. Planet Of New Orleans

12. How Long

Rocktrospectiva: The Massive Multi-Platinum "Brothers In Arms" Turns 40

 

Released on 17 May 1985 "Brothers In Arms" was the fifth studio album by the British rock band Dire Straits. It was the first album in history to sell over one million copies in CD format.  Brothers in Arms spent a total of 14 non-consecutive weeks at number one on the UK Albums Chart (including ten consecutive weeks between 18 January and 22 March 1986), nine weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 in the United States and 34 weeks at number one on the Australian Albums Chart. It was the first album to be certified ten-times platinum in the UK. It is certified nine-times platinum in the United States and is one of the world's best-selling albums, having sold more than 30 million copies worldwide.

 

The album won a Grammy Award in 1986 for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical and Best British Album at the 1987 Brit Awards. The album spawned five singles "So Far Away", "Money For Nothing", "Walk Of Life", "Brothers In Arms", & "Your Latest Trick".

 

Brothers in Arms was recorded from November 1984 to February 1985 at AIR Studios on the island of Montserrat, a British overseas territory in the Caribbean. The album was produced by songwriter Mark Knopfler and Neil Dorfsman, who had engineered Dire Straits' 1982 album Love over Gold 

 

Brothers in Arms was one of the first albums recorded on a Sony 24-track digital tape machine. The decision to move to digital recording came from Knopfler's constant striving for better sound quality. "One of the things that I totally respected about him," Dorfsman observed, "was his interest in technology as a means of improving his music. He was always willing to spend on high-quality equipment." Before arriving at Montserrat, Knopfler had written all the songs and rehearsed them with the band. The studio lineup was Knopfler (vocals, guitar), John Illsley (bass, backing vocals), Hal Lindes (guitar), Alan Clark (piano, organ), Terry Williams (drums) and new member Guy Fletcher (synthesisers, backing vocals). Lindes left the band early on in the sessions, and was replaced in December 1984 by Jack Sonni, a New York guitarist and longstanding friend of Knopfler. (Sonni's only contribution to the album was the guitar synthesiser on "The Man's Too Strong", with all the other guitar parts played by Knopfler).

 

During the recording of "Money for Nothing", the signature sound of Knopfler's guitar may have been enhanced by a "happy accident" of microphone placement. Knopfler was using his Gibson Les Paul going through a Laney amplifier. While setting up the guitar amplifier microphones in an effort to get the "ZZ Top sound" that Knopfler sought, guitar tech Ron Eve, who was in the control room, heard the "amazing" sound before Dorfsman was finished arranging the mics. "One mic was pointing down at the floor," Dorfsman remembered, "another was not quite on the speaker, another was somewhere else, and it wasn't how I would want to set things up—it was probably just left from the night before, when I'd been preparing things for the next day and had not really finished the setup." What they heard was exactly what ended up on the record; no additional processing or effects were used during the mix.

 

Brothers in Arms has been described musically as a pop rock album. The music video for "Money for Nothing" received heavy rotation on MTV, and it was the first to be aired on MTV Europe when the network launched on 1 August 1987. It is one of only two Dire Straits songs on a studio album not to be solely credited to Knopfler (the other being "The Carousel Waltz", which opens Making Movies), with guest vocalist Sting given a co-writing credit due to the melody of the repeated "I want my MTV" (sung by Sting) at the start echoing the melody of the Police's "Don't Stand So Close to Me".

 

"Walk of Life" was a number two hit in the UK Singles Chart in early 1986 and a number seven hit in the US Billboard Hot 100 later that year. The song was nearly left off the album, but was included after the band out-voted producer Neil Dorfsman. On the second side of the album, three songs ("Ride Across the River", "The Man's Too Strong" and "Brothers in Arms") are lyrically focused on militarism. "Ride Across the River" uses immersive Latin American imagery, accompanied by synthesized pan flute, mariachi trumpet, a reggae-influenced drum part and eerie background noises. "The Man's Too Strong" depicts the character of an ancient soldier (or war criminal) and his fear of showing feelings as a weakness. Written during the 1982 Falklands War, "Brothers in Arms" deals with the senselessness of war.

 

Brothers in Arms was one of the first albums directed at the CD market, and it was a full digital recording (DDD) at a time when most popular music was recorded on analog equipment. It was also released on vinyl (abridged to fit on one LP) and cassette. Producer Neil Dorfsman says the digital multitrack was mixed on a Solid State Logic analog board, with the resulting two track mix re-digitized via a Prism A/D converter and recorded on a DAT machine.

 

Brothers in Arms was the first album to sell one million copies in the CD format and to outsell its LP version. Rykodisc co-founder Rob Simonds subsequently wrote, "[In 1985] we were fighting to get our CDs manufactured because the entire worldwide manufacturing capacity was overwhelmed by demand for a single rock title (Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms)." 

 

Despite the initial reviews of Brothers in Arms from the UK music press in 1985 were generally negative due its mawkish self-pity, his lugubriously mannered appropriation of rockin' Americana, his thumpingly crass attempts at wit", also accused the album of the "tritest would-be melodies in history, the last word in tranquilising chord changes, the most cloying lonesome playing and ultimate in transparently fake troubador sentiment ever to ooze out of a million-dollar recording studio", other critics were different especially in the States praising Knopfler's guitar work and noted that,  also the album were "carefully crafted" effort, writing, nd beautifully produced, with Mark Knopfler's terrific guitar work catching the best light, in the decades to come, the critics changed praising the work here especially with the track "Brothers In Arms" a phenomenon on every level... a suite of Knopfler's very fine brand of JJ Cale-lite".

 

Brothers In Arms Track List:

 

1. So Far Away

2. Money For Nothing

3. Walk Of Life

4. Your Latest Trick

5. Why Worry

6. Ride Across The River

7. The Man's Too Strong

8. One World

9. Brothers In Arms

Rocktrospectiva: El Exitoso "Brothers In Arms" Cumple 35 Años

Uno de los discos más vendidos y reconocidos de los años 80's "Brothers In Arms" de la banda Escocesa Dire Straits, cumple 35 años de haber sido lanzado, precisamente un 13 de mayo de 1985, fue el 5to., álbum en la carrera de la banda, que ya tenía éxito y reconocimiento pero no a nivel masivo, y este disco sería a la postre, el que permitiria que lograran eso. 

Con más de 30 millones de copias vendidas en todo el mundo, el disco les cambio la vida a la banda encontrando el balance para poder trascender en un mundo cambiante, entonces Knopfler pudo encontrar la receta para incluir blues y sintetizadores, dandole un sonido mucho más moderno a la banda, por lo que se fueron lejos a grabar el disco alejados de cualquier influencia tradicional y el resultado fue este disco, del cual se extrajeron cuatro singles que sonaron por todo lo alto en todo el mundo, el primero "So Far Away" que era la que abría el set, era diferente a lo que se conocía de la banda pero aun tenía la esencia Dire Straits, esto preparaba el camino para el siguiente tema "Money For Nothing", un cambio totalmente diferente con un icónico video y que trataba de llevarle la contraria a la MTV y el estilo de vida de las estrellas de rock del momento, tenía a Sting en los coros que repetía "I Want My MTV" un video con unas animaciones muy ad hoc en la época y se volvío el tema que les daría la gloria absoluta, y de paso, el video sería uno de los más rotados en la MTV de aquel entonces y uno de los más distintivos de los 80's., el otro single "Walk Of Life" una especie de country rock que tuvo también mucho éxito llegando a tener dos versiones de video, la de deportes y la normal, que por cierto era la primera la que más gustaba y ponían por estos lares. 

Otros temas del disco "Your Latest Trick" era una balada de tendencia aterradora, "Brothers In Arms" el siguiente single, tenía un curioso video también animado sobre soldados de la segunda guerra mundial, y que a pesar de no tener el mismo éxitos de las otras es muy recordada, y así trasciende el disco que tanto llegó a gustar en aquel entonces, pese a que tuvo unas críticas muy malas al principio por considerarlo un disco oportunista y que solo buscaba la fama y fortuna posible, pero del lado Estadounidense fue diferente, en donde el trabajo en las guitarras de parte de Knopfler fue alabado y las letras destacadas de una manera diferente ya que no era el mismo enfoque de sexo, carros y drogas, aunque con el tiempo el disco comenzó a ser apreciado de una diferente manera dandole el honor que se merecía. 

Un dato curioso fue sin duda que el disco significó la entrada a la era del CD y el principio del fin para el LP aunque digan que hoy en día goza de un nuevo brillo que para mi sigue siendo un falso espejismo, además fue el primer CD en vender un millón de copias y eso se uso en favor para empujar a la gloria al CD que para mi sigue siendo el formato de mejor calidad, acortando las canciones en el vinilo mientras que en el CD si venían completas. En Guatemala el disco fue de los más famosos, y precisamente algo de lo que a lo lejos me recuerdo es que sus temas principales tuvieron alta demanda y rotación en las radios locales, de hecho todavía lo siguen teniendo, a pesar que por un tiempo una infame radio local llamada Kiss FM quemó "Money For Nothing" pero que gracias a la acertada idea de pasar un buen tiempo sin escuchar esta radio que solo quemaba los temas ochenteros como sino tuvieran más, que hoy en día tras escucharlo de vez en cuando es que vuelvo apreciarle, otro dato curioso es sin duda su video, ya que el tema comenzaba con Sting cantando "I Want My MTV" el tema atacaba a la cadena pero resulto convirtiendose en todo lo contrario con lo que peleaban y paso a ser uno de los más tocados por la cadena cuando de verdad era un canal de videos musicales, además en el video aparecían dos bandas, la primera llamada "First Floor" y la otra "The Ian Pearson Band" muchos nos preguntamos hasta la fecha si de verdad existían y resulta que la primera si era verdadera aunque en realidad se trataba de la banfa Hungará The Első Emeletcuya traducción al ingles era First Floor y por eso salía así en el clip, mientras que la otra si fue puro cuento y fue creada nada más para el video, otro gran tema es "Walk Of Life" del cual tengo gratos momentos ya que era usado en algunos programas de deportes locales de la época por su curioso video precisamente de deportes.

Brothers In Arms Track List:

1. So Far Away

2. Money For Nothing

3. Walk Of Life

4. Your Latest Trick

5. Why Worry

6. Ride Across The River

7. The Man's Too Strong

8. One World

9. Brothers In Arms