Dire Straits were a British rock band from Newcastle, United Kingdom, formed in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (guitar and vocals), his brother David Knopfler (guitar), John Illsley (bass), and Pick Withers (drums), and subsequently managed by Ed Bicknell. Dire Straits emerged during the post-punk era of the late '70s, and while their sound was minimalistic and stripped down, they owed little to punk. If anything, the band was a direct outgrowth of the roots revivalism of pub rock, but where pub rock celebrated good times, Dire Straits were melancholy. Led by guitarist/vocalist Mark Knopfler, the group built their sound upon the laid-back blues-rock of J.J. Cale, but they also had jazz and country inflections, occasionally dipping into the epic song structures of progressive rock. The band's music was offset by Knopfler's lyrics, which approximated the winding, stream-of-conscious narratives of Bob Dylan. As their career progressed, Dire Straits became more refined and their new maturity happened to coincide with the rise of MTV and the compact disc. These two musical revolutions from the mid-'80s helped make Dire Straits' fifth studio album, Brothers in Arms, an international blockbuster. The band - along with Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, and Steve Winwood - became one of the leaders of a group of self-consciously mature veteran rock & rollers in the late '80s that designed their music to appeal to aging baby boomers. Despite the band's international success, they couldn't sustain th...
Top Tracks
-
Sultans of Swing
-
Money for Nothing
-
Walk of Life
-
Brothers in Arms
-
Romeo and Juliet
-
So Far Away
-
Tunnel of Love
-
Private Investigations
-
Your Latest Trick
-
Lady Writer
-
Calling Elvis
-
On Every Street
-
Down to the Waterline
-
Heavy Fuel
-
Love Over Gold
-
Telegraph Road
-
Six Blade Knife
-
The Man's Too Strong
-
Twisting By the Pool
-
Ride Across the River
-
One World
-
Water of Love
-
Why Worry
-
Once Upon a Time in the West
-
Wild West End
-
Southbound Again
-
Lions
-
In the Gallery
-
Setting Me Up
-
Expresso Love
-
Fade To Black
-
Solid Rock
-
Industrial Disease
-
You and Your Friend
-
Skateaway
-
News
-
Portobello Belle
-
Angel of Mercy
-
The Bug
-
When It Comes to You
-
Hand in Hand
-
Follow Me Home
-
Ticket to Heaven
-
It Never Rains
-
Iron Hand
-
My Parties
-
Where Do You Think You're Going?
-
Les Boys
-
Where Do You Think You're Going
-
Money For Nothing - Edit