Sultans. Period. Review on Sultans of Swing - Dire Straits

Its been again a long time since I wrote anything. So apologies and here we go....

I am going to stretch things a bit because I want to review Dire Straits as a band. Not this album in particular. Or any particular for song for that matter. Just the phenomenon that is Dire Straits and why they are so special to me.

When I entered college, it was a crime not to have a favourite band. Everybody had atleast one each. Till that point I thought Bon Jovi was cool, and I had very few other bands I was really fond of. Besides Bon Jovi is not exactly macho Macho Hard Rock college rock is he ? Or atleast most of my mates thought so. Sad thing there were so many people who took a cool band and made it their fave. Which doesn't really say much about the person's taste does it ?

It was sometime in second year I believe that I first heard a Straits song. It was Walk of life. Something about the music, the voice and lyrics set off something deep within me.

Fast forward to a summer vacation. I was stuck in an airport in Qatar or someplace, it was three in the morning and I had a two hour wait for a connecting flight. I love bookshops and ran along to the lounge bookshop, they only had a lot of magazines and very few books. Thats when I spotted a rack of old but cheap english music cassettes. And I mean real old, when cassettes where not transparent and the cover was garishly printed. It was a pirated compilation of the best of Dire Straits. The rest is inevitable, if not history.

Through the last four years of my life the music of Dire Straits has put me sleep, woke me up, made me cry, made me laugh, made me think. I can never hear a rendition of Brothers in arms without going back to my college days. It always moistens my eyes. Maybe I have so many memories associated with Dire Straits music, or maybe the music is so intensely personal.

Whenever I hear a Straits song I can see Knopfler bent over the mike mumbling his rich https://lyrics. He is a poet no doubt. Maybe it is the total lack of pizzazz in their music that makes it so penetrating. Telegraph Road from the album Love over Gold is a typical example of the music taking you there. You live the lyrics and feel every ebb and tide and crest and trough. Knopfler never forces you to understand, the music is never ever overbearing or persuading. I would prefer to call it cajoling.

Many people call them too bluesy or gloomy or sad. Not really. They could sing loudly about sadness and croon about joy. There are few who can do that. After hearing classics like Sultans of Swing and Twisting by the Pool a million times, I still never feel bored. Just like that fave poster in your room, keeps you company when you are alone, or that ad on TV that makes you laugh all the time.

When I need to sit a little while and think or just cool off I run to my nearest Straits cassette pronto. I take my Dire Straits very personally. It goes a lot beyond just music and sound, there are too many memories and feelings attached to it.

For the people who havent heard it yet, do try it out. At the very least it is a good band to have on long drives and so on. Great music to be piped, and very non-interrupting music too. Do give it a shot. Who knows maybe you could get hooked to some of the warmest, most intense and captivating music ever.....