The 5 classic Dire Straits songs that aren't on their No. 1 album 'Brothers in Arms'
The overwhelming success of Brothers in Arms tends to overshadow the catalog of fine work Dire Straits had already created. So on the 40th anniversary of the release of Brothers in Arms, here are five great Dire Straits tunes from the records that came before it.
'Once Upon a Time in the West' from (1979)
After the slow-burn success of Dire Straits' self-titled debut LP, Communiqué was met with a more modest reception. But the album arguably built on the first record's strengths. The understated 'Once Upon a Time in the West' added some reggae textures to the band's rootsy approach. The song would remain a staple of Dire Straits' live set; it featured prominently in an epic version, opening their 1984 live album (see below).
'Tunnel of Love' from (1980)
Opening with the strains of Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'Carousel Waltz,' Dire Straits' 'Tunnel of Love' signaled Mark Knopfler's move toward grand, sweeping musical works. The evocative song showcases emotional depth, exceptional instrumental work and some of Knopfler's finest lyrics, rivaling Bruce Springsteen (who would write a 'Tunnel of Love' of his own a few years later).
'Telegraph Road' from (1982)
Mark Knopfler's gift for creating wide-screen, epic songs continued on Dire Straits' fourth studio LP. The album's single, 'Industrial Disease' would be the only tune on the five-song album to come in under six minutes. Yet at fourteen minutes plus, 'Telegraph Road' never wastes a second. Knopfler's lyrics were inspired in part by the Nobel Prize winning novel Growth of the Soil by Norwegian author Knut Hamsun.
'Twisting by the Pool' from (1983)
Brothers in Arms displayed some playful humor in songs like 'Money for Nothing,' but the MTV hit wasn't Dire Straits' first tune with a bit of whimsy. A three-day recording session in Fall 1982 yielded four new songs for the group, including this fun and uptempo track. The uncharacteristic 'Twisting by the Pool' made it onto the singles charts in the U.S., UK and New Zealand; it reached the No. 1 spot in the latter.
'Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero' from (1984)
While guitarist and songwriter Mark Knopfler formally launched his solo career after Dire Straits broke up in 1995, he had already been active outside the band for more than a decade. His first recorded work outside the group was composing, recording and producing the soundtrack for the well-received 1983 film Local Hero. On tour, Dire Straits featured the movie's stirring instrumental theme song in a full-band version; it's a highlight of the Alchemy album.
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BONO Apart from the attack on the Nova music festival on October 7th, which felt like it happened while U2 were on stage at Sphere Las Vegas, I have generally tried to stay out of the politics of the Middle East… this was not humility, more uncertainty in the face of obvious complexity… I have over recent months written about the war in Gaza in The Atlantic and spoken about it in The Observer, but I circled the subject. As a cofounder of the ONE campaign, which tackles AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa, I felt my experience should be on the catastrophes facing that work and that part of the world. The hemorrhaging of human life in Sudan or Ethiopia hardly makes the news. Sudan alone is beyond comprehension, with a civil war that has left 150,000 dead and 2 million people facing famine. 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Examples that sharpen my pen include: Israel's Heritage Minister claiming that the government is racing to wipe out Gaza… his Defense Minister and Security Minister arguing no aid should be let into the territory. 'Not one grain of wheat.' And now Netanyahu announces a military takeover of Gaza City… which most informed commentators understand as a euphemism for the colonization of Gaza. We know the rest of the Gaza Strip… and the West Bank are next. What century are we in? Is the world not done with this far, far right thinking? We know where it ends… world war… millenarianism… Might the world deserve to know where this once promising bright-minded democratic nation is headed unless there is a dramatic change of course? Is what was once an oasis of innovation and free-thinking now in hock to a fundamentalism as blunt as a machete? Are Israelis really ready to let Benjamin Netanyahu do to Israel what its enemies failed to achieve over the last 77 years? And disappear it from membership in a community of nations built around even a flawed decency? As someone who has long believed in Israel's right to exist and supported a two-state solution, I want to make clear to anyone who cares to listen our band's condemnation of Netanyahu's immoral actions and join all who have called for a cessation of hostilities on both sides. If not Irish voices, please please please stop and listen to Jewish ones - from the high mindedness of Rabbi Sharon Brous, to the tearful comedy of the Grody-Patinkin family - who fear the damage to Judaism, as well as Israel's neighbours. Listen to the more than 100,000 Israelis who this week protested for an end to the war. Our band stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine who truly seek a path to peace and coexistence with Israel and with their rightful and legitimate demand for statehood. We stand in solidarity with the remaining hostages and plead that someone rational negotiate their release. Could it be Marwan Barghouthi who the former head of Mossad Efraim Halevy described as 'probably the most sane and the most qualified person' to lead the Palestinians? Wiser heads than mine will have a view, but surely the hostages deserve a different approach — and quick. We urge more good people in Israel to demand unfettered access by professionals to deliver the critical care needed throughout Gaza and the West Bank that they best know how to distribute… and to let the correct number of trucks through. It will take more than 100 trucks a day to take seriously the need - more like 600 - but the flooding of humanitarian aid will also undercut the black marketing that has been happening to benefit Hamas. The band is pledged to contribute our support by donating to Medical Aid For Palestinians. The Edge We are all deeply shocked and profoundly grieved by the suffering unfolding in Gaza. What we are witnessing is not a distant tragedy - it is a test of our shared humanity. I have three questions for Prime Minister Netanyahu. I ask them in the hope of engaging the conscience and sanity of the people of Israel. First: Do you truly believe that such devastation—inflicted so intentionally and relentlessly on a civilian population—can happen without heaping generational shame upon those responsible? Do you not see that the longer this continues, the more Israel risks becoming isolated, mistrusted, and remembered not as a haven from persecution, but as a state that, when provoked, systematically persecuted a neighbouring civilian population? Second: If the end goal is, as the Likud platform suggests, the removal of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank to make way for a 'Greater Israel,' then that is not peace—it is dispossession; it is ethnic cleansing, and, according to many legal scholars, colonial genocide. It is an injustice on a massive scale. And injustice, as we learned in Ireland, is never the path to security: it breeds resentment, it hardens hearts, and it guarantees that future generations will inherit conflict rather than peace. The oppressed do not forget. How can this course of action possibly make your people safer? Third: If you reject the two-state solution—as your government now openly does—then what is your political vision? Simply perpetual conflict? A future of walls, blockades, military occupation? A state of permanent inequality? And if this apartheid state transpires don't you destroy the very argument for Israel's existence as a moral response to the horrors of the Holocaust? For if Israel comes to be seen as a state that systematically denies another people their rights, then the world will inevitably ask whether the only just and sustainable future, the only tolerable future, is a shared state—one where Jews and Palestinians live together as equals under the law. We know from our own experience in Ireland that peace is not made through is made when people sit down with their opponents—when they recognise the equal dignity of all, even those they once feared or despised. There can be no peace without justice. No reconciliation without recognition. And no future unless we refuse to let the past be repeated. The road to peace is difficult. But it is never too late, or too early, to begin walking it. Adam Clayton The humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by Israel's aid blockade and bombing looks like revenge on a civilian population who are not responsible for Hamas' murderous attack on October 7. If Israel moves to colonise the Gaza Strip, it will permanently undo any possibility of lasting peace or solution for hostilities. Forgetting the morality of the situation for a moment, doesn't the technical superiority of Israel's modern army make a boast of its precision targeting of individuals from thousands of miles away? And if so why are the IDF bombarding a civilian population from the skies indiscriminately destroying any bit of shelter and infrastructure? Preserving civilian life is a choice in this war. Larry Mullen Jr. The images of the Hamas-led massacre of Israelis on October 7th and in particular the footage of innocent music fans being slaughtered, beaten and abused at the Nova Music Festival were harrowing to watch. Nothing was achieved except more misery for the region at the hands of Hamas and its allies. So what did Hamas expect would happen when they committed mass murder and took the hostages? Israel's response was those attacks the total obliteration of Hamas was called for by Israel and its allies and was expected.A ground war was bombardment and destruction were expected. The indiscriminate decimation of most homes and hospitals in Gaza, with a majority of those killed being women and children, was not famine was not expected. It's difficult to comprehend how any civilised society can think starving children is going to further any cause and be justified as an acceptable response to another horror. To state the obvious, starving innocent civilians as a weapon of war is inhumane and criminal. Where is the outrage from within Israel, outside of a small, if increasingly vocal, minority?Where is the outrage from the diaspora?Beyond some reluctant and muted acknowledgement of a famine inflicted, power to change this obscenity is in the hands of IsraelI undoubtedly support Israel's right to exist and I also believe Palestinians deserve the same right and a state of their serves none of us. Israel has been accused of carrying out genocidal acts during the ongoing war in Gaza by numerous organisations, including the UN Human Rights Council. Israel's military campaign has resulted in the death of over 60,000 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. 50 hostages from the October 7, 2023 attack remain held in captivity by Hamas in the Gaza has denied any genocidal intent, which requires certain thresholds to be met in order to be legally recognised; a case brought forward by South Africa to The International Court of Justice accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians is ongoing. The conflict has been on-going for decades, with official UN figures for the 15 years before the 2023 escalation recording 7277 Palestinian deaths and 162,121 Palestinian injuries in occupied Palestinian territory and Israel since 2008, and 368 Israeli deaths and 6,670 Israeli injuries during the same time span in the region.
