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Mar 3, 2024
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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Thank you, Bret!

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Good one today. We are certainly in the same boat, having heard "Money for Nothin'" on MTV in the mid 80s. I finally got around to exploring early Dire Straits some time in the late 90s! Took a while.

Their early stuff is solid and very easy to listen to.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Better late than never, right? :)

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Oh yes. Sometimes, late is even better, I think!

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Dusty Wright's avatar

It's my favorite Dire Straits album. Thanks for sharing your review, Kevin.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

You bet! I'm glad you liked it.

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Glenn Cook's avatar

Romeo and Juliet and Solid Rock are my favorite Dire Straits songs. Both made their way onto numerous mixtapes post Money for Nothing so I could show others how solid this band was pre-MTV insanity.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

In hindsight, it's wild for me to think this whole 'nother discography existed, and I had no idea. In 2024, I probably would've just Googled them and found out before the first song was over.

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Chris Cardone's avatar

Hi Kevin. Love this album!

If you can’t shake the feeling you’ve seen the video for ‘Skateaway’ before I’ll vouch for you that you have. I too remember seeing it on MTV in the early days. “Toro, toro taxi”.

As good as ‘Brothers In Arms’ is, ‘Making Movies’ is easily my favorite Dire Straits album. Apart from Mark Knopfler’s guitar work, he wrote some brilliant lyrics on it as well. ‘Romeo & Juliet’, ‘Tunnel of Love’…I’m sure I’ll be playing this album now at some point today.

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Matt Thompson's avatar

Yes, I remember seeing the Skateaway video quite frequently on MTV. JJ Jackson was a fan of the video and its rollerskating star.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Thank you! I happy to hear I wasn't imagining things.

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Dan Epstein's avatar

My favorite as well. I’d liked “Sultans” when I heard it on the radio in 1979, but this was their first LP that I bought. (And for the record, I always loathed Brothers.)

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Jessica B. Sokol's avatar

Love it. So when I lived in PDX (your fave) I saw Mark Knopfler open for Dylan! Dare I say it, Mark was fucking blowing it out of the park!!! (The same tour my dad saw a few days a part in MA, but Dawes opened, he was so bummed…)

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Nice! Where was this at?

Sorry, but your dad kinda got a raw deal. :)

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Jessica B. Sokol's avatar

Oh yea, he will never let this go, lol. I was at The Rose Garden. :)

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Dave Purcell's avatar

Well said, Kevin. That's a great record, although I'll argue for Espresso Love over Solid Rock.

I'm a bit older and fell in love with "Sultans of Swing" when it was in heavy rotation on our local rock station. I could tell it was different, but as an eighth-grader, I couldn't identify what it was. I later realized that it -- along with some other stuff like early Pretender and Jackson Browne -- pointed me to the mix of rock and roots music that I came to love so much. I got Making Movies and Love Over Gold when they came out, and later circled back to Comminque.

Speaking of Jimmy Iovine, his conversation with Rick Rubin on Rick's Tetragrammaton podcast is one of the best about music I've ever heard. It's hilarious (and hilariously profane) at times, and Iovine's stories are incredible, from working on a James Brown record as a teen and on early John Lennon records with Phil Spector, to all of the massive records that made him a star. It's a must-listen.

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Kevin W.'s avatar

I'll look up the podcast based on your recommendation. Thanks.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Thanks for the rec.! I'll see if I can find it.

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Abandoned Albums Podcast's avatar

I'm with Dusty - far and away, my favorite Dire Straits album. It's one of those flawless records and fits nicely into my third album theory (more on that some other time). "Skateaway" is just about as perfect a song as you can get, and you're 100% right about length. I had never considered that being part of the album's strength, but it absolutely is (length, but mostly, overexposure kill Brothers in Arms for me - aside from "The Man's Too Strong" - just about as powerful a song you can get). "Romeo and Juliet," mmmwwwaaa! Another perfect song.

Ahh, this album may be 40+ years old, but it STILL sounds solid and refreshing. I love this, Kevin; thanks for the reminder.

"See you tomorrow my son."

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

Of course! I'm glad you liked it.

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Kevin W.'s avatar

Yes, indeed, a very good album. In my opinion not a bad song on it. Love Over Gold is a winner album too.

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jeleonard193's avatar

Got Dire Straits first album and "Making Movies" when they were first released. Skipped "Communiqué". Their first album is still my favorite, for nostalgic reasons, but Making Movies is also very solid. I would have to go with "Skateaway" as my favorite track. That's all.

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I love it!

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Lou Tilsley's avatar

Romeo and Juliet is far and away my favourite Dire Straits track. Seeing The Killers cover it in Paris was a highlight of that set too!

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Dan Pal's avatar

Glad you singled this album out! I don't think I've ever listened to the whole thing! However, I've always like the song and video for Skateaway. It's an under appreciated gem of a tune. I will check out the rest of the album now!

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Marc Carrasco's avatar

Really nice songs in this album. I love this version of Romeo And Juliet:

https://open.spotify.com/intl-es/track/6xLh2Oq3RCGSLvAHsxdvjQ?si=a4cac1091f5b4fb2

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Eric Pierce's avatar

I discovered Dire Straits about the same time and via the same song! TIL 😀

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Kevin Alexander's avatar

I wonder how many of us were in that same camp? Gotta be a bunch of us, I'd think.

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Scott Michael Winchell's avatar

Your first paragraph is everything to me. 👏👏👏. Myriad artists entered my world past the ‘early stuff’. Black Sabbath, Zeppelin, Kiss, Scorpions, Judas Priest, to name a few.

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