Musical Gems - Sultans of Swing

For this edition I chose, Sultans of Swing, by Dire Straits from their 1978 debut eponymous album.  This song is certainly on my list of top ten favorites of all time.

Dire Straits formed in London in 1977.  The original lineup was Mark Knopfler on lead guitar and vocals, David Knopfler (brother) on rhythm guitar, John Illsley on bass, and Pick Withers doing the drumming.  This first album has been certified double-platinum in both the United States and the United Kingdom largely on the strength of this song.

Mark Knopfler wrote the song and said of it, ""I thought it was dull, but as soon as I bought my first Strat in 1977, the whole thing changed, though the lyrics remained the same. It just came alive as soon as I played it on that ’61 Strat which remained my main guitar for many years and was basically the only thing I played on the first album and the new chord changes just presented themselves and fell into place."

Dire Straits debuted around a year after the Ramones made it big, and the contrast between the laid back picking displayed by Knophler was a big contrast to the speed, noise and power of the increasingly popular punk scene.

Mark Knopfler plays a finger-picking style without a pick and this allowed him to find a unique guitar "voice", that is exemplified on this track.  To hear more clearly exactly what he is playing, listen to the lead-guitar-only track from the master tapes at the link below.

The reason I like this song is that it just hangs together so well.  The melody is catchy, the playing is tight, and the song paints a vivid picture in your mind.

You get a shiver in the dark
It's a raining in the park but meantime-
South of the river you stop and you hold everything
A band is blowing Dixie, double four time
You feel alright when you hear the music ring

Well now you step inside but you don't see too many faces
Coming in out of the rain they hear the jazz go down
Competition in other places
Uh but the horns they blowin' that sound
Way on down south
Way on down south
London town

You check out guitar George, he knows-all the chords
Mind, it's strictly rhythm he doesn't want to make it cry or sing
They said an old guitar is all, he can afford
When he gets up under the lights to play his thing

And Harry doesn't mind, if he doesn't, make the scene
He's got a daytime job, he's doing alright
He can play the Honky Tonk like anything
Savin' it up, for Friday night
With the Sultans
We're the Sultans of Swing

Then a crowd a young boys they're a foolin' around in the corner
Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles
They don't give a damn about any trumpet playin' band
It ain't what they call Rock and Roll
And the Sultans
Yeah, the Sultans, they play Creole
Creole

And then the man he steps right up to the microphone
And says at last just as the time bell rings
"Goodnight, now it's time to go home"
Then he makes it fast with one more thing

"We are the Sultans
We are the Sultans of Swing"

Songwriters: Mark Knopfler
Sultans of Swing lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

This song has a lot of memories for me from various times in my life.  I started my freshman year of college in the Fall of 1978.  I went to Brigham Young University from Idaho Falls, Idaho where I had lived for two years after moving from Phoenix, Arizona.  I lived in the dormitories on campus in a  set of buildings called Deseret Towers that has since been demolished.

One of the things that happened there was that I was suddenly exposed to a lot of different music that I'd never heard before from people who had come from all over the U.S. and even overseas.  I don't know which of the guys on my dorm floor it was that played the albumn for me first, but I immediately went out and bought a copy of my own.

My copy of Dire Straits first album with "Sultans of Swing" being track 1 on side 2

Other memories of this song include listening to it on a very long drive from Rochester, New York to Washington, DC on a youth temple trip.  That must've been 1988 or so.  I went as a chaperone, I suppose, as I wasn't working with the youth in our LDS ward then.  We drove south through central Pennsylvania on Route 15 and I can remember this song coming on the radio just as we passed over the state line from New York to Pennsylvania.

Also I have lots of memories of this song coming up again and again on the classic rock station out of Salt Lake City as we drove around Utah when my kids were small.  We'd listen to it driving around town, on trips to Idaho, or going camping.

It's a great song.  You've probably heard it a hundred times already, but listen to it again and enjoy!