Dire Straits-Dire Straits (1978)


 

Artist: Dire Straits

Title: Dire Straits

Label: Warner Bros.

Format: CD

Catalog Number: 3266-2

Year of Release: 1978

Country and Year of Edition: US BMG club edition, SRC pressing

Sell Price: $4.07

Sell Date: 10/14/26

Condition: VG+/VG+

Discogs Last Sold: 10/13/26 VG+/VG+ $1.99

Low: $1.99

Median: $3.99

Average: $4.57

High: $20.00 M/M 5/23/23

Current low price: $3.99 G+/VG+

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 8

Have/Want: 174/243

Where Sold:  Mill Valley, CA

Time It Took To Sell: 12 years

Where and When Bought: BMG Music Club 90's

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A-

Sad To See It Go: No

Outside of the inescapable "Sultans of Swing," I never really know the first Dire Straits album all too well.  I always assumed it was good since it wasn't much older than Communique which I've known well since it was released.  Chalk it up to it being one of those albums that was "for further review" even when I finally got a copy on CD in the 90's.  We are talking closer to 50 years than 40.

I'm feeling a little more comfortable saying this album is on the A-tier now that I've been familiarizing myself with the songs over the past month.  Dire Straits at their best are not immediately memorable.  This made the hits on Brothers In Arms such a radical shift for the band, but they were part of cultural immersion of those times that had nothing to do with their music.  "Sultans of Swing" was a little different.  It took a British take on Dylanesque onto the high regions of the pop chart,  to the point Dylan recruited Knopfler and drummer PIck WIthers to play on Slow Train Coming.  You can't beat 'em join 'em.

This debut was rooted in no money in my pockets pub rock sideman past (Brewers Droop, anyone?) but it was Knopfler's show.  Assured and veteran craggy as a bandleader, they seemed classic from the first record.  Da blooze and J. J. Cale and all of it.  Knopfler could deliver with an authority that could connect to people that normally would ignore that sort of stuff, without pandering to things like credibility or anarchy.  "Setting Me Up" was the one that went through my head today, but it could be something else some other day.

Maybe one of the water songs.

FOR FURTHER REVIEW:

Brothers In Arms (1985)

Bob Dylan-Slow Train Coming (1979)



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