The 500 - #352 - Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 352

Album Title: Brothers In Arms

Artist: Dire Straits

Genre: Pop Rock, Blues/Jazz Rock

Recorded: AIR, Montserrat (in the Caribbean)

Released: May, 1985

My age at release: 19

How familiar was I with it before this week: Very

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Brothers In Arms

The summer of 1985 was a special one for me. I had graduated high-school in January after attending HB Beal for a single semester to improve my marks to gain admission to university.

The front steps to HB Beal Secondary School

During this hiatus between secondary and post-secondary studies, I'd been working full-time (at several jobs) while still living at home. Most of my employment was through The City of London (formerly known as the Public Utilities Commission). I worked at two arenas in the winter, mopping dressing rooms, shoveling snow and pegging hockey nets. I also had a job at a convenience store called Mac's Milk and, in the summer, the arena job transitioned to work at a city-run outdoor swimming pool.

The logo for Mac's Milk in the 1980s

I explain all this to emphasize how much disposable income I earned. I was positively flush with cash. University tuition was less than $1,000 in 1985 and I planned on living at home. That summer I lived the life of Riley -- I regularly ate at restaurants, ordered pizzas when visiting friends, went to movies and bought clothes -- Miami Vice style clothes, including a linen, pastel sportscoat, skinny leather ties, mirrored aviator sunglasses and slip-on, mesh shoes, without socks of course. I wish I had some photographs, but it was a time before the ease of digital cameras.

Don Johnson and Phillip Michael Thomas from Miami Vice

I also purchased one of the first, portable Compact Disc (CD) players on the market, a Technics SL-XP7, with the optional SH-CBB7 external battery case. A total cost of about $600, or $1,500 if adjusted for inflation.

The Technics SL-XP7 in the SH-CBB7 rechargeable case

Initially, many performing artists were unable to release their material in this digital format because there was no provision in their contracts for fair remuneration. The British rock band Dire Straits was one of the exceptions. They, like David Bowie and Billy Joel, recognized that new media formats were an inevitability. Consequently, their contractual agreements covered these legal contingencies in their earlier record deals. In fact, Billy Joel's 52 Street (#354 on The 500) was the first rock album released on CD, in October, 1982.

52 Street by Billy Joel - The first CD release

In May, 1985, Dire Straits released their fifth studio record, Brothers In Arms, in all three mediums: vinyl, cassette tape and compact disc. It became the first CD to sell a million copies in this emerging format. Already a fan of the band, I purchased one of those first million, several days after its Canadian release.

Initial reviews were unflattering to say the least. New Music Express journalist Mat Snow criticized guitarist, singer and song-writer Mark Knopfler's...

 "mawkish self-pity, his lugubriously mannered appropriation of rockin' Americana and his thumpingly crass attempts at wit".

He further lambasted the record for having...

"(the) tritest would-be melodies in history, the last word in tranquilising chord changes, the most cloying lonesome playing and ultimate in transparently fake troubador sentiment ever to ooze out of a million-dollar recording studio"

The international music public overwhelmingly disagreed with the assessment. The record quickly achieved platinum status (multiple times) in dozens of countries and has now sold more than 30 million units.

Dire Straits (l-r) Alan Clark, John Illsley, Mark Knopfler, 
Terry Williams & Guy Fletchder

It's hard to describe how much Brothers In Arms rocked the cultural zeitgeist in the summer of 1985. Their groundbreaking, computer-animated video for Money For Nothing was ubiquitous, airing almost hourly on MuchMusic (the Canadian version of MTV) and, suddenly, everyone was a Dire Straits fan.

Screen capture from the Money For Nothing, computer animate video

As I mentioned, I was working at a community pool that year and the album played at least three times a day through the outdoor facility's loudspeakers. Children and lifeguards literally stopped on the pool deck in order to air-guitar Knopfler's infectiously catchy opening riff. As I revisited the record over the past few days, I have to admit that I caught myself wanting to do it too. It's a heck of a riff.

I, like many of my generation, became a CD collector. Most of society, and the music publishing companies, moved away from vinyl which, in retrospect, was a mistake. In 2001, iTunes was launched and the era of online digital music began. Vinyl records also began their comeback. Although, technically, the digital sound on a CD is better, there is no way that binary data can match the warm, smooth sound of an analog recording. It's similar to how a computer program can use a million tiny square pixels to make a perfect circle but, if you look closely, it isn't quite genuine. 

I hope my Dire Straits CDs found their way into someone's collection. I sold off all my (non-biodegradable) CDs years ago. However, I suspect that, sadly, they ended up in a landfill -- decaying for a million years, an unanticipated consequence to my summer of excess.

Compact Discs --  it will be a million years
before each one to decompose

Post Script:

Thanks for indulging me on my trip down memory lane. Initially, I planned to write about the song Money For Nothing and writer/singer Mark Knopfler's decision to have the speaker in his song use an offensive pejorative word for homosexuals...the "F word". It is an interesting and thorny discussion. If I have time, I'll come back to this one.