History of “Brothers in Arms”, the Blockbuster of Dire Straits

About a month ago The Ultimate Classic Rock magazine has published One of his periodicals ‘better than’ concerning the best albums released in 1985, forty years ago. In front of everyone, the editorial staff of the newspaper indicated “Brothers in Arms”fifth and penultimate album of Say straitswhich reached the market in the mid -May of that year. “Brothers in Arms” He had an incredible success and to date he has sold over thirty million copies. It happened that in November 1984, Mark Knopfler I brought together i Say straits – In addition to him to guitar and voice, too John Illsley (bass and voice), Alan Clark (keyboards), Guy Fletcher (keyboards and choirs) e Omar Hakim/Terry Williams (battery) – Air studios on the Caribbean island of Monserrat to make their fifth studio album.

Loudersound hosted a round table about ten years ago in which some of the protagonists remembered how it was born and developed “Brothers in Arms”. To celebrate 40 years from the publication of the album of the English band we report more under some passages of that conversation.

To speak first is the manager of Dire Straits and Bicknell: “For all the time I worked with him, I never asked Mark when the band’s next album would come out. He told me when he wanted. In the period he preceded ‘Brothers in Arms’ he was working on the soundtrack of the film ‘Cal’. One day we were going to the studio and we were blocked in traffic. He turned to me and asked me to call the boys because I had already put some songs together. I listened to ‘Money for Nothing’ for the first time.

The word then goes to the bassist
John Illsley
: “We spent a lot of time in the rehearsal room to experiment with different ideas, so we were quite prepared when we went to Monserrat to start recording. Then, after three weeks we were there, we had a problem with the recorder. From evening to morning, the digital recorder decided to cancel about 70% of all the material we had recorded. They were the dawn of digital and we had to start recording from the head.”

The keyboard player
Alan Clark
Instead he says: “At that time, Monserrat was like the Shangri-la. It was the most beautiful and quiet place that could be desired to visit. In the end we called Omar Hakim on drums for that album and we recorded the foundations in about a week. Mark wanted to listen first to the battery and then build the rest of the song from there. ‘Ride Aceross the River’ and” ‘Why World’ were done in this way. We had the feeling that ‘Money for Nothing’ would be a classic guitar riff from the first time that Mark has played it. ”

Still And Bicknell: “I also remember having heard in Montserrat ‘Your Latest Trick’, who is their only song on which I have ever had a musical contribution. Initially he played like a Jazz Be-Bop piece but he didn’t work, there was no groove. I suggested to Mark to try it like Bossa Nova and to remove one of the jokes, and that’s what they did. ‘Walk of Life’ was not to end up in the studio. While Mark and the producer Neil Dorfsman were remixing the song and I had not heard it. Price played a Farfisa organ and Mark wanted to recreate the sound at the beginning of ‘Walk of Life’ “.

To close
John Illsley
Remember those times with understandable pride and nostalgia: “The tour of ‘Brothers in Arms’ was definitely a great success. We realized that the band had achieved a fairly unique point and, overall, we liked it. We played ‘Brothers in Arms’ like encore and every evening while we played it I got a shiver along my back. I was talking about those moments with Mark the other day. It is better to leave those beautiful memories intact. ”

Tracklist:

Side a

I know how to do Away

Money for Nothing

Walk of Life

Your Latest Trick

Why World

Side b

Ride Across the River

The Man’s Too Strong

One World

Brothers in Arms

On May 16, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its original release, the album will be republished. This special edition, entitled “Brothers in Arms (40th Anniversary Edition)” will be available in vinyl format single and in two deluxe editions: a 5 LP box and one 3 cd.