The song that turned Dire Straits into international superstars came in the form of the giant hit "Money For Nothing" from their 1985 album Brothers In Arms album. The song hit MTV at it's peak in 1987 and seemed to play every hour.
The song was distinctive in that it has an unusual guitar sound, especially for guitarist Mark Knopfler, who usually plays through a Strat. In this case the sound comes from a Les Paul through a Laney amplifier, but the real secret is the wah-wah set to half-way to give it that mid-rangey sound.
Here's what to listen for.
1. The song begins with the the guitar covered in a short reverb, but then goes dry for the rest of the song.
2. The guitar is in stereo until the chorus, at which point it's doubled and stays that way from that point on.
3. If you're used to hearing the edited radio version, this is the extended album version, so it goes much longer and the guitar parts are a lot looser as the song gets towards the end.
Former Dire Straits leader Mark Knopfler owns one of the finest studios anywhere, and I've already posted a few clips of him using it in the past. We're going to start the new year off with an interesting movie showing how his British Grove Studios was constructed.
Take notice how well this studio is built, with cinder block and concrete walls rather than the usual drywall in order to get the best isolation possible.
Although you get to see the finished studio, the only thing missing in the video is a shot of the studio with all the gear in it. You can get a look at that in this clip of Mark and Engineer Chuck Ainlay that I posted a few months ago.
It's rare that you get to see great musicians work in the studio and even rarer to see singers do their studio thing. The reason is that the recording studio is a very private work area where even the best musician or singer lays his chops on the line, warts and all. It's where you really see how good or mediocre someone really is. Not only that, comfort matters a great deal in getting the best performance. A camera or someone not in the inner circle watching takes that security (or is in insecurity) blanket of away.
Then again, there are many musicians that are so completely at ease with their artistic ability that they're okay with having people watch them as they work. Here's a great example of that, as the singers in guitar great Mark Knopfler's band do a 4 part harmony background vocal. Now we don't see them working out the part, which can take time and be somewhat awkward, but we do get to see and hear a pretty polished and nearly finished product.
Here's a great movie with my friend engineer Chuck Ainlay and former Dire Strait's frontman and guitarist Mark Knopfler in the control room of Mark's fabulous personal studio. The cool thing about this studio is the vintage gear, and Mark has not one but two of the old EMI consoles; a REDD (originally used at Abbey Road) and a TG-1.
If you can gear lust, best not to look at his movie. But if you love old gear and love the the fact that it's actually being put to good use in Mark's studio, you'll love it.
By the way, Chuck was one of the featured engineer's in the second edition of The Recording Engineer's Handbook. I'll post an excerpt from his interview soon.
I was at a party at a swanky Beverly Hills establishment a few weeks ago when I got to talking to a group of Gen Xer's about music. Much to my surprise, one of them whipped out his iPhone and dialed up a song and announced, "This is the greatest song ever recorded." As it played, nearly all of his friends agreed, much to my surprise. While I was expecting to hear something more from their generation, the song that played was actually "Sultans Of Swing," the song that launched Dire Straits to international stardom. I figure that if they think so highly of the song, it's worth a song analysis.
The song is from the album Dire Straits, which was made for only about $20,000, mere chump change in the big budget days of 1978. Like all song analysis, we'll look at the song form, the arrangement, the sound, and the production.
The Song
"Sultans Of Swing" is about as straight ahead a song arrangement as you'll ever find. It fits almost perfectly in what you might call the "textbook" song form, which looks like this:
The Arrangement
There's nothing fancy about the arrangement at all. It's a rock band playing at its simplest and best.
The Foundation: The bass and drums.
The Pad: None
The Rhythm: The rhythm guitar
The Lead: Lead vocal and lead guitar
The Fills: Lead guitar
The Sound
In 1979 analog recording might have been at it's peak and this recording certainly is a testament to that notion. Everything sounds completely real and unprocessed. The drums are dry and in your face without being too compressed, and the snare is very snappy (sounds like a lot of under-snare mic). The vocal and rhythm guitars have just a touch of reverb to give them some space but the lead guitar has a a lot of a slightly delayed verb that pushes it back in the mix, giving all the elements a nice front-to-back image.
The Production Muff Winwood's (Steve Winwood's brother) production is sparse but effective. It's just the band playing with very limited sweetening, but the song is a perfect example of how that can be just as effective as a song that's heavily produced and layered. The rhythm guitars are doubled and split left and right and the lead guitar line in the chorus is doubled, but that's about it. What matters here is the performances, and the band just smokes, especially drummer Pick Withers and his great high-hat work. Of course, Mark Knopfler went on to become a guitar god as a result of this song as well.
," the song that launched Dire Straits to international stardom. I figure that if they think so highly of the song, it's worth a song analysis.
, which was made for only about $20,000, mere chump change in the big budget days of 1978. Like all song analysis, we'll look at the song form, the arrangement, the sound, and the production.