The Vinyl Project: Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits (1985)
A Trip Thru Your Grooves - Episode 4
Release Date: 13-May-1985
Genre: Rock
Producer: Neil Dorfsman, Mark Knopfler
Label: Warner Bros.
Time: 55m 10s
Review Date: 10-November-2018
Format: LP
Side One
Release Date: 13-May-1985
Genre: Rock
Producer: Neil Dorfsman, Mark Knopfler
Label: Warner Bros.
Time: 55m 10s
Review Date: 10-November-2018
Format: LP
Side One
- So Far Away
- Money for Nothing
Side Two
- Walk of Life
- Your Latest Trick
Side Three
- Why Worry
- Ride Across The River
Side Four
- The Man's Too Strong
- One World
- Brothers In Arms
Review: So much to debate with this record. Though it's a Dire Straits release it genuinely feels like a Mark Knopfler solo project. Further, the original LP is a two-sider with many of the songs truncated in order to fit on one vinyl disc. That's because Knopfler recorded it in full-digital format with CD listeners in mind. Brothers in Arms was the first album to sell one million copies in digital format and the first to outsell its LP version.
For what it's worth, I went with the newer release which is a two-album version. There's not much loss in the transfer because the masters were recorded on a Sony 24-track digital tape machine. Of course there is a little inconvenience to burning through two-song album sides, but, I felt it was more important to listen to the songs as they were originally recorded, rather than the edited, shortened ones.
I was 21 years old when this album was released and at that time music on compact disc seemed like the end all-be all when it came to listening to our favorite releases. Who would have known that a generation later, music released on vinyl would make such a strong comeback?
In full disclosure, Brothers in Arms is probably the least interesting work by the band up to that point. Had it not been released in such a high quality format, and without the addition of Sting on Money for Nothing -- who was wildly popular as a solo artist at the time in his own right -- this album may have flopped. Still, it was my favorite CD that entire summer and is still a great nostalgic spin.
Were I the producer, I would have simply dropped the forgettable Walk of Life rather than releasing the vinyl with surgically reduced versions of the better songs. I'd be willing to bet that due to the somber overtones of the rest of the album, Warner Bros. may have insisted that the album include Walk of Life as a song they felt they could release as a single. Though Money for Nothing is a much stronger song -- and the video was insanely popular on MTV -- the label may have felt that eight minutes and change was just too long to garner consistent radio airplay.
For me, the purchase of this album is categorically tied to the memories attached to it. Turning 21 is a significant event in any young adult's life, and at the time the world seemed so much less tumultuous and complicated. I don't doubt that younger listeners still get into their cars and just drive all night listening to their favorite music, but in 1985 that was a rite of passage for most of us. In fact, I remember I'd leave my girlfriend's house most evenings and just before getting home I'd quickly detour to the highway and burn through this entire album before going home.
At that time there was nothing greater than listening to songs like Your Latest Trick, Money For Nothing, The Man's Too Strong and Why Worry while cruising up and down Lake Shore Drive: sunroof open, Alpine stereo blasting, the backdrop of Chicago's magnificent skyline and my favorite constellations serving as navigational beacons on my late night sojourn.
Best Songs: Money For Nothing, So Far Away, Your Latest Trick
A Deep Cut You'll Love: The Man's Too Strong
Odd but true: Brothers in Arms was the first CD I ever bought, having purchased it and my first CD player (a Sony CD-101) on the very day Warner Bros. released it. In fact, until now I have owned this album in every format but vinyl, though my cassette version was recorded from the original CD so I could listen in my car at the time, a 1983 Grand Prix that only had AM/FM/Cassette.
An interesting note about this album: During the recording of Money for Nothing, the signature sound of Knopfler's guitar may have been enhanced by a happy accident of microphone placement. Knopfler was using his Gibson Les Paul going through a Laney amplifier. While setting up the guitar amplifier microphones in an effort to get the "ZZ Top sound" that Knopfler was after, guitar tech Ron Eve, who was in the control room, heard the amazing sound before Dorfsman was finished arranging the mics. "One mic was pointing down at the floor," Dorfsman remembered, "another was not quite on the speaker, another was somewhere else, and it wasn't how I would want to set things up—it was probably just left from the night before, when I'd been preparing things for the next day and had not really finished the setup."
What they heard was exactly what ended up on the record; no additional processing or effects were used during the mix. - Richard Buskin, Classic Tracks
Hey.... wanna donate toward my passion? I thank you kindly in advance.
For what it's worth, I went with the newer release which is a two-album version. There's not much loss in the transfer because the masters were recorded on a Sony 24-track digital tape machine. Of course there is a little inconvenience to burning through two-song album sides, but, I felt it was more important to listen to the songs as they were originally recorded, rather than the edited, shortened ones.
I was 21 years old when this album was released and at that time music on compact disc seemed like the end all-be all when it came to listening to our favorite releases. Who would have known that a generation later, music released on vinyl would make such a strong comeback?
In full disclosure, Brothers in Arms is probably the least interesting work by the band up to that point. Had it not been released in such a high quality format, and without the addition of Sting on Money for Nothing -- who was wildly popular as a solo artist at the time in his own right -- this album may have flopped. Still, it was my favorite CD that entire summer and is still a great nostalgic spin.
Were I the producer, I would have simply dropped the forgettable Walk of Life rather than releasing the vinyl with surgically reduced versions of the better songs. I'd be willing to bet that due to the somber overtones of the rest of the album, Warner Bros. may have insisted that the album include Walk of Life as a song they felt they could release as a single. Though Money for Nothing is a much stronger song -- and the video was insanely popular on MTV -- the label may have felt that eight minutes and change was just too long to garner consistent radio airplay.
For me, the purchase of this album is categorically tied to the memories attached to it. Turning 21 is a significant event in any young adult's life, and at the time the world seemed so much less tumultuous and complicated. I don't doubt that younger listeners still get into their cars and just drive all night listening to their favorite music, but in 1985 that was a rite of passage for most of us. In fact, I remember I'd leave my girlfriend's house most evenings and just before getting home I'd quickly detour to the highway and burn through this entire album before going home.
At that time there was nothing greater than listening to songs like Your Latest Trick, Money For Nothing, The Man's Too Strong and Why Worry while cruising up and down Lake Shore Drive: sunroof open, Alpine stereo blasting, the backdrop of Chicago's magnificent skyline and my favorite constellations serving as navigational beacons on my late night sojourn.
Best Songs: Money For Nothing, So Far Away, Your Latest Trick
A Deep Cut You'll Love: The Man's Too Strong
Odd but true: Brothers in Arms was the first CD I ever bought, having purchased it and my first CD player (a Sony CD-101) on the very day Warner Bros. released it. In fact, until now I have owned this album in every format but vinyl, though my cassette version was recorded from the original CD so I could listen in my car at the time, a 1983 Grand Prix that only had AM/FM/Cassette.
An interesting note about this album: During the recording of Money for Nothing, the signature sound of Knopfler's guitar may have been enhanced by a happy accident of microphone placement. Knopfler was using his Gibson Les Paul going through a Laney amplifier. While setting up the guitar amplifier microphones in an effort to get the "ZZ Top sound" that Knopfler was after, guitar tech Ron Eve, who was in the control room, heard the amazing sound before Dorfsman was finished arranging the mics. "One mic was pointing down at the floor," Dorfsman remembered, "another was not quite on the speaker, another was somewhere else, and it wasn't how I would want to set things up—it was probably just left from the night before, when I'd been preparing things for the next day and had not really finished the setup."
What they heard was exactly what ended up on the record; no additional processing or effects were used during the mix. - Richard Buskin, Classic Tracks
- Previous Review: Rickie Lee Jones (Eponymous Debut) by Rickie Lee Jones (1979)
- Up Next: The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle by Bruce Springsteen (1973)
Hey.... wanna donate toward my passion? I thank you kindly in advance.
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