No, nothing to do with Bruce Dickinson and the boys --- well, not this time. This is a new section wherein I'm going to examine and review the debut albums of bands and artistes. Could be a band or artiste who has gone on to greater things, could be one that failed utterly, could be one who never had a second album. In the case of the former, I'll be comparing how this album stacks up against their later work, and how, if at all, their debut presaged greatness --- or not! --- to come in the future.
We're starting off with this one, the self-titled debut from multi-platinum artiste Dire Straits.
Dire Straits --- Dire Straits --- 1978 (Vertigo)
Like so many other debut albums, this is self-titled and so perhaps shows a little lack of originality, but then again if you're an unknown band you probably want people to first and foremost know and remember your name, so sticking your band or own name on the title is not that bad a marketing ploy: hey, Peter Gabriel did it for four of his albums! Course, he was by then already established as an artiste in his own right, so that was more down to his own personal quirkiness than a desire to imprint his name forever on the consciousness of music lovers.
Still, it could be worse. Although they only exist in a novel I half-wrote, one band called their debut album “The comeback album: volume II”, which is about as full of dichotomies and confusion as you can get! So titling your album the same as your band is not, on the face of it, a bad idea. People are more likely to remember “Dire Straits by Dire Straits” (if only for the simple reason that they then only have to deal with one phrase) than they are to remember, say, “Morning sun by Dire Straits.”
But no matter what you call your album, it makes no difference at all if the music is not up to scratch. Now, we all know that Dire Straits went on to be huge, but what was their first effort like? Were there hints of the greatness to come, or was it, like Billy Joel's “Cold spring harbour”, a miracle that they even got to record a second? Let's look, as the Americans say, under the hood.
It starts off with “Down to the waterline”, introduced on moody synth before that what-would-become-iconic guitar sound cuts in, and the song gets rocking at a nice lick. Once you hear Mark Knopfler's voice, you know you're listening to something a little bit special. His laconic, almost offhand way of singing has become his trademark, so that you can hear his influence on any record he has a hand in, even if he doesn't take the vocals. His distinctive guitar style is also evident here, backed by his brother David, and sterling bass work from John Illsley, with Pick Withers completing the rhythm section behind the drumstool.
The cool, smooth guitar sound that has characterised so much of the Dire Straits music through the years continues on “Water of love”, with slight reggae overtones, its pace a little slower than the opener, and then “Setting me up” kicks up the level higher, with a sort of fifties-style mixed with elements of Bluegrass bopping along with some fine picked guitar, until “Six blade knife” slows everything down again, returning to the pace of “Water of love” and allowing Knopfler to really shine on the guitar.
“Southbound again” has a certain rockabilly feel to it, tapping up the tempo again a little, some great rhythm guitar work from Mark's younger brother David, really infectious beat. Then we're into the obvious standout, their big hit which took them to the commercial bigtime, it's of course the excellent “Sultans of swing”. Surely no more need be said about such a classic track? Definite clues as to how big this band was about to get in future years.
More little reggae influences on “In the gallery”, which personally I find a little overlong at six-minutes-plus: just seems to wander on and on without any real direction. Much better is “Wild West End”, with its banjo-like opening, its lazy, swaying, almost minstrel-like melody and its gentle rhythm. A definite runner-up for top track, as far as I'm concerned. The album closes on “Lions”, which I find to be something of a superfluous track: I would have been happy for it to end up on “Wild West End”.
As a debut, this album is not perfect, but then, few ever are. There are tracks that don't completely work, there are overlong tracks and tracks that might have been better omitted. But what does work is the incredible voice and guitar work of Mark Knopfler, and anyone could see from this album that he at least was going to be a star. Let's be brutally honest here: he dragged the rest of the band along on his coat-tails to fame. Mark Knopfler
was Dire Straits, in even more of a way than Freddie Mercury was Queen, or Phil Lynnot was Thin Lizzy, and the band could not have existed without him.
This is not an album that was going to set the world on fire. Few debuts are. But it was also not an album that made you think you would never hear of this band again. It set down certain markers, on tracks like “Wild West End”, “Down to the waterline” and “Water of love”, to say nothing of “Sultans of swing”, and definitely made you sit up and take notice. Sure, it suffers from sub-standard track, but what debut album does not?
“Dire Straits” was, if nothing more, a first salvo across the bows of the music world. The warning shots had been fired, and nothing could be done to prevent the barrage that was due to attack the charts over the next twenty years or so. Followup “Communique”, released the next year, would be successful but hardly set the charts alight. That would have to wait until 1982, when their fourth album, “Love over gold”, would produce the number two hit single “Private investigations”, as well as hosting the
fourteen-minute track “Telegraph Road”, leading to the album having a total of FIVE tracks!
In between this and “Communique” Dire Straits recorded “Making movies”, which yielded two songs which became very popular, if not chartworthy, in “Tunnel of love” and “Romeo and Juliet”. Of course, after 1985's “Brothers in arms” they could do no wrong.
It's always interesting to look back at how a great band started off their career, and I don't think the debut album here shows too many dissimilarities from any of the others. Of course, as they progressed, and technology became more advanced, usage of this resulted in Dire Straits' sound becoming more polished and professional, but it's nice to see that in the beginning, they were doing it the hard way, the tried and trusted way, the traditional way.
Sultans of swing, indeed.
TRACKLISTING
1. Down to the waterline
2. Water of love
3. Setting me up
4. Six blade knife
5. Southbound again
6. Sultans of swing
7. In the gallery
8. Wild West End
9. Lions
Suggested further listening: "Communique”, “Making movies”, “Love over gold”, “Brothers in arms”, “Alchemy” (double live)