Dire Straits Brothers In Arms, My Earliest Music Memories, and the Genius of Mark Knopfler

If you are a child of the 80's then you cannot help but know the distinctive sound of Dire Straits. It was a sound that, whether you like it or not, almost certainly acted as soundtrack to our early years as they played out. I wouldn't say that I'm one of the few that is proud of that, but I am one of the fortunate ones to love Mark Knopfler and the sounds that Dire Straits created. I mean, who on earth can help but play air-guitar and stamp their feet to the sound of Money For Nothing? Who can deny that this guitar riff to end all guitar riffs would have foretold the fortunes of our technology swamped generation? And how fitting that this group, who were one of the very few at that time who refused to court celebrity, would rocket skywards past all of the fake, image-conscious pop-crap into the annals of rock-legend history. Brothers In Arms was nominated this year as a contender for The Brits Greatest Album Ever - I spotted it there with at least one other decent nomination (Sade's Diamond Life) - and I was so glad that it got nowhere near winning. It is so much better, and so much more important than that. It is a record that defines the rare minority of albums in the 80's that maintained some artistic dignity. So Liam, if you can put time aside from being a complete wanker and go fetch you Brit, do me a favour and stick it so far up your arse it bursts your vocal chords. Then we can get on with rating some proper records.

I'm very sorry about that on two counts. Firstly, my terrible attempt at French. Secondly, for even alluding to Oasis in a Dire Straits review. If Knopfler was Manchester United, Noel Gallagher would be mid-table in the Unibond League. That would make Liam a substitute for Hesketh Casuals fourth team. Look, I'm at it again.

So, Brothers In Arms. Not just an album, but a package so important in the history of music that it is one of the very few capable of surviving Armageddon. The cover in itself is legendary - the steel guitar, a fixture of my imagination for years, so recognisable that it is useless using in a pub quiz. In fact, after collecting rather large amounts of cash from friends and relatives on my 21st birthday, I rushed out to Dawsons in Liverpool to purchase an exact replica, which has still yet to feature in any of my gigs since I prefer to stare at it than actually play it. The fact that it is rising through the clouds on the cover is, with hindsight, uncannily prophetic, since Brothers In Arms would catapult Dire Straits to massive global acclaim. It stormed the barricades of popular taste, smashed records across all continents, and became the biggest selling album in UK history.

It begins with the dreamy So Far Away; "Here I am again in this mean old town/And you're so far away from me." A simple idea, dangerously straight forward lyrics, and lucid guitar upon a smooth keyboard, which produces nothing short of blistering results. Money For Nothing, featuring co-writer Sting, will forever be deemed a landmark in guitar playing. It is mechanical, metallic, but searing in every way. "I want my MTV," the somewhat prophetic statement that would define the emerging generation, is one of the most recognisable lyrics in music history, and rightly so. Walk Of Life still reminds me of a glorious, hot summers day back in the 80's as I danced care-free to Knopfler's boogie-woogie. We're not talking high-art here; as a track, it is what it is. Feel good, well-crafted pop-rock.

Your Latest Trick, Knopfler's beautiful, saxophone-soaked epic, is a fabulous late night tale of blues, loneliness and seediness. Musically it is perfect; the sax is soft and warm, the guitar creeps in in all the right places, the drums subtle, and the bass dramatic. Guy Fletcher's keyboards, as always, are instinctively brilliant. When Knopfler grumbles: "All the late night bargains have been struck/Between the satin beaus and their belles/And prehistoric garbage trucks/Have the city to themselves," you can feel the sadness, the emptiness, the disillusion with the city. A very evocative song indeed. Why Worry, a pastoral, atmospheric gallivant into spring is a charming and fragrant tune demonstrating Knopfler's delicate guitar playing and sensitive lyric writing. It ends with an exquisite instrumental, typical of the album's surety. Ride Across The River, in contrast, is in your face; political ("I'm a soldier of freedom in the army of man/We are the chosen, we're the partisan"), and musically rather intense, it is the sort of statement that Knopfler would make more often later in his career.

The Man's Too Strong - the album's hidden treasure, is testament to Neil Dorfsman's production skills. A thumping acoustic number with a dramatic chorus, it is, in my opinion, one of Knopfler's finest ever songs. One World picks up the tempo nicely before the masterpiece that is Brothers In Arms; a defiantly untriumphant wash of moody keyboards and achy guitar. Its sentiment runs deep, and its power meteoric. An achievement of the highest order, and a song that Knopfler has lived in the shadow of ever since. When I saw him perform this in its extended entirety at Manchester's MEN Arena back in 2001, you could have heard a pin drop. It was that moving.

Mark Knopfler is a British song-writing treasure, he really is. His solo career has been every inch as exciting as his time with Dire Straits, and who is to say a reunion isn't possible? If they were to take Brothers In Arms out on the road one more time I have no doubt that they would conquer the world once again.