I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard 'Sultans of Swing.' In a car passing a ploughed field outside the Yorkshire village of Drighlington near Bradford, on my way for a weekend in London with my cousins. It was March 1979, and when we got to London, this song was pouring out of every pub, cafe and shop It was the soundtrack of that whole weekend. For a while, I thought that Dire Straits were American, until I heard Tunnel of Love, where they sing about Whitley Bay and the Spanish City funfair. Having other family in the North East, I used to go to the Spanish City with my Geordie cousins in the 1960s. Before the start of Radio One, fairgrounds were one of the few places you could hear the latest pop and rock music. Of course, I have been a great fan of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler ever since and I'm 73 now. Great memories!
Graduated high school in 1979 🎸 I remember this gorgeous tune was all over the radio the fall of 78. Never knew that those guys could barely pay the gas man when this gem was written. This was an awesome history lesson. Ta Very Much! 🇬🇧
When I was a kid listening to songs I didn't fully understand on the radio in the late '70s I just instinctively knew that Sultans of Swing and Walk on the Wild Side were two of the coolest songs I ever heard and possibly ever would hear
I always smile when I hear the line "Way down South, London Town". I don't think you could ever really get the full irony unless you knew South London.
Dutchie here: As phonogram was a Dutch lable owned by Phillips, the first time Sultans came out was as a 7"single in the Netherlands (Vertigo 6059 206). It was a different version and based on the original Pathway demo.
I was listening to that song not too long ago, and though I've heard it ever since it was released (yes, I'm that old) I was knocked out by how assured and masterful the playing sounds. It's so hard to believe that this was their debut single from their very first record. They sound like complete pros. Great, great song.
You missed a nice bit of trivia. He named the two players Harry and George after Harry Vanda and George Young - the rhythm section and songwriters of Aussie band The Easybeats (Friday on my Mind). They later became major producers in Australia and produced the first few albums of George’s younger brothers, Angus and Malcom band - AC/DC. They also wrote and produced John Paul Young’s Love is in the Air. And they also had chart success with their alter-egos Flash and the Pan - Waiting on a train.
After an interview I saw with David Knopfler, I suspect 'Harry' was actually Harry Bogdanovs, who made his own impact in Australia. He was the songwriter of "Pressure Down", a single and opening track on John Farnham's "Whispering Jack", still one of Australia's best-selling albums.
Yep. Rick Beato has had quite a few of his videos blocked because he played a small section of audio, ridiculous! Some videos on YT take an absolute age to put together. Bloody shame.
I suspect Knopfler’s story reflects an amalgam of memories, ideas, and daydreams. So there may not be a real “Sultans of Swing,” but of course there is, too.
You also have to describe the specific situation of the 2nd half of the 1970's, with on the one hand the disco craze and on the other hand punk. For people hoping for something else, the arrival of Dire Straits was a present from heaven. It filled an enormous gap for people wanting to hear something else (for a while) than dancing music à la Chic or Bee Gees, and who got "not exactly" a high esteem or admiration for the deliberately un-musical punkers. To me, this first record has never been surpassed by the band, it remains my favorite one, second, the one with Private Investigations, third the one with Lady Writer.
@Retroscoop I remember back then thinking Van Halen had saved rock and roll. The B-52s (Rock Lobster), along with Blonde- Rapture (with rap lyrics), Cheap Trick tunes, Abba, and so many more.
This is close . My uncle Harry Holbird played piano in a swing band in Deptford my uncle Tom played drums . The Admiral Ben Bow pub They played ok . Harry's big gig was to play for Tony Bennet at the Albert Hall . Bennett pianist didn't have a work permit so they asked Harry to step in.
Back when there was a thing called radio....the song played right as I was arriving at my flat. I immediately went in and called the radio station to find out the name. Bought the LP next day. Still a fan. While I love the first album, Brothers in Arms is one of finest pieces of music ever and one of the best sounding albums ever recorded. (although I never liked Money for Nothing despite it being their biggest hit)
One Sunday back in 1977 I was chilling out on the beach at Sandwich Bay in E Kent with my cousin listening as we always did to the radio show 'Honky Tonk' on LBC when Charlie Gillette played Sultans of Swing for the first time. That moment is still etched on my mind some 50+ years later!
🥰The demo version of 'Sultans Of Swing' sounds even better than the re-recorded album version!🧡It is raw, unpolished and kind of edgy that makes me want to listen to it over & over again.💖
Simple ? It's not simple. Bluesy ? It's not Blusey. It's a standard "Gypsy" chord progression, Dm C Bb A7 followed by a Countryish F C Bb C Dm. When I first heard this I Bb thought it was Bob Dylan with a hot guitar player (maybe Albert Lee). The fills/solos are one of the best solos of all time. Knopfler, had to play those fills, live (while he sang lead) whichnis no easy task. He ended up doing the B.B. King thing (singing while doing his own fills).I guess he must've practiced it for hours & hours.
I was hanging out in a coffee shop which hosted, bluegrass, folk, jazz, various types of rock. Every body who played there immediately worked on learning this song. Even people who were never going to play it live - they wanted to know how to play Guitar George's chords! A country song, about jazz music, played by a rock band!
I was living in Holland when it came out. It was everywhere. In all the bars and clubs in The Hague. Magic days.....that whole album was great. 'Sultans' is still my favourite track.
I arrived in Sicily May 6th of 78. Dire Straits was playing along with other good groups whilst I was there until my departure on August 12th, 1981, the same day as one of the band members birthday. Dire Straits songs were so good and fit in so well that I thought the music the band played had been influenced by them having a stay in Sicily. Taormina in Sicily turned out to be a place that was very special to the guy who wore headbands from sweating. Something else that went on August of 78 in Malta was that the place was playing nonstop Elvis music marking the 1st anniversary of his death. Also it may have been the summer of hearing "Funkytown" everywhere in the tourist seaside sunshine areas.
The demo was recorded at Pathway Studios in Islington which I was using in the mid 80’s, it had a great reputation even though it was only 8 track and a lot of well known bands were using it
GREAT work Sir ! I Absolutely remember the first time I heard this song all those years ago, I knew it was a very special tune. Unbelieveable guitar work !!
In the 1980s we went on holiday to Yugoslavia (present day Croatia) It was a communist country and although it was lovely, life was very basic and non-western. The hotel was very "soviet" but there was a beach bar next door to the hotel. The played Sultans of Swing back to back all day every day. Turned out it was the only song they had. We became friendly with the bar owner and loaned him some other cassettes that we had taken with us. We left them with him when we left.
Always assumed the same thing that they were called that name but if you were listening to the story I'm not sure why you say this still because knoffler was just saying that was an offhand remark at the end of the night he didn't actually say that was the name of the band. I took it he meant that was how the bandleader described his band.
I have heard this story about the "real" Sultans of Swing in various versions, but it always comes down to: why haven't they never come out? One of the possible reasons could have been that they were indeed so mediocre that they didn't want anybody to know the song was about them. But what struck me more was: the pub owner never took to publicly announcing that one of the greatest pop/rock songs ever was about a band playing in HIS pub. He, as well as the pub, would have been world famous at the spot, and no reason to be ashamed for the poor quality of the band. But, unto this day, no pub owner ever stated that Sultans of Swing was about a band performing in his pub. Maybe Mr Knopfler could shed a light on this?
On it's first release it was on The old grey whistle test. I Loved it immediately and bought the album. I Expected it to be a massive hit And It went nowhere. I Remember playing the song to any of my mates that came round ,for about a year. They All loved it. And About a year later it took off. I saw them live in Edinburgh On the Making Movies tour. They were brilliant The Next morning my flatmate was banging on my door. I Thought it was about the concert No He was knocking on my door to tell me John Lennon had been shot. At The concert the night before There had been a radio one interview with lennon and before the gig,that's all anybody was talking about. So The two are forever intertwined with me! 😻🏴
@neildwmcfarlane3402 I was down in Sicily when John Lennon was killed, I then went to visit London as it mourned. I was drinking in a pub with a British World War 2 veteran who said he didn't understand what all the big fuss was about. I was passing through Germany when news came in that American actor John Wayne had died. I witnessed young people that normally may have made fun of him being somewhat shocked and at a loss for words.
I knew the band he was singing about - once passed the clarinettist at London Bridge station on his way home from the day job. My memory is that they were actually quite good.
I don’t think so. I’m racking my brains - they alternated weekends with a band called the Southern Stompers at the pub by the south side of the Blackwall Tunnel. Early 1960s - a few years later John Mayall and Manfred Mann were playing at the Green Man on Blackheath Hill a couple of miles away.
There's nothing in the lyrics to suggest that Knopfler thought of the Sultans as mediocre; quite the opposite if anything. He even gives them an excuse for playing to a virtually empty pub: "Competition in other places...", and jazz isn't exactly mainstream. What tickled him was the way they addressed their "audience" as if they were playing Wembley stadium.
The song is almost 50 years old Whilst it was important when the song came out that the band that inspired the song remained nameless I think now some effort should be made to track them down & the pub they were playing in After all the band name inspired the song Plus some of their stage quotes are in the song
The best bands I ever heard were unknown bands that stayed that way. Ever heard of the Coyote Kings? Maybe the Slow Rollers? Probably not. My favorite bands are bands that never quite made the big time. Never became household names. The Replacements, and The Del Fuegos, for example.
Seeing bands before becoming big is enjoyable also. Ted Nugent played the high school prom in Bad Axe, Michigan. I saw Rush perform in the Harbor Beach High School Gym in Michigan. My sister watched Bob Seger play in bars. A movie called "The Replacements" with Keanu Reeves is quite good. The Replacements and other musical entertainment as you have mentioned must have sounded quite good and special.
@@John-isAround I've never seen a good Keanu Reeves movie. The Replacements are not connected in any way. My oldest sister lived in Illinois back in the 70s. REO speedwagon played bars around where she lived a lot. My youngest sister saw Kansas play at a senior prom, before they were known anywhere. Seeing Nugent at a prom had to be a shock to any parents there. I did sound for the Coyote Kings and the Slow Rollers. Both bands really knew how to entertain a crowd. The Slow Rollers became the Rowdy James band. Rowdy James, AKA James Pomeroy, was an amazing front man. RIP Rowdy. We miss you.
@onusgumboot5565 Thanks for responding, I'm heading to a Libertyville Illinois football game. That's where actor Marlon Brando was fired from his job in the movie theater. Point Break with Keanu is a great movie and soundtrack. A legendary Cheap Trick guitar player visited Lake Bluff and guitar players lined up to get their guitars autographed. The Doobie Brothers performed in Guam when I saw them. The Grateful Dead, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, California.
The album version was recorded in February 1978. But there's also a UK single version that was recorded in April 1978: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-L4zjKd9Y35k.html
Sultans of Swing does NOT represent Dire Straits. Don't know the exact circumstances but it DOES sound like the name of a Jazz band. Don't know if the band was good or not but that's a GREAT name.
Savile was a Yorkshireman, and sounded nothing like this. Also his verbal idiosyncrasies made him even less like Music Mongoose, and distinctive even from other Yorkshiremen.
So lame that Bob Dylan immediately employed Knopfler and Pick Withers to play on his upcoming Slow Train Coming album. But of course, unlike you, Bob Dylan couldn't recognise musicianship.
