The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK

[dmg]

It was definitely MFN for me.  Now let's see...  Ah yes, I was in a kitchen appliance store and there was a wall of TV's all tuned into MTV...

Actually my friends' brother was a big fan and had a tape on his Ghetto Blaster (remember them ) so we borrowed it and played MFN over and over again, especially the opening solo (playing the obligatory air guitar of course).  Well, we were only nine!

Then many years later at high school after not seeing this friend for a good number of years (due to him not being in any of my classes and living far away) came up to me and my friends in the playground and started talking, amongst other things about music.  He said "you'll never guess, but I used to like Dire Straits" then started laughing!  Of course my friends I was with knew I loved DS, but we all just smiled so as not to embarrass him.

[JF]

it was Walk of life, which I guess was a more big hit in France in 1985-1986 than MFN...
I guess MFN has become more popular later with the MFN comp

believe it or not, but at the time I love WOL, and listened to it for hours....
the song that maked me loving DS/MK is maybe the less knopflerish song...

[ingridswing]

10 years old, SOS 1978, at my uncles house (he plays guitar himself), he had the vinyl and played it.
I came home and told my mum I HAVE TO HAVE IT. She bought it for me and that was the start of a life long fan

[nababo]

I had already listened to Sultans of Swing and, oddly enough, The long Road, without knowing who was the master mind behind them.

Dire Straits came properly to my attention with the Brothers in Arms video, back in 1985, and I recall my older brother mocking at MK's voice everytime the video appeared in a tv show called "Clip clip"...

I felt definetively in love with DS when MfN was released, in december, 1988. I even remember that the compilation was sort of a Christmas fever here in Brazil, with TV ads and all.

So, my first album was MfN, and my first CD was On Every Street. A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

[The Privateer]

"Tunnel of Love" in 1980...

[TJ]

Sultans, 1978 or early '79, I was 8 years old.  My dad had a Triumph TR7 (he is a glutton for punishment) and I have a vivid memory of riding in that car with SOS on the radio.

[Love Expresso]

For me, it was just "Money For Nothing" - radio, MTV... but I remember more the SECOND song I ever heard - So Far Away - this song and especially the album version of it has a very special place in my heart...

LE

[Silvertown]

Nice memories everyone!

Silvertown

[vgonis]

it was Walk of life, which I guess was a more big hit in France in 1985-1986 than MFN...
I guess MFN has become more popular later with the MFN comp

believe it or not, but at the time I love WOL, and listened to it for hours....
the song that maked me loving DS/MK is maybe the less knopflerish song...

I totally agree with you JF. I was listening to MFN compilation in a battered Sanyo walkman, and the A side was sounding particularly English. I know now that DS sound is considered american from record 1 but maybe it was (and still is) the lyrics naming places in England/London and the sensitivity on some matters that usually Europeans/British people show in their music, that led me to think that these people are from the U.K. And then B side with WoL came as a surprise, with a sound so different that even though I have never seen a video by DS  I though, maybe they are Americans! (until 1991 I didn't have a TV and even if I had, the choices were 3 public channels, 12 hours a day and of course no Internet and very little money to buy the expensive rock magazines)

For me, it was just "Money For Nothing" - radio, MTV... but I remember more the SECOND song I ever heard - So Far Away - this song and especially the album version of it has a very special place in my heart...

LE

SFA is probably the only song (along with BiA and RATR) that I can listen with pleasure from BiA album. It was a big surprise for me when I later bought a 12'' single that the track had several minutes more that the LP edition. But those who had the CD edition, they had the extended versions of all songs from the beginning.

[flinn75]

It was Down to the waterline in 1988. Riding on a bus a friend gave his headphones (Walkman!) to me.. The impression is burnt in my memory and I will never ever forget these first notes.. I copied his tape of the first album and bought Brothers in arms soon afterwards.

[sweetsurrender]

It was SOS that did it for me early 80's. I remembered vividly like yesterday. I came home from school, heard SOS on radio I believed it was from Alchemy. Time completely stood still for me, I thought I had an out of body experience or was abducted by an alien or sometihing.  I was oblivious to everything else around me.  Frozen in time. All I heard was this incredible song with such mind blowing guitar sound and MK's voice.  I fell in love with the song instantly.  And the rest is history.  DS/MK has transformed me completely to say the least.  That's why I have such a strong attachment to Alchemy. It's the first I ever owned in cassette tape which I still have.

[Love Expresso]

Sweetsurrender, I can understand perfectly well what you mean. For me, it was a cassette with Alchemy, too. It was recorded by some friends (my sister's schoolmates or something) and put onto 60 min. cassettes... I remember a lot of cuts. Private Investigations for example was cut right in the middle beofre the bass part starts... and I never heard the finale of Tunnel Of Love until I got the CDs 5 years later!!!!!

And Mark's voice on Alchemy is really very special... I don't know how to describe it, you did it pretty well - the dialect (stronger than usual in my opinion, espcially on Sultans Of Swing), the way he twangs (or singing "through his nose"), and the energy in the voice AND guitar... really...

I can say that Mark put in words perfect when he talks about "Live At The Regal" what also counts for me and Alchemy:
"It was a revelation to me. There was a sort of a triangle between the voice, the guitar and the audience."

I think I will listen to it in a minute...

LE

[Hophead]

SOS...in 1979...driving my '71 Mustang with a couple friends in the car when it came on the radio. By the end of the song..we all looked at each other with that 'who the hell are these guys!' expression. Within two days all three of us each had the first album in our clutches. 

[El Macho]

It was So Far Away because it

[sweetsurrender]

SOS...in 1979...driving my '71 Mustang with a couple friends in the car when it came on the radio. By the end of the song..we all looked at each other with that 'who the hell are these guys!' expression. Within two days all three of us each had the first album in our clutches. 

hophead,

I really like your story. I could visualize in my head. Now, just curious, are your 2 friends still big fans of MK?