Poll--The Weakest Link: Dire Straits DIRE STRAITS (1st album), Round 1

It ain't what they call Rock and Roll....................


Hi everyone. This week, we're going to run Dire Straits' 1978 debut album. This was an album good enough to help them pay their rent. We're going to start off voting off two songs. Vote your first two weakest links.

Discussion question: When did you first hear this album, and what was your initial opinion of it?

 

I first heard it when released. My opinion was that it was a Springsteen rip off without piano. I liked it though.

 

"Setting" and "Southbound" to go.
Can't recall when I first heard the album (probably college in the mid 80s), but I remember being enthralled when I heard "Sultans" on the radio when it hit in '78.

 

It's a tremendous album, that's for sure. Not going to be easy to whittle it down. Might go with the last two tracks - Wild West End & Lions. Still good songs though.

I remember enjoying a lot of Dire Straits singles back in the day but it was the late Eighties, I think, before I heard an album. I started with Love Over Gold, moved forward to Brothers In Arms and then eventually made my way to the debut via Making Movies, all courtesy of my local record library. My first thoughts were that it lacked the dynamism of MM, the melodrama of LOG and the pop melodies of BIA. Obviously, it grew on me eventually.

 

What an impressively solid album. Being born in 85, I've been familiar with DS and the hits all my life, but the first time I got to hear the whole thing might have been around 2006 when I was digging deeper on DS discography. I thought it was incredibly solid albeit a bit samey, which I still do. I'm a Love Over Gold man, but the S/T comes right behind.

Oh and I chose Southbound and Setting Me Up, but the album is so solid that I really could chose almost anything else - Except for the opener and Sultans which are a tad above the rest.

 

I don’t remember the first time I heard Dire Straits but I would guess it would have been around the beginning of my senior year of high school. I definitely liked “Sultans of Swing” by that point but I don’t think I liked the album the first time. The other songs didn’t make that much of an impression on me initially.

 

My first impression of the album back when I was a teenager was "this is a little bit boring".
Later I liked it more

 

First heard on 8track and thought it was very fresh. I don't get the Springsteen comparisons. So unique and accomplished to come from out of nowhere. Very difficult to eliminate any.

 

I owned this album not too long after it came out but didn't hear it immediately.

My wife bought me the CD as a present but it was the very first CD I ever owned and ... I didn't have a machine to play it on!

I think it was her way of saying that I had her blessing to go out and buy a CD player.

I've always thought it was a nice album but not a classic. I'm going to take the time to listen to the lyrics more closely because there are often hidden gems in there.

 

Voted off Southbound again and Setting Me Up.

Bought it when it came out, like a breath of fresh air. In hindsight Knopfler was trying to sound to much like Dylan and Springsteen. He didn't really find his voice until On Every Street album.

 

"Southbound Again" and "Setting Me Up" to go in round 1.

First heard the album in the mid-eighties.
Liked it immediately: a stripped down, spare and minimalist sound, mixed with a fine dose of melancholy, very low-key overall, slightly dipping into jazz and country.
This sound was still prevalent on "Communiqué", although not as laid-back as on "Dire Straits". With the addition of keyboards and the more prominent role that these keyboards started playing on "Making Movies", the Dire Straits had lost their magic for me.

 

15 years ago? Whenever I started to become a target CD collector and grabbed a copy of that pressing.

I already owned a few other DS albums previously - "Love Over Gold", "BIA" and "Alchemy" - and liked them, so I don't know why I didn't get the debut earlier.

I enjoyed it, but apparently not enough to be intimately acquainted with it, as I didn't recognize like half of these songs just based on titles!

 

Setting and Southbound for me. Kinda surprised to see so may votes for Lions, which for me is a fantastic song.

jeff

 

No really weak links here, but I picked "Lions" and "Southbound Again".

I think bought the LP when I was a senior in high school, circa 1985. Liked it, but mainly for "Sultans". Didn't appreciate its full awesomeness for a few years.

 

Lions and Southbound. This is my least favorite DS album and these are the bottom of the bottom in my opinion.

 

Lions and Setting Me Up I votes

 

Great album. First heard it back in the early '80s and have always loved it. Probably my favourite of theirs, although all of their albums are different.

Hardly a weak link, but voting off: Lions and Water of Love.

 

“Setting” and “Southbound”........both sound a little too similar. I suppose I’m surprised at “Lions”.......really like it.

DQ: I knew the hit song from top 40 radio in 1979, liked it, but left it there. I didn’t really start buying any of their albums until CDs in the 80s. I liked this album right away......”Wild West End” in particular.

 

With the others here....Setting Me Up and Southbound are first to go.

 

Springsteen, really? Some of these songs sound just like JJ Cale. But luckily the guitar work blows all the others out of the water. Eight people voted to eliminate In The Gallery which is the best song on the album, imo.

 

When I first heard them on the radio, I thought the name of the band was Sultans of Swing. Bought it pretty soon after, and I still play it a lot. I remember the CD's version of Sultans cut down the outro solo. Boo. I find my self responding to "How's it going?" with "I got a daytime job. I'm doing alright."

Greasy greasy hair, greasy smile, she made me feel nineteen for awhile.

 

I do feel Springsteen influence on side 1 of Making Movies.......”Tunnel of Love” and “Romeo & Juliet.” Never thought of him on this album.

 

Maybe that's why Making Movies never did much for me? Although I do like Skateaway.

 

Blimey, I can’t see the Springsteen comparison at all..... But that’s what great about music isn’t it, everyone hears and feels it differently

I probably only got the album in the 90’s when I was in my 20’s, but I was always aware of Sultans Of Swing since it first came out..... Even as a little one i enjoyed that tune.

 

Lions, West. Like a breath of fresh air when it came out. Has aged well, IMO