Dire Straits (album)
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| Dire Straits | |||||
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| Studio album by Dire Straits | |||||
| Released | July 1978 | ||||
| Recorded | February 1978 at Basing Street Studios, London | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 41:34 | ||||
| Label | Vertigo Records Warner Bros. Records (US) |
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| Producer | Muff Winwood | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
| Dire Straits chronology | |||||
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Dire Straits is the self-titled debut album by British rock band Dire Straits, released in 1978 (see 1978 in music). The album's opening track, "Down to the Waterline", marks a confident and musically assured start to the album with its striking introduction, and the album, on release, was also noted for the single "Sultans of Swing", which at first broke a US Top Five early 1979 (being a hit full five months after the album was released there) and then raised up at #8 in the British charts. The album was remastered and released with the rest of the Dire Straits catalogue in 1996 for most of the world outside the U.S. and on September 19, 2000 in the United States. The cover image is taken from a painting by Chuck Loyola, while the famous Dire Straits Fender icon was designed by Geoff Halpern, latterly of design consultants Halpern Grey Vermeer.
[edit] Track listing
All songs written by Mark Knopfler.
- "Down to the Waterline" – 3:55
- "Water of Love" – 5:23
- "Setting Me Up" – 3:18
- "Six Blade Knife" – 4:10
- "Southbound Again" – 2:58
- "Sultans of Swing" – 5:47
- "In the Gallery" – 6:16
- "Wild West End" – 4:42
- "Lions" – 5:05
The original version of the album contained a slightly shorter version of "Sultans of Swing", omitting the last seconds of the guitar solo at the end of the song, but the full-length version was included on the remastered edition of the album.
Cassette versions of the album often featured the sides in reverse order to the original vinyl album: side 'A' comprised Tracks 6 through 9, while side 'B' featured Tracks 1 through 5.
[edit] Personnel
- Mark Knopfler – lead vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar
- John Illsley – bass, backing vocals
- David Knopfler – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Pick Withers – drums
[edit] Production
- Muff Winwood – production
- Rhett Davies – engineer
- Gregg Geller and Bob Ludwig – remastering
- Jo Motta – project coordinator
- Alan Schmidt – art direction
[edit] Charts
[edit] Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
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| 1979 | Billboard Pop Albums | 2 |
[edit] Singles
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
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| 1979 | "Sultans of Swing" | Billboard Pop Singles | 4 |
[edit] Notes
Country band Highway 101 later covered "Setting Me Up", taking it to the top ten on the U.S. country singles charts in 1990.
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