Who is the Nineties (or Noughties) Dire Straits

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Do Dire Straits have a nineties or noughties equivalent? They were considered mature rock for the middle classes, were oh-so-important, Jenny Powell told us on No Limits that "one in ten households own a copy of Brothers in Arms", they don't get played much on the radio these days (except perhaps on gold stations I don't listen to). In 1985 and 1986 you just couldn't escape them, but they definitely weren't for the kids.....

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 10:27 (twenty-three years ago)

....that said, a lot of kids at my school liked them. Oh the agony...

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 10:27 (twenty-three years ago)

I hear David Gray has a new album out.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 10:29 (twenty-three years ago)

The new Mark Knopfler album is at #7 this week. Ver Straits still get played on Radio 2, particularly on Saturdays.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 10:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Dire Straits are great, and you know it.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 10:36 (twenty-three years ago)

All joking aside, but their debut album probably says more about what life was really like in late 70s Britain than the vast majority of punk records. Knopfler was a pretty acute lyricist. And Tunnel Of Love from 1980 is one of the great love songs really. I'll get slaughtered here for this but put away the prejudices and give them a listen.

― David Gunnip, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 10:40 (twenty-three years ago)

No they're not. No I don't. And it's only my word against yours.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i do like 'Money For Nothing' but thats it

coincidentally, Mark Knopfler has a new album out (shudder)

― blueski, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Did Mark Knopfler collaborate with Scott Walker at some point? I might be wrong but I'm sure I read something about it.

― tacit (tacit), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:03 (twenty-three years ago)

when i was a child i thought that "your latest trick" was just about the saddest song ever sung.

― michael wells (michael w.), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:05 (twenty-three years ago)

He is on "Climate of Hunter," final track - just his acoustic guitar and SW's vocals doing a cover of Tennessee Williams' "Blanket Roll Blues."

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:15 (twenty-three years ago)

I used to fall asleep to Brothers in Arms back in 1985 or when was it. And the album played on repeat all night long. I haven't listened to it till then. But I'll probably still like it. As far as I remember that album is very consistent and has a nice flow. Hardly any awful tracks on it.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:22 (twenty-three years ago)

re orig. question:

in the first half of the 90s it looked like it would be Simply Red

by the end of the 90s the equiv. in fact turned out to be Celine Dion

― zebedeez, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm stumped.

― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:32 (twenty-three years ago)

REM? U2?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Dido - bland, pointless and in every home.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Travis???

― Graham (graham), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:51 (twenty-three years ago)

REM and U2 had more good material than Dire Straits. And maintain their popularity more than DS did.

― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 11:52 (twenty-three years ago)

The reason why anyone should perceive U2 as anything other than mind-bogglingly average has continued to elude me from the first time I saw them supporting Delta 5 in 1980.

It would be tempting to say Paul Weller was the '90's Mark Knopfler were in not for the fact that he's very clearly the '90's Eric Clapton.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Are Radiohead the '90's Pink Floyd?
Are Manic Street Preachers the '90's Genesis?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:11 (twenty-three years ago)

The Noughties' Dire Straits? Travis, Coldplay, The Coral and all those bloody 'indie' bands that are currently doing the rounds

― Jason Weaver, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually, the correct answer is the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:45 (twenty-three years ago)

RHCP is too funkish.

― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:48 (twenty-three years ago)

But surely the Red Hot Chilli Peppers are the '90's Thin Lizzy?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Dire Straits? hmm.. it depends whether you take cultural shifts into account.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Oasis perhaps? 'Whats the Story, Morning Glory' as 90's 'Brothers in Arms'.

― stevo (stevo), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:54 (twenty-three years ago)

Pearl Jam

― dleone (dleone), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 12:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Dire Straits? hmm.. it depends whether you take cultural shifts into account.

Are baggie and Britpop the cultural shifts to which you refer? So that ppl of an age-group and social setting who would previously had been into bands like Dire Straits would listen to indie (in a broad sense) instead?

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Aren't Pearl Jam the '90's Motorhead?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, I guess Mark. And just the march of pop history. Latter day Oasis might be like Dire Straits in terms of the demographics of their audience (though I'm not even sure about this) purchase, but they're nothing like them in terms of their roots, vision or.. the *way* their fans appreciate them.

That's why all these kind of questions are much harder to answer than the 'oh, just pick the latest 12 CD-owning person's fave' answers tend to take them.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:11 (twenty-three years ago)

My vote here is on Enya, actually: it's got this sheen of intellectual important, it's so polished from a production standpoint that a lot of the fans point to that before the point to the music itself, and it was bought by roughly the same demographic, I'm guessing. Plus, don't forget Enya's cover version of "Walk of Life".

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:16 (twenty-three years ago)

But Enya = the sound of 1988?

I like Dire Straits.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:22 (twenty-three years ago)

DBL answer; i have a mate who's addicted to fruit machines who blazes da Straits and Queen in his Escort.

― sf, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:25 (twenty-three years ago)

".... ppl of an age-group and social setting who would previously had been into bands like Dire Straits would listen to indie (in a broad sense) instead?"

I don't believe so. As I recall, people who were into Dire Straits in the '80's weren't really into any particular musical scene, they just wanted something that was current enough to make them look interesting without being either demanding or threatening - the aural equivalent of one of those nice shiny books that they liked to display on their Habitat coffee tables but had no intention of ever actually reading reading.

Their slightly racier younger brothers were generally into Level 42.

Oasis are bland enough in content but FAR too likely to do or say something embarrasing.

I think this means that we need to think of the music that is currently being listened to by the sort of people whose slightly racier younger brothers are currently into Robbie Williams.

Oh and could Norah Jones possibly be the new Sade?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:25 (twenty-three years ago)

I guess Enya got her first taste of success in 1988 with Watermark, but the two after that continued her success with the Dire Straits crowd...and also maintained a healthy Straits-like gap between latter albums.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Mark Knopfler is one of the few guitarists with a distinctive original sound, so it has to be a guitar band. The Straits were ubiquitous in the 80s so we need a band which achieves this for the 90s. Melody is an important ingredient of the Straits music.

I'd say if Nirvana had lasted longer, esp. further developing the Unplugged sound, it would have been them.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 13:45 (twenty-three years ago)

...and you will roast in hell for saying that, Alex.

I think this means that we need to think of the music that is currently being listened to by the sort of people whose slightly racier younger brothers are currently into Robbie Williams.

Them much as I love his earlier stuff, it's gotta be David Gray.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 14:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Moby

― Marcel Post (Marcel Post), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 14:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, definitely Moby

― Jason Weaver, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 14:39 (twenty-three years ago)

Good name for an album, that, 'Definitely Moby'

― Jason Weaver, Wednesday, 9 October 2002 14:42 (twenty-three years ago)

It's genius!

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 14:46 (twenty-three years ago)

...and you will roast in hell for saying that, Alex.
I will in roast in hell anyways I guess no matter what I write on ILM. But seriously all suggestions up to now have been less than convincing. Except one...

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 14:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Mark Knopfler is one of the few guitarists with a distinctive original sound

I agree with this whole-heartedly. I was talking to my dad about Knopfler the other night (he and I both love the self-titled album and "Wild West End" in particular), and my father proposed that Knopfler was one of maybe 10 guitarists around today whose style is so distinctive that you could tell it was him within a few notes. And I had to agree.

Also, don't forget his albums with Chet Atkins. Neck and Neck is fantastic.

That said, I have no idea who to nominate for the modern Dire Straits. Because the popular rock bands of the past decade have all been so dour... Dire Straits was always so upbeat, which was largely the point, I thought. Maybe the Black Crowes? You have the quarelling sibling there too, you know.

― Yancey (ystrickler), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 15:20 (twenty-three years ago)

The Strokes

― Kris (aqueduct), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 15:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Kris, we are looking for a band flourishing in the 90s. Casablanca was probably still wetting his pants in 1990.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 15:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Noughties means the 00s.

― Kris (aqueduct), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 16:13 (twenty-three years ago)

On the album sales, that's the Beautiful South, that is.

Noughties looks disturbingly like being Nickelback.

― Mr Swygart (mrswygart), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 17:14 (twenty-three years ago)

amazing that it took so long for someone to mention the Beautiful South: they were *precisely* the band that came into my mind. The only ridiculous statistic about absurdly-high-percentage-of-population-owns-album I really remember from the 90s concerned their greatest hits. Also they suffered a big commercial decline at the start of the '00s, just as Dire Straits' early 90s comeback album stiffed.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Wednesday, 9 October 2002 18:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh, but their style is so much more down to earth. Heaton (I just wrote Hooton!) is hardly Knopfler. And they have indie roots. I don't think it's the same kind of people buying them.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 11:34 (twenty-three years ago)

Are Texas the '90's Eurythmics?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 10 October 2002 11:47 (twenty-three years ago)

No - the Eurythmics were arty.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 10 October 2002 11:55 (twenty-three years ago)

I think that the exact note of the Dire Straits is that they were a safe choice, but if you challenged someone on them, they could go "yes, but check out the QUALITY guitarwork". In which case The Beautiful South is a great choice, as dry wit was the guitarwork of the 90s.

I think Quench actually knocked Fatboy Slim's You've Come a Long Way off the number one spot when it came out (hoho).

I don't think you can have a Dire Straits these days: You'd have to convince a the majority of people that good guitaring was a selling point. The world has moved on (or round)

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 10 October 2002 14:38 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't think you can have a Dire Straits these days: You'd have to convince a the majority of people that good guitaring was a selling point. The world has moved on (or round)

Haha, meet the new boss, same as the old boss- 00's equivalent of good guitaring = "he's got a good flow". So what we need basically is a "safe" inoffensive rapper with mad rhyming skillz- I nominate J-Live (NB: I like J-Live. And Dire Straits.)

Are Manic Street Preachers the '90's Genesis?

No, they're the 90's The Alarm.

Are Radiohead the '90's Pink Floyd?

Probably ("OK Computer" certainly is the 90's equivalent of "The Wall"), but they lack a Syd Barret.

As fer Pearl Jam, The Black Crowes and Nickleback- their audiences are/were mainly young people (never seen a copy of "Ten" or "Silver Side Up" lying around in any of my yuppie relative's houses) and American (never met an European over 35 years old that even knows who Pearl Jam *are*!) Thus they do not qualify.

― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 10 October 2002 21:57 (twenty-three years ago)

What about the Dave Matthews Band? They strike a similar chord of blandness and Pottery Barn "quality."

(That said, I like Dire Straits and hate DMB.)

― Jody Beth Rosen, Thursday, 10 October 2002 22:58 (twenty-three years ago)

An American friend of mine once saw The Dave Matthews Band described as an "obscure cult act" in some UK magazine. This amused her immensley.

― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 10 October 2002 23:23 (twenty-three years ago)

"Are Radiohead the '90's Pink Floyd?

Probably ("OK Computer" certainly is the 90's equivalent of "The Wall"), but they lack a Syd Barret."

If OK Computer is the '90's equivalent of The Wall, is Automatic For The People the 90's equivalent of Dark Side Of The Moon?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 11 October 2002 07:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah - the Dave Matthews Band sounds like a good candidate if only we knew who they were in the UK.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 11 October 2002 09:34 (twenty-three years ago)

If OK Computer is the '90's equivalent of The Wall, is Automatic For The People the 90's equivalent of Dark Side Of The Moon?

No, that's "Blue Lines"

― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 11 October 2002 13:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmm ... I always got the feeling that Hootie and the Blowfish's album (the one that sold 15 million or whatever) was THE "Brothers In Arms" of its day in the US, and in Britain an obscure cult etc etc etc.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 12 October 2002 04:20 (twenty-three years ago)

two years pass...

they really are dull to the point of annoyance, aren't they?

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 2 June 2005 17:59 (twenty-one years ago)

i mean, for essentially meaningless, dry, formalist rock music i'll go with the feelies or something.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 2 June 2005 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

i mean i think formalist is the word here, right? dire straits strike me as a band who just like to play music, but who have little talent beyond punching that music into the most trite contemporary pop/rock forms (lyrics included). the feelies have this problem sometimes too, of everything but certain elements of the *sound* seemingly absolutely pefunctory, but enough of the time they seem content to let that sound lead the way entirely.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 2 June 2005 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

No way, "Sultans of Swing" is masterful.

― Sundar (sundar), Thursday, 2 June 2005 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

that's exactly the song that inspired me to post here; i wasn't getting anything out of it at all.

i think the rem examples upthread are interestingly, because well they sound a lot like the feelies at least through their first few albums. what distinguishes them is their undoubted (i hope) ability to put that sound into varying and exciting pop contexts, and lyrics that while they may not always MEAN so aggressively, at least have a real sort of poetic form to them. that doesn't mean you have to like r.e.m., but i think the stakes are sort of higher with them than with d.s. (except for those who find d.s.'s lyrics and form stimulating, something that confuses me) or with the feelies (who i like).

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 2 June 2005 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I only really understand your first post there, but I like them. I surprised myself the other night by quite liking some of the stuff on Brothers in Arms (title track, Your Latest Trick). I thought I only liked the first few albums, but I guess I quite like Private Investigations and Telegraph Road from Love over Gold too.

Communique is particularly good... I like almost everything on that one.

― KeefW (kmw), Thursday, 2 June 2005 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I think Dire Straits are good for their style but so far removed from any sort of music I enjoy that I never listen to them. Brothers In Arms was in heavy rotation around the house when I was 10. It's good, but I don't need to hear it.

― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Thursday, 2 June 2005 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Funnily, it seems a lot easier to like them now than it did in 1985, when (as someone pointed out above) lots of the kids at school were into them. It didn't seem right then at all... I can't quite put my finger on why. Partly the times I guess.

― KeefW (kmw), Thursday, 2 June 2005 18:21 (twenty-one years ago)

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