The Weird True Story Behind Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits

Comments · 477

• MU

  @MusicMongoose · 1 year ago · pinned

  What’s your favourite Dire Straits tune? 🤔

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• BI

  @bikerjon8934 · 1 year ago

  Imagine putting out<br>SULTANS OF SWING<br>as your debut single

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• SV

  @svenolofandersson2572 · 1 year ago

  I once proposed that my cover band should be called ”Consultants of Swing” but I was voted down.

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• DE

  @devilsoffspring5519 · 1 year ago

  Almost 50 years and people still talk about this one song! It&apos;s kinda unique isn&apos;t it?

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• AN

  @AndrewCrompton-e5j · 1 year ago

  Back in 1977 Mark and David Knopfler lived in a flat in Bronze street in Deptford. We knew of them, but they were not in our immediate music circle as they were a bit older than most of the rest of the local bands. I remember them playing the the Deptford Festival one summer afternoon, they were the support band to to another local group, Squeeze with a school mate called Jools Holland on keyboards. Squeeze were in turn the support band to the Fabulous Poodles. We all remember Mark surprised us all by being the best guitar player by far on the day. The next time I saw Dire Straits, they were the support band to the Red Lights (I think), at the Albany Empire in Deptford. The gig was notable, as the &apos;stage&apos; was made of tables pushed together, halfway through the Dire Straits set, the drummer and the entire kit disappeared in a crash as the tables came apart. We lived in Lewisham at the time, a small house with a large floating population of musicians and a basement garage used for practice sessions. At the end of the road (corner of Lee High Road and Clarendon Rise) was a pub, a real dive, they had a jazz band on some Sundays, &nbsp;made up of older members of the local west indian community. We only occasionally drank there because it was cheap and convenient to the house! The pub was called The Sultan, it was knocked down in the 1990&apos;s and is now a branch of Nandos.

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• BE

  @berendharmsen · 1 year ago

  They came out of the gate with the best song they would ever make, and it&apos;s also one of the best songs of all time, period.

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• EA

  @earlrandolph6968 · 1 year ago

  I remember well the first time I heard Sultans. I was in my brother&apos;s shop one evening working on my car and listening to my FM radio when the dj started talking about this pre-release single that they (KZEL 96.1, Eugene, Or.) had just gotten ahold of by this British band Dire Straits. Said that this would be it&apos;s first time heard on the west coast. I thought &apos;whatever&apos;. Then I heard it. I dropped whatever I was doing and just listened, mesmerized. I had never heard anything like it. So I bought the album first time I had a chance and then listened to it on hi-fi. Wow!

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• BA

  @bart7695 · 1 year ago

  Dutchie here: As phonogram was a Dutch lable owned by Phillips, the first time Sultans came out was as a 7&quot;single in the Netherlands (Vertigo 6059 206). It was a different version and based on the original Pathway demo.

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• AN

  @AnneDowson-vp8lg · 1 year ago

  I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard &apos;Sultans of Swing.&apos; In a car passing a ploughed field outside the Yorkshire village of Drighlington near Bradford, &nbsp;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 <br>It was the soundtrack of that whole weekend. &nbsp;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 &nbsp;rock music. Of course, I have been a great fan of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler ever since and I&apos;m 73 now. Great memories!

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• GE

  @geoffhemingway3926 · 1 year ago

  I heard Sultans of Swing on the radio and immediately went out and bought the album(I was never much of a singles buyer) and have loved the band ever since. I have to say after all the great stuff they did it is still my favourite song of theirs along with Telegraph Road and Brothers in Arms. Brilliant stuff!

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• FA

  @fatimaemiko7073 · 1 year ago

  This song blew my mind the first time I heard it and blew my mind again with achemy live performance

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• KA

  @kafkaswetdream · 9 months ago

  i think the coolest part about the story is the fact that you never know who you inspire, even playing jazz in an empty pub where rock and roll is the emerging music scene you can still inspire someone to create their next big hit.

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