A Mark In Time

Mark Knopfler Discussion => Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum => Topic started by: Shoaib on August 28, 2008, 07:15:16 AM

Title: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Shoaib on August 28, 2008, 07:15:16 AM
So Far Away
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: allen on August 28, 2008, 08:03:38 AM
SoS from MFN Compilation cassette tape.

Wishes
Allen
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: superval99 on August 28, 2008, 09:09:16 AM
Going Home.  It was a home-made compilation on tape that my son's friend had put together.  On the tape was "Going Home", "The Wild Theme", R&J and "Sultans".  It was "Going Home" I heard first, though! The year was 1983.
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Ian Lewis on August 28, 2008, 10:06:23 AM
I honestly don't know!!  Does that make me less of a fan? :(
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: SamGolden on August 28, 2008, 02:53:05 PM
In 1982, a friend of school invite me at his home for listennig music : he put an old LP on the phonogram. "Listen this new stuff" he said to me. That was the first notes of Tunnel of Love played by Roy Bittan. I will never forget that moment, because Mark's music will never leave me after that... :)
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Gerry on August 28, 2008, 03:42:59 PM
Sultans of Swing, in my car, on the way to work in 1978. And it was as exciting as hearing Elvis, Chuck Berry, and the Beatles for the first time. What a pleasure it has been to listen to MK throughout the years. He just keeps getting better!
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Rollergirl on August 28, 2008, 04:35:24 PM
Two young lovers, from Alchemy. but the one that got me hooked was Your latest trick, the 3rd one I heard, after walk of life. (we were really into sax at that time)  Then I can't remember the next one, honest!
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Pottel on August 28, 2008, 05:05:19 PM
i guess sultans or mfn....
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: ubhal on August 28, 2008, 09:21:12 PM
Private Investigations back in 1982 on the local commercial radio station, Downtown Radio. I heard all these eerie noises and sound effects and thought "What is that?" I thought it was so atmospheric and so different to anything else on the radio at the time. Love Over Gold is the first album I ever bought.It was a cassete tape because I didn't have a turntable in those days.
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: knopfling on August 29, 2008, 02:12:31 AM
Sultans when it first came out. Was in the car with my husband driving north on Van Winkle Expressway in Salt Lake City when it came on the radio, and I just sat there with my mouth open, blown away by it. It was good my husband was driving. I would have run off the road.
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: rudiger on August 29, 2008, 11:35:49 AM
the wonderful Tunnel of love, in 1980
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: guswallace on August 29, 2008, 02:11:45 PM
It was "Calling Elvis " on MTV

Revealing the Passion

Guswallace
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Pottel on August 29, 2008, 02:19:45 PM
hi gus!
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: shangri la 1 on August 30, 2008, 01:16:21 AM
Hi Gus
Welcome to AMIT

Sultans of swing   - On our first ever local FM band radio broadcast in 1980 - It was the first song they ever played. Reasons given at the time was that it (the song) was representative of what the NEW FM band station wanted to be known for. Cutting edge and Innovative music and cool DJ's!! SAFM spent the next 3 decades as the top rated radio station in town. Wasn't until 2005 that they dropped below at least 2nd for the first time. Still 3rd today.
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: IrisRose on August 30, 2008, 02:34:00 AM
Once Upon a Time in the West.   In 79, a friend loaned me the vinyl, and said, "This guy is really intelligent with his lyrics. . . " she said other good things too.  So I put the record on the turntable, and Once upon a Time was the first track.    The song still blows me away.   
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Hoops McCann on August 30, 2008, 04:59:50 AM
I'm pretty sure it was The Man's Too Strong from a Brothers in Arms cassette tape.
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: qjamesfloyd on August 30, 2008, 09:48:44 AM
Couldn't say the first song really, a bit hard to remember that one, but the first album I heard was Brothers In Arms, so, it would have been a song from there.
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: dannyjun on August 31, 2008, 12:52:29 AM
Down To The Waterline. I was 3 years old !!!! (I was born in 1990)...It was one of my favourites...
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: pierrickmark on August 31, 2008, 02:58:33 AM
Once upon a time in the West. I remember siting on a comfortable chair in my bedroom. I was 16 I think. I still remember the feeling I had listening to the song and the whole 1st album. A magic moment. 25 years later, it's still there in my heart and in my soul...
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: allen on August 31, 2008, 03:03:13 AM
So Danny, you are one of the youngest here.

Wishes
Allen
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: gbobmi on August 31, 2008, 04:22:49 AM
SOS. 1979. In the car. With Gerry. On the radio. ***SIGH***

The rest is history..............
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: sweetsurrender on September 06, 2008, 04:47:18 AM
Sultans. Believed back in 1985. Heard it on the radio.  It was like love at first sound.
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: jacki on September 06, 2008, 06:25:12 AM
oh, withovt qvestion, SOS...i even remember exactly where I was, on a stretch of road between one town and another,,,,I even can say whose hovse I was going by at the time....and of covrse, at first I thovght it was somebody trying to sovnd like Dylan (I wised vp very shortly thereafter),,,,,
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: zeta on September 06, 2008, 02:21:01 PM
In 1993 i saw "Calling Elvis" and "Money For Nothing" videoclips on our russian TV. I was 3 years old, like dannyjun.  ;)
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: vgonis on October 10, 2012, 08:28:34 AM
I guess it must have been Down to the Waterline from MFN compilation in 1989. I was into heavy metal, and a friend of mine said, while putting this in his turntable"This is my brother's but have a listen". I taped it and it was the end (almost) of heavy metal for me. But later on, while I was discovering the rest of their material, I had the sense that I had listened to 3-4 songs, on the radio without knowing the band. The most distinctive ones were Single handed sailor and Hand in hand.
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Vesper on October 10, 2012, 09:52:59 AM
As a baby(born 1993) my father used to put The Long Road on the radio if I didn't want to sleep :P
But the first 'real' listening was my first own cd On The Night!
Got it when I was 5 or something
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: FenderBender on October 10, 2012, 09:55:56 AM
Sultans, one Saturday afternoon in 1978 on BBC Radio 1 (I was 20 and a committed prog rock fan, so the Alan Freeman show was required listening at the time). I remember thinking what a brilliant guitarist, shame about the singer. It was only when I picked up a copy of the album a couple of weeks later that I realised that guitarist and singer were one and the same. Needless to say, Mark's voice has grown on me since then and I think he is sounding better than ever on Privateering.
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Jules on October 10, 2012, 10:09:00 AM
Before I knew DS or/and MK, I
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Mona Dee on October 10, 2012, 11:42:53 AM
I
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: MusicGirl1 on October 10, 2012, 02:28:32 PM
Mmmmm....., let me see. I guess it was the late 80's (88 or 89) and I was around 12 years old.
Sultans of swing must have been the first ever DS/MK song I heard, it was the first song a DS cassette tape my mom's best friend often played in the car.

LOL!  ;D She never should have made me copy of that tape. I became totally hooked and completely wore out my copy of that tape..................

Maaike
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: dmg on October 10, 2012, 03:41:38 PM
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... :lol

Actually my friends' brother was a big fan and had a tape on his Ghetto Blaster (remember them :think) 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. ;D

Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: JF on October 10, 2012, 04:06:01 PM
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...
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: ingridswing on October 10, 2012, 04:09:27 PM
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
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: nababo on October 10, 2012, 04:41:54 PM
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...
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: The Privateer on October 10, 2012, 05:12:29 PM
"Tunnel of Love" in 1980... :think
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: TJ on October 10, 2012, 05:39:18 PM
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.
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Love Expresso on October 10, 2012, 06:45:43 PM
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
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Silvertown on October 10, 2012, 07:01:07 PM
Nice memories everyone!

Silvertown
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: vgonis on October 10, 2012, 07:42:40 PM
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.
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: flinn75 on October 10, 2012, 08:22:19 PM
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.
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: sweetsurrender on October 10, 2012, 08:33:06 PM
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.
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Love Expresso on October 10, 2012, 09:54:04 PM
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
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Hophead on October 10, 2012, 11:43:10 PM
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.  ;D
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: El Macho on October 11, 2012, 12:04:01 AM
It was So Far Away because it
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: sweetsurrender on October 11, 2012, 08:18:59 PM
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.  ;D

hophead,

I really like your story. I could visualize in my head. Now, just curious, are your 2 friends still big fans of MK?
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: 3Strats on October 11, 2012, 09:04:57 PM
Almost certainly Sultans, but I know I discovered that my youngest (6yrs younger) brother had the Making Movies LP and I made a cassette tape of the album with his single version of SoS ( the non-album version) added at the end.  This puts my initial awareness of the band at around the time of Making Movies, but I'm sure I'd heard SoS on the radio before then. Strangely he wasn't a great DS fan but just happened to have that album & single at the time I became interested in them.  Sultan's is certainly the song with the most impact for me, because it made me pick up a guitar again after a break and want to do more than just strum rhythm parts. Like others, I discovered that MK's hybrid fingerstyle worked for me better than a plectrum (pick).   
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Pottel on October 11, 2012, 11:30:35 PM
not sure, back in the mid eighties, growing up, my dad had LOG, BIA and MM...so cannot truly say which song of of those i heard first. i know i liked it all...
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Hophead on October 12, 2012, 12:04:28 AM
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.  ;D

hophead,

I really like your story. I could visualize in my head. Now, just curious, are your 2 friends still big fans of MK?
One of them still is  Sweetsurrender..the other one I'm sure he still listens to Mark...but I've lost touch with him. C'est la vie   ;)
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: xxFordiexx on October 15, 2012, 05:05:18 PM
I honestly don't know!!  Does that make me less of a fan? :(

Not at all....... I'm a mega fan and I honestly can't remember lol

I'm pretty sure it was something off Brothers In arms but I spent much more time very quickly listening to the first two DS albums on Cassette :)
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: herlock on October 15, 2012, 05:27:36 PM
It must have been "The man's too strong" as my first encounter with DS was in a bus, in a school trip to England (I was 14 in 1988). A classmate had a worn-out tape of the BIA album that he asked the driver to play, and I still remember the strong power chords of the song. This is what hooked me into DS, I came to discover the BIA album with MFN and BIA, then I bought the famous "Money for Nothing" compilation CD and was absolutely suffucated by the quality of the music of those who were called at the time "The Beatles of the 80s". TR live, especially, made a great impression on me, and made me buy the LOG album, and ultimately all of them.
Title: Re: The Very 1st Song You Listened of DS/MK
Post by: Knopflerfan on October 16, 2012, 07:19:53 AM
It has to be 'SOS' but on the 'Money for Nothing' compilation.
I up until that point listened/played to really nothing more than Hank Marvin/The Shadows material as I am very keen on Hank's sound through the Stratocaster. Upon gaining my employment at 16 years old a colleague asked if I liked Mark Knopfler/Dire Straits? to which I replied 'no' He subsequently gave me a copy of the said album plus 'OES' and from then I have been totally hooked although I still listen/play Shadows/Hank material.
Of course listening to Mark's guitar playing through the years has obviously helped me with my understanding and playing of the electric guitar.