Dire Straits - Private Investigations

Private Investigations Lyric

Its a mystery to me
The game commences
For the usual fee
Plus expenses
Confidential information
Its in a diary
This is my investigation
Its not a public inquiry

I go checking out the report
Digging up the dirt
You get to meet all sorts
In the line of work
Treachery and treason
Theres always an excuse for it
And when I find the reason
I still cant get used to it

And what have you got at the end of the day ?
What have you got to take away ?
A bottle of whisky and a new set of lies
Blinds on the window and a pain behind the eyes

Scarred for life
No compensation
Private investigations

Song Notes : "Dire Straits exploded onto the UK music scene in 1978 with the single "Sultans Of Swing" and a unique guitar style from frontman and songwriter Mark Knopfler. Four years later they released a single in an entirely different style. "Private Investigations" begins with a lengthy acoustic introduction; the words are spoken, whispered, rather than sung"

"In Michael Oldfield's illustrated history of the band to date - published in 1984 - Knopfler said the song was sparked off by something he'd read about Philip Marlowe, adding "You hear different interpretations of it, but to me it's deliberately movie." Philip Marlowe was the private detective created by the American novelist Raymond Chandler. The Marlowe novels could have been tailor made for film noir, a style of cinema that evolved in the United States after the Second World War, low budget gangster films and such made in black and white and portraying the underside of the American dream. Marlowe found his way onto both the big screen and TV."Private Investigations" captures the genré more than any other song, including contemporary songs. If it had been written thirty years earlier it would almost certainly have won an Oscar for a film noir soundtrack"

Dire Straits - Your Latest Trick

Your Latest Trick Lyric

All the late night bargains have been struck
Between the satin beaus and their belles
And prehistoric garbage trucks
Got the city to themselves
Echoes roars dinosaurs
They're all doing the monster mash
And most of the taxis, most of the whores
Are only taking calls for cash

I don't know how it happened
It all took place so quick
But all I can do is hand it to you
And your latest trick

My door was standing open
Security was laid back and lax
But it was only my heart got broken
You must have had a pass key made out of wax
You played robbery with insolence
And I played the blues in twelve bars down Lover's Lane
And you never did have the intelligence to use
The twelve keys hanging off my chain

I don't know how it happened
It all took place so quick
But all I can do is hand it to you
And your latest trick

Now it's past last call for alcohol
Past recall has been here and gone
The landlord he finally paid us all
The satin jazzmen have put away their horns
And we're standing outside of this wonderland
Looking so bereaved and so bereft
Like a Bowery bum when he finally understands
The bottle's empty and there's nothing left

I don't know how it happened
It was faster than the eye could flick
But all I can do is hand it to you
And your latest trick

Dire Straits - Once Upon a Time in the West (1980)

Once Upon a Time in the West Lyric

Some people get a cheap laugh breaking up the speed limit
Scaring the pedestrians for minute
Crossing up progress driving on the grass
Leaving just enough room to pass
Sunday driver never took a test
Oh yeah, once upon a time in the west

Yes it's no use saying that you don't know nothing
It's still gonna get you if you don't do something
Sitting on a fence that's a dangerous course
Ah, you could even catch a bullet from the peace-keeping force
Even the hero gets a bullet in the chest
Oh yeah, once upon a time in the west

Mother Mary your children are slaughtered
Some of you mothers ought to lock up your daughter
Who's protecting the innocenti
Heap big trouble in the land of plenty
Tell me how we're gonna do what's best
You guess once upon a time in the west

Oh yeah once upon a time in the west
Oh yeah once upon a time in the west
Oh yeah once upon a time in the west

Once upon a time in the west

Dire Straits - Ride Across The River

Ride Across The River Lyric

I'm a soldier of freedom in the army of man
We are the chosen, we're the partisan
The cause it is noble and the cause it is just
We are ready to pay with our lives if we must

Gonna ride across the river deep and wide
Ride across the river to the other side

I'm a soldier of fortune, I'm a dog of war
And we don't give a damn who the killing is for
It's the same old story with a different name
Death or glory, it's the killing game

Gonna ride across the river deep and wide
Ride across the river to the other side

Nothing gonna stop them as the day follows the night
Right becomes wrong, the left becomes the right
And they sing as they march with their flags unfurled
Today in the mountains, tomorrow the world

Gonna ride across the river deep and wide
Ride across the river to the other side

Metallica- Brothers in Arms (Bridge School Benefit)

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms

Brothers in Arms Lyric

These mist covered mountains are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands and always will be
One day you'll return to your valleys and your farms
And you'll no longer burn to be brothers in arms

Through these fields of destruction
Baptisms of fire
I've witnessed your suffering as the battles raged higher
And though they did hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm you did not desert me
My brothers in arms

There's so many different worlds, so many different suns
And we have just one world but we live in different ones

Now the sun's gone to hell and the moon's riding high
Let me bid you farewell, every man has to die
But it's written in the starlight and every line in your palm
We are fools to make war on our brothers in arms.

Song Notes : "This song is about the Falklands War, which was going on when Dire Straits lead singer Mark Knopfler wrote the song. The Falklands War was a conflict between Argentina and England over islands off the coast of Argentina that each country claims rights to. The islands are British territories, but in 1982 Argentina tried to reclaim one of the islands. Britain reclaimed their territories, but lost 258 soldiers in the conflict"

"In 2007, a new version of this track featuring Mark Knopfler was released to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Falklands War. Proceeds from the sale of the single went to a program that brought British veterans back to the site of the war in an effort to help them deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder"

"Metallica covered this song when they played Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit on October 27, 2007"

Dire Straits - Money for nothing (1984)

Money For Nothing Lyric

Now look at them yo - yos that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and chicks for free
Now that ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Lemme tell ya them guys ain't dumb
Maybe get a blister on your little finger
Maybe get a blister on your thumb

We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TVs

See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy that's his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he's a millionaire

We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchens deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TVs

I shoulda learned to play the guitar
I shoulda learned to play them drums
Look at that mama, she got it stickin' in the camera
Man we could have some fun
And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises?
Bangin' on the bongos like a chimpanzee
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Get your money for nothin' get your chicks for free

We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TVs, Lord

Now that ain't workin' that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and your chicks for free
Money for nothin' and chicks for free

Song Notes : "Mark Knopfler wrote this after overhearing delivery men in a New York department store complain about their jobs while watching MTV. He wrote the song in the store sitting at a kitchen display they had set up. Many of the lyrics were things they actually said"

"This was the first video played on MTV Europe. The network went on the air August 1, 1987, 6 years after MTV in the US"

Sting sings on this and helped write it. That's him at the beginning singing "I want my MTV."

"Dire Straits recorded this in Montserrat. Sting was on vacation there and came by to help out"

Sting did not want a songwriting credit for this, but his record company did because they would have earned royalties from it. They claimed it sounded very similar to a song Sting wrote for The Police: "Don't Stand So Close To Me."

"The innovative video was one of the first to feature computer generated animation. The characters were supposed to have more detail, like buttons on their shirts, but they used up the budget and had to leave it as is. It won Best Video at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards"

"In the video, a microwave oven is shown with "Low, Medium, and High" settings. This is a veiled reference to how frequent radio stations play a particular song. A "High" frequency song is usually a current hit on its way up the charts, while a "Low" one is usually on its way down"

"This won a Grammy in 1986 for best Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group"

Mark Knopfler played a Les Paul Junior plugged into a Laney amp on this track. Producer Neil Dorfsman recalled in Sound On Sound magazine May 2006 : "We were going for a ZZ Top sound, but what we ended up getting was kind of an accident."