Dire Straits

Dire Straits
Studio album by Dire Straits
Released	7 July 1978
Recorded	13 February - 5 March 1978 at Basing Street Studios, London
Genre	Rock
Length	41:34
Label	Vertigo Warner Bros. (US)
Producer	Muff Winwood
Professional reviews
Allmusic link Robert Christgau (B) link
Dire Straits chronology
Dire Straits (1978) Communiqué (1979)

Dire Straits is the self-titled debut album by British rock band Dire Straits, released in 1978 (see 1978 in music).

History

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. "Water of Love" was also released as a single in some countries, but only charted in Australia, reaching #54. In Europe, the album sold four million copies while in the U.S. it sold two million copies. 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.

Track listing

All songs written by Mark Knopfler.

1. "Down to the Waterline" – 3:55
2. "Water of Love" – 5:23
3. "Setting Me Up" – 3:18
4. "Six Blade Knife" – 4:10
5. "Southbound Again" – 2:58
6. "Sultans of Swing" – 5:47
7. "In the Gallery" – 6:16
8. "Wild West End" – 4:42
9. "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. The French issue of the cassette saw 'Down to the Waterline' and 'Wild West End' interchanged in the order mentioned above to allow for a more equal playing time on each side.

Personnel

• Mark Knopfler – lead vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar
• John Illsley – bass, backing vocals
• David Knopfler – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
• Pick Withers – drums

Production

• Muff Winwood – production
• Rhett Davies – engineer
• Gregg Geller and Bob Ludwig – remastering
• Jo Motta – project coordinator
• Alan Schmidt – art direction

Charts

The Dire Straits' debut album has been 131 weeks in UK Albums Chart [1]. In Australia, the album was the tenth best selling album there.

Album

Singles

Certifications

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.