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By 1980, Dire Straits were stuck. Their self-titled debut had attracted much praise with its pub blues/rock sound and had spawned a rock radio hit with “Sultans Of Swing”, but 1979’s Communique was a washout (save for the excellent “Lady Writer”) and the band seemed to be merely treading water as the Carter administration wound down. This climate made the third album put-up-or-shut-up time for The Straits (now reduced to a three-piece with the departure of guitarist David Knopfler), and put up they did. Making Movies ranks as one of the best rock albums of the 80’s and manages to sound simultaneously of its time but never dated. Jimmy Iovine’s production is top-notch as always, supplying pop veneer and rock heart in equal measure. Oh yeah, and the songs are like McAwesome, too.

The album gets underway with a faded-in, soap opera-y snippet of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “The Carousel Waltz” melting right into the driving “Tunnel Of Love”, with guitarist/vocalist/80’s headband-enthusiast Mark Knopfler inviting you to “take a long ride” with him. Next is “Romeo And Juliet”, which tips us off early on in the album that you are hearing the sound of Knopfler blowing his lyrical nut. “You can fall for chains of silver/ You can fall for chains of gold/ You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold” warns Knopfler as he deftly weaves a tale of young lovers. He’s even cute enough to have the song’s Romeo try to woo his Juliet by quoting “the movie song” (”Somewhere” from West Side Story- itself a retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet), but sadly Romeo can’t remember the words… initially, at least. “Espresso Love” features Knopfler poetically claiming that he was “made to go with that girl like a saxophone was made to go with the night.” “Hand In Hand” could’ve been a hit if only it had been released a few years earlier in the heyday of 70’s AM pop, with its tinkling Roy Bittan piano (on loan from The E-Street Band) and Knopfler’s lovelorn lyric pulling on the listener’s heartstrings with killer couplets that fit like a glove (”I tried my best to be somebody you’d be close to/ Hand in hand, like lovers are supposed to”).

The album’s best-known song is probably “Skateaway”, a character study of a carefree “rollergirl” (Inspiration for Heather Graham’s character in Boogie Nights? Only PTA knows for sure.) who zips around the city with headphones on, the music “making movies” in her head. Down the stretch, the song opens up into a loose jam session with Knopfler providing inky faux-steel guitar that shades more than it shreds. The relaxed feel of that section is indicative of the kind of fun that Dire Straits seem to be having at every turn on Making Movies. Never again would Knopfler, Pick Withers, and John Illsley sound this effortlessly majestic. Sure, Love Over Gold (1982) and Brothers In Arms (1985) are fine albums, but they have a thick air of pretense about them and seem more like vehicles for Knopfler to show you what a great guitarist and composer he is rather than mere rock records. Sigh. At least for one moment at the dawn of a decade, it was all there, wrapped up in a tight, near-perfect package called Making Movies, which proved that Dire Straits were indeed ready for their close-up.

Posted on April 22nd, 2008 by Rob
Filed under: Reviews