It was a gift I didn’t request, didn’t really want, but received on Christmas, 1985. When I finally slipped the album out of the cover just after New Year’s and a day before meeting up with the person who gave it to me, I just wanted to be familiar enough with the songs to prove that I’d actually listened to it. But there was something about Brothers In Arms that kept me playing it over and over again. Walk of Life and Money for Nothing were instant favorites, but it’s the title song that haunts. I’d seen enough of pain, loss, and death to realize how little I knew of pain, loss, and death. Listening to Brothers In Arms, I understood the Vale of Tears, the Shadow of the Valley of Death in a whole new way – Biblical imagery wed to life. And that we cause the suffering and death ourselves far too often.
For this one song, it would be on my top ten list…but the rest of the album is amazing, too.
Dire Straits, Brothers In Arms, Vertigo Records, AIR Salem, Montserrat and Power Station (NYC),1985
This album was like a revelation for me. It was a sound I hadn’t ever heard before, married to words that seemed like poems. “Brothers in Arms” is on my frequent playlist.
I enjoyed the Ella Fitzgerald–I don’t know her much beyond the well-known songs, so thanks for that listen.
So glad you enjoyed Ella – and not surprised that Brothers in Arms is a favorite of yours. Poetic and melodic both. Peace, Johnna