Dire Straits continued their torrid pace, releasing their third album in three years — 1980’s Making Movies.
David Knopfler participated in early recording sessions until tensions with brother Mark led to him leaving the band. Eventually his guitar parts were all re-recorded and he isn’t credited on the album. Mark brought on producer Jimmy Iovine, whose work with Bruce Springsteen attracted his attention, and Iovine recruited E-Street Band keyboardist Roy Bittan to play on the album.
Those changes, along with Mark’s increasingly sophisticated songwriting, resulted in the band’s finest work to date.
For years I loved this song but had no idea what it was called. I figured the title was ‘Making Movies’ because that phrase appears in the chorus and I knew that was the title of one of Dire Straits’ albums. But when I checked out the tracklist of the album I didn’t see a song with the name. And the actual title of the song — ‘Skateaway’ — shows up only a couple of times toward the end.
The first Dire Straits album I owned was actually not a proper album at all, but the greatest hits collection Money for Nothing. I am resolutely anti-greatest hits — despite my ‘Song of the Day’ blog, I consider the album the principal unit of musical artistry. Money For Nothing was a bit different than most because it contained live and alternate versions of many of the songs, but it’s still just a little bit evil.
Meet Me In Montauk 