While I’m undoubtedly an album guy, and all of my song picks the past few weeks have come from albums and artists I number among my favorites, here is at least one exception.
I like Dire Straits but I wouldn’t say I’m a Dire Straits fan. I own only two of their albums — Brothers In Arms and Making Movies — and I am drawn more to individual songs than the complete records.
My final song in this two-week theme is the second Dire Straits tune. ‘Romeo and Juliet’ appeared on the band’s excellent 1980 album Making Movies (you can hear the original version here, but be warned, it has perhaps the lamest video in the history of music television).
I’ve been in love with this song since I first heard it on the band’s 1988 greatest hits collection, Money For Nothing. So four years later, when Indigo Girls cut their own version on their album Rites of Passage, I was skeptical. Why cover a song as beautifully conceived and executed as this one?
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.
However, it did introduce me to one of the very best Dire Straits songs, the elegant and sadly romantic ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ I was blown away by this song the minute I heard it and it has remained a favorite ever since.
Meet Me In Montauk 