Dire straits: Sultan of Swing

This is one of the first song of the group in 1977. It was one of the songs that marked a new era moving away from Disco to the punk era. Mark Knopfler on vocals and lead guitar, David Knopfler on rhythm guitar, John Illsley on bass, and Pick Withers on drums. The song was written by Mark and is about a gorup of jazz performing in South London, in a tiny pub where nobody is paying attention, but they were ignoring the crowd and kept playing their music. One of the guitarist of that group is Georges Borowski (Guitar Georges). An album with the same name as this song was released in 1988 with the best of Dire Sraits.




You get a shiver in the dark
It's raining in the park but meantime
South of the river you stop and you hold everything
A band is blowing Dixie double four time
You feel alright when you hear that music ring

You step inside but you don't see too many faces
Coming in out of the rain to hear the jazz go down
Too much competition too many other places
But not too many horns can make that sound
Way on downsouth way on downsouth London town

You check out Guitar George he knows all the chords
Mind he's strictly rhythm he doesn't want to make it cry or sing
And an old guitar is all he can afford
When he gets up under the lights to play his thing

And Harry doesn't mind if he doesn't make the scene
He's got a daytime job he's doing alright
He can play honky tonk just like anything
Saving it up for Friday night
With the Sultans with the Sultan of Swing

And a crowd of young boys they're fooling around in the corner
Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies and their platform soles
They don't give a damn about any trumpet playing band
It ain't what they call rock and roll
And the Sultans played Creole

And then the man he steps right up to the microphone
And says at last just as the time bell rings
'Thank you good night now it's time to go home'
And he make it fast with one more thing
'We are the Sultans of Swing'