Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms - A Classical Musician’s In-Depth Analysis
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ย. 2022
- While looking through the music score and listening to ”Brothers in Arms”, I identified some particular musical features that help to create the mood and style of this song. One of these has to do with the harmonic structure, the chords, that are used. Another is a rhythmic element. And another is the blend of instruments and voice. Join me to discover the way they work together perfectly as I examine each of these elements one at a time.
And ... oooops! My “Spoonerism”: 1892 :)))
Link to the original song:
• Dire Straits - Brother...
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Amy Shafer, LRSM, FRSM, RYC, is a classical harpist, pianist, and music teacher, Director of Piano Studies and Assistant Director of Harp Studies for The Harp School, Inc., holds multiple degrees in harp and piano performance and teaching, and is active as a solo and collaborative performer. With nearly two decades of teaching experience, she teaches privately, presents masterclasses and coaching sessions, and has performed and taught in Europe and USA. - เพลง
Hi everyone! Please drop under this comment your questions ONLY! I will do my best to answer them all!
Hi Amy! I think you may have misspoken when you said that the Falklands war was in 1892 - did you mean 1982?
@@tengiz8508 It was just a REALLY long war.
In all seriousness, I love this song and have watched many reactions to it.
One of the best versions of the song is their live performance from Nelson Mandela's birthday.
Mark Knofler's guitar influences are really old-school Country pickers like Chet Atkins .. inevitably. you'll have to take a journey down South :)
@@tengiz8508 I thought the same but figured that there were probably two conflicts. The Argentines have been pissed off about The Falklands for a long time
Could you start a music theory course online for beginners?? I’d pay handsomely for that. You are a very lucid and engaging teacher. I’m dead serious
As a veteran of the British Army, id just like to say " Thank you", your blouse with Poppies on was not lost on me,
Thank you Sir for sacrificing and keeping us safe and free. - an old yank
She rather carelessly said they were Argentinian islands though, which brought me to the comments section.
As a fellow brit, thank you for your service to our country.
Saw that, too.
Coming up on April 25th. Dawn parade for me. Ex-RNZAF. Dad was 35 Batt., NZEF, PTO.
She also said it was in 1892 at one point... She clearly doesn't have any knowledge of this war and we shouldn't fault her for easy mistakes.
She truly taps into the meaning of the song and how there can be slightly different interpretations of it, even while the core is as if etched in rock, understated, yet raw emotion. ❤
My thoughts go out to the people doing the actual fighting in Ukraine, and yes I am including peaceful Russians who were press ganged into service or conned into joining. Their loss is as pointless as the loss of a defender. Even so, I hope UAF kicks ass!
Slava Ukraini ✊ 🇺🇦
@@theoriginalstoneyBut they ARE Argentinian islands. Geography and proximity tell you this.
I am Argentinian and 56 now...that stupid war, as any war is....I was 14 when it occurred. Too sad. Too many kids died...and that war was started by a military government. No civilians wanted that conflict to happen. We share so many principles and cultural stuff with the UK. So, this song brings a breeze of peace to my soul, and a chance to honor and mourn all those heroes from both sides who died and gave their lives for a cause that they were obliged to fight for. Music is a divine gift of life.
Beautiful to hear that from an Argentinian too.
Agree, there is a lot of shared values between UK and Argentina. Suggest a listen to Show OF Hands' song Armadas, which is a more direct reference to that particular war (via the Spanish Armada) but is also told from the soldiers perspective.
It's the most emotionally expressive playing you will ever hear on an electric guitar.
Absolutely. No one, simply no one, can make a guitar evoke emotion in the same way Knopfler can.
Thank you so much for your wonderful analysis. As a Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot, I never fully understood how this song could so often bring me to tears.
Over the years, I have come to understand that the soldier bond applies to combatants from all sides as was so clearly demonstrated in the Band of Brothers episode with the German general addressing his troops after the surrender.
because this song is pure human honesty , out of, so far beyond , ...showbusiness ..........best to jou........
Yes! That's such a powerful scene.
Fun fact: that German general in BoB is the same actor who plays the much more cartoonish Col. Dietrich in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Yeah that scene is so beautiful and powerful
The voice: resignation,stoicism, fatalism, some bitterness. The guitar: rage and grief against injustice, suffering, and folly. And something I never noticed before: the keyboard evolves from the opening accordion-like timbre - which speaks to the specificity of a home where one is born and raised - to the climactic gospel organ, which evokes the universal home of death.
Good one!
Beautiful. Thank you.
Cool take. 👍
fantastic analysis! spot on!
Or: it's just a good song by a rockband
The genius of Mark is not what he says and plays, but in what he doesn't say or play. He could fill his songs with lyrics and notes, but doesn't and lets your mind fill in the blanks. That's what make them so great. 'So Far From The Cylde', a song about the scrapping of a ship, manages to make the listener get all emotional about an inanimate object, a truly amazing example of Mark's talent.
Like the pick of, So far.. you got it.
It's like Mike Campbell of the Heartbreakers said "I like to say more with less" and he also did it well within the restrictions of his band.
Mark Knoffler. Probably one of the greatest guitarists ever.
That comment on the harmonic structure not returning home at the end just like the soldier not returning home ... Whoa.
This is the loveliest analysis of a very special piece of music. Thank you. So kind, mature, open minded
I'm a longtime fan of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits, and I just wanted to say that your video gave me a new perspective and appreciation for this awesome song. THANK YOU! 👍
Saying “the soldier never returns home” when you were talking about the chords not returning to their root is excellent. You’re very good at this.
I also heard courage in this song, in the guitar particularly. And the greatest kind of courage, that experienced by someone approaching the end of their life. It’s a feeling of inevitability, and wistfulness, a recognition that war is something that may never end.
and loyalty.
A GREAT song by Dire Straits is Telegraph Road, also Private Investigations. Either one could start a musical, they tell so much story.
I’m agree, I think “Telegraph road” is a very good election for next Dire Straits analysis.
Agree. Telegraph road would be fantastic to break down. Also maybe as a thematic contrast Firth of Fifth from Genesis.
Telegraph Road is based on a book, "Growth Of The Soil" by Knut Hamsun, Mark wrote it after reading it, while sat on a deck chair behind a tour bus.
It's also, for my opinion, the most technically complete song i've ever heard.
@@chrisdavidson911 I will not say that it is the more complex of all songs, but it is for Dire Straits.
@@Arturo.H.M being more complex doesn't automatically mean more good
Is it just co-incidence that your blouse has a poppy motif or was your wearing of it quite deliberate because the red poppy is the British symbol of remembrance of those lost in conflict based on the red poppies of the fields of Flanders during the First World War?
I've been a subscriber ever since your first upload and I'm so glad. Your analysis of this song is so precise but also so understanding of the spirit and escence of it.
I love Dire Straits.
I remember in the early 80s, one commentator observing that the contrast between the fluidity of Mark Knopfler's playing, and the limitations of his singing, created a kind of dynamic tension, and that is clearly what we find here. Nice to hear a considered, serious analysis of great music which is outside your experience. I will seek out more of your reactions.
I'm not a musician, so your channel Amy (also Rick Beato who does a similar thing but from a Rock perspective) just explains so clearly how and why the music illicits such a strong emotional response.
I love your videos. Thank you so much.
Have you discovered the channel 12tone yet? He's a music theorist who dissect songs and explain them from a theory point of view.
No, I haven't but I'll have a look. Have you seen any of Rick Beato's content. That guy is brilliant.
@@Rjhs001 I agree, Rick is brilliant.
Also check out The Daily Doug. It’s on a par with Beato.
I am not a musician neither and they speak a language I don’t understand! What the hell is a “sus 9”? 😂
I don’t care for the other reaction videos where they just open their eyes wide and their mouths in awe
Brothers In Arms - the album - was a masterwork. I could not stop listening to it for months.
I did not leave my cassette deck in the car for years. The heady days of youth😀😀
Thank you for the analysis. It was so in depth. Thank you.
I think it was an excellent analysis. Very intelligent! I remember when I saw a documentary from the Falkland war and one British soldier, an officer, was crying because he had to kill an Argentinian soldier... it was him or the other. He was crying because, as he said, that the guy he killed looked at him in a certain way, and that he thought it was som kind of recognition in his eyes, and that they probably could have been friends during other circustances. It was very moving and it probably made me crying at the time. War is the most horrible thing. From I was a child I really hated it! I nearly never heard anyone express this as eloquent as you did! Thanks for your job!
I was so happy when you said you listened to the long version because after hearing that one, the shorter video version has always felt incomplete to me. Knopfler's guitar playing has always felt so magical to me and to not have that last solo section just feels wrong. Love the analysis. Learned so very much.
One of my very favorite songs. You have an excellent sense of the balance between the vocals and the guitar which is complimented by the additional elements of the musical piece. I also find your comments regarding the military and those of us who have served to be on point. Very good analysis of a simple but a so powerful message. Thank you for this interesting analysis which I completely agree with.
Your analysis of these songs never disappoint! Virgin Rock may be an appropriate title for the channel, but I think I'll start referring to you as "The Song Whisperer". I am not uneducated and have survived as a professional musician for years at different times in my life. I consider myself a life long lover of music, and you continue to open up music and songs in ways that I didn't expect! Thank you, I am very grateful! You are my favorite content on TH-cam and your notifications make my day!!! Keep up the great work!
Very well expressed. And I concur completely!
@@chrissibersky4617 stupid autocomplete!fixed it. Thanks
I made a similar comment on the first listen video.
I am absolutely amazed that I have heard that song hundreds of times maybe a thousand and she made me hear it in a different way.
I'm definitely hooked. She is one of the few channels I will actually turn on the notification Bell.
I agree she really opens up totally another gates of music 🎶 She is amazing
Obviously, you understand music as math, language and emotion and insightfully communicate those qualities. Very well done. Thank you.
I will never look at this song the same way again, you just brought it even closer to my hart.
Your perception of there being a duet between the guitar and the voice is genius, I have been following Mark Knopfler (and Dire Straits) since the birth of the band,and its been said many times about the duet, it is always about the guitar for Mark Knopfler, sublime talent.
This lady has something very touching about her combing childhood innocence and at the same time a soft, womanly, comforting feel ....she reminded me of my cello teacher when I was young.....very interesting analysis....great insights....I would love to hear her react and comment on other songs such as Hotel California, Hendrix's version of Dylan's Along the watchtower or Comfortably Numb of pink Floyd. Thank you for such as great presentation. Nice touch wearing a poppies motif blouse. It is great to find such deep content on youtube which compensates for so much of the bilge. My girlfriend have three Ukrainian refugees living with her in Switzerland and I wonder whether a translation of this song exist in Ukrainian.
You might also enjoy Romeo and Juliet from the Making Movies record, a very evocative love song that is slightly, but only slightly, more harmonically complex than this one, featuring, as all Dire Straits songs do, Mark Knopfler's superbly restrained but technically outstanding guitar work.
Small point and I’m sure just misspoken the Falkland’s was 1982 which was also the year the song was written and not 1892. As for the expressive, emotive guitar playing it is something Mark Knopfler is known for. I’m not sure if I’ve heard more emotive electric guitar myself.
I thought I was getting old but did not think I could remember 1892.
She also said that Argentina tried reclaiming the Islands. You can't reclaim something you never owned.
@@DamnDealDone There claim was via Spain.
@@johnclements6614 Did they also hand themselves back over to Spain?
@@PassportToPimlico No the Argentinians remain independent of Spain
Than you be for your sensitivity and eloquence. This song often makes me cry but I could never understand why. You have helped to unpick it and also illustrate why it is such an effective piece of music. I also learnt a bit of harmonic theory *win*
I'm very impressed, very impressed.
Thank you madam!
You're inspiring me to listen to music in a whole new way, which I truly appreciate. I've listened to this song time and time again, and not once have I ever thought about any of what you explained......simply because I never knew about it. Thanks!
Excellent insight. The subject of the song will “ never return home”. You could have stopped there, and I still would say that this was an excellent review. Thanks.
Love how yow you can bring a piece of music to life which us mere mortals only know the music sounds good so we like it but never ever go into why we like it. Thank you. As far as I know Mark's father taught him how to play piano and violin and had an uncle that played boogie woogie piano that he loved. Love the way you are presenting your reactions, so informative and truly inspiring.
That may have been one of your best posts yet,you're wonderful!
I have underapreciated Dire Straits, even though I have listened to them for many years.I forget how many great songs they've created. As usual, this was an excellent analysis and it reminded me to look at my playlist, pick more Dire Straits songs and play them more. Thank you.
This is the first time I run into one of your videos. I was impressed with your deep and heartfelt analysis of this song, from a musical but also from a meaning perspective. Congratulations for what you do. You brought some joy for me today.
wow 💗 what a pickle to be you, walking around the town bringing spring wherever you go
"Brothers in Arms" is a deeply moving piece, especially important to the many who have lost family members to the many conflicts of the 20th century. A good antidote to the melancholy is either "Walk of Life" or my own personal favourite by 'Straits' , "Sultans of Swing".
Amy, excellent analysis and insights as usual. You are correct about the linkage between the vocals and the guitar. I think the vocals represent the soldier in his corporeal, physical state whereas the guitar is more representative of his spirit and the general spiritual reality in play. This is why, although it is tied to what the vocalist/soldier is "experiencing" on the field, it also has a wider, broader expression. It is experiencing what the soldier is experiencing, but it is also expressing larger view of the battlefield beyond that. At the end of the song, when the percussive heartbeat stops, the guitar soars in a solo which ends the album in a way depicting the freed spirit now soaring away on its new path beyond the corporeal. This is why it fades away musically without returning to "home", as you superbly observed.
Thank you so very much!
Very impressive explanations and lots of background information. I'll stay at your channel for more!
That was absolutely fascinating. Thank you.
I cant believe that the context of the song was the Malvinas/Falklands war, i had no idea but that is what made me remember listening to. Such an incredible song. And i agree with you Amy, to end conflicts would be one of the highest goals humanity can have, war is never a win for the soldiers that fought it they can only survive it.
As someone from the UK, I'm somewhat embarrassed that I didn't know that either!
From Wikipedia:
It was written in 1982, the year of Britain's involvement in the Falklands War. In 2007, the 25th anniversary of the war, Mark Knopfler recorded a new version of the song at Abbey Road Studios to raise funds for British veterans who he said "are still suffering from the effects of that conflict." "Brothers in Arms" has become a favourite at military funerals."
The politicians always win though, don't they?
@@rayjennings3637 Well, *half* of them certainly do. =:o\
These videos are like taking a class. Great analysis! Love it!
Thank you for a lovely in-depth analysis. I’ll be watching more of your videos.
These songs are engraved in my brain since I was a toddler as my father listens to them constantly. Its like part of me pretty much.
Mark has a unique guitar playing technique where he uses his thumb, indicator and middle finger to play the strings while anchoring his hand position with his pinky and ring finger against the pick guard. Also he is very proficient in using the volume knobs of the guitar to remove the attack from the finger picking, giving a violin quality to some of the notes.
His smoothness in some notes by picking with the soft part of the thumb contrasts with other notes that are plucked with high attack. He is unique, masterful, and its curiously hard to find youtube covers that sound perfectly like him unlike so many other guitar heroes.
What rich insights, thank you. You explain professionally why I feel emotionally, taking us to the same (or similar) place of musical admiration.
I’ve been very intrigued with your analyses of rock songs since that of Love of My Life. I really like how you go into the music itself and include the lyrics and video analyze as a whole. But I’m most impressed with your analysis of this song. I look forward to the next one.
What a beautiful and fitting review of a magnificent song. Thank you, Amy!
A masterly analysis that sends me back to the original with new ears-well done! The Zeppelin and Rammstein analyses were equally vivifying. Keep it up, Amy, and you’ll soon have enough material for a book.
Simply brilliant and very humane analysis. Love it, you truly are an expert.
Glad you seemed to enjoy this song. All these years later it still rippes at my heart. Mark's guitar work is just phenomenal and the expressiveness just amazing. Less is more.
Thanks, Amy, for another very highly informative dissection and elucidation of a well-loved piece and its creative garden.
This!!! This is what the love of music is all about. Thank you for this channel Amy.
Very well done. This was the first album I ever heard from Dire Straits and I listened to it often. Another song I really loved was Romeo and Juliet from the live tour with Emmylou Harris. He sings with his voice and guitar. Thanks for you wonderful commentary on war and people.
Beautiful! An absolutely amazing analysis. Thank you.
Thank you so much for this, Amy. A wonderful and sensitive analysis of a beloved song.
The two part/episode approach allows for a deeper understanding & analysis. So well done. So many insights. Thank you!
Simply beautiful. Thank you Amy.
Dire Straits is my favorite band. Thank you so much for this excellent, educational analysis and keep up the great work!
I recently discovered your channel, and, I must say, you've taught me much about listening to the music that has formed the background of my life. Thank you. You have a new subscriber.
1892? I didn't realise I was that old 🤣 Joking aside, I have very much enjoyed your videos that I came across recently. It is lovely to hear reviews from someone with such musical knowledge that isn't a guitarist. Your in depth views are fascinating and in such detail. Thank you
Oh she said 1892? I thought I heard wrong 😳 Wow are we old 🙁
the British established and took control in 1892, 90 years later the war began.
1982 :-)
I've only just found your channel and I love it. I'm always looking for interesting and different channels, and I've never come across someone like you here. You have so much insight and a strong education, but you also have such an effective style of communication. Your gentle and generous nature is endearing and I look forward to seeing more of your videos. I adore music and enjoy analysing music across many genres (though I lack a classical education), so I will spend some time thinking of songs that I feel would be worthy of your analysis. Thank you for deciding to share yourself with the internet, you're a breath of fresh air.
What a fantastic and educational analysis of this amazing piece of musical art, thank you so much❤️
What a great dive into this beautiful song. Well done!
beautiful
This is very interesting and informative.
I've known this song since it came out in 1985 and now your analysis has opened my eyes.
Thank you for your videos about this song with lots and lots of information!
It's nice and reassuring to listen to you. Thanks very much!
Thank you for unwrapping this classic pop song for us. Your analysis is so enlightening. Thank you for being brave enough to cross genres and take on so gently and carefully a song held precious by so many.
Very well done. Both technically and emotionally insightful. Very engaging expert explanation, and a much-loved song. Thank you.
Superb, eloquent analysis. There were times when classical musicians used to 'look down on' popular music (including rock) so its nice to know people like you respect and enjoy what it can offer.
My goodness, that was an analysis and a half. Brilliant!
Amy, thank you for listening and responding to this song; this is one of my favorites, for many of the same reasons you so thoughtfully illustrate, and you've pointed out things that had not occurred to me before. I love how you are coming from a thoroughly educated classical music background and bring your in-depth insights to progressive rock. It can only help everyone to further appreciate and understand what they're listening to.
such a beautiful breakdown of a wonderful song. Thank you for the analogy of coming home, or being lost within the song.
Brilliant analysis. It is believed that Mark's father coined the term "Brothers in Arms," expressing the foolishness of waging war on one another. While it was said during the Falklands War, Mark's father had escaped Hungary many years earlier, through Czechoslovakia, and landed in North East England. His experience was therefore deeply personal. During his Dire Straits days, Mark often mentioned in interviews how his uncles fought in war on other sides and, if they had killed each other, "there'd be no strumming." As a matter of fact, after disbanding Dire Straits in the mid-1990's, Mark wrote another deeply personal song as a solo artist on the topic, "Piper to the End." It is in a sort of Celtic folk style, and he tells the story of (as Wikipedia describes), his "uncle Freddie who was a piper of the 1st Battalion, Tyneside Scottish, the Black Watch, Royal Highland Regiment. Freddie carried his pipes into action in World War II and was killed with fellow fighters at Ficheux, near Arras in the north of France in May 1940. He was just 20 years old."
Incredible insight of this fantastic song...thank you from Italy!
Thanks for your insightful analysis and your crystal clear explanation of music theory. I learned so much and enjoyed it immensely.
I would like this ten times if I could! You commented on everything I felt so strongly after your first listen, and also vastly expanding on all my emotions, musicality and musical theory! Thank you, I will bookmark this series, and especially this song, for learning moments to come!
Thanks for your profound and beautiful discussion of this song and its message.
Dear Amy, I think you're brilliant in your ability to teach music appreciation - what with the freshness of approaching music outside your usual comfort zone in the most open of ways. Insightful analyses that show your good grasp of music and art in general! Brothers in Arms is a masterpiece artistic statement, and it always gives me goosebumps. I've always loved and played folk, rock, and blues, but I started classical guitar studies earlier this year. So I love your page and what you're doing. Keep up the inspiring work! Best wishes from Detroit!
Great analysis. The song is profound but you've actually made me appreciate it much more. Rock can be so effective at its simplist. I think going forward you're probably going to realize that to a much greater degree. Enjoyed the video.
You have put into words my feelings and thank you for describing how the construction of the words and music develop those feelings .
This analyses are poetry, words come out of her like musical notes.
Thank you. That was perceptive and meaningfully put across.
This was wonderful. Thank you!
Thanks for showing me how the musical elements contribute to the emotion of the song. You have a wonderful, relatable style that allows a non-musician like me (although I've tried and failed miserably) to easily hop on board and learn something. Really well done!!! Thank you. 👍
Knopfler is right up there with my favorite emotive guitarists - Gilmour is the master but Knopfler stands on his own too imo. What a great, detailed, and well expressed analysis Amy - kudos for spending the time with this song it deserves.
I really enjoyed your analysis. I'm more used to hearing harmonic analysis but this is more on an emotional level that I haven't really seen before from a trained musician. Very good.
Brothers In Arms is a great album. It has two tracks, Money For Nothing and Walk Of Life, that were massively overplayed on radio and MTV. The other tracks were less radio friendly but deeper. There’s a lyric in there about prehistoric garbage trucks roaming the city streets.
That Lyric is from the song "Your latest trick" which is my favorite song off the whole album and as you have mentioned some of the lesser known tracks such as Ride Across The River, why Worry are very deep and reflective. The other popular songs lost a lot of their impact through overplaying on the radio for me. Your Latest Trick's opening trumpet solo is the most melancholy lead in to the opening of the song and the sax solo is just outstanding. I always felt that the songs Love Over Gold, Romeo and Juliet, Your latest Trick and Private Dancer were all written by Mark Knopfler at the same time about the same relationship just different views of it as reflected in each song.
there should be an especially hot and insufferably disgusterous area of hell, reserved specifically for radio djs who talked over the into of Money For Nothing. Their mashed potatoes should be forever undercooked.
@@Ar1k1"your latest trick" has got to be one of the most atmospheric songs. It's impossible not to get a picture of empty streets and streetlights and like steam coming out of drains or whatever that thing is that happens. I'm not sure what my favourite track on the album is but it's definitely a contender
So soulful! So thoughtful!
Wow…this was so cool! I’ve sung in choirs my whole life but never took a music theory course. I’m learning so much from you! Could you start a music theory course online for beginners?? I’d pay handsomely for that. You are a very lucid and engaging teacher !
Thank you for your excellent analysis and comments.
Musically complex I would say YES - Close to the Edge the movements and Arraignments will satisfy that for sure it is beautiful Prog Rock mastery
Thank you for being there and for communicating.
Very good. Thank you.
Fascinating view. Love the song and great to listen again with different ears as it were 👍
ps made comment before finishing, the bit at the end is wonderful.
Your words about this song and how it speaks to what is going on in the world right now were so beautiful.
Thanks for a comprehensible analysis.
I've known this song for decades, and I've tried to understand it for (what it seems) longer than that.
Possibly surprisingly, explanation doesn't make it sound any less magical to me.
The genius of Mark Knopfler a master of the guitar revered by his peers, Mark is a prolific song writer from his Dire Straits days right through to today for his vast solo work.
Amy the lilt in your expression at 8:42 is perfect for the point you are making. It's a small subtle movement that says so much
Great analysis of a great song...loved it.