Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms - A Classical Musician’s In-Depth Analysis
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ย. 2024
- 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.
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.
@@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
I understand now why i didn't knew this song, it was prohibited here in Argentina. The question is, do you know something about argentinian music? In fact, many youtubers are reacting to Argentina's Rock music of those moving years (that dictatorship that ended with that war unintentionally increased composers creativity to not being censured by the lyrics and that effort to be smarter than the military junta transferred to music, so are brilliant pieces atl late 70's, and rock concerts were the shelter in which people who was against the dictatorship could meet each other, even knowing that probably after the concert they could sleep in a police station that night), are you interested in reacting to rock music from the bottom of the world....next year? 🤭 very sensitive reaction, congrats.
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.
And peace be unto you Brother.
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.
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.
From when I heard his voice as a young and think that he coulnt sing so well... 40 year later my brain have been better🙂
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.
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! 👍
Go easy Gentlemen. She's into music. I like that. You like that. We all like that. Put the hammers aside. Rejoice in her knowledge and insight. Don't smash it. Happy New Year. Slava Ukraine
This is the loveliest analysis of a very special piece of music. Thank you. So kind, mature, open minded
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
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.
I will never look at this song the same way again, you just brought it even closer to my hart.
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
Mark Knoffler. Probably one of the greatest guitarists ever.
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.
That comment on the harmonic structure not returning home at the end just like the soldier not returning home ... Whoa.
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 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.
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
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 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
@@adamg6643 He (Wolf Kahler) also plays "The King of Bohemia" in the SUPERLATIVE and DEFINITIVE portrayal of Sherlock Holmes by Jeremy Brett in the Granada Sherlock Holmes TV series....perfectly portrays his character's Germanic "nobility" and arrogance!! WELL WORTH A VIEWING 😉....
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 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\
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.
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!
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.
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
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.
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*
Very beautiful explanation of the meaning behind the song. Totally in accordance with what I believe. Soldiers fight against soldiers, not for their own benefit, but for the benefit of the rich and powerful who never fight nor allow their children to fight. War is created by the greed of those who have more than they need but still want more.
In some ways that is often true. Those who start wars have done so mostly because they think they will profit, no matter how many die. But often soldiers also have to fight desperately to defend their homes and protect their neighbors and fellow citizens. Though of course, in a way, they are made to fight because someone else would profit from taking their homes or destroying their lives.
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 :-)
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.
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.
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.
I get the impression you are a music teacher. If not you should be. If you are you are excellent at it. I have been a part time musician for most of my life and am well versed in music theory. Your explanations are well suited for non musicians. Another music channel that teaches music is Rick Beato but where his channel is geard toward musicians and delves deeply into music theory this gives just enough theory to give non and beginner musicians a good understanding. Excellent job and I applaud you.
A professionally trained musician
Simply beautiful. Thank you Amy.
That was a fascinating look behind the music and lyrics of a song I know well. I loved the way you saw right through to the depth of the emotions expressed in a 'simple' way. Mark Knopfler has said that Scottish folk music has been an influence on him and it shows in this piece particularly I think.
That may have been one of your best posts yet,you're wonderful!
I'm very impressed, very impressed.
Thank you madam!
Telegraph road by dire straits is a piece of music story you should deffo give a listen... It's the amalgamation of every dire straits song/style all into one beautiful and carefully crafted story about the humble beginnings of Detroit to it's desperate endings...
If you do choose to react to it, the version I'd recommend is the alchemy live, that concert is a masterpiece on its own.
Alan Clark on the piano there is 10/10
I said that too in the first post. That’s probably my all time fav
And has some very unique guitar pieces , especially the long solo towards the end . It is a story. ,,that is sung
Another of Mark's similar songs is Going Home on the album/ movie LOCAL HERO
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.
Thank you for the analysis. It was so in depth. 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.
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.
Beautiful insights into this brilliant song! As a classical guitarist initially inspired to play guitar by Mark’s playing, I’ve analyzed his solo playing over and over and over again in my mind. For example, the way his playing treats the iii chord as a temporary tonic with his inclusion of E# in his F# -> E# -> D# run during the verses, further creating a sense of being stranded somewhere far from home, both emotionally and physically. Or the way his solo erupts sooner and sooner into the start of each instrumental section, like his emotional container erupting more and more passionately the closer to his own truth he gets. Such a brilliant song. Thanks for your time with it!
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.
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.
A classically trained artist you would probably like is Tori Amos. She entered conservatory at age six.
Ooo yes. Love Tori. Saw her live at the state theater minneapolis mn. She absolutely blew me away!
[NODS] Musically magnificent, and *lyrically*... well, not for the faint-of-heart, shall we say?
Tori Amos; put an album on, listen to the entire thing, and like every song. Then put another one on and do it again. There aren't many artist like that!
Wasn't it also Tori who played a harp and a piano at the same time, while singing, at a live show?
Tori is great, but Kate Bush would be even more interesting for her to dig in.
Falklands war was 1982 (not 1892). :)
Oh boy, did I say 1892?! I didn’t even catch it! (I do have it written correctly in my notes…) Yikes.
This analysis blew my mind. The concept of the chord progression rarely returning home and the lyrics being about a soldier not returning home. 🤯
Thank you for your videos!
Search up the concept of 'Functional Harmony' for an explanation of the musical theory component of what she's talking about. Thank me later :)
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.
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.
Simply brilliant and very humane analysis. Love it, you truly are an expert.
I've been listening to this song for 37 years and hadn't picked up on the music not going "home" (just like the soldier). Nice analysis. The guitar sound is absolutely perfect -- distorted enough to get "angry" in places, soft enough to enhance the melodic play
This analyses are poetry, words come out of her like musical notes.
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
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.
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
There is a Swedish heavy metal band called Sabaton that did a song called "Christmas Truce" that is about the events you mentioned during WW1, it might be worth checking out.
Sabaton are an interesting band. They’ve pretty much invented historian metal, using their main channel for the songs and their history channel to explore the events that inspired the songs. They’ve probably increased the grades of a lot of kids who weren’t engaged in class.
@@darrenjones5885 I wish they were around when I was in school, I liked history, and I think I have learned more from them than I did in class.
I was hoping i wasn't the only one who immediately thought of this and don't forget floor jansen singing in the credits 👆👌
Well done Vlad for choosing this song, and top analysis once again, Amy. Who knew there was more to Rock Bands than loud playing and hotel wrecking?
What rich insights, thank you. You explain professionally why I feel emotionally, taking us to the same (or similar) place of musical admiration.
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 !
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. 👍
The two part/episode approach allows for a deeper understanding & analysis. So well done. So many insights. Thank you!
I'm not a musician or musicologist but by 5 minutes in I was listening fascinated to your explanation of major and minor keys and chords. Well done!
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."
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.
"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".
Yeah...you found the key. Im just a poor playing guitarplayer, but, after all i had learnt about music and the world after all: keep it simple! its easy....but you have to found the entry. Thats the key for all. ;-) Thank you for your uploads here. Great. :-) (Not a native english speaker)
after serving for 27 yrs i know exactly what you are talking about
Amy, the poignancy of your late discovery of this music almost brings tears to my eyes. I'm seventy. The songs of rock n roll music tell the story of my life. What keeps me from seeing you as Star Man (have you seen the movie?) is that I'm learning musical syntax fluency and improvisation from a virtuoso classical pianist who loves soul music. Many rock songs have social justice themes that arose in the specific time of writing. Classical music is in an ivory tower, while lots of (non-silly-love-song) pop music is like the accompaniment to the end of the world. Note the band's name: Dire Straits.
This piece has great meaning to those of us who have served but now absolutely loath war. Your musical analysis is fantastic. I subscribed.
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!
I'm amazed that with the wonderful analysis and the poppies calling to mind the Great War, no one has pointed out Remembrance Day from Knopfler's solo album Get Lucky in 2009. I consider it the bookend -- stylistically and emotionally -- to Brothers in Arms. Highly recommend! Thank you for the wonderful perspective on this piece of musical magic.
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.
Thank you for this superb analysis! Mark Knopfler's talents exceed even his expertise here as a guitarist and song writer. He has written a number of film scores i.e. Local Hero, The Princess Bride etc that are well worth exploring.
such a beautiful breakdown of a wonderful song. Thank you for the analogy of coming home, or being lost within the song.
You deserve your own TV programme.
Thank you for a lovely in-depth analysis. I’ll be watching more of your videos.
"The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him." ― G.K. Chesterton
Please never stop making videos!
The perfect cadence generally plays a much smaller role in Pop. The plagal cadence is often used no matter what the subject matter of the lyrics are. Chord progressions are often written so that they don't resolve strongly and can instead carry on more easily. The I - V - vi - IV progression, that loops around all the time, embodies that perfectly. It is nowadays called a four-chord loop and is used so often that it's become annoying to many music lovers. Also, syncopation and ending a line before or after a strong beat is found everywhere all the time. It is playing with rhythmic rather than melodic or harmonic tension. Nevertheless, I fully agree with your analysis and someone like Mark Knopfler is probably aware of his musical choices.
His voice is a narrator. The guitar does the singing providing context to the words
Thank you so much for this, Amy. A wonderful and sensitive analysis of a beloved song.
My goodness, that was an analysis and a half. Brilliant!
Wonderfully explained to help us all appreciate that Mark Knopfler's music writing was far more sophisticated on so many more levels than we realised. Thank you.
I agree with your sentiments here wholeheartedly.
And thank you for your analysis of this beautiful track. It used to be one of my favourites to play on guitar. I haven't been able to listen to Dire Straits since I lost some fingers on my chord hand.
I have tears rolling down my cheeks but you gave me enough besides the guitar to think about so i could listen to Brothers in Arms for the first time since I had to put down my beloved 1982 Aria Pro II ZZ Deluxe.
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦
How remarkably true and pleasing..
Losing and regaining, or more accurately, attempting to hold on to humanity is what is being experienced in this song. Those who use war as a solution have lost their humanity. Perhaps this is what Dire Straits wants us to feel....the tragedy of war. The pointlessness, the inhumanity of war. Losing your life, losing your home, feeling the ache and sorrow of not being able to return.
This analysis is wonderful for showing how the magic was created and the incredible depth achieved. Subtle, but no accident.
beautiful
Thanks for your insightful analysis and your crystal clear explanation of music theory. I learned so much and enjoyed it immensely.
Your analysis is spot on and for those of us familiar with the song is an amazing music lesson. I would say that I don't think it's narrated by a dying soldier but rather from a soldier after he died wanting ro comfort his brothers in arms.
Dire Straits is my favorite band. Thank you so much for this excellent, educational analysis and keep up the great work!
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.
Thank you for such an insightful analysis. one of my favorite songs.
Very good. Thank you.
This!!! This is what the love of music is all about. Thank you for this channel Amy.
Thank you for being there and for communicating.
this song is more of a lullaby to help some warrior's toddlers to go to sleep, with those artillery attenuated sounds in the background.