This year marks 40 years of Mark Knopfler, David Knopfler and John Illsley, from Dire Straits, career in music. 40 years, how time flies !
40 years ago, brothers Mark and David Knopfler, together with their flat mate John Illsley and a drummer, known by Mark, Pick Withers (who already had experience in the music bussiness), founded the band Dire Straits, named after the bad financial situation they were in when living in Deptford, South-East London.
That year, 1977, they played their first concert as a band in the open grass central courtyard of Farrer House, the building where they were living. Shortly after they decided to spend some savings provided by the bassist, John Illsley, and go to Islington, in North London, to record a demo tape.
The demo tape. Five songs were recorded on that demo tape, “Sultans Of Swing”, “Down To The Waterline”, “Water Of Love”, “Wild West End” and “Sacred Loving”. It gets to Charlie Gillett’s hands, a Radio London dj. Impressed, he plays “Sultans Of Swing” in his programme “Honky Tonk”, receiving many calls from A&R men from various record companies, asking for that band that sounded “so American”.
Image of the original tape received by Charlie Gillett, from the forum of his own site.
That demo tape was the first step in their career, 40 years ago. In 2015, during the “Record Store Day”, released a double single with the demos, under the title “The Honky Tonk Demos”, however not all the songs were included, one was left out, “Sacred Loving”.
“Sacred Loving” was the only song written by David Knopfler on that demo tape. The song was part of the live repertoire of the band during those early gigs 40 years ago but was never released and has been hidden 40 years, until now as, thanks to an anonymous source we can enjoy 21 seconds of the demo, (we do not have the entire song, just that 21 seconds, so don’t ask) and the lyrics kindly provided by David Knopfler himself and a another who helped with part of the lyrics that were accidentally deleted from the original received from David
Oh my love I wish I were strong
To carry your pain
If my hands were of a granite
I’d take all of your needs and never bend
They say, you'll be weakness only with passion
That goodness come only through fire
My wisdom is so wild eyed
A child is still with me, so is desire
Living and loving sharing just nothing
Waiting and praying just hoping for change
It's the way of the world, so uncaring
That a bad man needs good love is hard to explain
Sacred loving, without it there’s just nothing
I feel so humbled by the ways I've lied
You ride with the winds, fly with your horses
And I hide from a devil howling inside.
Next year will mark not only 40 years of Mark, David and John career in music but also the first Dire Straits record release that will be the start of their successful career that lasted until 1995, when the band dissolved officially, after six studio records, one EP of three songs and two live records. Mark Knopfler’s solo career started from then.
And what a better way of celebrate that Dire Straits was born 40 years ago than being inducted to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame!
