SOD: Dire Straits "On Every Street"

A great song, and a great album. It was Dire Straits 6th and final studio album, released in 1991. Mark Knopfler wrote all the songs himself, and they were something to behold. It came 6 years after Brothers In Arms (their last release), and was not received as well as it's predecesor critically. Though it did sell over 8 million copies (the vast majority in Europe).

The track list is chock full of singles, as 6 were released. "Calling Elvis" was over 6 minutes  but still got a video. It was a clever little idea supposing Elvis might still actually be alive. "Heavy Fuel" was another single that stuck with me, as it was a very catchy but precise rock n' roll tune. "Iron Hand" was a sort of overtly produced-folk song, which in itself is somewhat of an oxymoron, but I still found myself enjoying its simple but relatable music and lyrics. And "Planet of New Orleans" was like nothing I had heard before, seeing that I was only 8 years old, I think that's to be expected. I don't think I really understood it at the time.

But I remember the album very well, because my parents owned the cassette, and I used to take it and play it constantly on this old yellow portable mini-boom box like contraption. The song "On Every Street" was the standout track on this album, no question. I know my father would agree. It starts out with a quiet, almost desperate longing.


There's gotta be a record of you some place, 
you gotta be on somebody's books
The lowdown, a picture of your face
Your injured looks


The sacred and profane
The pleasure and the pain
Somewhere your fingerprints remain concrete.


And it's your face, I'm looking for
On every street.

It's a powerful beginning. There's little music to get in the way of those lyrics, and they sit like an arrow in the gut. Chris White provides some extremely physical saxophone throughout, and the song builds ever so subtly, until the original melody is taken by the guitar around 2:50, and the heartbeat of the song suddenly picks up. And a slight high-hat on the 2 and 4 enters and drives the song a lot more than you'd expect. It's a foreshadowing of what's to come, because once you hit the drum fill, there's no going back. And the next thing you know, you find yourself diving headlong into an explosive outro of sincere power and force. It turns you inside out. The perfect ending to the journey of a song.