♪ Dire Straits, "Sultans of Swing" (Cover by Mary Spender and Josh Turner) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcVJrul4sOA

Dire Straits' "Sultans of Swing" is one of very few perfect songs. It came out in 1978, the year my school class went on a two week holiday trip to the seaside resort of Brighton (UK) to one of those old holiday camps where families and pensioners used to go on vacation. The camp had its own dance hall which may have been used as a concert venue in earlier times, and a lot of old folks met there for their daily afternoon tea, biscuit, and bingo games. The song had just come out and was on the jukebox in the corner and I instantly fell in love with it. I played it over and over, and pretty much spent most of my money that my mon had given me for the trip on this song. Until, well, until one day I could no longer find the single in the jukebox. Guess I must have driven the pensioners crazy so they complained to the manager who then removed the single from the jukebox. A sad moment, but still: This is one of my favourite songs of all time. After I returned home, I didn't follow up on Dire Straits though but took a turn to Bauhaus, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Clash, and, later, Yazoo. Still British, but different styles.

There are many renditions of "Sultans of Swing" and I like how Mary Spender and Josh Turner with only two guitars create a cover so interesting that I keep watching while my feet do the tapping and add the drum part to their guitars and lovely voices (they sing alternating voices and duo).

Mary Spender also did an explanatory video on "Sultans of Swing" that goes more into details of the song and its story background, plus some analysis of Knopfler's splendid guitar playing and singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g00S-a_0lo You may like that as well.

!listening