I return to this song again and again. Its lyrics and their lyricism are splendid.
« To My Lordless Sons
To my lordless sons, these notes are for you
And I write this down fast 'cause the truth's on the move
Now, the ink, it may smudge through the damp and sodden years
From here to the day you're born
As I scratch this down on the back of my beermat
Your ancestors dance the devil out of their workmen's hats
There'll be nights like this for you when you'll shepherd all your dreams off
And the dancers weave around you where you sleep
Know that I first met your maker down at the travelling summer fair
Where we ran from stall to stall and caught all the moonlight in our hair
Here comes that feeling much like pain that wrings the daylight from your soul
When you burden one with all the love you hold
There'll be nights like this for you when the drink'll turn you in
When the stars will fall like arrows on the madness of all things
You might hate some for their kindness, you may well love some for their sins
On a thousand homeless journeys off the trail
And on your birthdays you'll dance down at the Old Town Inn
On the coastline you'll dig holes, and at the festivals you'll sing
Then someday you may have no choice but to sleep sound in the ruins
Of your own body in the doorway of this life
To my lordless sons, when your dust is long gone
And your names lay with the junk down in the basement of the gods
Don't say I never warned you with this useless drunken song
That the ride is wild and perfect and without you it goes on
The ride is wild for all
And without you it goes on »
This solo accoustic version is far better than the gaudy string orchestra version (here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSBrbmny9GQ). Indeed, as Joey Ryan says, it's Kenneth Pattengale's masterpiece.
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.
The first song I heard from Cohen. And I always return to it. All other songs: nice, interesting, effective, canny, but reutilisations of the template set by "Avalanche": The tension arising from guitar, strings and the voice bridging both.
Senegal, Mali, The Gambia! Ismaël Lô is a lesser known gem from this musical high culture, but his music has such a complex while at the same time floating texture... very different from, say, Ali Farka Touré, Baaba Maal, Oumou Sangaré...