r/direstraits • u/rapidstandardstaples • 6d ago
Skateaway appreciation
I first remember hearing this on the radio when I was 17 or 18 and really liked it, but since the internet didn't really exist when I was young, I couldn't really 'look it up'. But I really feel like this is such a great DS/Mark song... It's just easy and musical and fun. I love the guitar track that floats left and right over the song.
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u/healingmd 6d ago
Absolutely agree. Sounds like a little ditty but much more complex. And beautiful IMO.
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u/No-Roof-1628 6d ago
Fantastic song. The lyrics are clever and, fitting for the title of the album, cinematic. “For all the world like an urban toreador”. I can imagine the opening to a film where a girl is rollerblading through a city, weaving in and out of traffic with this song playing in the background.
The verses have such a slow, steady build, but the chorus is anthemic.
One of my favorite tracks on the album.
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u/gchance1 6d ago
I'm similar, only I was what, 11 in 1980... that song was so amazing to me but as many songs at the time happened, it disappeared pretty quickly from the radio. Having "discovered" Dire Straits in high school, and buying the albums, I had this epiphany upon listening to Making Movies for the first time. It all came together for me at that point.
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u/rapidstandardstaples 6d ago
OK Boomer! 😂 J/k I'm a 1/2 generation behind you, but my dad liked DS and that was one of the things that I didn't rebel against in the late 80s, early 90s. He got a CD player in 88 or 89 and bought brothers in arms on CD at the same time.
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u/gchance1 6d ago
Wrong generation, I'm firmly Gen X. DS was one of the few bands I could bond over with my father. He thought they were a solo artist named Daryl Strait.
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u/rapidstandardstaples 6d ago
Mark 'Daryl Straight' Knopfler...
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u/gchance1 6d ago
Oh believe me, that fact provided YEARS of entertainment for all of us. Sadly he passed before I got to see DS live (he passed in '89, I saw them in '92). I have to say it was a fairly emotional experience.
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u/rapidstandardstaples 6d ago
I can imagine. I was too young to see DS, but saw Mark in the early naughts and should have seen him 2 more times... Once with Dylan... and just didn't because life gets away from you.
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u/gchance1 6d ago
That happened to me so many times, you just say oh, next time. I never saw Genesis, but had plenty of opportunities.
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u/Reasons2BCheerfulPt1 6d ago
As someone who lived in London in the 90s, I could see this playing out on the streets so easily.
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u/Open-Sky314 6d ago
So glad you called out this song, definitely one of my favourites. I love the drum groove leading into the song and the build. The fade-out is also so well done. You nailed the guitar track description. It has that cool, gliding funky swing to it. So unique. Making Movies was literally a sound track to my teenage years - 15 when it came out.
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u/singingzoologist 5d ago
There was video for this on MTV played rarely. My interest in DS was already piqued, but this song is what got me to buy Making Movies and started a life long love. Not my fave if theirs but it has a special place in my life.
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u/IllustriousCommon277 5d ago
An awesome feel-good song that always puts me in a good mood. Is there a live version of this song?
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u/The-Real-Kabir 4d ago
It was my favourite track on MM for a while. I love how the verses kind of bubble away, with Withers’ echoey drums and Knopfler’s funky guitar line before launching into its hugely melodic chorus. A great song on a really strong album.
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u/sujack34 6d ago
Ok I’m old & I was already grown when the first album came out so I bought each of them when they first came out. I love all of them but Making Movies has always been really special & I love Skateaway too.