Album of the day (#4625): Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits

[albummaster]

Today's album of the day

Brothers In Arms by Dire Straits (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 1985.
Country:
Overall rank: 223
Average rating: 78/100 (from 1112 votes).

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Tracks:
1. So Far Away
2. Money For Nothing
3. Walk Of Life
4. Your Latest Trick
5. Why Worry
6. Ride Across The River
7. The Man's Too Strong
8. One World
9. Brothers In Arms

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

[RockyRaccoon]

This is a great album and all but this will always hold a special place in my heart because of the song "Why Worry."

I dunno if I've told this story here before (I've been here long enough I probably have lol) but I was 19 when my first son was born. I may have thought I knew how to handle becoming a parent at 19 when it happened, but now at 32 looking back, I had no idea what I was doing (honestly, who ever does?).

But I very clearly remember the chaos of the day he was born. I had always been nervous thinking about becoming a dad when just a year earlier my plans were to spend four years at college just doing whatever, goofing off, doing the stuff college kids do. But now I was gonna be a dad, and that was scary, but I could always put that fear off and say "eh, I can worry about that later."

But the day he was born, that was later, and there was no putting things off. The baby was coming. My girlfriend at the time (now wife) was induced early in the morning and was in labor for about 13 hours before our son was born. And honestly, I barely remember any of it, my mind was just totally all over the place, I had no idea what was going on.

They later shuffled us off from the delivery room into the room where we could stay for the next couple days, and finally we had a moment of quiet while the baby slept. And I thought to myself, "I'm gonna listen to some music and relax." So I pop in my iPod, put it on shuffle, and the first song that pops up is "Why Worry."

And I remember staring at the hospital ceiling, tired, stressed, zoning out to the beautiful layers of guitars in the beginning, and then hearing Mark Knopfler sing:

Why worry?
There should be laughter after pain
There should be sunshine after rain
These things have always been the same
So, why worry, now? Why worry, now?

And suddenly in that moment, I felt like maybe I was gonna be alright. Yeah, my life was changing in a way that I couldn't fully process, but everything was going to be okay. Why worry?

edit: lol I can't believe I wrote a whole thing about how much I love Why Worry and I called it Don't Worry
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2023 Chart

Early Psychedelic Rock

Electronic Chart

[Romanelli]

Rocky...I can surely appreciate your story. I love when a song can be life changing and actually meaningful.

But...as for Brothers In Arms as a whole...the more time that goes by, the more I realize that it's pretty overrated, mostly because of "Money For Nothing". "Walk Of Life" is actually a great country track...but after the first three songs, this record becomes such an absolute snoozefest that folks like Christopher Cross and James Blunt start seeming more like metal. It's well crafted, and it's well played...and it's absolutely flat and dull as a butter knife. My love for this album is quickly slipping away as time does the same. It's in danger of becoming my absolute least favorite Dire Straits album (even below On Every Street) because it's so relentlessly mellow after "Walk Of Life", and because "Money For Nothing" (a pure novelty song) and "So Far Away" have aged so poorly.
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May we all get to heaven
'Fore the devil knows we're dead...

[albummaster]

Also a big fan of this album, Why Worry is also one of my favourite tracks. I love the mellowness of the album, to me that's something I enjoy. Agree that Walk of Life sounds incredibly dated, and Money for Nothing was of a time, Fwiw, I probably enjoy Alchemy, the most out of their albums, but Knopfler is an amazing guitarist.

[CharlieBarley]

Why Worry is a great track. Great story Rocky. Very inspiring. I liked reading that.

Why Worry reminds me of my Uncle Tom as it's one of his favourite songs. Interestingly he too became a Father aged 19.

By the way this album sounds great driving along the motorway, (or freeway if you prefer), in the middle of the night.

When I was younger my Family moved from Scotland to the south of England.
We would go back up to Scotland about four times a year for a visit and my Dad used to drive us through the night to avoid traffic.
I used to love listening to this album that late at night whilst drifting off to sleep in the back seat. Why worry and the song Brothers in Arms sounded particularly good on the road, in the dark, heading for home.