Holly Vincent broke Mark Knopfler’s heart ?. Holly, the lead singer of ‘Holly & the Italians’ was Mark’s girlfriend for a couple of years between ’78-’79, just as Dire Straits became hugely successful. One evening, just as Mark was going to on stage at a Dire Straits concert in the US, terribly missing Holy, the 20-year old called Mark long-distance and rather brutally, broke up with him.? In an interview a little later, Holly was quoted as saying: “What happened was that I had a scene with Mark Knopfler and it got to the point where he couldn’t handle it and we split up.” Mark was deeply in love with Holly and took the breakup very badly, eventually believing she used his fame to further her career. Like all artists, he channeled the breakup into a trio of songs, ‘Romeo & Juliet’ ‘Love Over Gold’ and ‘It Never Rains’. The lyrics vividly spell out Mark’s anguish and anger, including these lines from ‘Romeo & Juliet’

‘ And I dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is real
How can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals?
You can fall for chains of silver, you can fall for chains of gold,
You can fall for pretty strangers, And the promises they hold,
You promised me everything, You promised me thick and thin, yeah,
Now you just say, oh, Romeo, yeah, you know I used to have a scene with him’.

Unfortunately, none of these songs were ever on the radio in Delhi – maybe Tunnel of Love but I’m not sure. I heard them on vinyl and cassette and just became more and more a fan. Looking back, the ’79-’82 the sound of Dire Straits, just after their debut album went ballistic, feels like them in transition. In ’79, the band were suddenly playing stadiums and ‘Sultans of Swing’ was shooting up the charts. Their label gang-pressed them to come up with a follow-up album, Communique which wasn’t great. Mark and his brother David just could no longer work with one another (David left in ’80 just after Communique was recorded) & Mark was heartbroken after Holly. And through all this, Dire Straits came out with fantastic music and word pictures.

‘Fire” – that’s always been my visual for Dire Straits’ music. Not the fire from the dazzling pyrotechnics of Zepp or Floyd or Purple. Rather a long-burning, smouldering fire that keeps you warm through the night, musical and lyrical masterpieces bursting into flames again and again, while you contemplate life with deep lyrics that paint pictures that are like watching a movie. ? Deep right ?? Thing is, most people miss out the depth of lyrics that Mark writes – the music, especially his guitaring is so mesmerising, we forget that Mark was constantly painting vignettes and writing stories with his lyrics and that amazing as the music, the lyrics are just as beautiful.

Ok enough pontification…watch/listen to these…enjoy….as I enjoyed singing these for the past 40 years!?