Workingman's Dead - Dire Straits' "Love Over Gold"

February 13, 2022

“Love Over Gold?” Not “Making Movies,” with the classic song (and story) “Romeo and Juliet?” Not their self-titled debut, which gave every dad his favorite classic rock song, “Sultans of Swing?” Not even “Brothers in Arms,” blockbuster album and first release to sell a million CDs? No, I’m writing about “Love Over Gold” for two reasons: It’s my favorite Dire Straits album, and it gave us one of the funniest lyrics in songwriting history: “Two men say they’re Jesus - one of them must be wrong.”

I’m an impatient person. (Maybe that’s why I like pop punk - few songs run longer than 3.5 minutes.) There are about three songs I regularly listen to that have a runtime of about fifteen-plus minutes: Rush’s “2112,” GOJIRA’s “The Way of All Flesh,” and Dire Straits’ “Telegraph Road.” Each one of these songs feels like it’s 3.5 minutes long, but each one tells a story that’s more memorable than the plot of your average love-lorn pop punk song.

Few songwriters can paint me a picture with just music. David Gilmour, Leonard Cohen, and Mark Knopfler are a few examples. Despite the fact that I breathe music daily and have played piano since I was young, I struggle to hear stories in melody. Knopfler’s song “Private Investigations” was the first to break that barrier. I would bet you money you have never heard a song that paints a grimmer picture of a down-on-his-luck PI telling you his story in a smoky bar when a stranger walks in and the mood shifts and sidelong glances are exchanged and then a shotgun blasts and everyone dives for cover and only one gunfighter walks out of the bar.

Maybe that’s too specific. I expect I’d win my money, though.

“Industrial Disease” paints an altogether different picture. In Dylan ‘60s protest-singer style, and hilariously tongue in cheek, Knopfler sings about industrialism’s depressive and oppressive fog over the world. I won’t spoil this song; it’s funny, pointed, and musically interesting.

The last two songs are ones I return to least. The eponymous “Love Over Gold” and the closer “It Never Rains” are not to be missed, however. The first three songs are just that good.

Highlights:

• “Telegraph Road:” I recommend finding your local Telegraph Road and taking a drive down it while listening to this song. It’s amusing and you may find it drives the lyrics home in a unique way.

• “Private Investigations:” “My name is Bullet. Tracer Bullet. What people call me is something again. I’m a private eye. It says so on my door.”

• “Industrial Disease:” “How come Jesus gets industrial disease?”