ROCK OF LIFE

THE BROTHERS IN ARMS CD TURNS 40 BY MIKE METTLER

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THE COMPACT DISC NEEDED A BIG WIN—AND FAST. DURING ITS FIRST FEW YEARS IN THE MARKETPLACE, THE FORMAT WASN'T LIVING UP TO LOFTY EXPECTATIONS. PART OF THE PROBLEM MAYBE WAS THAT MOST OF THE CDs RELEASED UP TO THAT TIME CAME FROM ANALOG SOURCES. BUT THEN ON MAY 17, 1985, THE CD'S SAVIOR ARRIVED: BROTHERS IN ARMS, THE FIFTH STUDIO ALBUM RELEASE BY BRITISH ROCK STAL-WARTS DIRE STRAITS. TRUMPETED AS ONE OF THE FIRST "FULL DIGITAL RECORDINGS" IN THE POP/ROCK OEUVRE, BROTHERS IN ARMS WAS an undeniable smash international hit from a band that had struck it big already. Exactly 40 years later, it remains a benchmark recording and a top seller.

Is there anyone out there who doesn't know this album, with that rowdy introduction leading into the huge, cynical No.1 single, the oft-misinterpreted "Money for Nothing"? That of course was followed by the lovelorn travelog "So Far Away," "Walk of Life," a jaunty rockabilly shuffle, then the eerily foreboding title track. Brothers in Arms was the first album to sell a million CDs, and it has since sold at least 29 million more worldwide, nine million RIAA-certified copies in the US alone. Seizing their platinum opportunity, Philips sponsored the band's hugely successful 200-date 1985-'86 world tour. The album spent nine weeks at #1 on the US Billboard 200 chart and 14 weeks in the UK. On the enduring strength of Brothers in Arms, Dire Straits strode the boards as international renowned superstars until they called it quits in 1992. “Brothers in Arms has certain sonic qualities and qualifications that helped it reach critical mass,” Mark Knopfler, the Straits’ chief songwriter, lead guitarist, and lead vocalist, told me for this