Dire Straits, "Sultans of Swing," Acoustic Guitar Cover

See Lyrics Below

Butch takes a shot at the "Soul-tins of Swing," the first single by the British rock band Dire Straits.

The story is that of the diverse members of a working-class jazz group who only want to play their distinctive sound in a small London club, and don't care how popular they are.

With its Dylanesque lyrics and vocals, along with economic guitar fills, this song was a marked departure from the waning disco style and the nascent punk movement.

The song's unique feature is that nearly every fill is different from the last, and no fills in any of the verses are repeated. The arrangement of was straightforward: two guitars, a bass, and a straight 4/4 beat on the drums.

Dire Straits' original lineup has Mark Knopfler on vocals and lead guitar, David Knopfler on rhythm guitar, John Illsley on bass, and Pick Withers on drums.

It was first recorded as a demo at Pathway Studios, North London, and quickly acquired a following after it was put in the rotation at Radio London. It did not take long for its popularity to reach record executives, and Dire Straits were offered a contract with Phonogram, a British record company. The song was then re-recorded and released in both the United Kingdom and the United States, though the demo version remained on the original UK Vertigo single.

The song entered the American music pop charts in early 1979. Unusually, the success of this single release came more than six months after the relatively unheralded release of the band's debut album in October 1978. BBC Radio was unwilling to play the song due to its high lyrical content; after it became a U.S.A. hit, however, their line softened.

The song reached the top 10 in both the UK and the U.S., reaching number 8 on the UK Singles Chart and number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and helped drive sales of the album, which also became a hit.

LYRICS:

You get a shiver in the dark
Its been raining in the park but meantime
South of the river you stop and you hold everything
A band is blowing dixie double four time
You feel all right when you hear that music ring

You step inside but you dont see too many faces
Coming in out of the rain to hear the jazz go down
Too much competition too many other places
But not too many horns can make that sound
Way on down south, way on down south
London town

You check out guitar george he knows all the chords
Mind he's strictly rhythm
He doesn't want to make it cry or sing
And an old guitar is all he can afford
When he gets up under the lights to play his thing

And Harry doesn't mind
If he doesn't make the scene
Hes got a daytime job hes doing alright
He can play honky tonk just like anything
Saving it up for Friday night
With the sultans with the sultans of swing

A crowd of young boys they fooling around
In the corner
Drunk and dressed in their best brown baggies
And their platform soles
They don't give a damn
About any trumpet playing band
It ain't what they call rock and roll
And the sultans played creole

And then the man he steps right up
To the microphone
And says at last just as the time bell rings
Thank you, goodnight, now its time to go home
And he makes it fast with one more thing
We are the sultans of swing

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Dire
• Straits
• Sultans
• of
• Swing
• Acoustic
• Guitar
• cover
• by
• butch
• lacy
• bob
• dylan
• country
• motown
• folk
• classic
• rock
• soul
• with
• lyrics
• and
• vocals

[ThePapPaNooB]

he looks like stone cold steve austin haha

[91maxxxx]

Bruce Willis

[EpicArabianPony]

is he on drugs? just his face...

[me12learnpolish]

good cover..i like everything- your voice,guitar and most importantly your expressions.

[zepecat]

way to go! you rock man

[smudgeservices]

good voice for this song

[Finnologe]

Nice ;) I like it :D

[Geotubest]

I'm diggin' it.

[ben8772]

cool version man

[TaRRi97]

nice man! :D

[LionHeartiano]

pareces un zumbao...pero me encanta la version!

[dncviorel]

He should be on SNL for some Dire Straits parody thing.

[LegendOfZeldaFan17]

Very talented!!! Everything sounds right on target! Great job :)

[caseystanley6]

Man allI these people talking shit about you....I don't see their video up on youtube....your good man...fine tune your vocals a lil and gt your rhythm smooth for the whole song,its good....that's the only song that seem to make my hands tired!

[AnthemOfTheDevils]

He shakes too much.

[Nick1990Bass]

eheh sultans of swing whith james hetfield's voice!

[sebastiangrenegade]

@TropasKitty hahahaaha!!! yes!! but it's acoustic and just one guitar!! for me it is a good cover! you have to be very very good guitarist to play this with the solos!!

[teufelchen569]

@ThePapPaNooB haha xD



[Eatdatbich]

so bad its almost good...but quite funny

[BassMarv92]

schade das du 2:15 einmal die saite totgeklemmt hast aber echt ein mega geiles cover gespielt als auch gesanglich du hast echt potenzial

[TropasKitty]

Waiting for the solo that never came :( dislike

[stevestutz]

new orleans town, nice

[piscolabis16]

woa, i can feel your love and heart thru this song. briliant

[fireforge1979]

perfect voice! great guitar

[KaThlynxx]

i love this song and im 14! this is also by far the best cover of this song, good job! :)