Get the Ricochet app
Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.
Back in the mid-seventies my first corporate job was working as a flight attendant for TWA. I was fortunate enough to work European flights. Paris, London, and Rome.
I was never fortunate enough to get the big trip to Tel Aviv. A seven-day trip that meant a big travel money per diem gig. No one ever called in sick that had that line of time.
When I worked the London flights I would buy a carton of Marlboros in the duty-free shop at JFK. The London layover was about a day and a half in a Kensington Park hotel. As an international flight attendant you got your own hotel room, unlike a domestic line of time when you always had a roommate.
The flight crew on the London trip never had to go through customs in Britain. The purser would just present the list of names of the crew, and we were in. As crew members we never entered the corridors and gates of Heathrow so that there would be no chance that our badges or passports could be lost to potential hijackers.
I would go to a British pub and never had to buy a drink because I would hand out a pack of Marlboros. "Keep the pack mate." Pubs close early in the UK, unlike in New York where I was based.
The Sultans of Swing brings back some memories of spending time in a British pub where I met some great people.
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 Yes and an old guitar is all he can afford When he gets up under the lights to play his thing
Unlike Guitar George, Mark Knopfler knows how to make a guitar cry or sing.
Discussion (11)
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
The live album "Alchemy" has a (something like) 12-minute version of "Sultans." Still one of the best tracks I've ever heard. I took my son to hear Mark Knopfler in (oh, around) 2000 in Minneapolis. It was a tour tied to his "Sailing to Philadelphia" album. The added benefit was that Paul Thorn was the opening act - very much worth checking out.
A pint was 40p in 1980 and I don't recall what I would have paid for a pack of cigarettes (if I smoked), but I think you made a pretty good deal in trading in Marlboros as I'm sure that added to the good cheer.
CONTRIBUTOR • CHARTER MEMBER
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
A great post and a lot of fun. i look forward to seeing this on the Main Feed (I hope!). Ricochet is made up of people with incredibly diverse experiences, long before "diversity" became a cliche of conformists.
CHARTER MEMBER
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
Funny. For some reason my YouTube feed fed me this song today, and a host of millennials recording their impressions on hearing this song for the first time from this strange band called Dire Straits.
These weren’t kids, but fully grown adult people. They seemed musically adept. And yet they were unaware of Dire Straits.
I was intrigued.
So I watched a few. Then I ended up watching about ten. Ten different young savvy youtube-content-providers, reporting on the world, who had discovered this band, this song, and the legendary live performance that was the Alchemy tour.
They were all blown away. As they should have been, of course, as anyone would be - this is an extraordinary piece of art.
But I was also kind of blown away, that this was a completely new experience for them. I thought we lived in a time where everybody knows about everything.
Thats obviously not realistic, who has the time? I realize that, though she’s in the news a lot, I don’t know a single Taylor swift song, or even what her voice sounds like. I shouldn’t be surprised that someone who does might not be aware of my stuff.
Several of these same people tried out some Pink Floyd for the first time too, they all seemed to be impressed.
Ah, well.
Here, let me see if I can tee one of these up for you:
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
I've always loved Industrial Disease and Telegraph Road as my go to Dire Straits songs. Money for Nothing is also quite good. Knophler has a distinctive voice, not as much as Geddy Lee, but you know him almost instantly.
CHARTER MEMBER
To read this bio, please join Ricochet.
The YouTube algorithm knows to always recommend me DS and MK related videos. So ever since reaction videos became popular several years ago, every day, I see tons of Sultans of Swing Alchemy reaction videos in my recommended feed. The original video is already popular, but if you do concert reaction videos, the algorithm encourages you to react to this one, Queen at Live Aid, and Pink Floyd Pulse. Anyway, it’s pretty hilarious seeing how people react to Knopfler’s style. They can’t really pinpoint why the performance is amazing (the unique fingerpicking, DS being an extremely tight band live, and many other reasons), but they can tell they’re watching a master at work.
You're seeing five of eleven comments. Sign in, or join for just $5 per month, to read them all and add your own.