Dire Straits Songs - Sultans Of Swing Lyrics

Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing

Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Dire Straits
Released: 1978

Sultans Of Swing Lyrics

You get a shiver in the dark,
It's a 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 alright when you hear the music ring
Well now you step inside but you don't see too many faces
Coming in out of the rain they hear the jazz go down
Competition in other places
Uh but the horns they blowin' that sound
Way on downsouth
Way on downsouth
London town
Check out guitar george, he knows-all the chords
Mind he's strictly rhythm he doesn't want to make them cry or sing
They said 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
He's got a daytime job, he's doing alright
He can play the honky tonk like anything
Savin' it up, for Friday night
With the Sultans
We're the Sultans Of Swing
Then a crowd a young boys they're a foolin' 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 playin' band
It ain't what they call rock and roll
Then the Sultans
Yeah the Sultans they play creole, creole

And then the man he steps right up to the microphone
And says at last just as the time bell rings
Goodnight, now it's time to go home
And he makes it fast with one more thing

We are the Sultans
We are the Sultans of Swing

Writer/s: KNOPFLER, MARK
Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Sultans Of Swing Song Chart

This song is about guys who go to a club after work, listen to music and have a good time. They are there for the music, and not for the image presented by the band. The song was a marked change from the waning Disco style and the nascent Punk movement. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

Group leader Mark Knopfler got the idea for song this from watching a lousy club band perform. As the story goes, Knopfler was in Ipswich on a rainy night. He ducked into a bar where a mediocre band was closing out the night to an audience that was maybe four or five drunks unaware of their surroundings. The hapless band ended their set with the lead singer announcing, with no apparent irony, "Goodnight and thank you. We are the sultans of swing." Knopfler got a lot of songwriting ideas from observing everyday people, something that got harder to do when he became famous. (thanks, S.D. - Denver, CO)

This was Dire Straits' first single. It was one of 5 songs on a demo tape they used to get their record deal. The tape got played on London radio and started a bidding war for the band.

Despite the title, the song is not played with a swing rhythm. (thanks, Mark - West Bountiful, UT)

We did our best to learn more about this, but we could neither confirm nor disprove this entry. If you know more about it, send us a note:
There is a CD which contains 24 tracks which were from a production company which recorded various artists between 1989-1995. One of the tracks was by an artist only identified as "B. Wilson." There was an asterisk after his name and on the CD it says that this was from a live show performed at The Warehouse which was in Indianapolis, Indiana. Before Wilson plays his song he says the following:
"I do this thing I cowrote about, I guess, it's been about 12 years ago I wrote the lyrics and a friend of mine used to work a lot of sessions for my old producer, Bob Johnston, and worked a session with this fellow from England by the name of Mark Knopfler. Has his own group over there called Dire Straits. He had this little melody. It sounded like "Walk, Don't Run." And he had this little story concerning a band that nobody wanted to listen to. Only a few people show up to hear. So we got together one night after the session and tossed these lyrics around on a napkin and I guess I wound up writing most of the lyrics to the tune. made enough money to buy a new Blazer that year I remember, so... didn't do too bad. It goes like this..."
Then he starts playing an acoustic guitar, strumming Spanish style and sings Sultans of Swing. The lyrics are pretty close to what Mark Knopfler recorded but are slightly different. (thanks, JJ - Bloomington, IN)

Regarding the line, "The band was playing Dixie double four time," Dixie double is a style popularized by Django Reinhradt (and Les Paul in his early years) where the guitar goes quite fast and plays bass as well, all together.

Knopfler has said that he is sick of this song because he had to play it thousands of times.

The "Guitar George" and "Harry" who are mentioned in the lyrics are George Young and Harry Vander, who were guitarists in the band The Easybeats. George Young is Angus Young's older brother and Harry and George helped get AC/DC recorded.

Dire Straits played a nearly 10 minute version with lots of saxophone at Live Aid in 1985. This performance is available on the Live Aid DVD.

Their 1998 Greatest Hits compilation Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits was named after this song.

System Of A Down sometimes covers this at concerts.

According to Rolling Stone magazine in their "100 Greatest Guitar Songs" issue, Mark Knopfler wrote the song on acoustic guitar, then switched to a Fender Stratocaster. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France, for above 5)

Alan Freed played trombone in his band named Sultans of Swing. He is credited with coining the term "Rock and Roll" on his radio show in Cleveland in the early '50s. It is ironic that the lyrics, "They don't give a damn about any trumpet playing band, it ain't what they call rock and roll" references the type of band Alan Freed led. (thanks, Samuel - Russell, PA)