Track 5Lady Writer

4:30 pm. The day isn’t slowing down by any means. But after all that sailing and walking from earlier, youre thirsty. Conveniently, you spot an open seat at a beachside tiki bar, and order an ice cold mojito. Sitting at the bar, you probably meet a pretty girl or something. Or maybe you have a wife at home that you’re thinking of. Whatever it is, the whole song is about a girl you’re in love with.

Mark Knopfler has been married and divorced 3 different times, so he might not be the guy you should listen to about women. However, in this song he clearly is in love with someone, even if it didn’t work out. Every single lyric in “lady writer” is about this girl, but don’t let that distract you from the events of our day. Women are distractions.

So its about 4:30, meaning the sun is getting pretty hot and starting to hang a little lower in the sky. For this reason, the shade from the tiki hut is amazing, and your mimosa is doing wonders. Life really doesn’t get better than this.

This song is interestingly enough the most popular from the album, spending 6 weeks in the billboard top 100 and peaking at #45 globally. An easy explanation for this is just how well the song flows. The chorus blends seamlessly into multiple verses, and in all of these Knopfler’s iconic conversational singing style is on full display. As if that’s not enough, at the 2 minute mark, we hear a legendary guitar solo. The bright guitar, addicting bassline, and signature Dire Straits drum pattern merge together into an instant classic. They were just showing off at this point.

This is just a beautiful song and timeless masterpiece. Many critics called it the second coming of “Sultans of Swing” upon release. While it didn’t reach the same popularity, I think “lady writer” is equally as good and deserving of 1.8 billion streams.