Michael Tae Sweeney: "do you feel the band Dire Straits is overrated, underrated or properly rated" would be a good Voight Kampff Test question.

"do you feel the band Dire Straits is overrated, underrated or properly rated" would be a good Voight Kampff Test question.

"BROTHERS IN ARMS sold 9 million copies in the United States" and you watch their little replicant eye twitch

That was just a great fucking record.

🔥

was gonna say about right, but hmm. that's a lot of copies. like a LOT

People loved that “Walk of Life” organ SO MUCH

Let me tell you about Twisting by the Pool

My first CD.

It's a perfect album.

First album to sell one million compact discs!

Was Sting's cameo of I Want My MTV on Money For Nothing the reason everyone loved the song? Or was it the video? Or neither?

It was the riff

The song blew up before people even caught on that it was Sting

That was like a mind-blowing fact for Casey Kasem to drop on ya

I'm sorry Tom, yes it isn't why it was a hit, but Sting's voice is very distinctive, this was 2 years after every breath you take, and riffing off "don't stand so close to me" (5 years earlier) was unmissable.

Agree. Finding out Mick Jagger sang back up on You’re So Vain is a Casey Kasem moment.

I remember thinking it sounded like Sting but dismissing the idea, because why would it be Sting?

Oh yes of course. I was joking.

LOL sorry there's basically no limit to what people might plausibly retcon onto pop culture

Ever since they tried to tell me Leo wasn't a star before Titanic I've felt like one of the History Men in Mad Max

Wut. He starred on one of the most popular sitcoms of the era before working with DeNiro and then getting an OSCAR NOM for Gilbert Grape but sure no one knew he existed

the best way of looking at it was that he was a promising up-and-comer before TITANIC and then he was a Mainstream Superstar, and the two aren't quite the same thing because pre-TITANIC, something like THE BEACH wouldn't have a big opening weekend because Leo was in it

he became a star a year AFTER Romeo+ Juliet (speaking of Dire Straits..)?? speaking as a tween girl at that time absolutely get real

Right. He got the role in Titanic BECAUSE he was a star already.

This is Gilbert Grape erasure.

It wasn’t like that when we were teenagers. I had to tell my mom that Mama Cass didn’t really choke on a ham sandwich

Oh absolutely. Lol. But I'm old as shit. Was young when MFN came out. My brother even older and was feeding me Sting and DS and Stewart Copeland and shit like that when I was in grade school

So the number ones column on stereogum is a good feature written by someone who is way too much of a poptimist, but dear lord the column on “money for nothing” was awful. It was basically like “dire straits was never good, Knopfler hates gay people, and this song is just a music video”

Made me very defensive of them

[Literally shaking my head]

He can write the hell out of a column, genuinely impressed by his copy and storytelling, but I had to peace out on the judgmental mean streak, whatever it’s in service of.

That column wore out its welcome years ago

I was arguing Armageddon made Steve Buscemi into Famous Weird Eyes Guy but then someone wrecked me with Con Air

All about that RIFF!!!

I thought everyone loved it because of the Weird Al cover

Both the song and the Weird Al cover are bangers

It drives me nuts when Weird Al gets pushed into the stunt music category. Brilliant writer, musician, and performer.

His original compositions are almost always the best songs on each album too

The whole thing where Dare To Be Stupid is the best Devo track ever released

Biggest Ball of Twine In Minnesota is a work of pure unadulterated genius

It also feels like he's a better musician than a lot of the people he covers.

Exceptions: Amish Paradise and The Saga Begins

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