# Dire Straits "Sultans of Swing"--needs some horns, darnit!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** music
**Created:** [September 13, 2025, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020 "2025-09-13T18:03:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/1 "2025-09-13T18:03:23Z")
Okay, so a guy steps in out of the rain and sees the Sultans of Swing on stage.
But he doesn’t see too many faces, because they don’t give a damn about a trumpet-playing band–it ain’t what they call rock and roll.
So the guy writes a really great rock 'n roll song… about the band that’s playing Dixie, double four time.
But…well, how 'bout showing some respect for that band?
Put in a few lines of horns.
You know… after the line “they don’t give a damn, about a trumpet-playing band”–hire a trumpet player, Mr. Knopfler! And let him add a lick\* or two, along with your guitar licks.
And after the lyrics “the horns are blowing that sound”–let us hear some horns.
Now, how would this affect the overall quality of the song? Well, I dunno, I ain’t no musician.
But,to me, the lyrics kind of suggest that it would be appropriate.
.
\_\_
\*( is “lick” the right word for a wind instrument, or is that a term only for guitars? I dunno–like I said,I ain’t no musician.)
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### Author:  [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/2 "2025-09-13T18:27:52Z")
[deleted]
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### Author:  [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/3 "2025-09-13T18:34:54Z")
I mean, the whole point of the song is that the “sultans of swing” were kinda shit, why would they want to emulate them? besides the song is perfect as is!
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### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/4 "2025-09-13T18:41:32Z")
No, I think that the whole point of the song is that the Sultans arent shit…they are a pretty good band, but the audience doesn’t appreciate them. Because they went to a bar to just to “fool around in the corner” , and they are ignoring the poor guys on stage, who are playing what they love, and getting no respect.
So Mark Kopfler, a guitarist, wrote them a song of appreciation, using the instrument he is good with. .
And, yeah, the song is absolutely perfect, as a guitar song.
But the lyrics imply that that the horns were blowing pretty good music, too.
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### Author:  [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/5 "2025-09-13T18:43:48Z")
[It doesn’t sound like he had much of a high opinion of them to be honest.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExFQqt5t34o) ETA: not sure why the link got messed up, can’t fix it either.
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### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/6 "2025-09-13T18:51:53Z")
> [@DigitalC](#):
>
> It doesn’t sound like he had much of a high opinion of them to be honest.
Okay..so, yeah, even when I’m wrong…I love the SDope, 'cause there’s a cite for everything. 🙂
But even if Kopfler didn’t like the Sultans…
I still think that if you’re gonna write a song with lyrics about somebody else’s music, ya oughtta include a bit of that music in your song.
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### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/7 "2025-09-13T18:56:56Z")
..[deleted]nm…
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### Author:  [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/8 "2025-09-13T19:34:03Z")
> [@chappachula](#):
>
> Okay..so, yeah, even when I’m wrong…I love the SDope, 'cause there’s a cite for everything
Haha, the only reason I posted here was because I remembered that interview, glad I was able to find the clip of it!
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/9 "2025-09-13T19:45:46Z")
> [@DigitalC](#):
>
> ETA: not sure why the link got messed up, can’t fix it either.
It started with you typing tags manually, in the WYSIWYG version of the editor. If (like me) you prefer typing tags manually, click on the slider button on the top-left corner of the text entry box to switch it back to the old interface.
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### Author:  [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/10 "2025-09-13T20:02:29Z")
The whole point of the song, the entire design of the song, is that the guitars will provide the sound of the horns. Which they did very well. Actual horns would only have made a boring song. Guitars playing horns is what makes the song.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/11 "2025-09-13T20:08:42Z")
I think you missed the point of the Dire Straights song. Or I misundertand your explication of it or objection to it.
In it, Dire Straits are dissing the shit out of the Sultans. The “horns blowin’ that sound” are in some other bar; they’re at “the competition in other places”; unlike these lackluster bozos who got nuthin’. George is playing basic chord harmony despite being lead, and Harry might be good, but he’s phoning this in and will play for real on Friday (with another band, no doubt).
Anything Dire Straits might have done to embiggen this song would amount to being less hard on the Sultans. Which wasn’t the goal. Poking fun at shitty bands in shitty dives was the point.
An interesting aside coming out of that interview snip:
If the Sultans of Swing really was the name of an actual shitty band in an actual shitty dive, how did George & Harry feel when the Dire Straits tune came out? I’d always assumed the song had been written to diss on lackluster bands in general and they’d made up the subject band’s name as part of the joke: an inappropriately big name for a small talent.
Having said all that, I’ve certainly sat in bars listening to surprisingly good musicians pouring it out on a small crowd of indifferent audience members paying them little heed. Which has to feel a lot like miserable unrewarding work to the performers.
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### Author:  [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/12 "2025-09-13T21:10:47Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#):
>
> If the Sultans of Swing really was the name of an actual shitty band in an actual shitty dive, how did George & Harry feel when the Dire Straits tune came out?
I have wondered this for decades. I am surprised they never “came out” and identified themselves as the band in the song.
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### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/13 "2025-09-13T21:32:25Z")
Not a trumpet, but…[Chris White on sax](https://youtu.be/RFclpoxI_-M?si=Pz0niN9o5t3_fMgj&t=447), On Every Street tour 1982
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### Author:  [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/14 "2025-09-13T21:48:16Z")
My interpretation was the Sultans were a mediocre group who were never going to amount to much. Guitar George knew all the cords but nobody’s going to confuse him for a great musician. Harry is just up there enjoying himself without a care in the world because he’s got a daytime job as is doing alright. But I gotta respect them, they’re still up there doing their thing even if their thing isn’t all that good.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/15 "2025-09-13T22:25:38Z")
> [@Odesio](#):
>
> But I gotta respect them, they’re still up there doing their thing even if their thing isn’t all that good.
They’re not that different from Johnny from “Walk of Life”. Sure, maybe he’s more talented, but they’re all just playing because they love making music.
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### Author:  [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/16 "2025-09-13T22:34:40Z")
Wow, that works great. Still prefer the [Alchemy live version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pa9x9fZBtY&list=PLnhdSnMIZ2vNRLpbMzq9iNjF93CXFCAeE&index=23) though.
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### Author:  [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2025, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/17 "2025-09-13T23:29:04Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> It started with you typing tags manually, in the WYSIWYG version of the editor. If (like me) you prefer typing tags manually, click on the slider button on the top-left corner of the text entry box to switch it back to the old interface.
Thanks, got it now until I forget again!
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### Author:  [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2025, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/18 "2025-09-14T02:38:33Z")
One of my favorite songs!
_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_
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### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2025, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/19 "2025-09-14T03:29:59Z")
> [@blondebear](#):
>
> Not a trumpet, but…[Chris White on sax](https://youtu.be/RFclpoxI_-M?si=Pz0niN9o5t3_fMgj&t=447), On Every Street tour 1982
Yeah, that’s the kind of thing I suggested in the OP. But sychronized with the lyrics.
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### Author:  [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2025, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dire-straits-sultans-of-swing-needs-some-horns-darnit/1023020/20 "2025-09-14T03:33:45Z")
What that song really needs is a first or third person narrative. Is Mark an aspiring hypnotist? I hate that literary devise.
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