It’s a B-side track turned Top 10 hit, Walk of Life by Dire Straits. And it ended the run of the world’s biggest band in 1985 and 1986. But don’t blame the song. It’s a truly infectious piece of ear candy that deserves all the success it got. No, as it turns out, Dire Straits' frontman, Mark Knopfler, was just a reluctant hit-making machine. He loved the music, but not the fame. And after creating the #1 album Brothers in Arms, with sales of over 30 million copies, he realized it was more than he had bargained for. So at the peak of his career, Mark pulled the plug and walked away. Who does that? Well, you’re about to find out. Today, it’s Dire Straits' Walk of Life and the story of how its success helped bring the world’s most popular band to a grinding halt. You’re not going to want to miss this one. It’s all coming up… NEXT on the Professor of Rock.

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Hey music junkies, Professor of Rock, always here to celebrate the greatest artists and the greatest songs of all time. If you remember packing your cassette tape suitcase with you in your car or a booklet of CDs You’ll dig this channel of deep musical nostalgia make sure to, subscribe below right now. I promise that you are going to love this channel. We also have a Patreon.

So today, we’ve got a good one for you. I’ve been looking forward to this one. You know we’ve this band covered several times on this channel, but have yet to talk about one of their biggest hits. I think it’s about time. The band? It’s Dire Straits. And from their 1985 album Brothers in Arms, it’s one of the catchiest hits of the 80s: Walk of Life. From the get-go in 1977, Dire Straits and particularly frontman Mark Knopfler had always been about the music. Knopfler, who cared little for the trappings of fame was the band’s driving force and steadily earned a reputation as a talented, top-tier artist who always put the music first… even if it was at odds with mainstream radio tastes.

Not that their music didn’t have widespread appeal. By 1984 Dire Straits had assembled a catalog of 4 vital albums… all of which went Top 5 in the UK. The list included their self-titled debut in 1978, Communiqué in 1979, Making Movies in 1980, and Love over Gold in 1982. And hits like Sultans of Swing, Romeo and Juliet, and Private Investigations all broke the Top 10 on the UK charts. Here in the US, Dire Straits’ early success was more tempered. Their debut record scored a #2 spot on the Billboard 200… while each of the next three albums turned in respectable Top 20 rankings. Really though, their only mainstream hit was their breakout single Sultans of Swing, which reached #4 on the Hot 100.

Between Love Over Gold and their next studio fifth album, Dire Straits would slow things down with a three-year gap. To tide fans over the band released an EP in 1983 and the double live album ‘Alchemy’ in 1984. For his part, Mark Knopfler kept busy with a number of outside projects: producing Bob Dylan’s 1983 album ‘Infidels,’ writing Tina Turner’s comeback hit, ‘Private Dancer’, and scoring multiple soundtracks. But by the summer of 1984, the headband-toting frontman was ready to get the guys back together for studio album #5. It would be called Brothers in Arms.

Mark Knopfler had already written 9 for Brothers in Arms before he assembled …