Bowie loses his cool

[Darkness_Fish]

Sounds like Ricky Gervais.

In the intro to The Snowman, he's the spitting image of Gervais, and has all his Brentisms.

[The Modernist]

I'm lost. He's nothing like Brent. What are people talking about..?

[never/ever]

This is 1978 so Dire Straits were a long way from Brothers in Arms but even so they were never anywhere close to be described as new wave. He'd probably just heard one song by them and liked it, or was taking the piss as Fange said.

It may have been the very dry way the guitars and drums sound on that very first Dire Straits-LP- it has that taunt quality that also runs through the early Talking Heads-inspired waveniks.

[Rayge]

So...how exactly does labeling one’s music as “punk” limit you any more than labeling yourself “new wave”?

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

I suppose the label 'New Wave' covers more than 'punk', but that really wasn't what he was saying.

I think it was, because, over here at least, at that time, 'punk' was generally seen to be about a snotty attitude, gobbing, daft haircuts, razor guitars and the general ramalama, very much a constricting term stylistically, which is why New Wave and, later, post-punk, then indie were coined to cover those new bands who rode that wave of innovation, and particularly the growth of DIY recordings and the deconstruction of the British record industry, without sounding like the Pistols/early Clash/ early Damned.
I also, for what it's worth, remember DS being touted as innovators and outsiders.

[Deebank]

Dire Straits were seen as part of the pub rock scene weren't they? Early on I mean and they had that rough back to basics things going on.
And there was a certain amount of crossover between pub rock and punk (Stiff etc).
He'd been out of the country a while,I can see how he might have made that assumption.

[naughty boy]

Dire Straits and Talking Heads toured together in the early days - they weren't really as far apart stylistically as you might think, as others have said.

I remember reading something about Knopfler being shocked that the Heads never changed their guitar strings.

I'm still looking for where he 'loses his cool' !!

[clive gash]

Was he ever cool though? Cool suggests detachment, Bowie was all-in.

[The Modernist]

I just meant Dire Straits wasn't a very cool name to drop.

[clive gash]

Gotcha.

[The Modernist]

Dire Straits and Talking Heads toured together in the early days - they weren't really as far apart stylistically as you might think, as others have said.

I don't think that's true. Hendrix and The Monkees toured together, it doesn't mean they sounded alike.
Dire Straits had a rootsy Americana sound endebted to acts like Little Feat. I can't see how that sounds anything like Talking Heads.

[clive gash]

He was namedropping SSS and BAD in the 80s, the dude had mad skills.

[naughty boy]

I just meant Dire Straits wasn't a very cool name to drop.

oh I SEE!

sorry - I thought you meant he lost his temper...

Yeah, they were never really cool, I suppose.

I remember in the late 80s he was wanking on about Pixies and Sonic Youth. I think most people had turned away by then.

[Hugh]

The first time I saw Dire Straits on OGWT I thought they had a bit of a Television thing going on. But it seems equally likely that he is thinking of another band

[Hightea]

Makes sense to me. Talking heads and other new wave bands at the time where more interesting than the straight up punk bands. Bowie just been cool like he always is. DOn't get the Dire Straits comment must be a british thing.

[Geezee]

I remember in the late 80s he was wanking on about Pixies and Sonic Youth. I think most people had turned away by then.

I don't think that's quite accurate, or at least that if he was still championing them "late" he had also done so "early" - he was always a huge record fan to start with and was generally speaking pretty early in championing his favourite acts, including everything from owning some VU pressing before their first album was even released (I think he'd even recorded a cover version by then?), to the Stooges...and of course being hugely into obscure krautrock before pretty much anyone knew what that was. Don't know exactly when he started championing Pixies but I'm pretty sure it was very early on (may even have been Surfer Rosa), and with Sonic Youth I'm pretty sure he was there (with Iggy Pop) right from the very first EP.

[Deebank]

He's winding them up, isn't he?

In 1978 when no fucker had heard of Dire Straits?

No.

[Moleskin]

Yeah, I don't think Dire Straits were the last word in boring when they started out. I think they grew into it.

[sloopjohnc]

So...how exactly does labeling one’s music as “punk” limit you any more than labeling yourself “new wave”?

Yeah, that's what I thought too.

I suppose the label 'New Wave' covers more than 'punk', but that really wasn't what he was saying.

I think new wave is more an umbrella than just holding up a stick to cover punk.

[The Modernist]

There was very much a formula to punk in late 77/early 78 - shouty cockney vocals, vaguely political them v us lyrics, basic chords thrashed out, loud dynamic throughout and no change of tempo*... he preferred bands like Wire who were more experimental.

* Basically any Sham 69 single will be a good illustration

[Geezee]

Dire Straits and Talking Heads toured together in the early days - they weren't really as far apart stylistically as you might think, as others have said.

I don't think that's true. Hendrix and The Monkees toured together, it doesn't mean they sounded alike.
Dire Straits had a rootsy Americana sound endebted to acts like Little Feat. I can't see how that sounds anything like Talking Heads.

But presumably that’s the context that he may be bringing up Dire Straits, since he mentions Talking Heads first and that seems to trigger a memory of a band whose name he can’t initially remember - seems pretty plausible he saw them together.

Either way of course he’s lying straight afterwards as he says that “music doesn’t play a big role in my life” so it is hard to gauge what he means, and the interviewer hastily changed the subject.