Brothers in Arms (song)



"Brothers in Arms" is a 1985 song by Dire Straits, appearing as the closing track on the album of the same name. It was originally written in 1982, the year of the Falklands War. It was re-released in 2007 as a special edition to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the conflict and raise funds for veterans of it with posttraumatic stress disorder.

History
There are two studio recorded versions of this song: the album version which is 6:55 minutes, and the shorter version which is 6:05 minutes and features slightly different (and shorter) solos at the beginning and end of the song. The version that appears on Dire Straits' greatest hits album, Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits, is 4:55. The version featured on the live album On the Night contains an extra pedal steel guitar solo and is 8:55. The full-length, studio album version (6:55) was also included on the 2005 compilation Private Investigations.

Mark Knopfler recorded and usually played the song on a Gibson Les Paul Standard guitar, rather than his usual Schecter "Stratocaster", and the sunburst Les Paul appears in the distinctive promo video, which is in the style of a charcoal drawing, interspersing scenes of the band playing with scenes of war. During Dire Straits' 1992 "On Every Street" tour, Knopfler used his Pensa-Suhr MK1 for this song, like most of the others.

The song is reported to be the first CD single ever released; it was released in the United Kingdom in 1985.

The song's meaning, influence and impact was discussed in the BBC radio programme and podcast Soul Music in January 2013.

The song was featured in the second season finale of The West Wing, "Two Cathedrals". It was also featured in the 2001 movie Spy Game.

Music video
The music video uses rotoscoping and shows the band performing, overlaid with images of the First World War. In the first seconds of the clip, a zoom-out is seen from the animated clip from the single "Money for Nothing" from the same album. In contrast with the at-that-time very modern clip in "Money for Nothing", the video clip has a very classic appearance in noisy black and white images.

Track listings
7" Single


 * 1) "Brothers In Arms" - 6:04
 * 2) "Going Home (Theme of the Local Hero)" (Live) - 4:45

Cover versions

 * Gregorian covered the song for their album Masters of Chant, Chapter 1-3
 * Vienna Symphonic Orchestra Project did an instrumental cover for their 1986 VSOP, Vol. 1 album
 * Folk singer Joan Baez covered the song for her 1987 album, Recently
 * Serbian rock band Galija covered the song, with lyrics in their native language, entitled "Kad me pogledaš" on their 1989 album Korak do slobode
 * Ann Corfield performed this as the opening theme to the 1991 film McBain
 * Metallica covered the song on the Bridge School Benefit fundraiser
 * The Finnish Symphonic power metal band Northern Kings covered the song on their 2007 album Reborn
 * Ryan Kelly covered this song as part of the 2007 Celtic Thunder DVD and during the 2008 tour
 * The Finnish a cappella band Club for Five covered the song on their 2009 album You're the Voice
 * Nina Persson and Georg Wadenius performed a version on Wadenius' 2009 album Reconnection
 * Alex Cornish performed a cover of the song on The Dermot O'Leary Show on BBC Radio 2 in May 2010: the recording was included on the Dermot O'Leary Saturday Sessions CD