The Un-Kingly Meaning Behind Dire Straits’ Classic “Sultans of Swing”

Released as the first single from Dire Straits‘ eponymous 1978 debut, “Sultans of Swing” hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has remained a staple song within the British rockers’ classic catalog.

Written by Dire Straits singer and songwriter Mark Knopfler, “Sultans of Swing” was merely a lower-fi rock song about a guy hitting a music club at night for a good time.

You get a shiver in the dark
It’s a raining in the park but meantime-
South of the river you stop and you hold everything
A band is blowing Dixie, double four time
You feel alright when you hear the music ring

Well now you step inside but you don’t see too many faces
Coming in out of the rain they hear the jazz go down
Competition in other places
Uh but the horns they blowin’ that sound
Way on down south

One Night in Ipswich

Knopfler first got the idea for the song after watching a house band perform one rainy night in Ipswich in Suffolk, England, to an audience of less than a handful of drunk patrons. “I think they were actually surprised they had an audience of three or four,” shared Knopfler in an interview with AC/DC‘s Brian Johnson on his A Life on the Road Amazon Prime series in 2021. “I remember asking them to play ‘Creolo Love Call’ or ‘Muskrat Ramble.’ I think they were amazed that somebody was in the pub who actually knew a few of the titles.”

He added, “I was just there to have a couple of pints. And at the end of the night, the trumpet player or whoever does the announcement says, ‘Well, um, right. That’s it. It’s time to go home.’”

At the end of the night, the band member ended their set, according to Knopfler, by saying “Goodnight and thank you. We are the sultans of swing.”

Of the night, Knopfler added, “When the guys said ‘Thank you very much, We are the Sultans of Swing,’ there was something really funny about it to me because Sultans, they absolutely weren’t. You know they were rather tired little blokes in pullovers.”

You check out guitar George, he knows-all the chords
Mind, it’s strictly rhythm he doesn’t want to make it cry or sing
They said an old guitar is all, he can afford
When he gets up under the lights to play his thing

And Harry doesn’t mind, if he doesn’t, make the scene
He’s got a daytime job, he’s doing alright
He can play the Honky Tonk like anything
Savin’ it up, for Friday night
With the Sultans
We’re the Sultans of Swing

Stratocaster

Initially, Knopfler thought the song sounded flat, but it transformed when he bought his first Stratocaster in 1977. “It just came alive as soon as I played it on that ’61 Strat, which remained my main guitar for many years and was basically the only thing I played on [our] first album,” shared Knopfler in 2016. “The new chord changes just presented themselves and fell into place.”

The song, which gravitates more around the horns they blowin’ around a little Dixieland jazz band, came out right as the music world was immersed in the punk movement and still-lingering disco daze.

“Sultan” of a Demo

Prior to releasing “Sultans of Swing” on their album, Dire Straits recorded the song as a demo tape, which started getting around London radio and started a label bidding war for the band.

The band was soon signed to Phonogram Records and began recording Dire Straits.

Dire Straits were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. “Sultans of Swing” was also placed on The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list.

Photo: Mick Hutson/Redferns