Detholz! demo - “Sultans of Swing”

Welcome to the Detholz! Blog, Episode XXX!

(I guess that’s every week, though, right?)

And welcome back to the Detholz! “MARCH OF DEMOS,” where we’re posting demos that made the cut onto our full-length albums all month!

To celebrate the DH! Mp3 Blog’s XXXth (XXXist?) birthday, this week a demo from our covers album, “Jukebox of the Dead,” replete with XXX backstory! Mark Knopfler’s jukebox git-tar classic played at biker bars the world over, perhaps even right now:

SULTANS OF SWING

This is a case where the demo might have turned out a little better than the full band recording you’ll find on “Jukebox of the Dead,” even though this recording is warty, at best. It was made in the Dark Ages before I knew or understood anything about how to record a proper demo, so you’ll hear lots of hiss, over-compression and a very murky, elephantine mix.

Still, there’s some “there” there, I think… more so than on the final album version. Funny how it works that way sometimes…

OK, so rather than chew through all of the in’s and out’s of how this was arranged, composed and all of that musical drudgery, I’d prefer to tell you why I chose this particular song in the first place. It’s an inspiring story from an inspiring city:

Baltimore.

My brother lived in squalor in Baltimore for a brief period when he was attending the Peabody Conservatory of Music in the late 80’s/early 90’s. His apartment window was right above a restaurant dumpster and was home to the smells of burnt animal fat and rotten eggs, to name a few of the more savory ones. He came home routinely to rats as big as cats hanging out in his bathtub, and was known to bash their brains in with a broomhandle when they got out of line.

Ahh, Baltimore! (Actually, Baltimore is one of my favorite cities in which to tour and play shows. Those people really know how to dial it up a notch!)

One sticky summer night, on his way home from a job flipping reams of paper at Kinko’s, he passed by a dank alleyway from which Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing” was blaring at an ear-splitting level– over and over again. Being of a curious ilk, my brother doubled back and peered into the alleyway. A faint light spilled out from an open window on the lefthand side. As he crept quietly up to the bottom of the windowsill, the music grew louder, and he heard regular banging sounds, in time with the music:

Bang-bang-bang! A-Bang Bang, Bang! Bang, Bang!

He peered up into the window and he saw…

How shall I put this?

AUGH!

You know what? Never mind. Whatever you’re imagining, it’s far, far worse. Eliot Spitzer, eat your heart out. Feel free to make a comment and take a guess. There’s a free shirt in it for the most creative response! (And though this is a naughty story, try to keep it clean, people.)

Anyway, this arrangement was inspired by my brother’s sordid tale, and the original version of “Sultans of Swing” has been ruined for me forever. So much for the biker bar.

Tune in next week for a more savory selection (I promise!) from the Detholz! demo file… *shudder*