Where Do You Think You're Going Fade To Black Lady Writer Down To The Waterline Dire Straits

Where Do You Think You're Going? Album: Communiqué (1979)
Fade To Black Album: On Every Street (1991)
Lady Writer Album: Communiqué (1979)
Down To The Waterline Album: Dire Straits (1978)
by Dire Straits

Stefan Morrell
Concept Artist

Communiqué is the second studio album released on 5 June 1979 by Vertigo Records internationally, Warner Bros. Records in the United States and Mercury Records in Canada. The album featured the single "Lady Writer," which reached number 45 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number 51 on the UK Singles Chart. The album reached number one on album charts in Germany, Spain, New Zealand, and Sweden, number 11 in the United States and number 5 in the United Kingdom. Communiqué was later certified gold in the United States, platinum in the United Kingdom and double-platinum in France.

It is the last album to feature David Knopfler, who would later depart from the band during the making of their following album and the last with the original lineup.

Written by: Mark Knopfler

On Every Street is the sixth and final studio album released on 9 September 1991 by Vertigo Records internationally, and by Warner Bros. Records in the United States. The follow-up to the band's massively successful album Brothers in Arms, On Every Street reached the top of the UK Albums Chart and was also certified platinum by the RIAA.

On Every Street was released more than six years after the band's previous album, Brothers in Arms, and was Dire Straits' final studio album. It reached number 12 in the United States and number one in the United Kingdom and numerous European countries. The album was produced by Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits.

By this time, the band comprised Knopfler, John Illsley, Alan Clark and Guy Fletcher, and the album features session musicians including Paul Franklin, Phil Palmer, Danny Cummings and American drummer Jeff Porcaro from Toto, who was asked to play the band's subsequent world tour, although he declined because of other commitments, both with Toto and as a studio musician.

Dire Straits promoted the album with a world tour which lasted until the end of 1992. The group disbanded in 1995, after which Mark Knopfler pursued a solo career.

The album was remastered and reissued with the rest of the Dire Straits catalogue in 1996 for most of the world, except for the United States, where it was reissued on 19 September 2000.

According to the 1984 biography of the band, "Lady Writer" was inspired by Marina Warner, who songwriter Mark Knopfler saw on a TV program, hence the opening line "Lady Writer on the TV..." In 1976, Warner, a highly educated polyglot, published a scholarly book about the cult of the Virgin Mary. For some reason her appearance struck a chord with Knopfler, bringing back painful memories of a love that was no more. There's real venom in the song, and it is evident that any resemblance the talented Miss Warner bore to his former lover was strictly physical.

Down To The Waterline was inspired by an early romance in the life of composer Mark Knopfler. The waterline in question belongs to the River Tyne. Knopfler and his brother David, who also played in the band, were born in Glasgow but grew up in Newcastle.