The song that makes Mark Knopfler pine for Dire Straits: “People go bananas”
When you’ve had a great career and seen it tail off towards the end, you’ll often wonder if it’s worth resurrecting the project just to relive the glory years and attempt to banish all recollection of the dismal dip in quality. Plenty of bands end up performing reunion tours in order to remind their fans of how brilliant they used to be. However, in the case of Dire Straits, they quit while they were ahead and never chose to revisit their past splendour, instead keeping them sacred.
As a group, they never really let things tail off, and their penultimate album, Brothers in Arms, is widely considered their creative and commercial peak. They broke up after the release of this record, only to reform for one final album in 1991, and since 1995, they’ve been dissolved entirely. This has allowed their legacy to live as it is, without a desire to elaborate on it or tarnish it with a lacklustre reunion.
The band’s leader, Mark Knopfler, knew that things weren’t going to last forever and has little intention of reuniting with his former bandmates, but there are plenty of things that he reminisces about when it comes to his past in the group. He’s got a lot to be proud of, but one track that makes him yearn for the good old days is the minor 1983 single, ‘Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero’.
While it was actually released as a Mark Knopfler solo single, it was regularly performed by the band at the end of their concerts, and it is one that he fondly remembers having an excellent reception. Given its pensive and longing sound, ‘Going Home’ feels like the perfect way to cap off a live performance, even though it isn’t the big sing-along that many might expect from a closer.
The song, which was Knopfler’s first solo record, was originally written as the theme tune for the 1983 film Local Hero, and due to the limited success of the film, the track wasn’t well-received upon release. However, when it became a staple of the Dire Straits’ live sets, it suddenly gained traction and discovered a second life as one of their most beloved songs. Unfortunately, the euphoric feeling that Knopfler used to get from these live renditions is something that he misses deeply about his time with the group.
In a 2024 interview with Vulture, he reflected on how the track makes him the most wistful for his time in Dire Straits. “Playing ‘Going Home’ at the end of a set, to a crowd anywhere in the world, people go bananas,” the guitarist explained. “It’s a fun thing for a band to experience. I suppose you get used to that happening, the big audience reactions and massive noises. It’s a thrill. ‘Wow, this is Madison Square Garden, and people are going nuts.’ Surely, that’s what you’re doing here. Otherwise, go home. It doesn’t mean anything to you.”
While he might miss playing the song with his bandmates, he was unmoved in his stance on reuniting the band, and claimed that he wouldn’t change anything about the career he had for the world. “I feel as though I’ve had a really blessed run with some great people,” Knopfler claimed, “I wouldn’t ask for anything more than I’ve had.”
