A top 10 hit in the UK in 1981, Romeo And Juliet is one of Dire Straits’ greatest songs, in which the writer, guitarist/vocalist Mark Knopfler, reimagined the Shakespearean tragedy and put a new twist on how the story unfolds.
The lyrics were inspired by Knopfler’s split from American musician Holly Beth Vincent, who moved over to London to focus on her new group Holly And The Italians. Their relationship came to an end when Vincent broke up with him on the phone and the lyrics to Knopfler’s song are based on a failing romance that’s ultimately doomed.
There are also insinuations that Vincent was using Knopfler’s profile – red hot following the international success of 1978 hit Sultans Of Swing – to boost and further her own career.
Fans noted a sense of bitterness in Knopfler’s lyrics: “Now you just say, ‘Oh Romeo, yeah, you know I used to have a scene with him’… How can you look at me as I was just another one of your deals?”
There are also references to the song Somewhere from 1950s musical West Side Story, also based on Shakespeare’s most famous play, and My Boyfriend’s Back by 60s American group The Angels.
Bruce Springsteen’s song Jungleland also gets a nod from pianist Roy Bittan, who borrowed his own part from the 1975 Born To Run track and added it to the Dire Straits song recorded in a different studio in the same city some five years later.
The sessions for Making Movies, the group’s third album, took place at The Power Station in New York City under the careful watch of Jimmy Iovine – who had engineered for John Lennon and Springsteen and also produced albums for Patti Smith and Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers.
The six-minute Romeo And Juliet starts with an arpeggiated idea performed on a National Style O resonator guitar. The same instrument can be seen on the cover of 1985 Dire Straits album Brothers In Arms.
Knopfler purchased the guitar from English blues and country musician Steve Phillips for £120 in the early ’70s and it ended up being used on a lot of Dire Strats recordings – including the intro to Telegraph Road – as well as on solo material and on stage.
“I got the chance to buy this from Steve because he was ascending the social scale with his Nationals,” Knopfler revealed while holding the storied instrument in an episode of Sky Arts series Guitar Stories.
He added: “Steve got a top of the line thing called a National Don, so he sold me this one and this has been my pal ever since.”
For this track, Knopfler chose to use an Open G tuning (D/G/D/G/B/D) with a capo on the third fret.
In the same Sky Arts documentary, Knopfler explained how “a lot of the songs we learned on these guitars would be tuned to an open chord” which would force him to “learn new chords”, inspiring him to “take liberties” and work out his “own little bits of improvisation”.
The electric guitar heard on the track was Knopfler’s red 1961 Fender Stratocaster, famously used on their 1978 self-titled debut, which performed well thanks to breakthrough single Sultans Of Swing.
Naturally Romeo And Juliet leans heavily on Knopfler’s fingerpicking skills, which allow him to create a different tone and sense of rhythm without using a pick – one of the main trademarks of his signature sound.
In a 1992 cover story with Guitar Player, he admitted how he stumbled upon the technique purely by chance.
“I was sleeping on the floor in somebody’s apartment,” he revealed. “They had a cheap imitation of a Gibson Dove acoustic with unbelievably light strings. It was like playing an electric guitar, but there was a little bit of sound to it.”
Because of it being late at night, he had to play quietly and was forced to fingerpick.
“As I was flying around this guitar, I realised I was doing things with my fingers that I could do with a pick, and also some other things that I wouldn’t be able to do with a pick.”
Perhaps most of all it was the direct connection between him and the instrument that left a lasting impression – one which would go on to change his life and inspire countless others in the process.
“Playing with your fingers has something to do with immediacy and soul,” he revealed in the same interview. “You’re absolutely in touch with what’s going on. And that can lead to other things too.”
Despite Romeo And Juliet climbing to No 8 in the UK singles charts and fifth in the Irish charts, it didn’t perform as well in America and failed to chart.
But after Sultans Of Swing, it was song most performed live by the members of Dire Straits while the group was active – until they called it a day in 1995 and parted ways.
