We listen to a LOT of music in our house. My husband has always played guitar, had a band, has a studio. I’ve always sung, in bands, by myself in clubs, in choirs. Between the two of us, it’s hard to count the live acts we’ve seen, arena shows, theater performances with wonderful acoustics, intimate warm-ups among icons, front row and sweaty at festivals. I refer to my husband as a music historian because he knows all the riffs, all the minutiae, the history of the player and who else he’s played with – he could sit down with Adam Reader and Rick Beato and talk for hours, I’m sure.

But there are a few songs that cut through all of it and stand alone, no matter what you know or don’t know about music, and near the top of that list is “Brother’s in Arms” by Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMRJT2ebvAk&list=TLPQMDgwNzIwMjYJE9YOev9S8w&index=4

This particular version is in Berlin in 2007, and is very lovely. But what struck me was the comments. I had “slept” the laptop when I went to bed and when I woke up, the screen showed the comments on this, rather than the video. I discovered that it is not only I who am often brought to tears by it. The range included all ages, from people just hearing it now, to people in their 80s, who, like me, cry. And the comments were in many many different languages, including Russian, German, French, Italian….

What a gift to give to the world, even if it is a single song (which, of course it isn’t. That entire album and several others can be listened over and over again, as I did after my husband died in Seattle and I packed up our life and moved back East.) My associations are not unique. Everyone associates with this powerful, sad but beautiful piece.

There is classical music even in the rock genre.