Private Investigations
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| "Private Investigations" | ||||||||||
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| File:Private investigations.jpg | ||||||||||
| Single by Dire Straits | ||||||||||
| from the album Love over Gold | ||||||||||
| B-side | "Badges, Posters, Stickers, T-Shirts" | |||||||||
| Released | 23 August 1982 | |||||||||
| Recorded | 8 March - 11 June 1982 | |||||||||
| Genre | Rock | |||||||||
| Length | 6:45 (Album version) 5:51 (Single edit) |
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| Label | Vertigo | |||||||||
| Writer(s) | Mark Knopfler | |||||||||
| Producer(s) | Mark Knopfler | |||||||||
| Dire Straits singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Private Investigations" is a song by the British rock band Dire Straits from their album Love over Gold. Although it was not released as a single in the United States, it reached the number 2 position in the United Kingdom (despite its length), and is one of their biggest chart successes in the UK. Similarly, the album it came from, Love over Gold, only sold 500,000 copies in the United States, though it was well-received elsewhere. The track also appeared on the compilation albums Money for Nothing and Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits, and is the title track to the more recent 2005 compilation, Private Investigations: The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler.
The song begins with a sinister, deep-pitched synthesizer orchestration, leading into a slow piano progression accompanying a classical guitar, followed by several spoken verses.
After the verses, the song opens up into a slow, bass-driven beat, with strident electric guitar chords at the end, before the gradual diminuendo featuring extended interplay between Mark Knopfler's acoustic guitar and marimba played by Mike Mainieri.
On the Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits DVD, Mark Knopfler said this about the song: "It's just about the Private Investigations... "What have you got at the end of the day" - Nothing more than you started out with..." It is said the song was inspired by author Raymond Chandler.[citation needed]
This song was also modified by Mark Knopfler into a film score for the Bill Forsyth movie Comfort and Joy in 1984, where you can hear the song broken up into portions and used for certain scenes.
The riff from the song was used on a BT advert in 1994.
Chart positions
| Country | Peak position |
|---|---|
| New Zealand | #16 |
| The Netherlands | #1 |
| UK | #2 |
References
External links
| Studio albums | |
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| Live albums | |
| Compilations | |
| EPs | |
| Singles |
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| Tours | |
| Related articles | |
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- Use dmy dates from December 2012
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- Articles with unsourced statements from February 2007
- 1982 songs
- Dire Straits songs
- Dutch Top 40 number-one singles
- Songs written by Mark Knopfler
- Rock ballads
- Song recordings produced by Mark Knopfler
- 1980s song stubs
