I am no good at admitting errors of judgement, or mistakes in general. Rather than admitting I slowly merge my wrong with my right. So slow that no one will notice, at least that is what I hope.

One of my many musical errors, and the one I only know start to admit (a good 30 years after the fact), is my early dismissal of Dire Straits. Sure, they are not Major League as far as I’m concerned and compared to giants such as Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Frank Zappa Mark Knopfler’s guitar playing always has been too sweet and easy (he practically invented the Middle of the Road guitar solo), but as I grow older I start to reconnect with some of their work.

In that process I remember how I once loved ‘Brothers in Arms’, the last song of their hugely successful album with the same title. It was 1985. My alternative image should have prevented me from liking it. I was 16 and I loved it because I had a crush on a girl who happened to love Dire Straits. ‘Brothers in Arms’ is not a song about love, but in my youthful brain it just radiated love and longing.

Not as bad as another association I made around the same time, when I linked The Velvet Underground’s ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ with another crush, only because she had the most beautiful eyes in the world. Only later I found out the song is about adultery.

I know it now. I admit my mistake.