Keys for all Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits songs

I found this in the AMIT forum and thought it might be very useful info for us guitar players. The author – nickname foma – allowed copying it, so here it is, a list of all keys with the songs in that key. It even included the songs of Privateering, Mark’s coming album (to be released September 2012).

Thank you, foma 🙂

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It’s the statistics of almost all Mark’s songs and scores keys.
Don’t know when (and why lol) I’ve done this, probably five years ago.

So, here it is (I’m working on list constantly, so it’s becomes accurately and hopefully will be spot-on):

31 in D MAJOR (D-dur): Water of Love, Wild West End, Skateaway, Les Boys, It Never Rains, Ticket To Heaven, How Long, The Rocks and the Thunder, Whistle Theme, Smooching, Going Home, Irish Love, A Secret Place Where Will You Go, Waiting For Her, Last Exit To Brooklyn, Victims, Wag The Dog, Imelda, Are We In Trouble Now, Do America, The Long Highway, Kingdom Come, Devil Baby, Coyote, Donegan’s Gone, Red Staggerwing, If This Is Goodbye, Let It All Go, The Car Was The One, Miss You Blues, Go Love
24 in E MAJOR (E-Dur): Real Girl, Eastbound Train, If I Had You, So Far Away, Walk Of Life, Why Worry, The Bug, Heavy Fuel, The Way it All Starts, In The Heartland, Cannibals, The Last Laugh, Gravy Train, The Next Time I’m In Town, The Ragpicker’s Dream, Everybody Pays, Our Shangri-La, Whoop De Doo, Beyond My Wildest Dreams, Heart Full Of Holes, Monteleone, Remembrance Day, I Used To Could, Today Is Okay
19 in G MAJOR (G-dur): Angel Of Mercy, Two Young Lovers, When It Comes To You, Freeway Flier, Irish Boy, The Road, Father And Son, Potato Picking, The Long Road, Annick, Metroland Instrumental Theme, Drooling National, Golden Heart, Don’t You Get It, Tall Order Baby, The Other Side of the Moon, Who’s Your Baby Now, Daddy’s Gone To Knoxville, The Fizzy And The Still
23 in C MAJOR (C-dur): Portobello Belle, Hand In Hand, Love Over Gold, Wild Theme, Boomtown, Metroland, We’re Going To War, I’m The Fool, Nobody’s Got The Gun, One More Matinee, My Clame To Fame, Beachcombing, Donkey Town, All The Roadrunning, True Love Will Never Fade, Secondary Waltz, Hard Shoulder, You Can’t Beat The House, Piper To The End, Haul Away, Don’t Forget Your Hat, Corned Beef City, Hot or What
17 in D MINOR (D-moll): Sultans of Swing, Making Movies, Single Handed Sailor, Tunnel Of Love, Expresso Love, Telegraph Road, The Man’s Too Strong, Fade To Back, Think Fast, Comfort, Joy, Silvertown Blues, Your Own Sweet Way, Why Aye Man, You Don’t Know You’re Born, Sucker Row, Punish The Monkey
16 in E MINOR (E-moll): News, Follow Me Home, Private Investigations, Private Dancer, Ride Across The River, One World, My Parties, A Fistful Of Ice Cream, He’s the Man, Down Day, A Walk In Paris, She’s Gone, El Macho, Camerado, Hill Farmer’s Blues, Summer of Love
15 in A MINOR (A-moll): Six Blade Knife, Southbound Again, Once Upon A Time In The West, Where Do You Think You’re Going, On Every Street, Planet Of New Orleans, An American Hero, Tralala, No Can Do, Rudiger, Speedway At Nazareth, Say Too Much, A Place Where We Used To Live, Behind With The Rent, Before Gas And TV
14 in B MINOR (B-moll): Down to the Waterline, Lions, Millonaire Blues, Iron Hand, Just Instinct, Je Suis Desole, Baloney Again, Florin Dance, Let’s See You, Back To Tupelo, Don’t Crash The Ambulance, I Dug Up A Diamond, We Can Get Wild, Madame Geneva’s
14 in A MAJOR (A-dur): Setting me Up, Communique, Solid Rock, Industrial Disease, Twisting By The Pool, Brats, Meeting Under the Trees, A Love Idea, Working On It, Darling Pretty, Sailing To Philadelphia, Vic And Ray, A Night In Summer Long Ago, Time In The Sun
11 in F MAJOR (F-dur): Romeo And Juliet, The Ceilidh And The Northern Lights, Stargazer, Badges Posters Stickers T-Shirts, What I Have Got To Do, Quality Shoe, In The Sky, Good As Gold, Redbud Tree, Yon Two Crows, Seattle
7 in C MINOR (C-moll): Prairie Wedding, Sands Of Nevada, Fare Thee Well Northumberland, Scaffolder’s Wife, The Fish And The Bird, Border River, Early Bird
8 in B MAJOR (B-dur): Calling Elvis, Sons of Scotland, Four in a Row, Quiet Theme, Stand Up Guy, Get Lucky, Got To Have Something, Radio City Serenade
5 in G MINOR (G-moll): Money For Nothing, You And Your Friend, Marbletown, Boom Like That, The Trawlersman’s Song
4 in G-Sharp MINOR (G#-moll): Brothers in Arms, Stretching Out, Training, Rollin’ On
4 in B-Flat MINOR (Bb-moll): In the Gallery, Junkie Doll, Postcards From Paraguay, So Far From The Clyde
3 in F-Sharp MINOR (F#-moll): Wanderlust, What It Is, Two Brothers And A Stranger
8 in E-Flat MAJOR (Eb-dur): The Rocks And The Water, All That I Have in the World, 5:15 a.m., All That Matters, Privateering, Dream of The Drowned Submariner, After the Beanstalk
3 in D-Flat MAJOR (Db-dur): This Is Us, Cleaning My Gun, Pulling Down the Ride
4 in B-Flat MAJOR (Bb-dur): Done With Bonaparte, Hard Cases, Gator Blood, Blood and Water
3 in C-Sharp MINOR (C#-moll): Lady Writer, Your Latest Trick, Kingdom of Gold
2 in F-Sharp MAJOR (F#-dur): Old Pigweed, Home Boy
1 in E-Flat MINOR (Eb-moll): The New Laird, Bluebird
1 in F MINOR (F-moll): Small Potatoes
1 in A-Flat MAJOR (Ab-moll): Right Now

All 24 keys are used. Mark is like Bach Smiley

154 majors and 91 minors.

Hope it can be interesting for someone.

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9 thoughts on “Keys for all Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits songs

  1. Mr. Raven, please list the tunings that are in open tuning such as the song: ‘When it comes to You’, in open ‘G’ or tuned to a chord. I like the way you explain things and would love to see you present a tutorial on that song. By the way did Mr. Knopfler write the song? I know its played by the “Notting Hillbillies. Thanks so much for sharing. Michael Anderson, Austin Texas.

  2. Hi,
    I’m trying to transcribe My Parties and, to my ear, it sounds like it’s in G major. But maybe I’m wrong, I haven’t been doing this long – would you mind double checking that? If it is in E minor, what did you do to know for sure?
    Thanks!

    1. Hi Diana,
      From memory, My Parties is indeed in G Major, and E minor as well, as G Major = E natural minor. The way to check for sure is to play a G chord every time the G comes up in the song (eg. the 3rd chord in the chorus), and trust me, if it’s not right you’ll know! Hope that helps. Pete.

  3. This is wonderful…Ive always loved Mark’s guitar personality, the way he connects with his audience is admirable. Now, I find the answers to my earlier dilemna…”how many keys does this man play in ? lol, anyways thank you for posting this…made my day!

    1. I guess you mean C? Well, that is the classical guitar/piano version from the Local hero sound track, the same song but officially called ‘Wild Theme’. G does not make any sense to me.

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