Song: “Telegraph Road”
An epic musical story of a road in Michigan, and its evolution and decline
US Highway 24 runs from Minturn, CO, to Independence Township, MI. In Michigan, the 79-mile section from Bedford Township on the Ohio border to its terminus with I-75 is known as Telegraph Road.
Mark Knopfler was inspired to write “Telegraph Road” while riding in the front of the band’s tour bus coming out of Detroit. He was also reading the novel The Growth Of the Soil by the Nobel Prize-winning Norwegian author Knut Hamsun. He blended the two, focusing on the arc of development along Telegraph Road and its decline over the decades.
Started in a melancholy G minor and shifting to a more standard D register, the song has been hailed as “[a] fourteen-minute masterpiece worth every second of its length, which it deserves to be on the list of the best long-form songs and progressive rock songs.”
I couldn’t agree more. Every time I hear this song, I’m swept away. Just make sure you set aside the time to enjoy it fully. There is so much here for your senses.
The performance below shows how special Dire Straits was musically in their peak. The piano, guitar, drums, and vocals are all standouts, and the composition is truly a masterpiece.
Enjoy!