Mark Knopfler

Mark KnopflerBiographical Sketch

Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE (born Glasgow, Scotland, August 12, 1949) is a British musician, vocalist, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded with his brother, David Knopfler in 1977. After Dire Straits disbanded in 1995, Knopfler went on to record and produce seven solo albums, and like his songs from the Dire Straits days, many produced hit songs. He has composed and produced film scores for eight films, including Local Hero (1983), Cal (1984), The Princess Bride (1987), and Wag the Dog (1997). In addition to his work with Dire Straits and as a solo artist and composer, Knopfler has recorded and performed with many prominent musicians, including Chet Atkins, The Chieftains, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Emmylou Harris, Jools Holland, Steely Dan, Bryan Ferry, Sonny Landreth, Sting, and Van Morrison, among others, sometimes working as a session musician. He has produced albums for Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, and Randy Newman.

Mark Knopfler is left-handed, but plays right-handed, and is recognised as a fingerstyle guitarist, using a personal variant of the clawhammer style. Fingerpicking is usually associated with the Steel-string acoustic guitar, but Knopfler often (though not always) plays an electric guitar. He revealed during a French interview that he uses a pick for his rhythm guitar work during recording sessions, surprising the interviewer by pulling a pick out of his pocket and saying that he usually carries one. He has long favoured Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster style guitars. Fender carries a Mark Knopfler Artist Series Stratocaster. During the 1980s he came to appreciate the tone of the Gibson Les Paul and his original 1958 has been used regularly in the studio and on stage. British author and humorist Douglas Adams said about Knopfler in his book So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish: “Mark Knopfler has an extraordinary ability to make a Schecter Custom Stratocaster hoot and sing like angels on a Saturday night, exhausted from being good all week and needing a stiff drink.”

Described by Classic Rock as a virtuoso, Knopfler was ranked 27th on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. Knopfler and Dire Straits have sold in excess of 120 million albums to date. A four-time Grammy Award winner, Knopfler is the recipient of the Edison Award, the Steiger Award and the Ivor Novello Award, and holds three honorary doctorate degrees in music from universities in the United Kingdom. Knopfler was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Dire Straits in 2018.

Read more about Mark Knopfler on Wikipedia.

 

Major Awards and Honors

Hall of Fame Inductions
Rock’n Roll Hall of Fame
  • 2018: Member of Dire Straits
Others
Order of the British Empire
  • 1999: Officer of the British Empire
Grammies
  • 1985: Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal – “Money For Nothing”
    Grammy awarded to: Dire Straits (Alan Clark, Guy Fletcher, John Illsley, Mark Knopfler, Terry Williams), artist.
  • 1985: Best Country Instrumental Performance (Orchestra, Group Or Soloist) – “Cosmic Square Dance”
    Grammy awarded to: Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler, artists.
  • 1986: Best Music Video, Short Form – “Brothers In Arms”
    Grammy awarded to: Dire Straits (Alan Clark, Guy Fletcher, John Illsley, Mark Knopfler, Terry Williams), artist.
  • 1990: Best Country Vocal Collaboration – “Poor Boy Blues”
    Grammy awarded to: Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler, artists.
  • 1990: Best Country Instrumental Performance – “So Soft, Your Goodbye”
    Grammy awarded to: Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler, artists.
  • 2005: Best Surround Sound Album – “Brothers In Arms, 20th Anniversary Edition”
    Grammy awarded to: Chuck Ainlay, surround mix engineer; Bob Ludwig, surround mastering engineer. Chuck Ainlay & Mark Knopfler, surround producers.
MTV Video Music Awards
  • 1986: Video of the Year – Dire Straits: “Money for Nothing”
  • 1986: Best Group Video – Dire Straits: “Money for Nothing”
BRIT Awards
  • 1983: Best British Group – Dire Straits
  • 1986: Best British Group – Dire Straits
  • 1987: Best British Album – – Dire Straits: “Brothers in Arms”
Silver Clef Awards (Great Britain)
  • 1985: Dire Straits
PRS for Music Heritage Award (Great Britain)
  • 2009: Dire Straits
Ivor Novello Music Writing Awards (Great Britain)
  • 2012: Lifetime Achievement Award
Scottish Music Awards
  • 2018: Living Legend Award
Juno Awards (Canada)
  • 1986: International Album of the Year – Dire Straits: “Brothers in Arms”
Steiger Award (Germany)
  • 2011
Rolling Stone Magazine
  • 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time: #44
  • 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: #352 – Dire Straits: “Brothers in Arms”
  • 100 Best Albums of the Eighties: #52 – Dire Straits: “Making Movies”

 

Discography

Dire Straits
Solo Releases
Albums
  • Golden Heart (1996)
  • Sailing to Philadelphia (2000)
  • The Ragpicker’s Dream (2002)
  • Shangri-La (2004)
  • One Take Radio Sessions (2005)
  • Private Investigations: The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler (2005)
  • Kill to Get Crimson (2007)
  • Get Lucky (2009)
  • Privateering (2012)
  • Tracker (2015)
  • Down the Road Wherever (2018)
Soundtracks
  • Local Hero (1983)
  • Comfort and Joy (1984)
  • Cal (1984)
  • The Color of Money (1986)
    – Song: Two Brothers and a Stranger.
  • The Princess Bride (1987)
  • Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989)
  • Screenplaying (1993)
  • Wag the Dog (1998)
  • Metroland (1999)
  • A Shot at Glory (2002)
  • Altamira (2016)
    – With Evelyn Glennie.
Collaborations
  • Neck and Neck (1990)
    – With Chet Atkins.
  • The Booze Brothers By Brewers Droop (1999)
    – Produced with Dave Edmunds.
  • All the Roadrunning (2006)
    – With Emmylou Harris.
  • Real Live Roadrunning (2006)
    – With Emmylou Harris.
Tributes and Compilations 
  • Adios Amigo: A Tribute to Arthur Alexander (1994)
    – Song: You Better Move On (with Chuck Jackson)
  • Not Fade Away (Remembering Buddy Holly) (1996)
    – Song: Learning the Game (with Waylon Jennings)
  • Twang! A Tribute to Hank Marvin & the Shadows (1996)
    – Song: Atlantis
  • Suit: Spirit of the Music (1997)
    – Song: On Raglan Road
  • Good Rockin’ Tonight: The Legacy of Sun Records (2001)
    – Song: Rock ‘n’ Roll Ruby
  • Timeless (2001)
    – Song: Alone and Forsaken (with Emmylou Harris)
  • The Bablake Sessions (2008)
    – Song: Sarah (with Jon Allen)
  • Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan (2012)
    – Song: Restless Farewell
The Notting Hillbillies
  • Missing … Presumed Having a Good Time (1990)

 

Mark Knopfler

Local Hero [Original Soundtrack]
Local Hero [Original Soundtrack]
Shangri-La
Shangri-La
All the Roadrunning
All the Roadrunning
Sailing to Philadelphia
Sailing to Philadelphia
Privateering
Privateering

 

 

From the Lyrics

Done With Bonaparte

(Album: Golden Heart)

“We prayed these wars would end all wars –
In war we know is no romance.”

What It Is

(Album: Sailing to Philadelphia)

“The drinking dens are spilling out
There’s staggering in the square
There’s lads and lasses falling about
And a crackling in the air
Down around the dungeon doors
The shelters and the queues
Everybody’s looking for
Somebody’s arms to fall into
And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now

There’s frost on the graves and the monuments
But the taverns are warm in town
People curse the government
And shovel hot food down
The lights are out in the city hall
The castle and the keep
The moon shines down upon it all
The legless and asleep

And it’s cold on the tollgate
With the wagons creeping through
Cold on the tollgate
God knows what I could do with you
And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now

The garrison sleeps in the citadel
With the ghosts and the ancient stones
High up on the parapet
A Scottish piper stands alone
And high on the wind
The highland drums begin to roll
And something from the past just comes
And stares into my soul

And it’s cold on the tollgate
With the Caledonian Blues
Cold on the tollgate
God knows what I could do with you
And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now
What it is
It’s what it is now

There’s a chink of light, there’s a burning wick
There’s a lantern in the tower
Wee Willie Winkie with a candlestick
Still writing songs in the wee wee hours
On Charlotte Street I take
A walking stick from my hotel
The ghost of Dirty Dick
Is still in search of Little Nell
And it’s what it is
It’s what it is now
Oh what it is
What it is now”

Madame Geneva’s

(Album: Kill to Get Crimson)

“I’m a maker of ballads right pretty
I write them right here in the street
You can buy them all over the city
yours for a penny a sheet
I’m a word pecker out of the printers
out of the dens of Gin Lane
I’ll write up a scene on a counter
– confessions and sins in the main, boys
confessions and sins in the main

Then you’ll find me in Madame Geneva’s
keeping the demons at bay
There’s nothing like gin for drowning them in
but they’ll always be back on a hanging day,
On a hanging day

They come rattling over the cobbles
they sit on their coffins of black
Some are struck dumb, some gabble
top-heavy on brandy or sack
The pews are all full of fine fellows
and the hawker has set up her shop
As they’re turning them off at the gallows
she’ll be selling right under the drop, boys
selling right under the drop

Then you’ll find me in Madame Geneva’s
keeping the demons at bay
There’s nothing like gin for drowning them in
but they’ll always be back on a hanging day
On a hanging day”

 

Links

Mark Knopfler
Dire Straits

 

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