Right, I’m shocked that I love this approach to music so much.

Absolutely! I love his stories/songs.

Yes, he is one of the very best lyricists. He makes songs about actual people. That's what I like the most about them.

Helps to be an English major.

@@velmex12 Yeah but I am thinking that Mark would have a far superior grasp of English than any teacher that I ever had in school ! lol

@@marciocintra2988 Yes, even Bob Dylan was impressed by Mark's lyrics during Dire Straits early songs.

I think you can see that by watching his behavior on stage. He's totally focused on what he does, but not showy. He is totally who he is.

Mostly agree. At Berkeley in 2019, he called out someone in the audience shining a bright light right in his face. Stopped mid song and told him to turn the f-ER off. Then continued the song. Amazing show.

Gunners_Mat In the eighties he came to Australia and was invited to drive in the celebrity race at the Melbourne grand prix. Local celebrity John Blackman, also in the race told how he introduced himself to Knopfler, and got the cold shoulder, Knopfler wouldn’t talk to him or anyone else in the race and was rude to the media and acted like a total a-hole. On the day of the race I think Knopfler was the fastest qualifier. He flew off the mark and at the first turn he ran off the track, hit the barriers and broke his collarbone. I can tell you there was a quiet grin of satisfaction on many faces when that happened. Maybe you think he has changed now but back then he was an arrogant, rude, piece of crap!

Strangely I was certain Mark is a perfectionist, his brother David even said that he couldn't keep up to marks high standards, his parts would be rerecorded by Mark in studio, hence he left to go solo and missed out on the millions!

​@@xaj1543He went through some bad times after marriage break ups, can happen to anybody. Being famous isn't his thing.

Where can I find rock history?

@@whynottalklikeapirat Arr Matey, It's all about ye wherever you look and or listen.

​@@steveoconnor7069Aaah but wherever I look and listen I find myself in the present rather than in history. And when I look through my bedroom, where I am currently at, I find no sign of it (and I was even out playing a gig last night - rather non-historical in scope -and the closest evidence of any contemporary connection to rock history is the sweaty t-shir I threw in the corner upon my return) Be that as it may - where in all this surrounding rockhistoryness may I find his name written down - or indeed “hewn in rock” as it were?

Amen to that! I’m sure there’s some questions asked, but we just get the good stuff.

Yeah, Tim is a great interview. All have been for that matter. The Kenny Vaughn stuff is pure gold. I’d have given anything if Otis could’ve gotten a sit down with Jeff Beck, but not sure the “shut up and listen” style would’ve worked. Jeff wasn’t much of a rambler. Robert Zimmerman, get your arse over to Otis’ house! (Yeah, right).

Otis is the best.

100% 👍🏼👍🏼. He lets the story teller tell their story their way.

Probably goes along with his age and maturity. Not to throw anyone under the bus but younger interviewers 20’s -30’s ish , are terrible interviewers on KZfaq I feel. Because they always have to be talking and there’s a lot less asking questions. They’re mostly more concerned with getting views , which is fine , but they’re doing it distastefully and wrong.

What the same story as sting and they are from the same areA

they were never the biggest band in the world.

@@TheJpep2424 They played 20 nights in a row to wrap up the Brothers In Arm tour. There was no bigger band in 1986. Even CCR were the biggest band in the world for a brief period in 1969. Get over yourself!

@@TheJpep2424 yea they were

He was also very good friends with Phil Everly of the Everly brothers

Single-Handed Sailor is hypnotic imaginative fabulous story….

@@sealisa1398Yeah I agree. I have never listened to that one before. The outro guitar goes on and on

thats my favorite album with DS too!!

@@sealisa1398 Such fantastic metaphors in that song. "The mother and her baby and the college of war. In the concrete graves."

lucky dog you

Thanks for clarifying that. I knew he wasn’t describing Telegraph Road, which is an epic song and one of my favorites of all time. I lived in the Metropolitan Detroit area and there is a Telegraph Road that starts in Colorado through Ohio as a rural road and in Michigan becomes a major multi-lane road. At the time the song was released I always wondered if Knopfler was referencing the actual road. I was driving on Telegraph Road during rush hour one evening playing the song when the lyrics about six lanes of traffic, three lanes moving slow came up. He had to be singing about this road, I thought. There was no internet back then so I couldn’t easily look it up. Of course he was singing not just about a road but what it represented, being the advance of society resulting in the working man getting screwed in the end. I later found out that on tour, his bus travelled Telegraph Road through rural Ohio into Michigan ending up in Pontiac no doubt, where the town was suffering from the economy and closing down shops, thus inspiring the song. A truly epic song, that holds a lot of meaning for me.

@@Mr_Rob_otto Not from Michigan but I know the Detroit area some. Did you ever go to Callahan's Music Hall in Auburn Hills ? I heard it is now closed. Telegraph Road definitely one of my favorite all time songs. Blessed to have seen it Live 3 times, with Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler and friends.

Hello rylieriley .did you hear about the story behind sultan of swings. Very funny 😊

Me too but probably top 3 behind Pink Floyd and Page and Plant. Sometimes that number changes according to my mood and number of beverages! LOL

You use that word "underrated" ... I don't think it means what you think it means. He's one of the most highly acclaimed songwriters of his generation.

Incredibly underrated? You sure?!!

Isn't that song about Indycar?

That song has such a unique, hypnotic rhythm and the way it keeps building until the end is amazing. I burned a cd of MK "car songs" which quickly turned into two discs...cars, motorcycles, trucks, race cars...all heavenly. I usually google the vehicle in the lyric to see what he was thinking about.....the giant Mark X jag, the Cobra, the Silver Eagle....

Brian Ferry also comes from the North East of England, a little mining village called Witton le Wear, in County Durham. Some of my ancestors lived there in the 18th century.

Ditto on favorites 👍

Agree ... David and Mark are best of the best!

Interesting that so many people choose the two of them together. And agreed, they have a style, tone and ear for melody that marks them apart from everyone else, but keeps them in the same category as each other. My two favourites as well.

The thing about Knopfler and Gilmore isn't the speed of play or how many rifts they're putting out. Rather, it's the spaces between their chords or expressions that allow the sound to wallow in your ear, heart and soul. Obviously not a musician here 🤫

Big thanks for all the comments, I think that all of you are puttning the hammer right on the nail. There is something very special and unique with Mark Knopfler and David Gilmour. They never play any drop away notes, every single guitar tone is there for a reason, and both of them are playing every guitar tone with 180 % feeling and perfectionism.

What’s interesting is that they played again at he tour theatre again early 2000’s, and the Sailing to Philadelphia (the wine story in this interview) was particularly well received, especially the chorus, “We are Sailing to Philadelphia.” At that time Mark sang both characters’ lines, but on the last tour in 2019, long time drummer and percussionist Danny Cummings sang the second character (James Taylor) part.

You're probably right, but "Speedway" is about Indy cars and "The Car Was The One" is about stock cars. My guess is that Tim doesn't care about the difference. I love both Knopfler's and O'Brien's music. "Odd Man In" ca. 1991 is one of my all time favorites. I agree, this was a terriffic interview. Not really an interview, as much as a series of anecdotes with a little commentary on true musical greatness, and what a glass of wine can do.

I see them too, each one like a short play!

The story I remember about Mark Knopfler is not good. He was invited to take part in the Aust grand prix celebrity race in 1986 in Melbourne, and qualified fastest and started on pole. According to local celebrity John Blackman, who also took part he tells how he went up to Knopfler during training to introduce himself and was given the complete cold shoulder when Knopfler virtually told him not to talk to him. He treated the other participants the same way, not to mention the media, and was basically a total pig. On the first lap of the race he ran off the track hit a concrete wall and fractured his collar bone. I’m sure there was a collective, “yessss,” from everyone who had to deal with this sub standard human being for the 4 days of the race.

Yeah, he's mixed up Speedway with Telegraph Road.

It helps to take the edge off, playing music to your highest level requires getting your mind and body into a flow state. Most people get to that with the help of a drink but its not a drink state, thats not good for music.

Really sad to hear that. Really hoped I’d have one more chance to see him again

So did I. Been waiting for 20 years while the council faffed about building an entertainment arena for Bradford, and now when it's nearly ready, all the people I really wanted to see are either retired or dead!