{"id":3688,"date":"2025-11-16T21:46:31","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T21:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3688"},"modified":"2025-11-16T21:51:39","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T21:51:39","slug":"ftv-mark-knopfler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/?p=3688","title":{"rendered":"FTV: Mark Knopfler"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Though they span decades and many genres, there is a connecting thread between the following list of guitar players:\u00a0 Jeff Beck, Lindsey Buckingham, Ritchie Kotzen, Robbie Krieger, Albert Collins, Albert King, Bonnie Raitt, Derek Trucks, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, and, as noted in the title above, Mark Knopfler.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t a brand of guitar, the endorsement of a certain model of amplifier, or common roots.\u00a0 They are all players who have made a career out of playing without the use of a plectrum, commonly referred to as a pick.\u00a0 Knopfler told <\/span>Guitar Player<\/span><\/i> magazine\u2019s Christopher Scapelliti (published July 5, 2025) for him it was due to the simple discovery that, \u201cPlaying with your fingers has something to do with the immediacy and soul.\u201d\u00a0 Even with the long list of guitarists who have performed pick-less over the years, Knopfler\u2019s emergence with his band Dire Straits in the heyday of <\/span>MTV <\/span><\/i>videos made him the newest face in the world of guitarists playing in that manner.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It wasn\u2019t a matter of Knopfler never having played with a pick.\u00a0 In a June 1992 <\/span>GP <\/span><\/i>cover feature, he recounted how it all started for him:\u00a0 \u201cI was sleeping on the floor in somebody\u2019s apartment.\u00a0 They had a cheap imitation of a Gibson Dove acoustic with unbelievably light strings.\u00a0 It was like playing an electric guitar, but there was a little bit of sound to it.\u00a0 You couldn\u2019t really strum or bash it (due to the late hour he was playing it), so I had to fingerpick.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I was flying around this guitar, I realized I was doing things with my fingers that I could do with a pick, and also some other things that I wouldn\u2019t be able to do with a pick.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When the iconic <\/span>Money For Nothing, Walk of Life,<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Sultans of Swing<\/span><\/i> videos were put into heavy rotation by the music channel,\u00a0 Mark Knopfler was suddenly anointed the next innovative guitar hero.\u00a0 Jeff Beck was always a \u2018player\u2019s player\u2019 in regard to inventing new ways to coax new sounds from his guitar. \u00a0 Beck\u2019s mostly instrumental albums were largely written off as brilliant, but with the caveat, \u201cWell, that is Jeff Beck for you.\u201d\u00a0 Knopfler\u2019s sound wasn\u2019t as \u2018out there\u2019 as some of the stuff Beck was doing but it made Dire Straits unlikely pop stars and they moved a lot of albums via their <\/span>MTV <\/span><\/i>exposure.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Proof that he still used a pick occasionally was revealed in a 2023 interview when he told <\/span>GP <\/span><\/i>that he had finally ditched using a pick completely due to \u201cLack of use and three bouts of COVID.\u00a0 I just kept losing them and would be fingerpicking more – not necessarily fingerpicking better, just more.\u00a0 It proved to be a bit more comfortable for me.\u201d\u00a0 Back in the 1992 article that supplied the \u2018immediacy and soul\u2019 quote mentioned above, he added, \u201c[When fingerpicking] You\u2019re absolutely in touch with what\u2019s going on.\u00a0 And that can lead to other things too.\u201d\u00a0 No doubt the \u2018other things\u2019 he was alluding to included fingerpicking an electric guitar, the vehicle that propelled Dire Straits to the top of the pop charts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There were other nuances he would incorporate into his sound:\u00a0 \u201cOn the electric, I developed the sound a bit further with a volume pedal.\u00a0 Just a simple Ernie Ball pedal.\u00a0 It gives you more of a speaking voice, something that approximates a steel guitar.\u00a0 I always wanted that.\u00a0 I can\u2019t sing, so the guitar becomes a voice in many ways.\u00a0 You\u2019re not looking at Bonnie Raitt here.\u201d (Ed Note:\u00a0 Knopfler\u2019s voice appears all over the Dire Straits and on his solo albums so he does sing, but apparently he doesn\u2019t see his voice as a \u2018lead instrument\u2019 in the same league as his guitar playing).\u00a0 Perhaps he doesn\u2019t have the vocal chops of other pop vocalists, but his vocal style fits perfectly with his guitar voice.\u00a0 Whether they are songs from his solo catalog or the Dire Straits era, his songs are certainly easy to recognize.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mark Freuder Knopfler was born on August 12, 1949, in Glasgow, Scotland to an English mother and a Hungarian – Jewish father.\u00a0 His architect father (and also an avid chess player) fled Hungary in 1939 ahead of the Nazis.\u00a0 He and his teacher wife originally settled in Glasgow.\u00a0 After the 1952 birth of Mark\u2019s younger brother David, they moved to Newcastle which was near to her home town of Blyth.\u00a0 The couple had married there in 1947 and Mark\u2019s older sister Ruth had been born in England.\u00a0 The family eventually settled in the North East English town of Blyth after their stint in Glasgow.\u00a0 It was the harmonica and boogie woogie piano playing of his uncle Kinglsey that sparked young Mark\u2019s early interest in all styles of music.\u00a0 Though he first wanted an expensive Fiesta Red Fender Stratocaster like Hank Marvin\u2019s (guitarist for the Shadows), he settled for a more modest Hofner Super Solid for an equally modest price of 50 pounds.\u00a0 To pay it off, he found a Saturday job\u00a0 at the<\/span> Newcastle Evening Chronicle<\/span><\/i> newspaper at the age of 13 (earning six shillings and sixpence).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0His musical tastes were formed in the 1960s listening to Elvis Presley, Chet Atkins, Scotty Moore, B.B.King, Django Reinhardt, James Burton, and of course, Hank Marvin.\u00a0 He studied journalism for a year at Harlow College and was hired as a junior reporter by the <\/span>Yorkshire Evening Post<\/span><\/i> in Leeds.\u00a0 Along with Steve Phillips (described as a furniture restorer, country blues enthusiast and a part-time performer), they gigged as The Duolian String Pickers.\u00a0 Mark finished his education two years later with a degree in English at the University of Leeds.\u00a0 His first foray into recording came in April of 1970 when he made a demo disc of an original song called <\/span>Summers Coming My Way.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 After graduation in 1973, Knopfler moved to London and knocked around with various pub bands.\u00a0 He took a job as a lecturer for three years at London College in Essex.\u00a0 Musically, things began to change in the mid-1970s.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When Mark\u2019s brother David moved to London, they shared an apartment with fellow player John Illsley who had recently changed over from guitar to bass.\u00a0 With Pick Withers on drums, the band morphed from being the Cafe Racers to the earliest iteration of Dire Straits.\u00a0 In July of 1977, they recorded their first demos which included<\/span> Sultans of Swing.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 Their eponymous first album was released in October of 1978 but didn\u2019t make any waves in the chart ocean.\u00a0 It was a different story when <\/span>Sultans of Swing <\/span><\/i>was released as a single and became a hit in the Netherlands.\u00a0 It soon grew legs across Europe and then in the United States and Canada (U.K. was late in catching on).\u00a0 Their second and third releases (<\/span>Communique (<\/span><\/i>June 1979<\/span>)<\/span><\/i> and<\/span> Making Movies (<\/span><\/i>October 1980<\/span>)<\/span><\/i>) featured more complex arrangements.\u00a0 <\/span>Making Movies <\/span><\/i>included\u00a0 the songs <\/span>Romeo and Juliet<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Tunnel of Love, <\/span><\/i>the latter of which was featured in the 1982 film <\/span>An Officer and a Gentleman <\/span><\/i>featuring Richard Gere.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The band member shuffle began in the 1980s and eventually, Knopfler and Illsley would be the only originals to last the entire 18 years the band was together.\u00a0 Tensions between the brothers saw David leave the band during the <\/span>Making Movie <\/span><\/i>sessions.\u00a0 Drummer Withers would announce his departure from Dire Straits when 1982\u2019s <\/span>Love Over Gold<\/span><\/i> was released.\u00a0 Prior to embarking on the eight month <\/span>Love Over Gold<\/span><\/i> tour, a four-song EP (<\/span>ExtendeddancEPlay)<\/span><\/i> came out featuring the track <\/span>Twisting by the Pool.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>The double album <\/span>Alchemy Live<\/span><\/i> was recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon on July 22 and 23, 1983 but it was not on the market until March 1984.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark\u2019s projects outside of Dire Straits at this time included work with Phil Everly and Cliff Richard (<\/span>She Means Nothing to Me<\/span><\/i> – a single that reached the U.K. Top Ten) and writing, producing, and recording music for the film <\/span>Local Hero<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 The film score, released in April of 1983, earned a BAFTA nomination for Best Score for a Film the next year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The mid 1980s were no less busy for Knopfler as he scored two more films, <\/span>Cal <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Comfort and Joy.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 Mark produced Bob Dylan\u2019s <\/span>Infidels<\/span><\/i> album, Aztec Camera\u2019s <\/span>Knife, <\/span><\/i>and he wrote <\/span>Private Dancer<\/span><\/i> for Tina Turner\u2019s comeback album of the same name.\u00a0 Lead guitar work for Bryan Ferry\u2019s 1985 album, <\/span>Boys and Girls <\/span><\/i>followed.\u00a0 Dire Straits began recording what would be their most notable (and fifth) album, <\/span>Brothers in Arms<\/span><\/i> in 1984.\u00a0 Recorded at George Martin\u2019s AIR Studios in Montserrat, the album was co-produced by Knopfler and Neil Dorfsman.\u00a0 The band member roulette wheel continued to spin with two new keyboardists added to the touring mix as well as Mark\u2019s longtime friend, New Yorker Jack Sonni on guitar.\u00a0 Wither\u2019s replacement, Terry Williams was let go during the <\/span>Brothers <\/span><\/i>sessions and studio ace Omar Hakim came in to record the album\u2019s drum tracks in only three days.\u00a0 Hakim then left for other commitments.\u00a0 Williams was back on the drum stool for the subsequent <\/span>Brothers in Arms<\/span><\/i> tour that spanned 1985-1986.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The word \u2018blockbuster\u2019 has been applied to the <\/span>Brothers <\/span><\/i>album.\u00a0 The international sensation has sold more than 30 million copies and by 2006, it was the fourth best selling album in UK chart history.\u00a0 <\/span>Money for Nothing<\/span><\/i> was the first video played on MTV in Britain and the album was the first CD to sell a million copies.\u00a0 If there had been previous doubts about how CDs would be accepted by music fans, Dire Straits certainly erased them.\u00a0 With <\/span>Money, So Far Away, <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Walk of Life<\/span><\/i> topping the charts, Dire Straits embarked on a tour of over 230 shows.\u00a0 In the wake of this massive tour, the band went their separate ways and Knopfler turned his attention to more film soundtracks like <\/span>The Princess Bride.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i>When Dire Straits regrouped in June of 1988, it was for Nelson Mandela\u2019s 70th birthday tribute show at Wembley Stadium.\u00a0 Headlining the bill, they were joined on stage by Eric Clapton who Knopfler had become close friends with by this time.\u00a0 Jack Sonni and Terry Williams left the band soon after but it didn\u2019t matter much as Mark announced the dissolution of the band in September.\u00a0 Their <\/span>Money for Nothing<\/span><\/i> greatest hits would follow in October of 1988 and it raced straight to No. 1 on the UK charts.\u00a0 The next year, Knopfler launched a little less mainstream group called the Notting Hillbillies and as the name suggests, they skewed heavily toward Americana, Folk, Blues, and Country music.\u00a0 They toured behind the release of their only LP (<\/span>Missing\u2026Presumed Having a Good Time<\/span><\/i> – March 1990).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A 1990 appearance at Knewworth as Dire Straits, again with Eric Clapton in tow, led to their long awaited follow up to <\/span>Brothers <\/span><\/i>(<\/span>1991\u2019s On Every Street<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 While it wasn\u2019t nearly as successful as <\/span>Brothers<\/span><\/i>, it spawned a 300 date tour that put the final nails in the Dire Straits\u2019 coffin.\u00a0 Illsley\u2019s comments about the last tour summed it all up:\u00a0 \u201cPersonal relationships were in trouble and it put a terrible strain on everybody, emotionally and physically.\u00a0 We were changed by it.\u201d\u00a0 The band dissolved once and for all in 1995 and since then, Knopfler has shown no interest in going back.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Knopfler took some time off before resuming his normal busy schedule of solo work.\u00a0 1993 saw him awarded an honorary music degree from the University of Newcastle on Tyne and the release of two more live Dire Straits albums (<\/span>On the Night<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Live at the BBC<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 In a documentary about the band, he stated, \u201cI put the thing to bed because I wanted to get back to some kind of reality.\u00a0 That kind of scale [both the band and the touring] is dehumanizing.\u201d\u00a0 Indeed, it took a full two years for him to recover both creatively and in his personal life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even their election to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame couldn\u2019t bring the band back together.\u00a0 Knopfler skipped the induction (only John Illsley, Alan Clark, and Guy Fletcher attended) with Illsley noting again that, \u201cMark is not keen on a reunion.\u201d\u00a0 Unlike most inductions at this affair, Dire Straits was not presented by anyone (a first for the R\u2019n\u2019R Hall) nor did they perform.\u00a0 In his 2021 biography (<\/span>My Life in Dire Straits<\/span><\/i>), he again mentioned how physically and emotionally beat up the band was after the 1992 world tour.\u00a0 They were all glad to have reached the end of the band\u2019s road and \u2018pretty happy\u2019 when it all came to an end.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Knopfler knocked out three solo albums in pretty rapid succession in the early 2000s (<\/span>Sailing to Philadelphia (<\/span><\/i>2000<\/span>), The Ragpicker\u2019s Dream (<\/span><\/i>2002), and <\/span>Shangri-La (<\/span><\/i>2004).\u00a0 The first two are my particular favorites as are the two <\/span>Roadrunning <\/span><\/i>collaborations he did with Emmylou Harris (<\/span>All the Roadrunning <\/span><\/i>(2006) and <\/span>Real Live Roadrunning <\/span><\/i>(2006).\u00a0 In all, he has ten solo albums in his catalog beyond the six he did with DS.\u00a0 A complete compilation of all Mark\u2019s work since the end of Dire Straits would consume more space than I have left so I will take the easy way out.\u00a0 If you want all the details about his last 25 busy years, our friends at Wiki can accommodate you very nicely.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0If you are one of those players who prefer using picks, Knopfler acknowledged the advantages in the 1992 <\/span>GP <\/span><\/i>article:\u00a0 \u201cThe best amplifiers are picks.\u00a0 As soon as you lose the pick, you lose a lot of level.\u00a0 It changes the tone and the legitimacy of what you do.\u00a0 So if I am playing straight blues or something with my fingers on an electric guitar, I have to think slightly differently.\u00a0 But I could never keep picks anyway, so I just play the way I do and dial up the right sound on the tube amp.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Since Dire Straits first made the musical world sit up and take notice, there have been a lot of newer players who do not use picks.\u00a0 I am willing to be a majority of them would cite Mark Knopfler as an inspiration.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Topo Piece Video:\u00a0 Live at Wembley –\u00a0Money For Nothin’ . . . and the chicks for free!\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Though they span decades and many genres, there is a connecting thread between the following list of guitar players:\u00a0 Jeff Beck, Lindsey Buckingham, Ritchie Kotzen, Robbie Krieger, Albert Collins, Albert King, Bonnie Raitt, Derek Trucks, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, and, as noted in the title above, Mark Knopfler.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t a brand of guitar, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3688"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3692,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3688\/revisions\/3692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}