Stepping out for a Solo jaunt with Golden Heart

By George A. Fletcher - Rythm & News Magazine

In preparing for my long awaited interview with Mark Knopfler, I was less interested in posing questions related to his new Warner Bros. release "Golden Heart" as I was in getting inside his head and equipment locker. I wanted, no, needed to know about the sound that turned the rock world on its collective ear at the time that punk and disco ruled, and how Knopfler managed to keep it fresh for all these years. How did this relatively unknown Englishman and his group Dire Straits single-handedly revitalize pop music and return the Stratocaster to its well-earned (and undeservedly lost) place in the Pantheon of rock and roll? What I learned was, not only that he doesn't know, but he doesn't play Strats all that much either.

I also learned the he has never owned a Martin, really likes old Les Pauls, has breakfast with Chet Atkins whenever he is in Nashville (Chet's got the best jokes), and views his soundtrack work as not very good.

One would suspect that Knopfler, maker of hit records, racer of motor cars (he once broke his collarbone in a celebrity crash), producer, writer and session player (Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, Chet Atkins, Randy Newman), would be just as happy a man if he were to move back home, resume his pre-fame occupation as a journalist for the "Yorkshire Evening Post", and jam his nights away at some out-of-the-way pub.

The self-effacing Knopfler is, admittedly, very untechnical. Viewing himself as far less than the virtuoso the rest of us think he is, he says that whatever it is he does musically, he's merely addressing his gift, it's just part of the journey, and when given the chance, he'll find a way to mess it up.
Truly a gentleman in the classic sense, the talkative and friendly Knopfler confides that conducting interviews beats working at the bakery.

This was not what I had expected.

R&N: Do you consider "Golden Heart" to be your first true solo effort , or does that honor go to "Local Hero"?

MK: Yes, I 'spose this ("Golden Heart") is really the first solo record. But you know if you've written all the songs for the band records, in a way they are too. It's just that this album gave me chance to work with a whole pile more people. "'Local Hero' was a film score. I listen to my film music and I don't know how I've done it (laughs). I'll be in the middle of (scoring) a riot scene -- and people are out in the park playing with dogs and having a life and I'm wondering what the hell I'm doing (laughs).

R&N: Having came out of the gate as strong as you did with "Sultans Of Swing" -- with all of the hits - does the prospect of having to play them 'til the end of time weary you?

MK: I love to play the old songs. I don't necessarily like to hear them, I mean if I'm in a bar or something, but it's a buzz playing them.

R&N: Is there a part of Mark Knopfler that is a purist in some area?

MK: No, not at all. Nothing I would do would really fall into a purist's category. I'm not a bluegrass or jazz purist. I really don't like that kind of purism or snobbery. I really don't have much time for it. I like messing things up.

R&N: What do mean by "Mess it up"?

MK: I would never do a purely bluegrass thing. I don't like musical snobbery. When I was a kid and I was playing in folk clubs, I would want to sing American songs -- but it was English folk clubs and they didn't allow that. That kind of bullshit. Without messing with stuff, we wouldn't have rock and roll, we wouldn't have Flamenco, we wouldn't have Tango -- these things come by things being messed with. In many ways, it's something which is absorbed, squeezed and something else comes out -- a reinterpretation, if you like. I'd use anything. I'd use earth removal equipment on a record if I felt like it.

R&N: What type of fellow did you find Chet Atkins to be upon meeting and working with him?

MK: I love Chet and I'd see him most days when I was down there -- we'd meet up for breakfast. He's been coming along to rehearsals. It's always great being around him. We can go and usually have breakfast before Nashville wakes up and I always get the best jokes from him. He's inspiring because he's still switched on and turned on by stuff and excited about things and showing me new things that he's exciting about and that's inspirational because it's a reminder -- to remind you to pay attention to your gift. You're doing yourself a disservice by not addressing your gift.

R&N: Do you and Chet have any plans for the future?

MK: We don't have anything concrete, but I'd love to. Be nice to have a budget and a studio and a group -- that's the way I would really like to do it. I think that I'm getting pretty well-placed to possibly do that now.

R&N: What type of music were you initially interested in?

MK: When I was 15 or so I heard B.B. King and all that -- John Lee Hooker, Buddy Guy and Sonny Boy Williamson and all that. I was getting more into it with Steve and sorta working my way backwards into Blind William McTell and Blind Blake and all the rest... then fingerpicked blues. We also covered at lot of other stuff, western swing, ragtime things and all kinds of different things so it's important to me, that relationship was important to me musically, just following that path.

R&N: You can't appreciate what you're listening to until you see where it came from?

MK: The deeper your roots grow, the healthier you'll be as a plant. The opposite is great, too, because of the assurance kids have got. Sometimes the absence of roots makes somethings very refreshing, too. So it's a strange old mixture, isn't it?

R&N: Have you every embarked upon a strictly acoustic project or have you ever considered doing "MTV Unplugged"?

MK: I've been playing acoustic music all my life, anyway. When I was young, I couldn't even afford an amplifier. Besides, I don't much like the "unplugged" word. To me, it's just all the same. It's part of the whole thing. I don't really like the separation.

R&N: I found that "Brothers In Arms" in particular, really touched me -- that was one of those albums I couldn't take off the turntable. What artists have you been similarly affected by, where you just couldn't get enough?

MK: Dylan records when I was a kid. I like getting music from people -- a friend in Nashville sends me compilations of all things and I just mostly play them now at home. When I was young, I really didn't have a record player growing up. I would make friends and a lot of the times I'd just go around to people's houses and test 'em.

R&N: Is there one record that lit a fire under your ass?

MK: "Live at the Regal" was a big one for me, B.B. King when I was about 15 -- the triangular conversation between the audience, the guitar, and the voice. The three cornered relationship struck me very hard. The emotion of it, the triangular architecture of it.

R&N: Do you see yourself doing a blues album someday? And with whom?

MK: Well, of course. Oh my God! There are so many people. Oh, yeah. I'd love to make a blues album at some point.

R&N: But you wouldn't try to be a purist about that?

MK: No, absolutely not. Don't worry -- I would find a way of messing it up.

R&N: What material would you choose?

MK: I don't know. I wouldn't do standards, I would probably write them.

R&N: Do you feel that you have come to be a musician's musician?

MK: Well, I wouldn't say that at all.

R&N: How do you suppose you are viewed as an artist?

MK: I haven't got a clue. I'm not so sure I'm worried about that. What would worry me would be if I didn't have the respect of musicians that I've been playing with. That gives me a tremendous amount of pleasure that I have the respect of players. The fact that I have that respect from them gives me enormous pleasure and I would do anything to retain that.

R&N: Where do you suppose you are as an artist at this time of your life?

MK: I'm hardly off the launching pad.

Stepping out for a Solo jaunt with Golden Heart

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