Knopfler Happy Sailing Solo
Taken from the Denver Post May 6, 2001. Written by G. Brown.
Former Dire Straits frontman navigates new creative waters.
With the 1985 blockbuster "Brothers in Arms," Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler, the main force behind the U.K. group, were propelled into international stardom. The album yielded the hits "Walk of Life" and "So Far Away" and the popular computer-animated video of the single "Money for Nothing," with sales of 20 million worldwide.
But, waiting six years to deliver a followup, Dire Straits never again approached that level of success.
"I believe Dire Straits was about the biggest band in the world at a certain point," Knopfler told The Post recently. He'll perform at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Saturday night. "To me, that was time to get back to something approaching normality. On the last tour we were on stage that was as big as Brazil, we had a lighting rig from "Star Trek' ... I'd go into catering and there'd be 10 extra truck drivers there I didn't know.
"I enjoyed it tremendously, but I wanted to get back to being a guy who wrote songs on the sofa and went and played them in theaters, where it wasn't getting out of hand. There were other things I wanted to explore musically, as well, so I'm glad I've done what I've done."
Knopfler launched a full-fledged solo career with the release of "Golden Heart" in 1996. He's touring now in support of "Sailing to Philadelphia," his second solo album.
"Sailing To Philadelphia" resonates with Knopfler's sonorous guitar work and husky, laconic vocals. The single "What It Is" can be included with such hits as "Sultans of Swing" in the Knopfler songbook.
"I really wasn't thinking thematically at all - that's far too intelligent for me. But I realized afterward that I'd written a couple of tunes that were vaguely connected - themes relating to journeys and human endurance and perseverance were there. I've always been attracted to that aspect of ordinary people."
The title track was inspired by Thomas Pynchon's epic novel "Mason & Dixon." It's a dialogue between the 18th-century surveyors, English astronomers who became trans-Atlantic frontiersmen.
"I could never understand why it didn't win whatever the big American book award is," Knopfler said.
"I'd reached the bit in the book where Mason and Dixon had gone across to Philadelphia on a boat from England to start to do this job for the British government. I was going back and forth to the States a lot at the time, changing planes in Philadelphia. I was sailing through the clouds, looking down at all of this city with a huge airport where you can shop and go to restaurants, and an enormous port with tankers and boats and cargo ships.
"I found the book brilliant and exciting to read in the area of comparative cultures, where you've got Mason and Dixon bringing this European idea of civilization and cutting this huge vista across the country, and the unknown, mystic side of going into the Native American Indian domain, this cultural confrontation. What exactly was this presaging? Was this all going to end in tears, or was this a sign of a great new civilization to come?
"Apart from anything else, the music from America is so important - but it's music that very often has originated in Scotland, north of England, Ireland, all the European countries. And it's gone through the mincer and come out as something else.
"That was the first music I heard. At the time Mason and Dixon were there, America was still a colony, with mutterings of independence. America then colonized the rest of the world's consciousness, and I'm always interested in that musical journey ... "
James Taylor - who will play at Red Rocks over Labor Day weekend - shares vocal duties on the song.
"I just heard his voice - it seemed like a "James-y' kind of tune, it suited the melody. I don't know if that means I'd make a good music publisher or not. ... As a casting agent, maybe!"
The "Sailing" tour is Knopfler's first in more than a decade. The venues are relatively intimate by his previous standards. The set list is reportedly a 50-50 blend of old and new songs, including many Dire Straits classics.
"I'm enjoying it very much. It does bang on for an awful long time - people wonder when on Earth we're going to get off the stage ... "I certainly don't have to (tour) - there's no need. It's because I love it. I've done it with every record that I've ever made. For me it's the logical end of the whole thing, and just as important as the rest of it. It may not always be that way, but as long as I feel good and can still get into a gym and come out a couple of hours later in one piece, I'm going to go on doing it.
"It's amazing how many youngsters are into it," Knopfler, 51, added. "I'm happy that they're happy. I hadn't thought about "rolling over' my audience, but it does seem to be going on - not everybody is asking me to sign something for their grandfather!"
Knopfler has a long body of film scores - the sound of "Sailing To Philadelphia" has a touch of "Local Hero" - and since "Golden Heart," he's written and recorded the soundtracks for "Wag the Dog" and "Metroland." He's completed another score for the upcoming soccer-themed Robert Duvall/Michael Keaton movie, "A Shot at Glory."
"The film stuff keeps you in touch with using different instruments to achieve different effects, so I suppose it keeps your muscles fairly hard in that respect. But that good exercise is the only explanation I can find for why I'd want to do it. It's time consuming, and ... nobody (cares) who does the music for movies. When I'm doing a score, I just keep wondering why they haven't got somebody to do it properly!"
Knopfler divulged that he also recorded a couple of songs with Emmylou Harris for "Sailing to Philadelphia" but put them aside.
"If Emmylou is around, I'd like to carry on with that, put together a collection of songs with her. But I really don't know how long that will take.
"She's the real thing. ... Anyone who can keep that going needs all the support she can get. There's a lot of manufactured stuff out there at the moment. It's all just a marketing ploy."
