Should MK retire from music ?

[rmarques821]

In my opinion, that does not make much sense. It's obvious that he loves writing and recording, so why would he stop? He has said plenty of times that he doesn't need the money anymore, and he does it just because the loves it, the whole thing.

As for his touring/playing ability, I think his playing has clearly got worse over time and as the years went by, which his completely normal considering his fingers are almost 70 years old (and we should be thankful he doesn't suffer from arthritis like Clapton).

In my view, 1992 Mark Knopfler was the best guitarist I've ever seen. There was nothing that man could not do at that peak.

I can't remember when Mark said something like that about money, I only remember when he said he will run his studio until his accountant say it doesn't make any money. In fact, Van Morrison said point-blank in an interview, that he tours a lot nowadays, because he have a lot of stuff waiting to be paid, and he has exactly the same estimated net worth as MK and doesn't even have a recording studio which literally demand millions of dollars. I don't want to discuss someone's money here, but my point is—it's easy to think of guys like MK or VM that because he's a millionaire he can do nothing for his entire life and do everything just because he "wants it". It doesn't work like that!

And yes, in the early 90s Mark was a monster player who made many people quit guitar I suppose. I love that he learn jazz more and more!

If I remember correctly, he acknowledged that in the Mark Lawson interview. You'd guess that with a net worth of about 95M $, he wouldn't bother working 9 to 5 
Besides, who knows if Van Morrison hasn't made any bad investments? I don't think that's the case with MK. I surely don't see him as a guy who spends his money unwisely.

[quizzaciously]

Thank you for mentioning this interview, I guess I need to rewatch it again... The last time was in 2013! By the way, Tommy Emmanuel at one point said that he tours like crazy (don't even look at his schedule!) partly because he need to pay for lots of things, too. Crazy, but true!

By the way, guys like Tommy Emmanuel, you can't even dare to ask questions like "should he retire?". He doesn't even have a set-list and plays whatever he feel at the moment, and his playing only gets better with age. Same as with Mark's songwriting!

[dmg]

Thank you for mentioning this interview, I guess I need to rewatch it again... The last time was in 2013! By the way, Tommy Emmanuel at one point said that he tours like crazy (don't even look at his schedule!) partly because he need to pay for lots of things, too. Crazy, but true!

By the way, guys like Tommy Emmanuel, you can't even dare to ask questions like "should he retire?". He doesn't even have a set-list and plays whatever he feel at the moment, and his playing only gets better with age. Same as with Mark's songwriting!

Really?  IMO his songwriting is much poorer than it used to be.  In every successive album since STP there are more and more filler songs and probably even before STP his songwriting start to get simpler.  Cannibals is a rehash and simpler version of WOL, same for HF and MFN. 

The last single Beryl has astonishing bad lyrics and the subject matter was completely uninteresting too.  He must've wrote it in about 2 minutes because there are only 10 lines in the song - count 'em!    We would all deride the song had it been written by Justin Bieber.  None of great lines of the DS days, especially the first 4 albums where there was barely a bad song at all.

[Dutchessy]

Should he retire?

Hell no!!

[naif]

Thank you for mentioning this interview, I guess I need to rewatch it again... The last time was in 2013! By the way, Tommy Emmanuel at one point said that he tours like crazy (don't even look at his schedule!) partly because he need to pay for lots of things, too. Crazy, but true!

By the way, guys like Tommy Emmanuel, you can't even dare to ask questions like "should he retire?". He doesn't even have a set-list and plays whatever he feel at the moment, and his playing only gets better with age. Same as with Mark's songwriting!

Really?  IMO his songwriting is much poorer than it used to be.  In every successive album since STP there are more and more filler songs and probably even before STP his songwriting start to get simpler.  Cannibals is a rehash and simpler version of WOL, same for HF and MFN. 

The last single Beryl has astonishing bad lyrics and the subject matter was completely uninteresting too.  He must've wrote it in about 2 minutes because there are only 10 lines in the song - count 'em!    We would all deride the song had it been written by Justin Bieber.  None of great lines of the DS days, especially the first 4 albums where there was barely a bad song at all.

Absolutely I agree. The lyrics in the first four albums were unique. Mark was not in that class again except for a few songs. But still he has tons of good songs of course since he is very very productive musician.

[Jules]

I also believe his songwriting is not best at all and hasn't improved that much. Actually he never wrote better lyrics than he did with DS, but its true that he has written some very good ones, maybe 4 per record, the rest are easy written songs for a man with his talent.

[quizzaciously]

Really?  IMO his songwriting is much poorer than it used to be.  In every successive album since STP there are more and more filler songs and probably even before STP his songwriting start to get simpler.  Cannibals is a rehash and simpler version of WOL, same for HF and MFN. 

The last single Beryl has astonishing bad lyrics and the subject matter was completely uninteresting too.  He must've wrote it in about 2 minutes because there are only 10 lines in the song - count 'em!    We would all deride the song had it been written by Justin Bieber.  None of great lines of the DS days, especially the first 4 albums where there was barely a bad song at all.

Consider comparing the amount of good songs in Mark's 21 century albums and other artists of his generation... I wouldn't say that I liked even half of the most recent albums by Paul Simon, Leonard Cohen, Sting, Paul McCartney, Springsteen, etc... Sting's last album sounds like if Mark would want to do a DS reunion in his solo album, and it would sound... strange and out of place.

Bob Dylan is the greatest guy ever. If he have nothing new to put out, he just do The Great American Songbook. Better that, than a filler album complete with filler songs. I'm pretty sure if Mark would encounter a writer's block, he would just stop write rather than release an album-skipper.

[the visitor]

The rehash / recycling of melodies / previous songs point is interesting and there are numerous examples some already stated:

Cannibals = walk of life
Heavy Fuel = money for nothing
Used to Could = Two Young Lovers (itself a rip off of Chick Berry 'You Never Can tell')
Privateering = Mans Too Strong (with elements of Je Suis Desole)
Beryl = Sultans of Swing
No Can Do = listen closely to the end of live versions of Ride across the river

I am sure there are more, and the same is also true of the composition of the set lists.

There's nothing wrong with recycling, in fact this happens all the time across other musical genres (just look at rhythm tracks reused in reggae time after time, sometimes hundred of times) but it does get a bit boring, especially in instances when the original versions are superior. Why not just leave those be?

[quizzaciously]

There's nothing wrong with recycling, in fact this happens all the time across other musical genres (just look at rhythm tracks reused in reggae time after time, sometimes hundred of times) but it does get a bit boring, especially in instances when the original versions are superior. Why not just leave those be?

True. As I said a couple of years before, what baffles me is when you compose a song, similar to the other, in my mind it means it should become the "old song killer" so to speak, and if you have Beryl "killing" Sultans, why on Earth you keep playing the old song? I mean, "we're only looking forward" and stuff. If you compose Silver Eagle, why you play Sailing To Philadelphia again? Mark, what's happening?

But hey, Mark played Cannibals back in the day instead of Walk Of Life and to be honest, it was one of the best openers I've ever heard!

[dmg]

There's nothing wrong with recycling, in fact this happens all the time across other musical genres (just look at rhythm tracks reused in reggae time after time, sometimes hundred of times) but it does get a bit boring, especially in instances when the original versions are superior. Why not just leave those be?

True. As I said a couple of years before, what baffles me is when you compose a song, similar to the other, in my mind it means it should become the "old song killer" so to speak, and if you have Beryl "killing" Sultans, why on Earth you keep playing the old song? I mean, "we're only looking forward" and stuff. If you compose Silver Eagle, why you play Sailing To Philadelphia again? Mark, what's happening?

But hey, Mark played Cannibals back in the day instead of Walk Of life and to be honest, it was one of the best openers I've ever heard!

I never liked Cannibals as the opener in 2008.  It was played too slowly and lacked energy and power.  It paled in comparison with the GH tour versions.  If you aren't going to improve on the original musically then I don't think it should be released at all.  I can't think of an example where this has happened, Privateering/Man's Too Strong maybe an exception.  Why play a crap song like Beryl when Sultans is an all-time classic?  Over time you will end up with a set full of your inferior songs.

[Rail King]

I totally disagree.

To say that Mark is a "recyclist" is ridiculous. I don't think I know any other artist who recycles less of his former music when writing new songs. Occasional similarities (as in Walk of Life and Cannibals) are inevitable, but would you really claim that an album like Get Lucky bears any similarity to, say, Communiqué? Not really, right? They're a world apart. And you know what? The latter might actually be even better than the former.

Regarding lyrics, he always wrote great stuff, but the best, in my opinion, were fairly recent songs, the likes of Old Pigweed or Kingdom of Gold. Oh, and Cannibals has the better lyrics than Walk of Life.

Finally, just because a song is 10 minutes long and comprises a novel's worth of lyrics doesn't mean that it's "better". The lyrics of  Redbud Tree are just as good as those of It Never Rains. The same is true for the musical quality of these two songs. They're both favourites of mine, and I would never be able to put one above the other.

[tngemini]

Why should he retired? If someone does not like new songs skip them, don't buy any cd, don't go to gigs,... But please let's others to have fun ...

[Mossguitar]

Why should he retired? If someone does not like new songs skip them, don't buy any cd, don't go to gigs,... But please let's others to have fun ...

Best post in this thread!

[jeffreyvr]

Why should he retired? If someone does not like new songs skip them, don't buy any cd, don't go to gigs,... But please let's others to have fun ...

Best post in this thread!

Agreed. The day I'm asking for Mark to retire, I might need to wonder about retiring myself.

[Knopflerfan]

Should MK Retire - NO WAY!!!
However,if you don't enjoy his music now then bye bye

MK is such an amazing artist who still has it and I look forward very much to the next instalment/Chapter....I rue the day he does actually retire.....