I think this is very true. Sure, Mark wrote, sang and played lead guitar, but that doesn't mean it's all his work and the others are just lucky to be there and fill in some minor bits and pieces. If you're in a band, you're in a band - it's a team effort and not a one man show. It's like playing soccer (football). If the striker scores a hat-trick, he still has to get the ball from someone, and that someone can't just be replaced without affecting the result of the game.
It feels very easy to underestimate the work of the other members of DS, but Mark is just another human being and cannot do everything on his own.
That's absolutely true if we're talking about a band. However, Dire Straits, as far as I'm concerned, never was a band... From day 1, it was Mark's way of putting out his songs. If he'd be able to play all the instruments at the same time on stage, I'm pretty sure he'd done just that. Even his own brother had no control over the band, let alone other members. David Knopfler said, "I thought we were building a democracy". How naive! John Illsley managed to stick as a core and the most loyal member of Mark's crew, everyone else got shredded in M. Knopfler's creative control blender. I think it's pretty clear that MK is not the guy to mess up with, even fans understand that. But some people he works with think that he's building democracy, and should give credit to something, etc.. That blows my mind. I think one should know with whom he's working and don't have high expectations, or not work with him at all.
Richard Bennett composed an opening guitar melody for "Rüdiger" on the first day of playing and recording with MK and so what? Should he ask for a writing credit, I don't think he'd be in Mark's band to this day. Creative input is great but sometimes too overrated.
