Mark Knopfler: A Life in Songs Page #5

---

# This is us down at the Mardi Gras

# This is us in your daddy's car

# You and the missing link

# Had a little too much I think

# Too long in the sun

# Having too much fun

# You and me and our memories This is us.

# This is us... #

These songs that I'm writing, sometimes they'll fall into types

and I'd noticed that there were a few songs that were making the male/female shape

and so I thought about doing a duet.

I thought that, um,

"Mark and Emmy" might be all right, you know.

I don't know, I don't exactly know why.

I think it was just because I'd been writing certain kinds of songs.

# Famous last words

# Laying round in tatters

# Sounding absurd

# Whatever I try

# But I love you

# And that's all that really matters

# If this is goodbye

# This is goodbye. #

If This Is Goodbye was inspired by an article Knopfler read in The Guardian by author Ian McEwan.

In which McEwan wrote about the voice messages left for loved ones

by those trapped in the Twin Towers on September 11th.

I think actually Emmy just liked the song.

I don't think she even knew what it was about

in terms of the... She just thought it was a goodbye song.

She hadn't, wasn't seeing it in terms of...

of that event.

When somebody mentioned it to her,

then it really changed and she became very emotionally attached to the song.

# My famous last words

# Could never tell the story

# Spinning unheard

# In the dark of the sky

# But I love you

# And this is our glory

# If this is goodbye

# If this is goodbye

# If this is goodbye

# If this is goodbye. #

It's always interesting to me how a creative act, how it engenders other creative acts.

When you drop a stone into a well,

the ripples go out and things come back.

With Sailing to Philadelphia,

I was reading a book about Mason and Dixon and the Mason-Dixon Line,

and with Dixon himself, you know,

being from the north, and his travels taking him all over the place,

I felt a bit of a kinship with him.

Obviously, I didn't do anything of remotely the same sort of importance.

# I'm Jeremiah Dixon

# I am a Geordie boy

# A glass of wine with you sir

# And the ladies I'll enjoy

# All Durham men, Northumberland

# Measured up by my own hand

# It was my fate from birth

# To make my mark upon the Earth... #

I'm one of lucky ones who enjoys the whole cycle,

and if you want to think of it in terms of a cycle

of being a songwriter so I can write a song, so I enjoy all that.

OK, once more.

'And then I enjoy very much getting into the studio and recording. Not everybody likes that.'

THEY HARMONISE:

'I really enjoy rehearsing to go out on tour. I really enjoy it.

'Getting the band together, rehearsing is one of most fun things for me, and then the playing live.'

# Save my soul from evil, Lord, and heal this soldier's heart

# I'll trust in thee to keep me

# Lord I'm done

# With Bonaparte. #

Unlike many of his contemporaries, who have broken up supergroups

only to reform at a later date, Knopfler has no intention of reforming Dire Straits.

That would be getting back into the massive event thing,

and you'd be doing it for money.

I suppose. And you'd probably feel much more duty-bound

to trot out all of those records, all of those songs, and you'd have to...

I mean, I don't play Money For Nothing, at least I don't think I've done it for a while.

I might do it - I might feel like doing it, I might not,

but I would hate to have to think that I'd HAVE to do it.

It's not really for me to say, but perhaps his writing has changed

and his feeling has changed along with it.

And he's in a position where he can do what he wants.

I mean, why should he go back if that's not how he's feeling?

For his most recent musical projects, Knopfler has been drawing heavily on his roots in folk music.

Having the folk musicians

in there is just, it gives me a little bit of an extra luxury palette to do things with.

I suppose for us, it's not like the token folkie.

You're not coming in and just doing a small bit.

What I find is that

Mark's an amazing artist and he has a real interest in traditional music,

whether it's Irish traditional, or Scottish traditional or bluegrass or Appalachian.

I think there's an amazing amount of thought goes into it

from Mark's point of view.

Even putting a band together. The eight of us on stage just now,

that's a really difficult thing to do.

You've got people from the Dire Straits days, and people from Nashville bluegrass scene

and Nashville rock scene, and then you've got a couple of folkie guys from Manchester and Glasgow.

# Southern bound from Glasgow town

# She's shining in the sun

# My Scotstoun lassie

# On the border run

# We're whistling down

# Tearing up the climbs

# I'm just a thiever

# Stealing time in the Border Reiver

# 300,000 on the clock

# Plenty more to go

# Crash box and lever

# She needs the heel and toe

# She's not too cold in winter

# But she cooks me in the heat

# I'm a six-foot driver

# But you can't adjust the seat

# In the Border Reiver. #

He draws from such a broad palette

and he covers such a broad palette,

that he can absorb all these different influences

and they don't feel out of place, because it fits right into the music.

Knopfler's love of being on the road is undiminished.

His recent Get Lucky tour saw him performing to sell-out audiences across Europe and North America.

During the early stages of the tour, Knopfler sustained a back injury.

This meant he was unable to perform standing up.

Rather than cancel the tour,

Knopfler elected to play the remaining concerts sitting on a stool.

I don't think it's affected the show in any way.

It's certainly not affected his performance or playing,

he just happens to be sitting down as opposed to standing up doing it.

So I think as long as it's not had an impact on the show itself,

on we go.

It's OK, I've been playing on this sort of revolving stool, like a dummy.

But it's fine if people seem to mind if I don't dance!

He's been in a lot of pain, very intense pain.

But I have yet to see it really get his spirit down.

He loves being out here.

He loves doing this. And I think everybody knows we come out

and we do these things for four or five months

and then everybody goes their separate way,

and we always hope we'll reconvene and do another record and another tour after that.

But the fact that we don't do it all the time

makes it all the more precious, and I know it's that way with him.

When he's out here, this is what he's all about, that's what his entire focus is on.

It's like being the captain of a little action ship. It's actually a great feeling.

You know, you respect the guys in the crew an awful lot and you respect the other guys in the band

and this is just something that comes with getting older, I suppose, and getting a little bit wiser.

Eventually leading to an A minor.

I suppose so.

We all learn so much from each other,

and we realise there is always so much to learn,

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes