The greatest guitarist of all time, according to Mark Knopfler
Being one of the greatest rock bands in the world doesn’t always mean looking too far backwards.
There is always room for nostalgic pieces of music throughout rock history, but there are only so many times people can listen to those licks before getting interested in the new musical flavour coming down the pipeline. Even though Mark Knopfler never concerned himself with being the coolest musician in the world, he knew that he could only make hits due to the giants whose shoulders he stood upon.
When Dire Straits first began, though, a lot of people had heard what Knopfler could do with a guitar. All of the licks may have sounded vaguely familiar, but hearing him play a lot of his classic solos without a pick gave a more intimate feeling to the music as if he was trying to pull every note out of his subconscious whenever the group played.
Even when the band started making waves in the 1980s, though, there was still something nostalgic about listening to them perform ‘Money for Nothing.’ The guitar tone itself sounded like the future, but if they took away all of the added effects and the best visual images that money could buy for the video, it would feel like a traditional rock and roll outfit from the 1970s that happened to get a makeover.
For Knopfler, his craft goes back much farther than the old guard of blues musicians. He had a healthy respect for bluesy solos, and you can definitely hear that in his solos, but the layers of harmonies are what caught his ear when he first got started. Elvis Presley may have sent shockwaves throughout the rock world, and Chuck Berry was everyone’s first guitar teacher, but in terms of songwriting, it all centred around what the Everly Brothers were doing.
While he held a deep appreciation for traditional blues players, Knopfler’s musical foundation was shaped just as much by the melodic sensibilities of earlier pop and country acts. Chief among these were The Everly Brothers, whose close vocal harmonies and emotional delivery left a lasting impression on him. Their recordings, often understated on the surface, revealed a sophistication that influenced how Knopfler approached both melody and arrangement.
Equally important was the guitar work of Chet Atkins, whose contributions to those records initially went unrecognised by Knopfler but later became a defining influence. Atkins’ fluid, economical style helped shape Knopfler’s own philosophy of playing, prioritising feel and precision over excess. Rather than chasing speed or technical showmanship, he focused on crafting parts that served the song, a mindset that would become central to his identity as a guitarist.
Although other artists like Buddy Holly made writing one’s own songs seem mandatory, the Everlys didn’t even need original compositions to stand out half the time. Their songs could already be sad, but those close harmonies on ‘Cathy’s Clown’ practically put the tears in your eyes for you, but there was something different going on once the guitar came in. When paired with Chet Atkins’s guitar lines, Knopfler had the kind of fluid musical foundation to write his own songs
Despite The Everlys having some bulletproof singing, Knopfler said that he was transfixed listening to Atkins in the background, saying, “The biggest of all was the Everly Brothers – with Chet Atkins on guitar; but of course, I didn’t know that, and they didn’t put their names on records then. But he’s probably the greatest of all.”
And listening to how fluid Atkins played during his prime, it’s hard not to look at Knopfler as a direct extension of his playing. Compared to every other guitar hero, Knopfler was looking to play something perfectly tasteful for the song, and that meant serving up a solo that didn’t rely on speed like Eric Clapton but overall mood, which made for guitar breaks that needed to be played exactly right or else the song wouldn’t sound the same.
While singing along to the Everly Brothers certainly didn’t hurt, the lessons Knopfler took from Atkins were about more than guitar technique. They were about serving the song, and whether he was working with Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, or his own band, Knopfler never looked at his chops as an excuse for him to shred. He could play what he felt, but there was no reason to play 50 notes if he could get the job done with 20.
