How BB King became a “turning point” of Mark Knopfler’s career
As the crow flies, there is about a 3,800-mile distance between Newcastle upon Tyne and Chicago upon Lake Michigan.
For a certain period in the mid-1960s, though, the cultural separation was only as wide as a 12” vinyl record, as countless aspiring rock musicians in the UK devoured the electric blues records coming out of the Windy City on labels like Chess, Delmark, and Vee-Jay.
Dire Straits frontman and rock guitar virtuoso Mark Knopfler was no exception. While his playing certainly incorporated elements of Django Reinhardt’s jazz, Duane Eddy’s twang, and Richard Thompson’s electrified English folk sound, he was, like most of the guitar gods of his generation, a blues man at his core.
In a 1979 interview with Guitar Player, a 30-year-old Knopfler traced his path back to a specific moment of revelation in his teenage years. “I’ve got R&B in me,” he said, “I got into the Chicago blues and BB King when I was 16. I think I could call Lonnie Johnson an influence, in some ways. And the first time I heard BB King was on the record Live at the Regal. That struck me as being a really terrific thing, but I never sat down with a record player and tried to play things note-for-note. Instead, it was always more of absorbing something of the spirit of the music.”
That distinction between absorption rather than imitation was key to Knopfler’s development of his craft. Where many spent long hours needle-dropping their way through Chuck Berry riffs or Buddy Guy solos, Knopfler sought out the essence of the melodies: the phrasing, the elasticity, the conversational quality. He heard in BB King’s playing not just technical brilliance but a living dialogue between guitar and voice. Discovering this at age 16 stood out as a “big turning point” in Knopfler’s creative life, as he explained to Guitar Player, “because I was really struck with the relationship between the guitar and the voice and the whole bending thing, the way it sounded”.
That “whole bending thing” would become one of Knopfler’s signature abilities to make a note sigh, sting, or weep with the same emotional directness as the singer’s voice. It set him apart in a late-1970s rock landscape dominated by either overdriven bombast or sterile precision. His touch was lighter, more spacious, more rooted in feel than flash.
Even as his own playing improved and he dropped his act as university lecturer for aural pastures, the younger Knopfler remained a dedicated student of the blues, continuing to trace its roots to piece together its larger family tree.
“When I was 20 or 21, I remember hearing Lonnie Johnson with Eddie Lang, the Blue Guitars album. Then I realised that there was a connection, and I read an interview with BB King saying that Lonnie Johnson had been a big influence on him. It’s great to make these little connections and see how they do line up,” he highlighted.
By the time Dire Straits broke out with ‘Sultans of Swing‘ in 1978, listeners had made their own connections with something fresh but also deeply familiar in the understated virtuosity of Knopfler and the sense that his instrument wasn’t so much showing off as telling a story. The kid from Newcastle had completed his studies of the masters, and was ready to join them.
