Mark Knopfler explains why David Gilmour has “the mark of a great guitarist”
Dire Straits leader Mark Knopfler is a brilliant guitarist. A technically gifted player, encompassing an array of genres whilst still having a distinctive sound, from ‘Sultans of Swing’ to ‘Money for Nothing’, his highlights speak for themselves.
Knopfler is of such talent that even the most pernickety men in music, Steely Dan’s Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, once enlisted him to lay down a solo. Although this experience might not have been as simple for Knopfler as he’d have hoped, it says everything that the countercultural generation’s foremost purveyors of taste should look to him to help bring their creative vision to life.
Furthermore, Knopfler’s prowess has been lauded by an array of the six-string’s most celebrated players, including Pink Floyd hero David Gilmour. In 1985, when speaking to Guitar Classics, Gilmour discussed the “refreshing” nature of the Dire Straits leader’s style. He said: “Mark Knopfler has a lovely, refreshing guitar style. He brought back something that seemed to have gone astray in guitar playing. These days I don’t listen to other people with the objective of trying to steal their licks.”
Gilmour continued: “Although I’ve got no objections to stealing them if that seems like a good idea. I’m sure that I’m still influenced by Mark Knopfler and Eddie Van Halen as well.”
Having one of the most technically gifted and cerebral musicians in rock openly discuss his work in such glowing terms is a testament to the gravity of Knopfler’s efforts. While he might pull from some evident places, it is what he does with them, in taking the blueprint and rewriting it in his own image, that has been one of his greatest successes. That is a pure artistic triumph.
Mark Knopfler is also a big fan of David Gilmour’s work. When speaking to French Guitarist in 2002, he pointed to one of the Pink Floyd man’s central aspects as a player, which he called “the mark of a great guitarist”.
He said: “I’ve played with him before. But we haven’t recorded together. I like its intonation, there is always a side ‘swamp’, bluesy, in the sound of his Stratocaster. But also a crystalline quality at the same time, which corresponds more to my personal sound”.
Knopfler added: “What I also like about Dave is the way he plays while wandering around the central melody, which he rarely approaches in a frontal way. It is the mark of a great guitarist.”
Watch Mark Knopfler in action below.
