Mark Knopfler, musician

Desert Island Discs

BBC

Society & Culture, Music Commentary, Music, Personal Journals

4.4 • 13.7K Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mark Knopfler OBE is one of the UK’s most successful rock musicians and composers. He co-founded the band Dire Straits and their album Brothers in Arms is one of the bestselling albums of all time with 30 million copies sold. Alongside the many successes of Dire Straits, Mark has also composed hit songs for other artists like Private Dancer for Tina Turner and many soundtracks including Local Hero which features the perennial favourite Going Home.

He first worked as a journalist on the Yorkshire Evening Post and was briefly an English lecturer in Essex before moving to a flat in Deptford with his brother and John Illsey. Dire Straits was born and became one of the UK’s most successful bands before Mark called time in 1995 and pursued his own solo career.

In recent years, Mark invested some of his money to build one of the UK’s best recording studios to record his own music in alongside being a destination for other artists.

He lives in London with his wife and still visits his studio most days to make music.

DISC ONE: Ol’ Man River - Ray Charles DISC TWO: Red Sails in the Sunset – Dean Martin DISC THREE: Wonderful Land - The Shadows DISC FOUR: Write Me a Few Lines - Mississippi Fred MacDowell DISC FIVE: Duquesne Whistle - Bob Dylan DISC SIX: Deborah’s Theme - Ennio Morricone DISC SEVEN: Cleaning Windows - Van Morrison DISC EIGHT: Jessye ’Lisabeth - Bobbie Gentry

BOOK CHOICE: The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald LUXURY ITEM: A guitar CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE: Duquesne Whistle - Bob Dylan

Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:04.6	Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Disks podcast.
0:08.6	Every week I ask my guest to choose the 8 tracks, book and luxury they'd want to take with them if they
0:14.3	were cast away to a desert island. And for rights reasons the music is shorter than
0:19.7	the original broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening. Oh, My cast away this week is the musician Mark Knopfler. He shot to fame as the lead singer and
0:50.4	guitarist of Dire Straits, his brand of cinematic songwriting and his subtle mastery of his instrument
0:56.4	stood apart from the New Wave, Pop and Punk of the late 70s and early 80s and made Dire Straits
1:02.3	one of the most successful bands in history.
1:05.6	He earned his place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame but while he was always happy with
1:09.0	the Rock and Roll he could take or leave the fame and he didn't attend the ceremony when he was
1:13.1	officially inducted in 2018. After Diastrates disbanded, his creative
1:18.4	adventures continued as a solo artist as Buckdilens musical, as the composer of acclaimed film scores,
1:25.2	and as producer and collaborator with some of the greatest artists in contemporary music.
1:30.6	He grew up in Newcastle and found his voice as a songwriter when he was a young journalist,
1:35.9	capturing the stories of the people he met, whether they were all-timers playing swing in the
1:40.6	back room of a pub or delivery men wishing they were stealing a living on
1:44.1	MTV instead of moving refrigerators. He says once you start becoming a songwriter the songs
1:50.1	start pushing to be born. Mark Knopfler, welcome to Desert Island discs.
1:54.4	Well, thank you very much.
1:55.6	You make that sound very impressive.
1:58.0	It certainly is impressive.
2:00.0	Mark, I want to start with those creative labors with you, which are still ongoing.
	...

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