Happy Birthday Mark Knopfler

Mark Freuder Knopfler was born August 12, 1949 in Glasgow Scotland and raised somewhere in England. Mark was named after his godfather, Sigmund Freud. 

Young Mark had hist first exposure to music from his Uncle Kingsley, who was a world renowned flugelhorn player. Uncle Kingsley was the head flugelhornist to the Queen. Or is that flugelhorner? Flugelist? Pugilist? Flatulence? Regardless, Mark was inspired to play the guitar. Even though he was deeply disappointed that the boy did not follow in the family flugelhorn footsteps, Uncle Kingsley bought Mark his first guitar.

Knopfler moved to London and joined a band called “Brewsters Millions”. One night while high on Quaaludes, peyote, PCP, DMT, LSD and diet coke, Knopfler was in the mood to play guitar. The only guitar available was an old acoustic with a badly warped neck that had been strung with cat gut strings to make it usable. Even so, he found it impossible to play unless he finger-picked it. He said in a later interview, “That was where I found my ‘voice’ on guitar.”

Mark formed ‘Dire Straits’ in 1977 with his brother David on rhythm guitar. David eventually just disappeared like Chuck from Happy Days. Their first single, “Sultans of Swing”, from their 1978 self-titled debut album, reached the top 10 in the UK, US and Yugoslavian charts. It was followed by hit after hit: “Romeo and Juliet”, “Private Investigations”, “Twisting by the Pool”, “Money for Nothing” and “Walk of Life”

Sultans of Swing

Knopfler’s unique finger pickin’ style is reminiscent of Chet Atkins and Django Reinhardt. His playing is so understated that you can’t understand his brilliance, unless you know. “Sultans of Swing” is a fookin masterpiece and master class on guitar stylings. Jazz chords, country licks, fingerpickin’  and Chuck Berry are all combined to make one of the most original and memorable classic rock songs of all time.

Did you know Mark Knopfler wrote ‘Private Dancer’, made famous by Tina Turner. Knopfler also was a dance major and did all the choreography for Turner’s tour. Mark has a net worth of $95 Million! He enjoys collecting car, guitars and vintage shrunken heads with his wife Kitty. Knopfler stands 183 centimeters and weighs 75 kilograms. Nobody in the U.S knows what that means. We only use the metric system when it comes to bullets. Cheers Mark!