A Mark In Time
Mark Knopfler Discussion => Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum => Topic started by: relaxcoustic on September 26, 2020, 07:41:52 PM
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Interested to see which quotes by Mark you find most interesting or inspiring. I’ll start:
“My idea of Heaven is a place where the Tyne meets the Delta, where folk music meets the blues”
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"Every day that I live I feel like the happiest guy in the world. That's the way of it. The fame side of it just comes with the territory."
“What I try to do with a song is craft it. I try to craft a song with pride and I try to make something that's going to last.“
Honestly, Mark generated so many great quotes that I can go on and on... I don’t think that’s a great idea to share it, more fun to discover it yourself. In context.
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He also said things like... And it’s how I remember the quotes, not exact words, but I have a pretty decent memory so bear with me, and I’m also drunk again, so double bare with me please:
“I read not so much, but what I read usually inspires me”
“If you can transform the negative energy into positive energy, if you’re able to turn dire straits situation, please exuse the term, into positive one, you will never break, and will start to make art. It reminds me of how people can write books in prison”
“I would want a day to be 60 hours”
“Music for Bob Dylan is just a vehicle for his poetry”
“Writing songs is that works for me. I could do something else, but at least that’s harmless. I can do my job without worrying of being arrested”
“You should be able to learn what you love to do, and do it as best as you can. Make it your occupation and work will never be a four-letter-word to you”
“I write songs. My prose would look like a message to milkman. It’s better for me to stick with writing songs”
“What Dire Straits really means? It means In Shit”
After all, who cares about exact quotes. But I can guarantee you Mark 100% said it.
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"We're gonna play for a looong time" :D
Being there seeing the man live. Any quote on concert day is always the best.
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“If you can transform the negative energy into positive energy, if you’re able to turn dire straits situation, please exuse the term, into positive one, you will never break, and will start to make art. It reminds me of how people can write books in prison”
Honestly that’s beautiful. Saving this. Going through a tough patch at the moment and MK always seems to make it a little brighter.
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“If you can transform the negative energy into positive energy, if you’re able to turn dire straits situation, please exuse the term, into positive one, you will never break, and will start to make art. It reminds me of how people can write books in prison”
Honestly that’s beautiful. Saving this. Going through a tough patch at the moment and MK always seems to make it a little brighter.
Mark is a virtuoso optimist and that’s probably the biggest lesson he can teach you. Forget all the guitar playing, forget all the songwriting. If you’re able to make yourself happy, and I believe that it’s a choice whether to be happy or not, then you’re bound to be successful and nothing will stop you, not even the most desperate, tough and struggling times. It’s extremely hard to achieve, but worth trying when you look at hard working geniuses like MK. Positivity is key to his success.
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“The places and the faces range across the bridge of time and change” - the whole song is actually beautiful but this little bit is my favourite line
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“My idea of Heaven is a place where the Tyne meets the Delta, where folk music meets the blues”
Yes. Essence.
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Anybody hurt?
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I blew my family radio
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One of the last:
I suppose my interest in bluegrass only goes so far as that I enjoy hearing the mix between... The transatlantic mix that happens to music, maybe I’m listening to an old-time Irish or Scottish tune, but it’s what’s happened to it over in America. And then maybe it gets re-exported, and this is one of the wonderful things about songs.
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"I love you too"
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"The doctor said no disco dancing."
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"You're very sweet"
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“See you down the road sometime, okay, now you be good to one another, bye bye, bye bye”
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“My idea of Heaven is a place where the Tyne meets the Delta, where folk music meets the blues”
One of my favorites as well! :)
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My favorite too:)
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"One Humanity, one Justice!"
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"One Humanity, one Justice!"
:thumbsup
Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute
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And this is one of my favorites:
"There's nothing wrong waiting for the good things in life".
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I blew my family radio
I love this story. It always puts a smile on my face.
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And this is one of my favorites:
"There's nothing wrong waiting for the good things in life".
And it reminded me of another:
Something’s going to happen
To make your whole life better
Your whole life better one day...
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"the pick is the best amplifier".... said by a man who is the master of fingerpicking ;D
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I really loved Mark’s “goodbye speeches” in 2019. Not because it’s a farewell speech, but simply because he had an impressive courage to deliver it and to withstand the genuine WTF reaction from the audience. It’s unbelievable he changed his mind half way through the tour and it was really strange if you think about it.
I can’t understand why he had to change it. He could’ve said a goodbye speech everywhere, then, if he really want it, on another tour say “I’ll play till I fall over”, but not in the middle of the current tour. It really sounds as if he’s not sure himself, pretty strange for such a confident man. Or better yet, leave the WTF speech altogether and just say that he’ll play until he falls over.
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Few gems here too : (Ref https://guitar.com/features/interviews/mark-knopfler/)
“I remember sitting in a bar listening to Telegraph Road, and I thought to myself: ‘What a lifeless bunch of old toss this is!’”
“I don’t know how often that kind of ‘transcending’ gig is supposed to happen – if I’m finding my way across the fretboard well and if I’m getting a sound I like, then sure, things can definitely take off.”
And my favorite : (Ref. http://ds.mk-guitar.com/knopfler-interviews.htm)
“I like working around that delicious place where country meets blues, playing with the third or the absence of the third. It's a highly stimulating pre-orgasmic area.”
I think this one perfectly defines Mark's music and all his musical universe and that's what makes his success too.
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“I like working around that delicious place where country meets blues, playing with the third or the absence of the third. It's a highly stimulating pre-orgasmic area.”
Hm can anyone help explain what does playing in thirds mean?
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“I like working around that delicious place where country meets blues, playing with the third or the absence of the third. It's a highly stimulating pre-orgasmic area.”
Hm can anyone help explain what does playing in thirds mean?
A chord consists of minimum three notes, the first note of the scale (root note), the third note of the scale and the fifth note of the scale. The third can be minor or major and decides whether the chord is a minor chord or a major chord. A lot of roots music, including blues, kind of avoids the third note, and it is therefore not clear if the song is in a minor or major key. Kind of ambiguous.
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I don’t care how many modal dingbats you know.
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tonight we’re going to have a swing at Macbeth
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I also have to add a quote by Brendan Croker about Mark: Here's a song that Mark wrote all on his own. ;D
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We're going to play for a while to get warmed up, get some grease going"
"Ferrari and Fender Strat, both got to be red really"
"I used to smell the catalogue"
"I'll go home in a hour or whenever it is, take a look at the songs, see how they are doing, put a bit in, chop a bit out, I love it"
Mark paraphrasing "You drop that, I'll drop you"
"He's not a music fan, he'd want Saddam Hussain's autograph and everyone else's"
"I still wish I could get a guitar to sound the way he does"
"I still think Fender is one the most beautiful words in the English language"
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“I like working around that delicious place where country meets blues, playing with the third or the absence of the third. It's a highly stimulating pre-orgasmic area.”
Hm can anyone help explain what does playing in thirds mean?
A chord consists of minimum three notes, the first note of the scale (root note), the third note of the scale and the fifth note of the scale. The third can be minor or major and decides whether the chord is a minor chord or a major chord. A lot of roots music, including blues, kind of avoids the third note, and it is therefore not clear if the song is in a minor or major key. Kind of ambiguous.
here is an article by Ingo explaining this :
https://www.mk-guitar.com/2008/10/13/calling-elvis-chord-analysis-major-minor-no-third-power-chords/
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I also have to add a quote by Brendan Croker about Mark: Here's a song that Mark wrote all on his own. ;D
briliant....always loved this.
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I also have to add a quote by Brendan Croker about Mark: Here's a song that Mark wrote all on his own. ;D
briliant....always loved this.
Why bother?
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Another one from Mark. "If you get to the end of a vocal and you've got nothing more to say, but maybe the guitar does."
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Mark paraphrasing "You drop that, I'll drop you"
I love it!
You have to watch his facial expression when he is telling this story. Sooooo funny!
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Richard, you and me, the rest, good luck
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I just loved the Matchstick man story he told during the shows in 2019.
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"He's not a music fan, he'd want Saddam Hussain's autograph and everyone else's"
Does this quote refer to Ruediger?
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"Somtimes you gotta be an SOB, if you wanna make a dream reality" 8)
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'Alright Girls'
'Take it away Keith'
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"He's not a music fan, he'd want Saddam Hussain's autograph and everyone else's"
Does this quote refer to Ruediger?
yes
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"You really need an awful lot of desire to do this to try to write a good song and to try to make a good record of it.
And then the song walks out the door and goes off to have a life of its own.
And then to go out and maybe play it for people to complete the circuit and that`s what keeps it excited."
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"I still think Fender is one the most beautiful words in the English language"
I remember him saying "Fender and Gibson are the two most beautiful words in the English language"
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"He's not a music fan, he'd want Saddam Hussain's autograph and everyone else's"
Does this quote refer to Ruediger?
yes
Yes, he says it on the A Night In London show.
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"I still think Fender is one the most beautiful words in the English language"
I remember him saying "Fender and Gibson are the two most beautiful words in the English language"
I think he has said both over the years.
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"what I wanted to do was trying to put my little corner of the world into a song".
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"I've always been a sucker for a great melody, not that I've ever written any"