Mark Knopfler

From bone-diggers to boneheads, Mark Knopfler has all the bases covered.

Now embarked on a solo tour, the former leader of Dire Straits recently became the first rock star to officially have a dinosaur named after him. Known as Masiakasaurus Knopfleri, the newly discovered species measures 5 to 6 feet and weighs in at 80 or so pounds.

The dinosaur (or, rather, its fossil) was discovered in January on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar by a team of paleontologists who listened almost nonstop to Dire Straits albums while digging. The most distinguishing feature of the species is its unusually long and conical teeth with hooked tips, which partly inspired its name ("masiaka" is the Malagasy word for "vicious.")

"My daughter, who is 3, doesn`t know yet that her dad`s a dinosaur," said the not remotely vicious Knopfler, who is also the father of two 13-year-old boys.

"But it`s great," he continued. "When you`ve got kids, it`s a fantastic thing, because kids these days are all dinosaur experts. They know every dinosaur, so - in a lot of ways - it`s better to have a dinosaur named after you than having a lot of (other) things named after you."

The cerebral capacity of the dinosaur named after Knopfler has not been disclosed. But it was a genuine bonehead who inspired Dire Straits` biggest hit, 1985`s "Money For Nothing."

The identity of this particular dolt remains a mystery, but Knopfler readily acknowledges his debt to the anonymous blowhard`s running commentary on music videos and the state of rock.

"`Money for Nothing` is a song about a bonehead who has his take on rock music, and that take is that it`s some sort of scam and you`re just getting away with murder," said Knopfler, who co-wrote "Money For Nothing" with his pal Sting.

"Anybody who`s made a record knows it`s not as easy as it seems, (although) it gives the impression of ease. To tell you the truth, I can`t even tell you what (music) videos the guy was commenting on. He was a real guy, he was supplying an electrical appliance store that had a big wall of TV sets in the back. He`d been delivering stuff to the store, and there was a shop boy there, who`d obviously been helping him, and one salesman.

"So he had an audience of two people. And I was hiding behind some microwave ovens and literally spying on him between a hole in the microwaves, and just hoping the salesman didn`t spot me. I didn`t have a paper or pen, so I went to a desk and sat down in the kitchen display unit in the front window of the store, and started writing down lines. It was in New York."

THE SWINGING SULTANS

Knopfler chuckled when asked if he regularly eavesdropped on strangers to get inspiration for his songwriting.

"Not that often, actually," said the 51-year-old vocalist and guitarist, speaking from a recent concert stop in Detroit.

"But a situation has certain possibilities, and it strikes you that a song will come out. I remember distinctly that there was a certain moment when a shabby little guy in (the band) the Sultans of Swing said: `Good night. We are the Sultans of Swing.` They were rather grubby little guys, playing Louis Armstrong solos, like so many little Dixieland bands do, in a dingy little pub."

Knopfler chuckled again at the memory.

"But the situation was there for me to write a song, just like with `Money For Nothing,`" he said. "So, to a certain extent, I feel the same way about both of them. You know, I`ve just come past Telegraph Road in Detroit. And it reminds me of when I was on Telegraph Road in Detroit years ago, and I was reading a book about the beginning of civilization in Scandinavia, and I was wondering how Telegraph Road came about. And the two collided (in the 1982 Dire Straits` song `Telegraph Road`).

"The same thing happened with me on my new album, `Sailing to Philadelphia.` I was reading a book by Thomas Pynchon, (1998`s) `Mason & Dixon.` I`d got to the part where these English guys were arriving in Philadelphia by ship, as I was floating in to Philadelphia on an airplane over a huge port. ... It all happened in a very short period of time, and it was a magnificent book that collided with my songwriting.

"My songs are collisions!"

CURFEW AT THE BACK END

Released last year, "Sailing Into Philadelphia" features such guest artists as Van Morrison and James Taylor, the latter of whom duets with Knopfler on the sweeping title track.

Stylistically, the album extends and refines Knopfler`s increasingly assured blend of bluesy rock, folk and country. The result is a stylish synthesis that harks back to his Dire Straits days in a way Knopfler`s previous solo album, 1996`s "Golden Heart," did not.

"I`m just learning to make decent records," he said.

"The last Dire Straits record, (1991`s) `On Every Street,` I can sort of listen to. There are some reasonable things on it, and a few things on the `Philadelphia` album. I`m slowly improving. I`m still learning to write and record, and that`s my main concern, to make a couple of decent records."

As for those fans hoping for a reunion by Dire Straits, which has been defunct since a 1992 tour, Knopfler has two words of advice: Forget it.

"I certainly wouldn`t want to get back together for any reason, absolutely not," he said. "It`s much more of a challenge for me to work on my own."

But Knopfler isn`t disowning his past.

His current tour mixes his recent solo material with revamped versions of "Romeo and Juliet," "Sultans of Swing" and other favorites from the Dire Straits songbook.

"I`m not really into that whole nostalgia thing," Knopfler stressed. "But I do enjoy playing some of the older tunes, because they`re milestones for people`s lives. And people go to great pains to let me know what they were doing when they (first) heard the record and how they use it in their lives, and I get a buzz from that. So a lot of (older) songs I love to play.

"Of course, a lot of songs, yes, you can change them around. Especially now, with this little band I have, because they`re extremely versatile.

"And," he added playfully, "they`re incredible dancers, including myself. You`ll never know what amazing dancers we are. We should really (go public); choreography is quite big now. And, actually, there are a lot of young fans (at concerts) on this tour, kids. When you stick around long enough, you get the young people. They hear about me from their parents, or grandparents."

Having not performed since a 1997 European solo tour, Knopfler is happy to be back on stage. So much so, in fact, that some of his concerts have been lasting nearly three hours.

"Oh, well, now it takes me nearly three hours to do everything," he quipped. "It depends on what the situation is with the theater, whether people have to lock up (by a certain time). It`s closer to 2 1/2 hours on stage than 3.

"If we don`t have an opening act, we can we play longer. But my manager is informing me we still have a curfew at the back end. That`s real trade talk - `curfew at the back end` - and it probably applies to life, too."

(c) Copley News Service

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Author: George Varga