Mark Knopfler is an inspired songwriter. A former journalist, his keen observations of other people have led to some of his biggest hits with Dire Straits. Sultans of Swing was based on a small (and not very good) pub band he saw in Deptford, south London, in the mid-1970s. Money for Nothing was actually written in a New York store while eavesdropping on two delivery men complaining about the pop stars they were seeing on the TVs on display. Knopfler borrowed a pen and paper from a employee and literally sat down in a model kitchen in the store and copied down the banter he overheard.

Many of his songs are written in the first-person narrative form, although hes not actually a Private Dancer (made famous by Tina Turner) or a detective (Private Investigations from Love Over Gold) or a war criminal (The Mans Too Strong from Brothers in Arms). In a Rolling Stone article from 1985, Knopfler wondered, In fact, I'm still in two minds as to whether it's a good idea to write songs that aren't in the first person, to take on other characters.

In the Nineties, Knopfler began to find more and more song ideas from stories and characters he read about in books and articles and found fascinating. Heavy Fuel from Dire Straits last album, On Every Street, is based loosely on the main character in Martin Amis novel Money. The title track from his second solo album, Sailing to Philadelphia, is a duet between the subjects of Thomas Pynchons lengthy and very quirky tale of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, of Mason-Dixon line fame. Although several real life people were the focus of Knopflers attention on the the 2005 Shangri-La album (Elvis Presleys manager Colonel Tom Parker and the late skiffle-player Lonnie Donegan, for instance), two songs in particular were based on books. Ray Krocs biography inspired Boom Like That, and many of the lyrics in the song about the founder of the McDonalds fast-food chain are taken straight from Krocs own words. Song for Sonny Liston was directly inspired by Nick Tosches book The Devil and Sonny Liston.

Susan Dagostino

Susan Dagostino has been a fan of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits since the late 1970s. Her website -- knopfler.info -- features Knopfler's biography, photographs, quotations, and updated tour and promotion information. For more, visit the site at knopfler.info.