Let’s look at retrospective in a unique way – searching for the artist’s peak.

Not the most popular song; something harder – something we might think of as the Platonic peak. A song that conveys the essence of their good. Won’t reasonable people disagree?

Let’s hope so.

Mark Knopfler is a challenge because he does so many things so well. He embodied the essence of American rock and roll as the 70’s turned to the 80’s. . . . I know, but hear me out.

If you gave generative AI copies of 70’s era Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Lindsey Buckingham, it would give you Mark Knopfler. The voice… it’s freakin’ Dylan, come on. And he shares lyrical facility with both Bob and Bruce. He had his band rocking like E Streeters in those days too. And he could finger pick his axe like nobodies’ business. Well, unless nobody was Lindsey Buckingham.

Knopfler differed from these guys, of course, in that he wasn’t American. He grew up in Scotland, coming of age in Leeds and London. And unlike Bob, Bruce, and Lindsey, Mark wasn’t a music or bust guy. Bob and Bruce both famously walked away from college after less than a year.  Lindsey took things a step further, making his girlfriend work as a waitress to support him. To his credit, he returned the favor, a few million times over.

Mark worked as a reporter for an English newspaper and then attended the University of Leeds, where he earned an advanced degree in English.

He didn’t need the music. It needed him.

When Mark moved to London, he banged around in a few bands, most famously the Café Racers. He should have stuck with that name. In 1977, he moved into a London flat with his brother, David, and the two joined by Mark’s former roommate John Illsley formed, Dire Straits.

It’s difficult to identify a Knopfler peak because he did so many things so well. In addition to Dire Straits, he’s had a nearly three-decade solo career. He’s scored numerous films, which could be a retrospective on their own. He also produced Dylan’s Infidels and wrote the massive hit “Private Dancer” for Tina Turner.

In 2012, Knopfler toured with his band, the 96ers, opening for Dylan. They were supporting a new double solo album, Privateering. I was there. It was not peak. To his credit, Mark has consciously and intentionally left all that behind. But hey, that just helps us narrow things down.

Either of the two most obvious places would be unfair to Mark Knopfler. Many artists never exceed their first effort, and why should they? All their formative years culminated in it. How could they ever top it? One could certainly argue for the first Dire Straits record and the song “Sultans of Swing.”