Mark Knopfler, Objects of Beauty, and N+1

Mark Knopfler, Objects of Beauty, and N+1

I was struck in this interview for Salon how Knopfler nailed the N+1 idea that so many cyclists talk about with their collections and then he goes and starts talking about buying a Colnago.  Yeah, I'm sure he gets it.  It's no surprise that guitarists have the same issue of always desiring one more guitar.  Who else would appreciate the beauty as well as someone who plays?

Excerpt from full article here:

I think most people think of you as a guitar player first and foremost.

I do love playing. It’s an obsession that started at a very early age. I have what they call a collection, even though I’m not a collector. People will give me things. My friend in America, Rudy Pensa, makes fantastic guitars, and he’ll make one and send it to me. Each one is better than the last one. It’s unbelievable. Or I’ll meet somebody like John Monteleone. He made me a guitar. But I think you’ll find that every guitarist always has another guitar. It’s just something about guitar players, although I don’t quite know why that should be. But I love playing and it keeps the child in me alive. All the things I used to love as a child, that I used to draw, I still like now, like bicycles.

I had an interview this morning at the BBC, and I was a bit early. I walked around the block and there’s a bicycle shop there. And I just started looking at these bicycles, and then I thought, What am I doing? I already have a bicycle. But I like bicycles. That’s what I’m doing. They’re beautiful bicycles. It’s obviously a cracking shop. And I’m just standing there, edging around this window, just the way I would in a guitar shop or a motorcycle shop. And it’s because I like them. I’ve always liked bicycles, and I’ll probably go on liking bicycles. I actually bought an old Colnago recently, an Italian racing bike — not because I can ride it, but just because it’s an object of such beauty. I’m afraid I can’t do justice to an old road-racing bike, and it’ll probably end up going to someone who can ride it properly. But it has this lovely steel frame, just a beautiful thing.

I like the idea of a bicycle as a piece of art, something you appreciate for its design as much as for its function.

Exactly. In a house we were renting once, I tried to get a motorcycle into the kitchen, but Kitty [Aldridge, Knopfler’s wife] objected. It was there for a few days, and she was kind about it. But it couldn’t live with us. So it went back in the garage. But it’s a lovely thing.

Does music work the same way as bicycles and guitars? Do you still engage with songs the way you did as a teenager?

I actually spend as much time listening to new music as to old. Probably more. I just try to get something out of it all. Take Van Morrison. His voice has been a part of my life since “Them,” and it’s a wonderful thing to be singing with him. But it’s also wonderful to discover somebody new. I like to buy records for people, make a present of the music. I bought a couple of records for Kitty the other day, and she said what a difference it makes to actually be given music. It made her feel differently about the songs. So who knows? Maybe buying a record for somebody is going to come back.