(Credits: Far Out / Apple Music)
Fri 13 March 2026 14:28, UK
Despite being the perfect age to admire The Beatles in their pomp during the 1960s, Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler has not spoken about the band at any great length. Nevertheless, it was impossible to ignore their work and not interpolate it into his own songwriting.
As a songwriter, they are a group that he has a deep appreciation for and accepts that they built the foundations for contemporary music as we know it today. They were innovative pioneers who remodelled themselves almost every year during their career and rejigged the musical landscape, but for Knofler, nothing beats when the Fab Four kept it simple.
The Dire Straits icon lived out every Beatle fan’s dream in 1997, when he performed alongside Paul McCartney at a charity fundraiser at the Royal Albert Hall for Montserrat, which had recently suffered a volcanic eruption which caused horrific damage.
It was a who’s who of rock luminaries, also including Eric Clapton, Sting, Elton John and Phil Collins. Each artist took to the stage to perform their biggest hits, with McCartney closing the show in style with an Abbey Road medley featuring help from Knopfler and Clapton.
It was a night that will live long in rock history, but sadly, is the only time we’ve seen them duel on-stage together. One McCartney-written song they didn’t play that night, which Knopfler would have loved to, is ‘I Will’ from The White Album.
During a broadcast of his Sirius XM radio show, The British Grove Broadcast, in 2020, Knopfler took time to play ‘I Will’ by The Beatles, and explained the one key facet of the song that makes it a personal favourite.
While introducing the track, Knopfler said:” ‘I Will’ by The Beatles from The White Album. There is something in there that seems to me to be pure. The Beatles were splitting apart about that time. It only sounds to me as though Paul put most of the work in on that one. And I don’t believe there is any George on there at all.”
As Knopfler stated, Harrison was omitted from the recording process of ‘I Will’, which was entirely completed by his three bandmates. The session for the track began during the evening of September 16th, continuing into the early hours of the following morning. Remarkably, The Beatles attempted the song 67 times before finally being content enough to call it a night, and successfully executing perfection.
For McCartney, the song is also a source of pride, once saying, “It’s still one of my favourite melodies that I’ve written. You just occasionally get lucky with a melody, and it becomes rather complete, and I think this is one of them; quite a complete tune.”
The other Beatles song that Knopfler has gone on the record to describe as one of his favourites is ‘In My Life‘, which requires less of an introduction. It was a turning point that saw John Lennon grow from a boy to a man as a songwriter, as he showed he was capable of being reflective and looking inwards.
While there’s nothing particularly groundbreaking about that sentiment now, it was a different story upon its release in 1965, and as a result, it feels timeless all these years later.
In a conversation with Forbes in 2024, Knopfler analysed precisely what makes ‘In My Life’ a classic, sharing, “That is one of my favourite Beatles songs. I think I played it before as my favourite. Exactly, the overwhelming simplicity of it. As you say, ‘If it’s so easy, you write it.’”
Although the comment above is about ‘In My Life’, it’s applicable to ‘I Will’, too. Both songs sound extremely simple on the ear, but there’s a reason that not everybody who picks up a pen is capable of crafting heartfelt creations of this nature that come from a place deep within.
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