Dire Straits Frontman Reflects on Collaborating With Bob Dylan: ‘You Have to Be Flexible’

Mark Knopfler grew up idolizing Bob Dylan, but the Dire Straits frontman came to see his hero in a whole new way after finally getting the chance to collaborate with him.

Working with Dylan is often described as a career-defining experience, but for Knopfler, it also came with a fair amount of confusion. The pair entered the studio together in 1983, Knopfler stepping into the role of producer for Dylan’s Infidels.

In an interview with Guitar Player, Knopfler reflected on the influence Dylan on him as a teen. “I was hugely influenced by him about the age of 14 or 15,” Knopfler said. “I heard Bob Dylan from the very beginning, the ‘Hard Rain’ days, and went with him all the way up, and I’m still with him. I still think he’s great. Blood on the Tracks is one of my favorite records.”

When Knopfler arrived in the studio, he found that Dylan had assembled most of the band for Infidels on his own: Robbie Shakespeare on bass, Sly Dunbar on drums, and Rolling Stones’ Mick Taylor on guitar. Knopfler brought in Alan Clark to play keyboards and engineer Neil Dorfsman, who he’d worked with on Dire Straits’ 1982 album, Love Over Gold.

While he spoke respectfully about Dylan’s artistry, Knopfler acknowledged that the experience wasn’t always straightforward.

According to Knopfler, Dylan rarely offered direction or detailed explanations during recording sessions. Instead, musicians were expected to figure things out on their own, often with little context. Songs could change suddenly, arrangements might shift without warning, and collaborators had to rely on instinct rather than instruction.

“I don’t want to use the wrong word, here, but Bob was also a little bit of an agent provocateur, or he even had a little saboteur in him,” Dorfsman said in a 2016 interview with Uncut. “If things were going maybe too well, in somebody else’s definition, he would consciously make an effort to make that stop.”

For Knopfler, Dylan’s approach proved challenging, but it also helped shaped him as a producer.

“It was strange at times with Bob,” Knopfler said. “One of the great parts about production is that it demonstrates to you that you have to be flexible.”

Through it all, Knopfler’s love of Dylan’s work, not the least of which was his lyrical poetry.

“Bob’s musical ability is limited, in terms of being able to play a guitar or a piano,” he said. “It’s rudimentary, but it doesn’t affect his variety, his sense of melody, his singing. It’s all there. In fact, some of the things he plays on piano while he’s singing are lovely, even though they’re rudimentary. That all demonstrates the fact that you don’t have to be a great technician. It’s the same old story: If something is played with soul, that’s what’s important.”