Playing for the moment

For more than 25 years, Mark Knopfler has by and large populated his songs with a cast of anonymous scufflers -- a bunch of ragpickers, starry-eyed dreamers, sad lovers and journeyman musicians who move through the world without much notice.

So on his latest album, “Shangri-La,” it’s a surprise that three songs stand out for the very lack of anonymity of their subjects. Elvis Presley is examined in “Back to Tupelo,” “Song for Sonny Liston” profiles the former heavyweight champion and “Donegan’s Gone” is an elegy for ‘50s English music hero Lonnie Donegan.

“What links them is they all figured by being in my childhood,” says the former Dire Straits singer, songwriter and guitarist, 55. “So there’s definitely a connection there.”

They’re also linked by having lives that turned -- promise that was perhaps not fulfilled and dreams that were lost. “Back to Tupelo” catches Presley at the time of “Clambake,” as he moves from the King of Rock into self-parody. Sonny Liston was the heavyweight champion but, as Knopfler says, “was the giant that the young Cassius Clay had to remove to become world champion himself.”

And Donegan was “the first British rock star” with his folk-blues “skiffle” sound, though his career was overshadowed by the likes of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Who -- the very artists he inspired.

But why write about them now?

“I don’t know,” Knopfler demurs, his manner matching the thoughtful understatement common in much of his music. “I’m sorry. I’d like to help you. But I don’t know.”

He offers almost a halfhearted attempt to explain.

“A writer inclines to what moves him, but you change as you have children and your own world view matures,” says the father of twin boys, 17, and two younger girls, 7 and 1.

Knopfler is simply not into that kind of self-analysis at this point. And that’s to a large extent due to a turning point in his own life. Two years ago he suffered serious injuries in a motorcycle accident near London. The recovery was slow and painful, and his professional life went on hold -- a world tour was canceled, as were various recording projects. It was a startling interruption to a career that had gone along a very steady path from the late ‘70s breakthrough of Dire Straits’ first album, through several acclaimed film scores (“Local Hero,” “The Princess Bride”), collaborations such as several albums with guitar icon Chet Atkins and a series of low-key solo albums.

When he returned to work, he found the experience had influenced his attitude.

“Insofar as the cliche that everything can change in a second, that you should try to get the most out of the present, yes,” he says. “To think less about tomorrow and more about today. I think it may have very well added to the enjoyment I got out of making the album.”

Perhaps contemplation of his childhood heroes and the way their lives played out can be traced to the accident. But it’s elsewhere on the album that he says the experience is most explicitly expressed.

“It’s certainly in the song ‘Our Shangri-La,’ which says right here, right now,” he says.

And it’s very much present on his current tour, which comes to the Greek Theatre on July 22.

“It’s the best tour I’ve done ever,” he says. “So yes, I think the attitude probably extended into that. I dare say it’s been tough on the crew because we’re playing a lot, but they’re saying it’s been their best one too. This will be a hard one to say goodbye to, for an awful lot of pleasure has been had out of it.”

Knopfler found his own Shangri-La in which to make the album -- literally. It was recorded at Shangri-La Studios, a facility in a Malibu house that has been used by Bob Dylan, the Band and Eric Clapton, among others, for past sessions.

“I became a morning beach walker,” he says. “I felt that would be the place to make that particular record, and I think it was a good choice.”

For future work, though, he’s built a new musical paradise, a studio in London that will allow him to move ahead on a number of projects as soon as he returns home from this tour.

“There are a couple of records I want to get on with when I get back,” he says. “I made a record with Emmylou Harris, some little sessions here and there, but enough to put a record together, and we’ll put that out.”

At this point in his life, he has no fear of the kind of decline that occurred with Presley or Liston. Donegan, despite the dimming of the spotlight, never quit making music right up to his death in 2002 at age 71. And that appeals to Knopfler.

“I’m going forward into the wonder of it all, not just as a writer or even as a musician,” he says.

“It’s all there to learn. I’ve always been slow to arrive at things, so I suppose because I’m typically late it means I don’t have much time. I’m kind of busy. Just physics -- not much time left to do everything I want to do. I want to make some good records. I’m just arriving at it a bit late. I’ll be doing this as long as I can. Donegan went flat out until the end.”

Steve Hochman can be reached at weekend@latimes.com.

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Mark Knopfler

Where: Greek Theatre, 2700 Vermont Canyon Road, L.A.

When: 7:30 p.m. July 22

Price: $30 to $79.50

Contact: (323) 665-1927