Money for Nothing (song)
Encyclopedia
"Money for Nothing" is a single by British rock band Dire Straits
, taken from their 1985 album Brothers in Arms
. It was one of Dire Straits' most successful singles, peaking at number one for three weeks in the United States, and it also reached number one for three weeks on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart. In the band's native UK, the song peaked at number four. The recording was notable for its controversial lyrics, groundbreaking music video and a cameo appearance by Sting singing the song's falsetto
introduction and backing chorus, "I want my MTV
." The video was also the first to be aired on MTV Europe
when the network started on 1 August 1987.
"Money for Nothing" won the Grammy for the Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with a Vocal in 1985 at the 28th annual Grammy Awards.
, in the form of the guitar riff that begins the song proper. (The song is also notable for its extended overture, which was shortened for radio and music video). The guitar riff
continues throughout the song, played in full during each chorus, and played in muted permutation
during the verse.
The song's lyrics are written from the point of view of a working-class man watching music videos and commenting on what he sees.
Knopfler described the writing of the song in a 1984 interview with critic Bill Flanagan
:
In 2000, Knopfler appeared on Michael Parkinson
's interview program and explained again where the lyrics originated. According to Knopfler, he was in New York and stopped by an appliance store. At the back of the store, they had a wall of TVs which were all tuned to MTV. Knopfler said there was a man working there dressed in a baseball cap, work boots, and a checkered shirt delivering boxes who was standing next to him watching. As they were standing there watching MTV, Knopfler remembers the man coming up with classic lines such as "what are those, Hawaiian noises?...that ain't workin'," etc. Knopfler asked for a pen to write some of these lines down and then eventually put those words to music.
during the recording of the song, and was invited to add some background vocals. Sting has stated that his only compositional contribution was the "I Want My MTV" line, which was sung to the identical melody of the verse of his own song "Don't Stand So Close to Me
," originally recorded by The Police
. Sting was reportedly embarrassed when his publishing company insisted on a co-writing credit (and royalties).
character in the lyrics refers to a musician "banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee" and another female musician "stickin' in the camera" (adding that "we could have some fun"), describes a singer as "that little faggot with the earring and the make-up," and bemoans that these artists get "money for nothing and chicks for free." These lyrics were criticised as being sexist
, racist
, and homophobic and in some later releases of the song the lyrics were edited for airplay; "faggot" for example is often replaced with "mother" (itself a shortened version of "motherfucker
").
When the song is included in rotation as part of a music feed played in stores or restaurants, "faggot" is usually edited. The entire second verse was edited out, for shortened length and to remove objectionable content, for radio and video airplay. This edited version, as on the 7" vinyl single, is the one included in the compilation albums Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits and Money for Nothing
and also the single disc version of the 2005 compilation The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations
. (However, in the U.S., the Warner Brothers 7" single did not edit out the offending word or verse. The double disc version of The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations includes the full-length, studio version of the song found on the CD of Brothers In Arms).
The version that Music Choice
plays has the word "faggot" distorted.
In a late 1984 interview in Rolling Stone
magazine, Knopfler expressed mixed feelings on the controversy:
Dire Straits often performed the song in live concerts and when on tour, where the second verse was included but usually altered slightly. For the band's July 10 1985 concert (televised in the United Kingdom on The Tube
on Channel 4
in January 1986), Knopfler replaced the word "faggot" with "Queenie" (in this context also a term that implies homosexuality):
For Dire Straits' final album, On The Night
, recorded in France and Holland some seven years after the song's initial release, Knopfler can be heard singing the lines with 'mother' then 'mothertrucker' in place of the original 'faggot'.
Mötley Crüe
bassist Nikki Sixx
, in an interview with Blender Magazine, claimed that the song is actually about his band's excessive lifestyle, and that he heard the clerks in the store were commenting on Mötley Crüe videos shown on the in-store television sets.
(CBSC) ruled that the unedited version of the song was unacceptable for air play on private Canadian radio stations, as it breached the Canadian Association of Broadcasters
' (CAB) Code of Ethics and their Equitable Portrayal Code. The CBSC concluded that "like other racially driven words in the English language, 'faggot' is one that, even if entirely or marginally acceptable in earlier days, is no longer so." The CBSC's proceedings came in response to a radio listener's Ruling Request stemming from a playing of the song by CHOZ-FM
in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
, which in turn followed the radio listener's dissatisfaction with the radio station's reply to their complaint about a gay slur in the lyrics.
Not all stations abided by this ruling; at least two stations, CIRK-FM
in Edmonton
and CFRQ-FM
in Halifax, played the unedited version of "Money for Nothing" repeatedly for one hour out of protest. The CBC-owned Galaxie
also continues to play the song. On January 21, 2011, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) asked the CBSC for a review on the ban, in response to the public outcry against the CBSC's actions; the CRTC reportedly received over 250 complaints erroneously sent to them, instead of the CBSC. The regulator requested the CBSC to appoint a nationwide panel to review the case, as the decision on the ban was reviewed by a regional panel for the Maritimes and Newfoundland.
On August 31, the CBSC reiterated that it found the slur to be inappropriate; however, due to considerations in regard to its use in context, the CBSC has left it up to the stations to decide whether to play the original or edited versions of the song. Most of the CBSC panelists thought the slur was inappropriate, but it was used only in a satirical, non-hateful manner.
illustrating the lyrics. The video was one of the first uses of computer-animated human characters and was considered ground-breaking at the time of its release. It was the second computer-generated music video shown on MTV
.
Originally, Mark Knopfler was not at all enthusiastic about the concept of the music video. MTV, however, was insistent on it. Director Steve Barron, of Rushes Postproduction
in London, was contacted by Warner Bros.
to persuade Knopfler to relent. Describing the contrasting attitudes of Knopfler and MTV, he said:
Barron then flew to Budapest
to convince Knopfler of their concept. Meeting together after a gig, Knopfler was reportedly still unimpressed, but this time his girlfriend was present and took a hand. According to Barron:
Ian Pearson and Gavin Blair created the animation, using a Bosch
FGS-4000 CGI system and a Quantel Paintbox
system. The animators went on to found computer animation
studio Mainframe Entertainment (today Rainmaker Animation), and referenced the "Money for Nothing" video in an episode of their ReBoot
series. The video also included stage footage of Dire Straits performing, with partially rotoscope
d-animation in bright neon colours, as seen on the record sleeve.
The video was awarded "Video of the Year" (among many other nominations) at the third annual MTV Video Music Awards
in 1986.
and their video "Állj Vagy Lövök"("Stop or I'll Shoot") appears as "Baby, Baby" by "First Floor" during the second verse (The name "első emelet" translates to "first floor," and the song is credited as being on "Magyar Records": "Magyar" is the native
name for Hungary
). Első Emelet were extremely popular at the time in Hungary, although their videos might not have appeared on Music Television. This was used as reference to the English band, Duran Duran
, to take pot shots at their global popularity. The other is a fictional, supposed MTV video for "'Sally' by the Ian Pearson Band" (Pearson was one of the animators of the video) which also contains scenes shot in Budapest, Hungary, appearing during the third verse's line about a female singer "stickin' in the camera" and continuing as the singer comments on another performer "banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee." The fictional album for the first video was listed as "Turn Left" and the second was "Hot Dogs." For the second video, the record company appears as "Rush Records," perhaps as a reference to Rushes Postproduction.
guitarist Billy Gibbons
' trademark guitar tone, as ZZ Top's music videos were already a staple of early MTV. Gibbons later told a Musician magazine interviewer in 1986 that Knopfler had solicited Gibbons on how to replicate the tone, adding, "He didn't do a half-bad job, considering that I didn't tell him a thing!" Knopfler's "not a half-bad job" included his duplication of Gibbons' use of a Gibson Les Paul
guitar (rather than a Fender Stratocaster
), which he plugged into a Marshall
amplifier. Another factor in trying to recreate the sound was a Wah-wah pedal
that was turned on, but only rocked to a certain position. The specific guitar sound in the song was made with a 1958 Gibson Les Paul
going through a Laney
amplifier, with the sound coloured by the accidental position of two Shure SM57 microphones without any processing during the mix. Following the initial sessions in Monserrat, at which that particular guitar part was recorded, Neil Dorfsman attempted to recreate the sound during subsequent sessions the Power Station in New York but was unsuccessful in doing so. (Knopfler also chose to use the Les Paul on a couple of other Brothers in Arms
tracks).
"traded his pristine, rootsy tone for a dry, over-processed sound achieved by running a Les Paul through a wah-wah pedal on a track that became one of the [MTV] network's earliest hits."
Concert at Wembley Stadium, the performance featured a guest appearance by Sting.
Knopfler performed "Money for Nothing" using his Pensa-Suhr
signature MK-1 model guitar with a pair of Soldano
SLO-100 tube/valve amplifier heads and Marshall
speaker cabinets during the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute
and Prince's Trust concerts in 1988, as well as the Nordoff-Robbins charity show at Knebworth
in 1990 and the On Every Street
world tours in 1991/1992. These versions featured extended guitar solos by Knopfler, backed by Eric Clapton
and Phil Palmer
.
"Money for Nothing" and "Brothers in Arms
" were performed at the 1997 Music for Montserrat concert, with Clapton on rhythm guitar, Sting performing background vocals and Phil Collins
on drums.
wrote a parody titled "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*" for his 1989 film
UHF
. As the title implies, this song merges the lyrics from The Beverly Hillbillies
theme song ("The Ballad of Jed Clampett
") with the tune of "Money For Nothing". Dire Straits members Mark Knopfler and Guy Fletcher perform guitar and keyboards respectively on the track. The famous video was also parodied by Yankovic, with the removal men replaced by blocky, computer-generated versions of Jed Clampett and Yankovic himself. The parody video was used as a dream sequence midway through the film.
Satirical puppet show Spitting Image
also parodied this song, randomly calling it "Making Nice Curtains." It features a puppet of Mark Knopfler singing about yuppies and that their music "can be played to your granny and aunts." Sting appears as he does in the real video to claim his "royalty," but is silenced as a guitar hits him in the head.
Saturday morning children's television show Pete McTee's Clubhouse
had commercials parodying the song with the lyrics, "I want my Pete McTee."
The 1984 University of Florida football team used a parody of the song, "I Want My SEC," in response to being stripped of its Southeastern Conference title.
Dire Straits
Dire Straits were a British rock band active from 1977 to 1995, composed of Mark Knopfler , his younger brother David Knopfler , John Illsley , and Pick Withers .Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest...
, taken from their 1985 album Brothers in Arms
Brothers in Arms (Dire Straits album)
- Original LP track listing :- 2005 Re-Issue 2 LP track listing :The 2005 Limited Edition Deluxe 180 gram High Performance Vinyl reissue contained the full-length versions of all songs by spreading out the songs over two half speed mastered LPs....
. It was one of Dire Straits' most successful singles, peaking at number one for three weeks in the United States, and it also reached number one for three weeks on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart. In the band's native UK, the song peaked at number four. The recording was notable for its controversial lyrics, groundbreaking music video and a cameo appearance by Sting singing the song's falsetto
Falsetto
Falsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
introduction and backing chorus, "I want my MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
." The video was also the first to be aired on MTV Europe
MTV Europe
MTV Europe is a pan-European 24-hour entertainment cable and digital television network launched on August 1, 1987. Initially, the channel served all regions within Europe being one of the very few channels that targeted the entire European continent...
when the network started on 1 August 1987.
"Money for Nothing" won the Grammy for the Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with a Vocal in 1985 at the 28th annual Grammy Awards.
Musical and lyrical themes
The recording contains a very recognizable hookHook (music)
A hook is a musical idea, often a short riff, passage, or phrase, that is used in popular music to make a song appealing and to "catch the ear of the listener". The term generally applies to popular music, especially rock music, hip hop, dance music, and pop. In these genres, the hook is often...
, in the form of the guitar riff that begins the song proper. (The song is also notable for its extended overture, which was shortened for radio and music video). The guitar riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
continues throughout the song, played in full during each chorus, and played in muted permutation
Permutation (music)
In music, a permutation of a set is any ordering of the elements of that set. Different permutations may be related by transformation, through the application of zero or more of certain operations, such as transposition, inversion, retrogradation, circular permutation , or multiplicative operations...
during the verse.
The song's lyrics are written from the point of view of a working-class man watching music videos and commenting on what he sees.
Knopfler described the writing of the song in a 1984 interview with critic Bill Flanagan
Bill Flanagan
Bill Flanagan is an American author and television executive. He was born in Rhode Island in 1955 and graduated from Brown University in 1977. His books include Written in My Soul , Last of the Moe Haircuts , U2 at the End of the World , and the novels A&R , New Bedlam and Evening's Empire .As...
:
In 2000, Knopfler appeared on Michael Parkinson
Michael Parkinson
Sir Michael Parkinson, CBE is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his interview programme, Parkinson, from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007.- Early life :...
's interview program and explained again where the lyrics originated. According to Knopfler, he was in New York and stopped by an appliance store. At the back of the store, they had a wall of TVs which were all tuned to MTV. Knopfler said there was a man working there dressed in a baseball cap, work boots, and a checkered shirt delivering boxes who was standing next to him watching. As they were standing there watching MTV, Knopfler remembers the man coming up with classic lines such as "what are those, Hawaiian noises?...that ain't workin'," etc. Knopfler asked for a pen to write some of these lines down and then eventually put those words to music.
Writing credits
The songwriting credits are shared between Mark Knopfler and Sting. Sting was visiting MontserratMontserrat
Montserrat is a British overseas territory located in the Leeward Islands, part of the chain of islands called the Lesser Antilles in the West Indies. This island measures approximately long and wide, giving of coastline...
during the recording of the song, and was invited to add some background vocals. Sting has stated that his only compositional contribution was the "I Want My MTV" line, which was sung to the identical melody of the verse of his own song "Don't Stand So Close to Me
Don't Stand So Close to Me
"Don't Stand So Close to Me" is a 1980 song and hit single by the British rock band The Police. It concerns a schoolgirl's crush on her young teacher and the teacher's nervousness about the situation. The Police won the 1982 "Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal"...
," originally recorded by The Police
The Police
The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
. Sting was reportedly embarrassed when his publishing company insisted on a co-writing credit (and royalties).
Controversy
The first-person narratingFirst-person narrative
First-person point of view is a narrative mode where a story is narrated by one character at a time, speaking for and about themselves. First-person narrative may be singular, plural or multiple as well as being an authoritative, reliable or deceptive "voice" and represents point of view in the...
character in the lyrics refers to a musician "banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee" and another female musician "stickin' in the camera" (adding that "we could have some fun"), describes a singer as "that little faggot with the earring and the make-up," and bemoans that these artists get "money for nothing and chicks for free." These lyrics were criticised as being sexist
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
, racist
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
, and homophobic and in some later releases of the song the lyrics were edited for airplay; "faggot" for example is often replaced with "mother" (itself a shortened version of "motherfucker
Motherfucker
Motherfucker is a vulgarism which, in its most literal sense, refers to one who participates in sexual intercourse with a mother, either someone else's mother, or his own.- Variants :...
").
When the song is included in rotation as part of a music feed played in stores or restaurants, "faggot" is usually edited. The entire second verse was edited out, for shortened length and to remove objectionable content, for radio and video airplay. This edited version, as on the 7" vinyl single, is the one included in the compilation albums Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits and Money for Nothing
Money for Nothing (album)
Money for Nothing is a greatest hits album by Dire Straits released in 1988. It features highlights from the band's first five albums. The vinyl edition omits "Telegraph Road" and has a different running order, with "Tunnel of Love" placed between "Money for Nothing", the title track, and "Brothers...
and also the single disc version of the 2005 compilation The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations
The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations
The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations is a 2005 best of album. Named after their 1982 hit single, it consists of material by Dire Straits, with songs selected from the majority of the group's six studio albums from 1978 up to the group's dissolution in 1995...
. (However, in the U.S., the Warner Brothers 7" single did not edit out the offending word or verse. The double disc version of The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations includes the full-length, studio version of the song found on the CD of Brothers In Arms).
The version that Music Choice
Music Choice
Music Choice is a United States company that programs music and produces music-related content for digital cable, cell phones, and cable modem subscribers in the US. Music Choice programs dozens of audio music channels for digital cable subscribers, as well as programs and produces music-related...
plays has the word "faggot" distorted.
In a late 1984 interview in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine, Knopfler expressed mixed feelings on the controversy:
Dire Straits often performed the song in live concerts and when on tour, where the second verse was included but usually altered slightly. For the band's July 10 1985 concert (televised in the United Kingdom on The Tube
The Tube (TV series)
The Tube was an innovative United Kingdom pop/rock music television programme, which ran for five seasons, from 5 November 1982 until 1987...
on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in January 1986), Knopfler replaced the word "faggot" with "Queenie" (in this context also a term that implies homosexuality):
For Dire Straits' final album, On The Night
On the Night
On the Night is the second live album by Dire Straits. It was released in 1993, between Alchemy and Live at the BBC . It features many of their later hits, including the successful singles "Walk of Life" and "Money for Nothing"...
, recorded in France and Holland some seven years after the song's initial release, Knopfler can be heard singing the lines with 'mother' then 'mothertrucker' in place of the original 'faggot'.
Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1981. The group was founded by bass guitarist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee, who were later joined by lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil...
bassist Nikki Sixx
Nikki Sixx
Nikki Sixx is an American musician, songwriter, author, fashion designer, radio host, and photographer, best known as the co-founder and bassist of the band Mötley Crüe. Prior to forming Mötley Crüe, Sixx was a member of Sister before going on to form London with his Sister band mate Lizzie Grey...
, in an interview with Blender Magazine, claimed that the song is actually about his band's excessive lifestyle, and that he heard the clerks in the store were commenting on Mötley Crüe videos shown on the in-store television sets.
Suppression
In January 2011, the Canadian Broadcast Standards CouncilCanadian Broadcast Standards Council
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council is an independent, non-governmental organization created by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters to administer standards established by its members, Canada's private broadcasters....
(CBSC) ruled that the unedited version of the song was unacceptable for air play on private Canadian radio stations, as it breached the Canadian Association of Broadcasters
Canadian Association of Broadcasters
The Canadian Association of Broadcasters was the national voice of Canada's private broadcasters, representing the vast majority of Canadian programming services, including private radio and television stations, specialty, pay and pay-per-view services....
' (CAB) Code of Ethics and their Equitable Portrayal Code. The CBSC concluded that "like other racially driven words in the English language, 'faggot' is one that, even if entirely or marginally acceptable in earlier days, is no longer so." The CBSC's proceedings came in response to a radio listener's Ruling Request stemming from a playing of the song by CHOZ-FM
CHOZ-FM
CJMY and CKMY were previously known as CKCV and CHOS respectively, up to at least 2002. The changes were apparently made to reserve appropriate call signs for "My FM", Newfoundland Broadcasting's proposal for a second FM service, which went before the CRTC later that same year...
in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
St. John's is the capital and largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the oldest English-founded city in North America. It is located on the eastern tip of the Avalon Peninsula on the island of Newfoundland. With a population of 192,326 as of July 1, 2010, the St...
, which in turn followed the radio listener's dissatisfaction with the radio station's reply to their complaint about a gay slur in the lyrics.
Not all stations abided by this ruling; at least two stations, CIRK-FM
CIRK-FM
CIRK-FM is a Canadian radio station, which broadcasts classic rock on 97.3 MHz FM in Edmonton, Alberta. The station, owned by Newcap Broadcasting, uses the on-air brand name K97 ....
in Edmonton
Edmonton
Edmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta and is the province's second-largest city. Edmonton is located on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Capital Region, which is surrounded by the central region of the province.The city and its census...
and CFRQ-FM
CFRQ-FM
CFRQ-FM is a Canadian rock radio station, broadcasting at 104.3 FM in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The station uses the on-air brand name Q104 . Founded in 1983 by President the late C.A. Patterson of Patterson Broadcasters, Senior Vice-President/National Sales Director was the late W.L...
in Halifax, played the unedited version of "Money for Nothing" repeatedly for one hour out of protest. The CBC-owned Galaxie
Galaxie
Galaxie is a Canadian multilingual digital pay television audio service owned by Stingray Digital.-Programming:Galaxie consists of 49 commercial-free music based audio channels, each devoted to a particular genre, distributed through digital television platforms. Each channel consists of a...
also continues to play the song. On January 21, 2011, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) asked the CBSC for a review on the ban, in response to the public outcry against the CBSC's actions; the CRTC reportedly received over 250 complaints erroneously sent to them, instead of the CBSC. The regulator requested the CBSC to appoint a nationwide panel to review the case, as the decision on the ban was reviewed by a regional panel for the Maritimes and Newfoundland.
On August 31, the CBSC reiterated that it found the slur to be inappropriate; however, due to considerations in regard to its use in context, the CBSC has left it up to the stations to decide whether to play the original or edited versions of the song. Most of the CBSC panelists thought the slur was inappropriate, but it was used only in a satirical, non-hateful manner.
Music video
The music video for the song featured early computer animationComputer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
illustrating the lyrics. The video was one of the first uses of computer-animated human characters and was considered ground-breaking at the time of its release. It was the second computer-generated music video shown on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
.
Originally, Mark Knopfler was not at all enthusiastic about the concept of the music video. MTV, however, was insistent on it. Director Steve Barron, of Rushes Postproduction
Rushes (company)
Rushes Postproduction is a post-production and visual effects company based in London.It has a world wide reputation for producing commercial and pop-promo projects. The company was formed in 1977 and its staff have spawned many successful spin-offs, including , Main Frame, and...
in London, was contacted by Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
to persuade Knopfler to relent. Describing the contrasting attitudes of Knopfler and MTV, he said:
Barron then flew to Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
to convince Knopfler of their concept. Meeting together after a gig, Knopfler was reportedly still unimpressed, but this time his girlfriend was present and took a hand. According to Barron:
Ian Pearson and Gavin Blair created the animation, using a Bosch
Robert Bosch GmbH
Robert Bosch GmbH is a multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Gerlingen, near Stuttgart, Germany. It is the world's largest supplier of automotive components...
FGS-4000 CGI system and a Quantel Paintbox
Quantel Paintbox
The Quantel Paintbox was a dedicated computer graphics workstation for composition of broadcast television video and graphics. Its design emphasizes the studio workflow efficiency required for live news production...
system. The animators went on to found computer animation
Computer animation
Computer animation is the process used for generating animated images by using computer graphics. The more general term computer generated imagery encompasses both static scenes and dynamic images, while computer animation only refers to moving images....
studio Mainframe Entertainment (today Rainmaker Animation), and referenced the "Money for Nothing" video in an episode of their ReBoot
ReBoot
ReBoot is a Canadian CGI-animated action-adventure cartoon series that originally aired from 1994 to 2001. It was produced by Vancouver-based production company Mainframe Entertainment, Alliance Communications, BLT Productions and created by Gavin Blair, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell and John Grace,...
series. The video also included stage footage of Dire Straits performing, with partially rotoscope
Rotoscope
Rotoscoping is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame, for use in animated films. Originally, recorded live-action film images were projected onto a frosted glass panel and re-drawn by an animator...
d-animation in bright neon colours, as seen on the record sleeve.
The video was awarded "Video of the Year" (among many other nominations) at the third annual MTV Video Music Awards
MTV Video Music Awards
An MTV Video Music Award , is an award presented by the cable channel MTV to honor the best in music videos...
in 1986.
Videos within the video
Two other music videos are also featured within "Money for Nothing," to correspond with the lyrics. The Hungarian pop band Első EmeletElső Emelet
Első Emelet, which in Hungarian means First Floor, is a Hungarian pop band, which was started in 1982 in Budapest by former members of Solaris and Lobogó...
and their video "Állj Vagy Lövök"("Stop or I'll Shoot") appears as "Baby, Baby" by "First Floor" during the second verse (The name "első emelet" translates to "first floor," and the song is credited as being on "Magyar Records": "Magyar" is the native
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
name for Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
). Első Emelet were extremely popular at the time in Hungary, although their videos might not have appeared on Music Television. This was used as reference to the English band, Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
, to take pot shots at their global popularity. The other is a fictional, supposed MTV video for "'Sally' by the Ian Pearson Band" (Pearson was one of the animators of the video) which also contains scenes shot in Budapest, Hungary, appearing during the third verse's line about a female singer "stickin' in the camera" and continuing as the singer comments on another performer "banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee." The fictional album for the first video was listed as "Turn Left" and the second was "Hot Dogs." For the second video, the record company appears as "Rush Records," perhaps as a reference to Rushes Postproduction.
Production
Knopfler modelled his guitar sound for the recorded track after ZZ TopZZ Top
ZZ Top is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "That Little Ol' Band from Texas". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based boogie rock, has come to incorporate elements of arena, southern, and boogie rock. The band, from Houston Texas, formed in 1969...
guitarist Billy Gibbons
Billy Gibbons
William Frederick "Billy" Gibbons is an American musician, actor and car customizer, best known as the guitarist of the Texas blues-rock band ZZ Top. He is also the lead singer and composer for many of the band's songs. Gibbons is known for playing his Gretsch Billy Bo guitar and his famous 1959...
' trademark guitar tone, as ZZ Top's music videos were already a staple of early MTV. Gibbons later told a Musician magazine interviewer in 1986 that Knopfler had solicited Gibbons on how to replicate the tone, adding, "He didn't do a half-bad job, considering that I didn't tell him a thing!" Knopfler's "not a half-bad job" included his duplication of Gibbons' use of a Gibson Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
guitar (rather than a Fender Stratocaster
Fender Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...
), which he plugged into a Marshall
Marshall Amplification
Marshall Amplification is a British company, founded by drummer Jim Marshall, that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, brands personal headphones/earphones , and, after acquiring Natal Drums, drums and bongos. Marshall amplifiers, and specifically their guitar amplifiers, are among the most...
amplifier. Another factor in trying to recreate the sound was a Wah-wah pedal
Wah-wah pedal
A wah-wah pedal is a type of guitar effects pedal that alters the tone of the signal to create a distinctive effect, mimicking the human voice...
that was turned on, but only rocked to a certain position. The specific guitar sound in the song was made with a 1958 Gibson Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
going through a Laney
Laney Amplification
Laney Amplification is a British brand of guitar/bass guitar amplifiers and cabinets, and also public address systems.-History:Laney Amplification officially began on September 1st, 1967....
amplifier, with the sound coloured by the accidental position of two Shure SM57 microphones without any processing during the mix. Following the initial sessions in Monserrat, at which that particular guitar part was recorded, Neil Dorfsman attempted to recreate the sound during subsequent sessions the Power Station in New York but was unsuccessful in doing so. (Knopfler also chose to use the Les Paul on a couple of other Brothers in Arms
Brothers in Arms (Dire Straits album)
- Original LP track listing :- 2005 Re-Issue 2 LP track listing :The 2005 Limited Edition Deluxe 180 gram High Performance Vinyl reissue contained the full-length versions of all songs by spreading out the songs over two half speed mastered LPs....
tracks).
Personnel
- Mark KnopflerMark KnopflerMark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...
: guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments... - John IllsleyJohn IllsleyJohn Illsley is an English musician who rose to fame as the bass guitarist of the critically acclaimed rock band, Dire Straits...
: bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, vocals - Alan ClarkAlan Clark (keyboardist)Alan Clark is an English musician who was the first and main keyboardist for the British rock band Dire Straits.- Biography :...
: keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments... - Guy FletcherGuy FletcherGuy Wilson Fletcher is an English multi-instrumentalist, best known for his position as the keyboardist in the British rock band Dire Straits from 1984 until the group's dissolution, and his involvement in nearly every part of Mark Knopfler's solo work to date.-Biography:Fletcher was born into a...
: keyboards, vocals - Terry WilliamsTerry Williams (drummer)Terrence "Terry" Williams is a Welsh rock drummer, whose resume includes work for Dire Straits, B. B. King, and Bob Dylan....
: drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person .... - Omar HakimOmar HakimOmar Hakim is an American jazz, jazz fusion and pop music drummer.Hakim credits jazz vibraphonist Mike Mainieri with giving him his first break in 1980; Hakim appeared in a video with Mainieri called The Jazz Life and began working with singer Carly Simon through Mainieri...
: drums - Sting: vocals
Reception
Rolling Stone magazine listed it the 94th greatest guitar song of all time, noting how Mark KnopflerMark Knopfler
Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...
"traded his pristine, rootsy tone for a dry, over-processed sound achieved by running a Les Paul through a wah-wah pedal on a track that became one of the [MTV] network's earliest hits."
Notable performances
When Dire Straits performed "Money for Nothing" at the 1985 Live AidLive Aid
Live Aid was a dual-venue concert that was held on 13 July 1985. The event was organized by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise funds for relief of the ongoing Ethiopian famine. Billed as the "global jukebox", the event was held simultaneously in Wembley Stadium in London, England, United Kingdom ...
Concert at Wembley Stadium, the performance featured a guest appearance by Sting.
Knopfler performed "Money for Nothing" using his Pensa-Suhr
Pensa Custom Guitars
Pensa Custom Guitars is an American company that manufactures electric guitars and basses in handmade fashion. The company is based in New York City. Pensa Custom Guitars was founded by argentinian luthier Rudy Pensa. Pensa strives to make extremely high quality guitars. They are therefore among...
signature MK-1 model guitar with a pair of Soldano
Soldano
Soldano is a guitar amplifier manufacturing company, founded in 1986 by Michael Soldano in Los Angeles, California and later relocated to Seattle, Washington. It is mostly known for its modern high gain amps, particularly their flagship model — Soldano SLO-100, but product lineup also...
SLO-100 tube/valve amplifier heads and Marshall
Marshall Amplification
Marshall Amplification is a British company, founded by drummer Jim Marshall, that designs and manufactures music amplifiers, brands personal headphones/earphones , and, after acquiring Natal Drums, drums and bongos. Marshall amplifiers, and specifically their guitar amplifiers, are among the most...
speaker cabinets during the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute
Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute
The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute was a popular-music concert staged on June 11, 1988 at Wembley Stadium, London and broadcast to 67 countries and an audience of 600 million. It was also referred to as Freedomfest, Free Nelson Mandela Concert and Mandela Day...
and Prince's Trust concerts in 1988, as well as the Nordoff-Robbins charity show at Knebworth
Concerts at Knebworth House
The grounds of Knebworth House near the village of Knebworth in Hertfordshire, England has become a major venue for open air rock and pop concerts since 1974 when The Allman Brothers Band attracted 60,000 at the first large concert held at the venue....
in 1990 and the On Every Street
On Every Street
On Every Street is the sixth and final studio album by British rock band Dire Straits, released in 1991 . It made #1 on the UK Albums Chart.-History:...
world tours in 1991/1992. These versions featured extended guitar solos by Knopfler, backed by Eric Clapton
Eric Clapton
Eric Patrick Clapton, CBE, is an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. Clapton is the only three-time inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: once as a solo artist, and separately as a member of The Yardbirds and Cream. Clapton has been referred to as one of the most important and...
and Phil Palmer
Phil Palmer
Philip 'Phil' John Palmer is a sideman and session guitarist in jazz and rock who has toured, recorded, and worked with numerous famous artists...
.
"Money for Nothing" and "Brothers in Arms
Brothers in Arms (song)
"Brothers in Arms" is a 1985 song by Dire Straits, appearing as the closing track on the album of the same name. It is in G# minor.-History:There are two studio recorded versions of this song: the album version which is 6:55 seconds, and the shorter version which is 6:05 seconds and features...
" were performed at the 1997 Music for Montserrat concert, with Clapton on rhythm guitar, Sting performing background vocals and Phil Collins
Phil Collins
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins, LVO is an English singer-songwriter, drummer, pianist and actor best known as a drummer and vocalist for British progressive rock group Genesis and as a solo artist....
on drums.
Parodies
"Weird Al" Yankovic"Weird Al" Yankovic
Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
wrote a parody titled "Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies*" for his 1989 film
1989 in film
-Events:* Batman is released on June 23, and goes on to gross over $410 million worldwide.* Actress Kim Basinger and her brother Mick purchase Braselton, Georgia, for $20 million...
UHF
UHF (film)
UHF is a 1989 American comedy film starring "Weird Al" Yankovic, David Bowe, Fran Drescher, Victoria Jackson, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, Gedde Watanabe, Billy Barty, Anthony Geary, Emo Philips and Trinidad Silva, in whose memory the film is dedicated.The title refers to Ultra High Frequency...
. As the title implies, this song merges the lyrics from The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies
The Beverly Hillbillies is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for nine seasons on CBS from 1962 to 1971, starring Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Donna Douglas, and Max Baer, Jr....
theme song ("The Ballad of Jed Clampett
The Ballad of Jed Clampett
"The Ballad of Jed Clampett" was the theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies TV show and movie, providing the back story for the series. The song was written and composed by Paul Henning, and sung by Jerry Scoggins, who was accompanied by bluegrass musicians Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs...
") with the tune of "Money For Nothing". Dire Straits members Mark Knopfler and Guy Fletcher perform guitar and keyboards respectively on the track. The famous video was also parodied by Yankovic, with the removal men replaced by blocky, computer-generated versions of Jed Clampett and Yankovic himself. The parody video was used as a dream sequence midway through the film.
Satirical puppet show Spitting Image
Spitting Image
Spitting Image is a British satirical puppet show that aired on the ITV network from 1984 to 1996. It was produced by Spitting Image Productions for Central Television. The series was nominated for 10 BAFTA Awards, winning one for editing in 1989....
also parodied this song, randomly calling it "Making Nice Curtains." It features a puppet of Mark Knopfler singing about yuppies and that their music "can be played to your granny and aunts." Sting appears as he does in the real video to claim his "royalty," but is silenced as a guitar hits him in the head.
Saturday morning children's television show Pete McTee's Clubhouse
Pete McTee's Clubhouse
Pete McTee's Clubhouse was a Saturday morning television series that originally aired from September 15, 1990 until 2004 on WPMT Fox-43 in York, Pennsylvania. The show starred Pete McTee and featured an ensemble cast including Professor Noddles , Captain Cool , and Sammi Jo...
had commercials parodying the song with the lyrics, "I want my Pete McTee."
The 1984 University of Florida football team used a parody of the song, "I Want My SEC," in response to being stripped of its Southeastern Conference title.
Other uses
- An ID short for VH1 ClassicVH1 ClassicVH1 Classic is a television network, launched on May 8, 2000. It is operated as part of MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom and primarily features music videos and concert footage from the 1970s through the mid-1990s, though it formerly included a wider range of genres and time periods...
's "We Are the '80s" uses an animated Michael JacksonMichael JacksonMichael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
done in the same style as the "Money for Nothing" music video. - The song appears on the set list for the video game Guitar Hero: Warriors of RockGuitar Hero: Warriors of RockGuitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is a music video game and the sixth main entry in the Guitar Hero series for the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 consoles. The game was released September 24, 2010 in Europe, September 28, 2010 in North America and September 29, 2010 in Australia...
. - The song also appears on the opening credits of the movie Second String.
- The song's lyric-'I want my MTV" is currently being used (as of July 2011) on commercials for MTVMTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's 30th Anniversary.