Money for Nothing (song)

"Money for Nothing" is the name of a song by Dire Straits which first appeared on the band's 1985 album Brothers in Arms and subsequently became an international hit when released as a single. It peaked at number one for three weeks in the U.S. becoming their most successful single. The song was notable for its controversial lyrics, groundbreaking music video and a cameo appearance by Sting singing the song's ironic introduction and backing chorus, a borrowing of the cable network's slogan "I want my MTV". The video was also the first to be aired on MTV Europe when the network started on August 1, 1987.

The songwriting credits are shared between Knopfler and Sting. Sting was visiting Montserrat during the recording of the song, and was invited to add some background vocals. Sting has stated that his only contribution was the "I Want My MTV" line, which was sung in partial parody of his own song "Don't Stand So Close To Me", originally recorded by The Police. Sting was embarrassed when his publishing company insisted on a co-writing credit (and royalties).

Dire Straits performed "Money For Nothing" at the 1985 Live Aid Concert at Wembley Stadium. It was considered one of the standout performances of the event. The performance featured a guest appearance by Sting. As a result of this performance, this helped launch not only the song, but Dire Straits themselves into international superstars.

Controversies

The song's lyrics are written from the point of view of a character, a blue-collar worker watching music videos and commenting on what he sees. Dire Straits' leader and songwriter Mark Knopfler described the writing of the song in a 1985 interview with critic Bill Flanagan:

The lead character in "Money for Nothing" is a guy who works in the hardware department in a television/custom kitchen/refrigerator/microwave appliance store. He's singing the song. I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real.

The crude observations of the character included references to a musician "banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee" and a description of a singer as a "little faggot with the earring and the makeup", and lamenting that the artists got "money for nothing and chicks for free". These lyrics were widely criticized as sexist, homophobic and racist statements, and in some later releases of the song the lyrics were edited for airplay; "faggot" for example is often replaced with "mother": "little mother, he's a millionaire". The entire second verse was removed in the compilation Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits and replaced with an instrumental. In a late 1985 interview in Rolling Stone magazine, Knopfler expressed mixed feelings on the controversy:

I got an objection from the editor of a gay newspaper in London - he actually said it was below the belt. Apart from the fact that there are stupid gay people as well as stupid other people, it suggests that maybe you can't let it have so many meanings - you have to be direct. In fact, I'm still in two minds as to whether it's a good idea to write songs that aren't in the first person, to take on other characters.

The video

The music video for the song featured early computer animation illustrating the lyrics. While the animation appears crude by modern standards, the video was one of the first uses of computer-animated human characters and was considered groundbreaking at the time of its release. It was the first computer generated music video shown on MTV. The lead characters vaguely resemble a computer-generated Laurel and Hardy.

Gavin Blair and Ian Pearson created the animation at Rushes Post production in London, using a Bosch FGS-4000 CGI system. The animators went on to found computer animation studio Mainframe Entertainment, 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 rotoscoped-animation in bright neon colors, as seen on the record sleeve.

Influences

Knopfler modeled his guitar sound for the recorded track after ZZ Top 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 use of a Gibson Les Paul guitar, rather than his usual Fender Stratocaster.

As a footnote, the video for ZZ Top's "TV Dinners" from 1983 was also groundbreaking for its combination of animation (specifically claymation) with live footage. A scene in the Dire Straits video, where one of the lead character's frozen head is defrosted in a carousel microwave oven appears to reference the earlier ZZ Top video as well.

Parodies

"Weird Al" Yankovic 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 with "Money For Nothing"'s tune. Knopfler returned and recorded a guitar part for the song, replicating his parts from the original. The famous video also got the Weird Al treatment, with a blocky, computer generated Yankovic appearing in the video; the parody video was used as a dream sequence midway through the film.

References in pop culture

The title of the song was mentioned in Wynonna Judd's 1994 song "Girls With Guitars" with "Get your money for nothing and your checks (chicks?) for free."
Union Underground references the "little faggot is a millionaire" lyrics in their 2000 hit "Turn Me On "Mr. Deadman".

External links

1985 singles | Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles | Songs parodied by "Weird Al" Yankovic