Money For Nothing Dire Straits

Money For Nothing Album: Brothers In Arms (1985)
by Dire Straits

Mark Knopfler wrote Money For Nothing after overhearing delivery men in a New York department store complain about their jobs while watching MTV. He wrote the song in the store sitting at a kitchen display they had set up. Many of the lyrics were things they actually said.

Sting sings on this and helped write it (he and Knopfler are the credited writers). That's him at the beginning singing "I want my MTV." Sting did not want a songwriting credit, but his record company did because they would have earned royalties from it. They claimed it sounded very similar to a song Sting wrote for The Police: "Don't Stand So Close To Me."

Dire Straits recorded this in Montserrat. Sting was on vacation there and came by to help out.

The innovative video was one of the first to feature computer generated animation, which was done using an early program called Paintbox. The characters were supposed to have more detail, like buttons on their shirts, but they used up the budget and had to leave it as is. It won Best Video at the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards.

The video of Money For Nothing was directed by Steve Barron, who also directed the famous a-ha video for "Take On Me" and Thomas Dolby's "She Blinded Me With Science."

In the book I Want My MTV, various people who worked at the network explain that Dire Straits' manager asked the network what they could do to get on the network and break through in America. Their answer was: write a hit song and let one of the top directors make a video. Mark Knopfler took the directive to write an "MTVable song" quite literally, using the network's tagline in the lyrics. The song ended up sounding like an indictment of MTV, but Les Garland, who ran the network, made it clear that they loved the song and were flattered by it - hearing "I Want My MTV" on the radio was fantastic publicity even if there were some unfavorable implications in the lyrics.

Steve Barron was dispatched to do the video, and charged with the task of convincing Mark Knopfler, who hated videos, to do one that was groundbreaking. Barron says that Knopfler wasn't into the idea, but his girlfriend - an American - was at the pitch and loved the idea. Knopfler agreed (in part because he didn't have to appear in it), and Barron hired a UK production company called Rushes to work on it. Said Barron: "The song is damning to MTV in a way. That was an ironic video. The characters we created were made of televisions, and they were slagging off television. Videos were getting a bit boring, they needed some waking up. And MTV went nuts for it. It was like a big advertisement for them."

The line "I want my MTV" was the basis of the cable network's promotional campaign. They played clips of musicians saying, and often times, screaming the line between videos.

This was the first video played on MTV Europe. The network went on the air August 1, 1987, six years after MTV in the US.
The album version runs 8:26 with an extended outro. The single was cut down to 4:38.

In the US, this stayed at #1 for three weeks. It also won a Grammy in 1986 for best Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group.

Mark Knopfler played a Les Paul Junior plugged into a Laney amp on this track. Producer Neil Dorfsman recalled in Sound On Sound magazine May 2006: "We were going for a ZZ Top sound, but what we ended up getting was kind of an accident."

"Weird Al" Yankovic parodied this for his movie UHF. The parody is called "Beverly Hillbillies (Money For Nothing)." Strait's frontman, Mark Knopfler, OK'd the parody under one condition: Knopfler would play guitar on the song.

The song stirred up some controversy with the line, "See the little fa--ot with the earring and the makeup," as well as two other mentions of the word "fa--ot." At one point it was banned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Mark Knopfler has pointed out that the song was written from the viewpoint of a stupid character who thinks musicians make their "money for nothing," and this guy's stupidity is what leads him to make ignorant statements. Speaking in late 1985 to Rolling Stone, the Dire Straits songwriter expressed his feelings about people who react angrily to the song. He said: "Apart from the fact that there are stupid gay people as well as stupid other people, it suggests that maybe you have to be direct. I'm in two minds as to whether it's a good idea to take on characters and write songs that aren't in the first person."

In 2005, the duo Deep Dish sampled this on their song "Flashing For Money," which was based on their song "Flashdance" (not the Irene Cara song). It was the first time Dire Straits allowed one of their songs to be sampled. "Flashing For Money" was released on the B-side of Deep Dish's single "Say Hello."

Reel Big Fish released an album in 2007 called Monkeys For Nothin' And The Chimps For Free. The title is a takeoff on this song.

Mark Knopfler was once a reporter working on the Yorkshire Evening Post. He told Uncut magazine that his journalistic experience fed into this song. "I was reporting, verbatim, what a particular guy thought about music," he said. "I transcribed his words there and then. He was a meathead. To him being a rock star was easy, hence 'that ain't working.'"

Keyboardist Alan Clark told Mojo magazine the song was transformed out of the ordinary because of Mark Knopfler's perfectionist nature. "In the beginning," he said, "'Money For Nothing' sounded more like a Stones track and it didn't have the iconic guitar riff. Mark developed that messing around to a click track on his own on Montserrat."

(I want my, I want my MTV)
(I want my, I want my MTV)
(I want my, I want my MTV)
(I want my, I want my MTV)

Huh, now look at them yo-yos, that's the way you do it
You play that guitar on the MTV
That ain't workin', that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and your chicks for free

Now that ain't workin', that's the way you do it
Lemme tell ya, them guys ain't dumb
Maybe get a blister on your little finger
Maybe get a blister on your thumb

We got to install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliveries
We got to move these refrigerators, we got to move these color TVs, ow

See the little faggot with the earring and the make up
Yeah, buddy, that's his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot, he's a millionaire

We got to install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliveries
We got to move these refrigerators, we got to move these color TVs

Huh

We got to install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliveries
We got to move these refrigerators, we got to move these color TVs
Looky here, look out

I shoulda learned to play the guitar
I shoulda learned to play them drums
Look at that mama, she got it stickin' in the camera man
We could have some

And he's up there, what's that?
Hawaiian noises?
He's bangin' on the bongos like a chimpanzee
Oh, that ain't workin', that's the way you do it
Get your money for nothin', get your chicks for free

We got to install microwave ovens, custom kitchen deliveries
We got to move these refrigerators, we got to move these color TVs

Ow, ow ow ow

Listen here
Now that ain't workin' that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't workin', that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and your chicks for free
Money for nothin', chicks for free
Get your money for nothin' and your chicks for free
Ooh, that money for nothin', chicks for free
Get your money for nothin', chicks for free
Money for nothin' (all that money for nothing), chicks for free
Get your money for nothin', get your chicks for free (ow)
Get your money for nothin' and the chicks for free
Get your money for nothin' and the chicks for free (what's that?)

Look at that, look at that
Get your money for nothin' (I want my, I want my)
And the chicks for free (I want my MTV)
Money for nothin', chicks for free (I want my, I want my, I want my MTV)
Get your money for nothin' (I want my, I want my)
And the chicks for free (I want my MTV)
Get your money for nothin' (I want my, I want my)
And the chicks for free (I want my MTV)
Easy, easy money for nothin' (I want my, I want my)
Easy, easy chicks for free (I want my MTV)
Easy, easy money for nothin' (I want my, I want my)
Chicks for free (I want my MTV)
That ain't workin'

Money for nothing, chicks for free
Money for nothing, chicks for free