'Homophobic' Dire Straits hit Money For Nothing banned from radio... 26 years after its release

[FreeState]

I'm not sure what to think of this - at the time of it's release it was common and not seen as offensive to the mainstream (doesn't mean it wasn't offensive to many gay men and women), but times have changed and many in the mainstream see it as unacceptable (they do bleep the word out here every once and a while I've noticed on the local radio in current songs, but it depends on the station).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1347030/Homophobic-Dire-Straits-hit-Money-For-Nothing-banned-radio--26-years-release.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

It may be a classic rock song but 26 years after it was first released Dire Straits hit Money For Nothing has been banned from radio.

The song was ruled too offensive for the airwaves in Canada because it contains the word 'f****t' and can now no longer be played in its original form.

Any station that wants to play the song will have to edit it or disguise the word, according to a ruling by the Canadian Broadcasts Standards Council.

The decision came after a listener complained that the broadcast of unedited version of the song – which mentions the word three times – was 'extremely offensive' to gay, lesbian and bisexual people.

Lyrics

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/dire+straits/money+for+nothing_20040681.html

... We gotta move these refrigerators We gotta move these color TV's (See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup Yeah buddy that's his own hair That little faggot got his own jet airplane That little faggot he's a millionaire) Gotta install microwave ovens Custom kitchen deliveries We gotta move these refrigerators Gotta move these color TV's... I want my, I want my, I want my MTV

[Hoopla Phil]

1. Already posted. See hear:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=197400&mesg_id=197400

[FreeState]

2. Thanks didn't see it there - I imagine this forum here will have a different take on it n/t

[AndyTiedye]

3. That Song Always Seemed More Like They Were Ragging On The People Who Hold Such Attitudes

[meegbear]

4. +1

[Behind the Aegis]

5. Which people? Which attitude?

[Webster Green]

10. Custom kitchen delivery men, of course.

Blue collar dudes who stereotype people they are jealous of.

See my other post.

[eShirl]

7. yes! homophobia, misogyny

and kind of making fun of musicians

[Kurovski]

20. Yep.

A very critical song. A good one, too.

[Behind the Aegis]

6. Some are saying it was meant as a commentary against people using that word.

I didn't take that way when I was in HS and heard that song and saw that video. If anything, it is commentary on entertainment vs. working class, but it is still a use of "faggot" as a term of derision. It is how we are now seeing "gay" sometimes used. The problem is what other songs could face the block? "The Bitch is Back," "I'm a Bitch" Songs with "nigger" are already bleeped.

I can say hearing that when I was in HS at the same time I was hearing "Hey faggot, you suck any dick today?", "I am gonna kill your faggot ass." and "Your parents know you're a faggot?" on the phone, all the while pretending I was discussing homework assignments, was disturbing to me and still is.

[Webster Green]

9. Of course it was a commentary against people using that word.

In the song, it was uttered by dumb-ass, blue-collar types who assumed that long-hair equals gay, and rock musicians aren't really working for a living. The song is a masterpiece of rock and roll. To censor it is an abomination.

There's a song by Florida rapper Trick Daddy called 'Not in America', in which he uses th "N" word very liberally. I watched it on You Tube recently and discovered that they had taken out the word, every time it was used. The censorship completely destroyed the whole concept of the song. "Not in America" is yet another great song ruined by the fucking brain police (RIP Frank Zappa).

'Not in America' - Trick Daddy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oVHTAmG1ZI

[FreeState]

14. I didn't even know the controversy over the song until maybe 10 years ago

However, when my partner came home last night, he is ten+ years older than me, I asked him and he instantly said he refuses to listen to the band because of the song. He was in his early mid 20's when it came out and his friends were dying left and right. So, to me its not cut and dry - it depends on your life experience how the song effects you.

[alp227]

23. Trick Daddy didn't use that word, rather a guest rapper Society

and the song is actually called "Amerika".

[Webster Green]

25. Thanks for that info.

I'm not exactly a hard-core follower, but I always loved that song.

Doesn't change my opinion of the censorship though. You would agree that it compromises the song unacceptably, would you not?

[alp227]

26. you mean like Huck Finn? Hmm, good question.

Society (rapper) seems to be using the N-word (in the vernacular modern pronunciation) to illustrate black hardship. But that word can't be uttered on the radio/broadcast version. Meanwhile there's a version of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that uses "slave" over the N-word.

[regnaD kciN]

8. When this was "on the charts" back in the 1980s...

...all the radio stations I know of here in Seattle played the "single version" of the song, which had that verse cut out. I think the video version that ran on Friday Night Videos (remember that show?) was similarly edited.

[FreeState]

13. Your correct - I grew up in Seattle and never heard the unedited version until later

the radio up there only played the edited version. Knopfler himself has said he has mixed feeling about the song.

Wikipedia article on the song

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.<4>

[Ian David]

11. Radio stations should be forced to play THIS version instead...

"Weird Al" Yankovic - Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4SDhrTPOiI

[Ian David]

12. They should ony be allowed to use that word if the lead singer from Dire Straits is gay.

The same way Kanye West is allowed to use the N-word in "Gold Digger."

Alternatively, they could hire a gay person to be the one who says the word, like in this clip from The Daily Show...

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-march-28-2007/oliver-wilmore---n-word

[AndyTiedye]

16. Whether He Is Or Not, It Was Clearly Self-Referential

You don't have to be one to have someone call you one.

[closeupready]

15. Aha, see? Gay people DO have a gay agenda to destroy Western Civilization, and

I'm telling you, this is the just the start, you wait and see! :mad: :sarcasm:

[Siyahamba]

17. People are decrying how Orwellian this is...

Yet I never hear any complaints about other slurs being bleeped out of songs. Hmm...

[Webster Green]

27. It is a condemnation of a slur.

It is poking fun at an ignorant mindset that would assume a man with long hair must be gay.

Context means a lot (IMO).

I guess everything is to be destroyed. Our government, our economy, our environment....might as well destroy our music as well.

The least they could do is give us back our Quaaludes.

This planet sucks donkey balls. :crazy:

[alp227]

18. In live performances DS used "queenie" instead of "faggot"

For example, Knebworth, Hertfordshire 1990 and Wembley 1985.

I can't believe that many people on Youtube are using this incident as an opportunity to boast about their homophobia and soft spot for the word "faggot". I listened to that song several times, enjoy it, and based on the research I did find that they're using faggot in some sort of satirical/ironic way to illustrate how people who dislike rock n' roll think. Am I correct?

[FreeState]

19. Not really correct -

the lyrics for the song are based off of real expressions he overheard in an appliance store. Either way Im not sure using homophobia as a tool to illustrate how people dislike rock and roll is either commendable or logical.

Wikipedia article

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. To achieve the effect of such a layman making such casual everyday commentary envying the superior lives of rock stars, Dire Straits' lead singer and songwriter Mark Knopfler used a vocal style known as Sprechstimme.

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.... ”

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.

[alp227]

21. I read the Wikipedia article too. to be more clear, the song was inspired by personal experience?

Seems that the songwriter is saying that the lyrics are based on what the working-class people are saying about those "rich rock stars".

[FreeState]

24. Im not sure its talking about "working-class people"

from the article I gathered it was based on two specific people that worked at one store from him eaves dropping on their one conversation*. The song, at least to me, does not show one ounce of condemnation or expose on what the two guys motivations or lives really are. The lyrics to the song are basic and not all that insightful (the music on the other hand is amazing IMO).

*Thats the problem with composing songs with this method IMO, unless you spend more time with the subjects the meaning you put to their words have more to say about what you think than what they said, do mostly in part to not having the full understanding of the slang they are using. How can anyone know if anything they said had any more meaning do to past history between the two men?

[HockeyMom]

22. Most stations edit those lyrics

then, and today. Still, "chicks for free"? I just thought the whole song was a parody on rock bands versus the working man's fantasy.