The songwriting credits are shared between Mark Knopfler and Sting. He 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".
The first-person narrating character in the lyrics refers to a musician "banging on the bongos like a chimpanzee" and a woman "stickin' in the camera, man we could have some fun". Knopfler then requested a pen to write some of these lines down and then eventually put those words to music. As they were standing there watching MTV, Knopfler remembers the man coming up with lines such as "what are those, Hawaiian noises?.that ain't workin'," etc. Knopfler then said there was a male employee dressed in a baseball cap, work boots, and a checkered shirt delivering boxes who was standing next to him watching.
At the back of the store was a wall of televisions which were all tuned to MTV. According to Knopfler, he was in New York City and had visited an appliance store. In 2000, Knopfler appeared on Parkinson on BBC One and explained again where the lyrics originated. I wanted to use a lot of the language that the real guy actually used when I heard him, because it was more real. I borrowed a bit of paper and started to write the song down in the store. I wrote the song when I was actually in the store. 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. Mark Knopfler described the writing of the song in a 1984 interview with critic Bill Flanagan: The song's extended overture was shortened for radio and music video.
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The guitar riff continues throughout the song, played in permutation during the verses, and played in full after each chorus. The recording contains a highly recognisable hook, in the form of the guitar riff that begins the song proper. Gibbons told Timothy White of Musician in late 1985 that Knopfler had solicited Gibbons' help in replicating the tone, adding, "He didn't do a half-bad job, either, considering that I never told him a goddamned thing!" įollowing the initial sessions in Montserrat, at which that particular guitar part was recorded, Neil Dorfsman attempted to recreate the sound during subsequent sessions at the Power Station in New York but was unsuccessful. Knopfler modeled his guitar sound on ZZ Top guitarist Billy Gibbons' trademark guitar tone, as ZZ Top's music videos were already a staple of early MTV. Problems playing this file? See media help. At the 1986 MTV Video Music Awards, the music video received 11 nominations, winning Video of the Year and Best Group Video. At the 28th Annual Grammy Awards in 1986, "Money for Nothing" won Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and was nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year as well. In July 1985, the month following its release, Dire Straits and Sting performed the song at Live Aid. It was Dire Straits' most commercially successful single, peaking at number 1 for three weeks on both the US Billboard Hot 100 and Top Rock Tracks chart and number 4 in the band's native UK. The song features a guest appearance by Sting singing background vocals, providing both the signature falsetto introduction and backing chorus of "I want my MTV." The groundbreaking video was the first to be aired on MTV Europe when the network launched on 1 August 1987. The song's lyrics are written from the point of view of two working-class men watching music videos and commenting on what they see. It was released as the album's second single on 28 June 1985 through Vertigo Records. " Money for Nothing" is a song by British rock band Dire Straits, the second track on their fifth studio album, Brothers in Arms (1985).
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