Censoring this tune on radio or TV is off base. Mark wrote it in the third person after he overheard a conversation between two workers in an appliance store basically describing his career and thought he could easily take the piss out of their banter. The opening riff is legendary.
This IS the studio cut! And as far as the "offensive" language, people had a better sense of humor and were less likely to be offended then. Despite the language, it was a better, freer world.
The story behind the song-- Mark was in a large store in NY, and on one whole wall of the store there were TVs tuned to MTV (Music Television): Nearby, some of the blue-collar workers were watching the MTV music videos, and Mark heard them making these comments about the performers in the videos and how 'easy' those guys had it compared to their own gruelling jobs (moving TVs, microwaves and refrigerators etc.). Mark grabbed a pen and paper and wrote their remarks down verbatim, and they became the lyrics of the song. Given that they (Dire Straits) are musicians themselves, singing the lyrics in an MTV video no less, this track is very good natured, self-parodic and cheeky! Moreover, it's fitting, because in contrast to some the 'glam rock' of the time, Dire Straits was 'pub rock'. As to the 'offensive' word at issue: [1] That was the word used by the blue collar workers themselves about the guys in the MTV videos; [2] it was very common parlance at that time and rarely referred to homosexuality (gay guys wouldn't be concerned about getting 'chicks for free' in this song, would they); [3] the term had several contemporaneous meanings, and it was often used to suggest 'poser' or 'pretty boy' (in this case in reference to the glam rock and pop performers of the time wearing "the earrings and the makeup," who were seen to have sold out to flashy corporate media); [4] Notably, when the band plays this track live, in the first person, they leave out that word. Context is everything!
Believe it or not, the CGI on this was "cutting edge"... The video won Video of the Year. Personal computers at the time cost several thousand dollars, and were just monochrome "green screen" text and lines. So the graphics in this video blew people's minds. Amazing how far tech has come in 39 years...
Yes, absolutely, this one and some of the singles off the "Purple Rain" and "Like a Virgin" albums were on the top-twenty most played songs/videos of 1985 I think.
@mr.knowitall6440 When Bon Jovi hit the following year, we would quietly walk up behind someone and sing/shout "SHOT THROUGH THE HEART AND YOU'RE TO BLAME...."
I was a big Dire Straits fan. Then they baked my brain by over playing this song. Mark is one of those guitarists like Stevie Ray or Eddy Van H, when they play, you can’t look away.
This was the first video to use CGI. It's both Alan Clark and Guy Fletcher on keyboards, Guy Fletcher joined Dire Straits after working with Mark on the soundtrack for the movie "Cal" and still works with Mark in his solo career until today.
Sting got a co-credit too, because the MTV refrain Mark used was so close to the choruses of The Police's 'Don't stand so close to me'. Sting wasn't at all bothered about the similarity of the tune but his publishers were and insisted they got a cut.
The drummer on the entire album is Omar Hakim, and he laid down all the drum parts in two days time midway through the recording sessions. Mark was after the perfect drum sound but he also wanted it to sound clean (I think this is the first album they recorded digitally). The original drummer Terry Williams had been working for weeks laying down drum parts guided by a click track in his headphones, but he felt constrained by that approach. When he admitted to Mark that he wasn't happy with the result, he was sent home from the sessions at once - presumably Mark wasn't happy about it either! They brought in Hakim, who had been working with Sting (also on this track, of course) and he did the job at lightning speed, without a hitch. The only bit of Williams' drumming that stayed on the album is in the build-up intro here! He did remain their regular live drummer for the world tour though.
If I remember correctly, Mark was moving or getting deliveries and he overheard one of the workers putting him down in disdain. Mark turned it into a who’s laughing now response. Some have to lift appliances and some get blisters on their pinky from guitars
Mark was in an applience store in New York actualy when he hear delivery men talking about the TV's that were all tuned to MTV, he wrote down what he heard and turned it into this song. He also went for a ZZ Top sound on the guitar since they were big on MTV at the time.
I read somewhere that there was a Motley Crew video playing on a TV in the store showroom. The comment about the little...guy...with the earring was singer Vince Neil.
I think the phrase you might be searching for when describing MK and his contributions to DS is he was the creative genius behind the group. Without MK there would have been no DS. At least the DS we know today.
I was an original employee (manager of finance, budgets, accounts payable/receivable) of MTv but I was gone by the time this song came out. An insane place to work. It was run by mostly empty suits, I was one of the few musicians or persons who understood music who worked there in any capacity. I can't even believe I used to work there.
Many of Mark Knopfler's lyrics are based on real-life experiences In this case he was in a store where a couple of blue-collar guys were loading a van with stuff they had to deliver. Mark overheard them talking about MTV that was playing on TVs in the store.
Yes, the songs on the Dire Straits debut album often relate to his early life in Newcastle, Leeds and London too, or to people he knew about from those places. "In the Gallery", such a superb song off that album, with amazing guitar, is about a sculptor from Leeds who used to do realistic figures, but also about creddishness in the art wold: who gets to be hip and who doesn't... Mark may not be big on pure vocal range, but he's very good at using phrasing and "speaking manners" to show the nuances of meaning or to suggest the character that's speaking in the lyrics.
I was working 3rd shift in a grocery store. Bought the album the next morning. Recorded it on cassette tape and played it the next night over the intercom! Much to the chagrin of the older deli ladies that came in to open!
Sting and Knopfler grew up a few miles away from each other in the city of Newcastle in the north-east of England. When Dire Straits played this at Live Aid, Sting was on stage with them.
@@L33Reacts Robert Palmer's Addicted To Love epitomised that, with nearly identical looking models with cropped hair "playing" the instruments behind him... One of him was Sinead O'Connor.
If you want to see another amazing performance of this song, check out the live performance at the benefit concert for Monserrat. There were a lot of different performers that day, but Mark Knopfler, along with Sting, Phil Collins on drums and Eric Clapton on guitar brought the house down.
Dire Straits had it both ways with this song and video - sending up the contemporary music scene on one hand, while shamelessly plugging MTV on the other.
If you haven't done so yet, you should treat yourself to "Once Upon a Time in the West" from Alchemy Live, and "Private Investigations" from On the Night Live.
Gday Lee,mate this was huge back in the day and why not,it's a great song,on at almost every party I went to or had and believe there was a humongous amount in the 80s, a lot that lasted the whole weekend especially at my place.Great days.
Brothers in Arms was the very first CD I ever bought, when I was 16. That’s the shorter version, there was also a radio edit for the offending word, the album cut has a longer intro and a guitar solo at the end. From the same album, check out Your Latest Trick, has some great sax. Also check out Ride Across The River live in Sydney 1986, has a killer duet/call and response with the guitar and a flute.
I was in the Air Force at Norton AFB, California when this debuted on MTV. Lets watch the "Old," ref their, it was like you said, "Cutting Edge," in my day. One of the song I remember from my days at Norton. Glad you enjoyed it.
If you listen to the actual album version, it's the same studio recording, but is longer than the version used in the video -- both the intro and the outro are considerably longer.
Have you listened to any of Mark Knopfler’s solo stuff? “Sailing to Philadelphia” is a great song about the surveying of the Mason Dixon line. It is on the album of the same name. Another song on that album I like is “What It Is”.
Side B of this album is the better than side of A. The title track is by far and away the best track on this album and one of the best in their catalog. Great band. Six great albums.
Nice one! Love this video. I wonder if it's the censored version or the uncensored... ? Either way, nice pick. Thanks, cee cee and Lee! :) Looks like some good rockers onboard for tomorrow!
@@L33Reacts someone in Canada tried to get it banned a few years ago. Mark Knopfler even offered to supply an alternative version for radio play (although an edited one already exists and featured on the Money For Nothing greatest hits compilation). Fortunately the judge was astute enough to understand the context of the song and threw the case out.
There's a fantastic live version of this song from the 1986 Prince's Trust Rock Gala with Mark, John Illsley and Sting along with Elton John, Midge Ure, Eric Clapton, Howard Jones, Ray Cooper and Phil Collins.
This was one of the first compact discs, along with Dark Side of the Moon and Zeppelin IV, when I bought my first CD player to add to my Kenwood rack system back in the early eighties.
@@L33Reacts The first CD in the world to sell a million copies and, at the time, the biggest selling album in the UK. (It's still in the top 10 forty years later.)
Should check out the longer album version also. More great guitar playing and more Sting! It can wait though. And yes, Mark got into a lot of s**t at the time for saying fa**ot". No one understood that when he said that word in rhe song, he was being self-deprecating. He would change the word to queenie when playing live (not sure if he did this just on TV or in concerts also).
@stephenstrudwick8095 he stopped singing it in all performances soon after the record was released. The album was released in mid May 1985 and the single a few weeks later at the end of June. Live Aid was only two weeks later and he didn't sing it there. He's tried out a few alternative lyrics over the years including Queenie, Mother, Mothertrucker, Trucker etc. At Live Aid he even threw in a "he's got his own jet air plane, he's got a helicopter, he's a millionaire", but it doesn't scan too well.
Few realized Mark was in character as envious blue collar guys ripping on "pretty boy" rock/pop stars. It's reminiscent of how Randy Newman faced some backlash then and now over using racial and sexual slurs in tons of his songs when he was doing it in the character of a bigot. Some will say you shouldn't even use such words when pretending to be a nasty piece of work but sometimes freedom of expression in art calls for it. Heck, Randy even did a whole song where a guy puts down little people and everyone assumed it was his own opinion :D
I'd love to hear your reaction to Planet Of New Orleans, an album track from their last album On Every Street. The album was not as highly acclaimed as some of their previous work but let's face it, they were never going to top Brothers In Arms. Planet of New Orleans is an amazing sound piece.
I put Brothers in Arms as #6 in my DS album rankings. Their other 5 albums are better overall imo. The title track is the best song on this album. Pick Withers left the band because of this album.
Rather than the album version (although the longer intro is sublime) why not check out a live version? There are plenty of great ones including Live Aid and Knebworth '90, but I'd recommend Music For Montserrat with Sting, Eric Clapton and Phil Collins at the Royal Albert Hall with a (non-playing) orchestra and choir clapping and dancing along behind them.
While the video has Terry Williams, except for the opening drums and the fills, rest of the drumming is by Omar Hakim. For me the best moment visually is the loaded *Heavy Rotation* @5:42 There's a whole bunch of people here on UToob who have done a history on how this video and song all came about.
I was 9 when this came out. I saw this on MTV. I was blown away by the song and the video. I had heard lots of music of the day by that point, but had never heard of Dire Straits. I got my mom to buy me the cassette tape of the album. The thing about the slur in the lyrics: I think most people understood about it being from the perspective of the guys moving refrigerators. But in a sign of how things were, the people who didn’t understand that were also the people who were totally okay using that term in general. Funny enough, though, they’d use that term more often for a guy they assumed was straight. Like do you like the band Journey? “No way, those guys are f**s.” The song’s lyrics mention hair, makeup, earrings. The stage costumes of bands of the time were pretty silly. And the people who didn’t like them would use a gay slur to put them down regardless of who those guys were taking to bed. I think people do that type of thing a lot less nowadays. Which is good. I hope that wasn’t over-explaining the obvious. But not everyone remembers the 80’s.
Great song, cool band! Next, ya gotta check out “Lady Writer” from their 79 album Communiqué. The guitar work is outstanding! Also, check out “Skateaway” and “Expresso Love” from their Making Movies album. ✌️
I do enjoy watching this reactioner , but personally, I’d far rather watch the actual Live Aid 1985 version of ‘Money for Nothing’. That brings back memories never stirred up by the animated recording. I’m a crazy Dire Straits & MK Solo fan, but much prefer to get immersed in the best Live performances of anything they do, with few exceptions. I love seeing the musicians playing in the band, especially MK, with all the bonuses of more content & atmosphere created & the audience participation. I tend to give the non Live reactions a miss. I❤MK
That very sharp and cutting, grinding guitar tone, especially when the riff is first stated at 2:37 - it feels/sounds a bit like a dentist's drill, doesn't it,? (well, not cutting into your own teeth) ;) I've heard that the tone was the result of some assistance from Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. He and Mark came up with this "chainsaw" sound, midway between thrash metal and Kraftwerk, and they recorded the main guitar part down at Montserrat in the Caribbean, where the first sessions were taking place. When they continued working on the album up in New York, the engineers there tried to replicate the sound but were unable to do it, even though Knopfler did his best to help them. :)
I have to disagree Lee! The 80's was the 💩! I had the time of my life! You had to be there to understand. Everyone listened to the music. It brought everyone of all races creeds and colors together under one music culture. It was a great time that will probably never be seen again.
The Money For Nothing animations are still brilliant and despite being basic by today's standard have aged really well. Besides all technology has to evolve. You can't just jump straight to present day computer animation.
@@mr.knowitall6440 well,I can only speak personally,I’ve never liked them,found them to be too distracting and spoiled the videos I just prefer straight live gigs
Don't be daft!! 😅😅 Mark was actually mocking the jealous and homophobic nature of the antagonist in the song by adopting a third-person point of view to show the irony, bigotry, and ignorance of the character. In fact, in the live versions, he used the words 'queenie' and 'mother-trucker' instead. 😊
@@aleclewis9123 @marlonsummey1983 wasn't referring to Mark, but the character Mark's singing as. I've heard claims that the "Queenie" being referenced is Boy George and others that it was a member of Motley Crue. Ultimately it doesn't really matter. It was back during the "New Romantics" when male popstars were wearing earrings and makeup (and rock bands sported huge perms). A lot of folks, particularly given it was preceded by the punk and disco eras, thought them very feminine in appearance and mocked them for it and of course as in this case of the delivery men Mark overhead that sometimes included the use of homophobic slurs.
Censoring this tune on radio or TV is off base. Mark wrote it in the third person after he overheard a conversation between two workers in an appliance store basically describing his career and thought he could easily take the piss out of their banter. The opening riff is legendary.
It shouldn't matter either way. Censorship is just downright wrong.
This IS the studio cut! And as far as the "offensive" language, people had a better sense of humor and were less likely to be offended then. Despite the language, it was a better, freer world.
Not to mention the 'faggot' in the song was winning at life! That was the whole point.
The story behind the song-- Mark was in a large store in NY, and on one whole wall of the store there were TVs tuned to MTV (Music Television): Nearby, some of the blue-collar workers were watching the MTV music videos, and Mark heard them making these comments about the performers in the videos and how 'easy' those guys had it compared to their own gruelling jobs (moving TVs, microwaves and refrigerators etc.). Mark grabbed a pen and paper and wrote their remarks down verbatim, and they became the lyrics of the song. Given that they (Dire Straits) are musicians themselves, singing the lyrics in an MTV video no less, this track is very good natured, self-parodic and cheeky! Moreover, it's fitting, because in contrast to some the 'glam rock' of the time, Dire Straits was 'pub rock'. As to the 'offensive' word at issue: [1] That was the word used by the blue collar workers themselves about the guys in the MTV videos; [2] it was very common parlance at that time and rarely referred to homosexuality (gay guys wouldn't be concerned about getting 'chicks for free' in this song, would they); [3] the term had several contemporaneous meanings, and it was often used to suggest 'poser' or 'pretty boy' (in this case in reference to the glam rock and pop performers of the time wearing "the earrings and the makeup," who were seen to have sold out to flashy corporate media); [4] Notably, when the band plays this track live, in the first person, they leave out that word. Context is everything!
It seemed that MTV played this video about every 20 minutes or so, a monster hit. HUGE. thanks CCR.
Believe it or not, the CGI on this was "cutting edge"...
The video won Video of the Year.
Personal computers at the time cost several thousand dollars, and were just monochrome "green screen" text and lines.
So the graphics in this video blew people's minds. Amazing how far tech has come in 39 years...
This video/song was so ubiquitous that "That ain't workin" became a catchphrase in our circle for any task that was not too challenging
Yes, absolutely, this one and some of the singles off the "Purple Rain" and "Like a Virgin" albums were on the top-twenty most played songs/videos of 1985 I think.
@@TheodoreWeiser Then the following year "That ain't a knife" joined the club... 🤠 🐊
@mr.knowitall6440 When Bon Jovi hit the following year, we would quietly walk up behind someone and sing/shout "SHOT THROUGH THE HEART AND YOU'RE TO BLAME...."
I was a big Dire Straits fan. Then they baked my brain by over playing this song. Mark is one of those guitarists like Stevie Ray or Eddy Van H, when they play, you can’t look away.
This was the first video to use CGI. It's both Alan Clark and Guy Fletcher on keyboards, Guy Fletcher joined Dire Straits after working with Mark on the soundtrack for the movie "Cal" and still works with Mark in his solo career until today.
Don't forget, Sting is singing on this, as well.
Sting got a co-credit too, because the MTV refrain Mark used was so close to the choruses of The Police's 'Don't stand so close to me'. Sting wasn't at all bothered about the similarity of the tune but his publishers were and insisted they got a cut.
Thank goodness for playing the original uncut version...🔥
The drummer on the entire album is Omar Hakim, and he laid down all the drum parts in two days time midway through the recording sessions. Mark was after the perfect drum sound but he also wanted it to sound clean (I think this is the first album they recorded digitally). The original drummer Terry Williams had been working for weeks laying down drum parts guided by a click track in his headphones, but he felt constrained by that approach. When he admitted to Mark that he wasn't happy with the result, he was sent home from the sessions at once - presumably Mark wasn't happy about it either! They brought in Hakim, who had been working with Sting (also on this track, of course) and he did the job at lightning speed, without a hitch.
The only bit of Williams' drumming that stayed on the album is in the build-up intro here! He did remain their regular live drummer for the world tour though.
If I remember correctly, Mark was moving or getting deliveries and he overheard one of the workers putting him down in disdain. Mark turned it into a who’s laughing now response. Some have to lift appliances and some get blisters on their pinky from guitars
Mark was in an applience store in New York actualy when he hear delivery men talking about the TV's that were all tuned to MTV, he wrote down what he heard and turned it into this song. He also went for a ZZ Top sound on the guitar since they were big on MTV at the time.
I read somewhere that there was a Motley Crew video playing on a TV in the store showroom. The comment about the little...guy...with the earring was singer Vince Neil.
I think the phrase you might be searching for when describing MK and his contributions to DS is he was the creative genius behind the group. Without MK there would have been no DS. At least the DS we know today.
I was an original employee (manager of finance, budgets, accounts payable/receivable) of MTv but I was gone by the time this song came out. An insane place to work. It was run by mostly empty suits, I was one of the few musicians or persons who understood music who worked there in any capacity. I can't even believe I used to work there.
Many of Mark Knopfler's lyrics are based on real-life experiences In this case he was in a store where a couple of blue-collar guys were loading a van with stuff they had to deliver. Mark overheard them talking about MTV that was playing on TVs in the store.
Yes, the songs on the Dire Straits debut album often relate to his early life in Newcastle, Leeds and London too, or to people he knew about from those places. "In the Gallery", such a superb song off that album, with amazing guitar, is about a sculptor from Leeds who used to do realistic figures, but also about creddishness in the art wold: who gets to be hip and who doesn't...
Mark may not be big on pure vocal range, but he's very good at using phrasing and "speaking manners" to show the nuances of meaning or to suggest the character that's speaking in the lyrics.
I was working 3rd shift in a grocery store. Bought the album the next morning. Recorded it on cassette tape and played it the next night over the intercom! Much to the chagrin of the older deli ladies that came in to open!
Best version is the live Music for Monsarrat concert… brilliant! Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins & Sting. Just the best
The eighties were AWESOME. Great music. Great hair.
big hair, big earrings, big clothes, yes, it was a fun time
Sting and Knopfler grew up a few miles away from each other in the city of Newcastle in the north-east of England. When Dire Straits played this at Live Aid, Sting was on stage with them.
Big radio hit ... love it
If you enjoy interesting 80s videos, you have to watch Take On Me by A-ha! It still stands up today & won numerous video awards.
Every 80s Rock video worth a dang, had to have a " Leggy Supermodel" ...it was required! 😂😂😂😂
I’ve noticed that too lol sex sells !
@@L33Reacts 👍✌️😂
@@L33Reacts Robert Palmer's Addicted To Love epitomised that, with nearly identical looking models with cropped hair "playing" the instruments behind him... One of him was Sinead O'Connor.
The video on this one makes it easier to understand the lyrics.
That WAS fun, thanks Lee. ❤😂
One of the best intros of a song ever!
One of the first 'created' videos I ever saw. I still love it. Great song!
If you want to see another amazing performance of this song, check out the live performance at the benefit concert for Monserrat. There were a lot of different performers that day, but Mark Knopfler, along with Sting, Phil Collins on drums and Eric Clapton on guitar brought the house down.
Private Investigations from Alchemy Live is a must watch Lee - possibly their most musically interesting song, almost like a soundtrack piece.
Dire Straits had it both ways with this song and video - sending up the contemporary music scene on one hand, while shamelessly plugging MTV on the other.
If you haven't done so yet, you should treat yourself to "Once Upon a Time in the West" from Alchemy Live, and "Private Investigations" from On the Night Live.
It was 1985 - almost 40 years ago - it was what is was, so don't go trying to change history. It was also epic music ...
All of the ZZ Top Videos with the Hot Rod in them were made for MTV, and i could only get it on a VHS Channell.
Gday Lee,mate this was huge back in the day and why not,it's a great song,on at almost every party I went to or had and believe there was a humongous amount in the 80s, a lot that lasted the whole weekend especially at my place.Great days.
Sting is singing background, and at the end, he is the one saying, "I want my MTV".
Brothers in Arms was the very first CD I ever bought, when I was 16. That’s the shorter version, there was also a radio edit for the offending word, the album cut has a longer intro and a guitar solo at the end. From the same album, check out Your Latest Trick, has some great sax. Also check out Ride Across The River live in Sydney 1986, has a killer duet/call and response with the guitar and a flute.
"The Walk of Life" is another great song to check out...
You should watch Private Investigations from On The Night concert 1993. Very different and dramatic!❤
Private investigations live on the night... a different but brilliant side of dire straits
Love this! SRV has one called Cold Shot which is funny and cool. A must see.
I was in the Air Force at Norton AFB, California when this debuted on MTV. Lets watch the "Old," ref their, it was like you said, "Cutting Edge," in my day. One of the song I remember from my days at Norton. Glad you enjoyed it.
Dire Straits🎉
Yeah Sting does the I WANT MY MTV part through the song.
Thanks for your reactions!
Try Calling Elvise live Basel 1992 -like a drummer you ‘ll enjoy that a lot
If you listen to the actual album version, it's the same studio recording, but is longer than the version used in the video -- both the intro and the outro are considerably longer.
Never tire of them!😊
BTW, I like the video😂
Have you listened to any of Mark Knopfler’s solo stuff? “Sailing to Philadelphia” is a great song about the surveying of the Mason Dixon line. It is on the album of the same name. Another song on that album I like is “What It Is”.
Side B of this album is the better than side of A. The title track is by far and away the best track on this album and one of the best in their catalog. Great band. Six great albums.
Great fun!
Nice one! Love this video. I wonder if it's the censored version or the uncensored... ? Either way, nice pick. Thanks, cee cee and Lee! :)
Looks like some good rockers onboard for tomorrow!
no it was not censored lol it flagged the ai and they are reviewing the video now... thanks mark! lol..
@@L33Reacts Yikes lol!
@@L33Reacts someone in Canada tried to get it banned a few years ago. Mark Knopfler even offered to supply an alternative version for radio play (although an edited one already exists and featured on the Money For Nothing greatest hits compilation). Fortunately the judge was astute enough to understand the context of the song and threw the case out.
There's a fantastic live version of this song from the 1986 Prince's Trust Rock Gala with Mark, John Illsley and Sting along with Elton John, Midge Ure, Eric Clapton, Howard Jones, Ray Cooper and Phil Collins.
This was one of the first compact discs, along with Dark Side of the Moon and Zeppelin IV, when I bought my first CD player to add to my Kenwood rack system back in the early eighties.
What a great start! This album has been awesome so far. Brothers in arms is such a great track
@@L33Reacts The first CD in the world to sell a million copies and, at the time, the biggest selling album in the UK. (It's still in the top 10 forty years later.)
Should check out the longer album version also. More great guitar playing and more Sting! It can wait though.
And yes, Mark got into a lot of s**t at the time for saying fa**ot". No one understood that when he said that word in rhe song, he was being self-deprecating. He would change the word to queenie when playing live (not sure if he did this just on TV or in concerts also).
I think you mean facetious... or something... not self-deprecating. 🧐
@stephenstrudwick8095 he stopped singing it in all performances soon after the record was released. The album was released in mid May 1985 and the single a few weeks later at the end of June. Live Aid was only two weeks later and he didn't sing it there. He's tried out a few alternative lyrics over the years including Queenie, Mother, Mothertrucker, Trucker etc. At Live Aid he even threw in a "he's got his own jet air plane, he's got a helicopter, he's a millionaire", but it doesn't scan too well.
Few realized Mark was in character as envious blue collar guys ripping on "pretty boy" rock/pop stars. It's reminiscent of how Randy Newman faced some backlash then and now over using racial and sexual slurs in tons of his songs when he was doing it in the character of a bigot. Some will say you shouldn't even use such words when pretending to be a nasty piece of work but sometimes freedom of expression in art calls for it. Heck, Randy even did a whole song where a guy puts down little people and everyone assumed it was his own opinion :D
Weird Al parody video using The Beverly Hillbillies is worth viewing.
The Brothers in Arms album was the first album recorded and mixed fully digital.
Early, awesome MTV videos??? You’ve got to do Come Dancing by The Kinks!!! Number one single and GREAT video. Ray at his British vaudevillian best!
all the harmony is performed by Sting. 🕊️❤🎼
I'd love to hear your reaction to Planet Of New Orleans, an album track from their last album On Every Street. The album was not as highly acclaimed as some of their previous work but let's face it, they were never going to top Brothers In Arms. Planet of New Orleans is an amazing sound piece.
I put Brothers in Arms as #6 in my DS album rankings. Their other 5 albums are better overall imo. The title track is the best song on this album. Pick Withers left the band because of this album.
You should do the "Steel Monkey" video from Tull.
Rather than the album version (although the longer intro is sublime) why not check out a live version? There are plenty of great ones including Live Aid and Knebworth '90, but I'd recommend Music For Montserrat with Sting, Eric Clapton and Phil Collins at the Royal Albert Hall with a (non-playing) orchestra and choir clapping and dancing along behind them.
Notice pressing the Heavy button on Rotation.
While the video has Terry Williams, except for the opening drums and the fills, rest of the drumming is by Omar Hakim. For me the best moment visually is the loaded *Heavy Rotation* @5:42 There's a whole bunch of people here on UToob who have done a history on how this video and song all came about.
I was 9 when this came out. I saw this on MTV. I was blown away by the song and the video. I had heard lots of music of the day by that point, but had never heard of Dire Straits. I got my mom to buy me the cassette tape of the album. The thing about the slur in the lyrics: I think most people understood about it being from the perspective of the guys moving refrigerators. But in a sign of how things were, the people who didn’t understand that were also the people who were totally okay using that term in general. Funny enough, though, they’d use that term more often for a guy they assumed was straight. Like do you like the band Journey? “No way, those guys are f**s.” The song’s lyrics mention hair, makeup, earrings. The stage costumes of bands of the time were pretty silly. And the people who didn’t like them would use a gay slur to put them down regardless of who those guys were taking to bed. I think people do that type of thing a lot less nowadays. Which is good. I hope that wasn’t over-explaining the obvious. But not everyone remembers the 80’s.
@@fan123casual8 There were lots of straight guys in music in the 80's that were "total f**s"... 😳🤣🤣😎
Great song, cool band! Next, ya gotta check out “Lady Writer” from their 79 album Communiqué. The guitar work is outstanding! Also, check out “Skateaway” and “Expresso Love” from their Making Movies album. ✌️
Do the Live track,longer,Better!
Hilarious video and song. Have you ever listened to Lunatic Fringe by Red Rider?
There must have been another version for radio because I would have remembered the language, and yes, it was offensive in 1985.
I do enjoy watching this reactioner , but personally, I’d far rather watch the actual Live Aid 1985 version of ‘Money for Nothing’. That brings back memories never stirred up by the animated recording. I’m a crazy Dire Straits & MK Solo fan, but much prefer to get immersed in the best Live performances of anything they do, with few exceptions. I love seeing the musicians playing in the band, especially MK, with all the bonuses of more content & atmosphere created & the audience participation. I tend to give the non Live reactions a miss. I❤MK
You must check out 11 year old Ellen plays bass cover of hysteria by muse .prepare to be amazed
That very sharp and cutting, grinding guitar tone, especially when the riff is first stated at 2:37 - it feels/sounds a bit like a dentist's drill, doesn't it,? (well, not cutting into your own teeth) ;) I've heard that the tone was the result of some assistance from Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top. He and Mark came up with this "chainsaw" sound, midway between thrash metal and Kraftwerk, and they recorded the main guitar part down at Montserrat in the Caribbean, where the first sessions were taking place. When they continued working on the album up in New York, the engineers there tried to replicate the sound but were unable to do it, even though Knopfler did his best to help them. :)
Sounds like ZZ top guitar tone indeed
How about some Kansas? You’re missing one of the greatest progressive bands ever. And American too!
I’ve done a few tracks from Kansas over the last few months. You should join patreon and request some!
Whe-hew!
Random.
What do you mean
It was Sting right
I have to disagree Lee! The 80's was the 💩! I had the time of my life! You had to be there to understand. Everyone listened to the music. It brought everyone of all races creeds and colors together under one music culture. It was a great time that will probably never be seen again.
Offensive? I didn’t hear anything offensive!
Great selection!! Check out the Live Aid version -- ruclips.net/video/JcqhvPNiJzo/видео.html
80’s graphics…….just because you can…doesn’t mean you should. They were so bloody annoying at the time and still are!
The Money For Nothing animations are still brilliant and despite being basic by today's standard have aged really well. Besides all technology has to evolve. You can't just jump straight to present day computer animation.
@@howardgott4946 They weren't considered lame at the time...
@@mr.knowitall6440 well,I can only speak personally,I’ve never liked them,found them to be too distracting and spoiled the videos I just prefer straight live gigs
He was talking about Boy George with the F comment
Don't be daft!! 😅😅 Mark was actually mocking the jealous and homophobic nature of the antagonist in the song by adopting a third-person point of view to show the irony, bigotry, and ignorance of the character.
In fact, in the live versions, he used the words 'queenie' and 'mother-trucker' instead. 😊
@@aleclewis9123 @marlonsummey1983 wasn't referring to Mark, but the character Mark's singing as. I've heard claims that the "Queenie" being referenced is Boy George and others that it was a member of Motley Crue. Ultimately it doesn't really matter. It was back during the "New Romantics" when male popstars were wearing earrings and makeup (and rock bands sported huge perms). A lot of folks, particularly given it was preceded by the punk and disco eras, thought them very feminine in appearance and mocked them for it and of course as in this case of the delivery men Mark overhead that sometimes included the use of homophobic slurs.
@@jjc5407 then why didn't @marlonsummey1983 say so then? 😅 Some of us can't read between the lines, you see. 🤷♂️
@@aleclewis9123 "he" as in the character in the song. Some can see offense when there is none there to take.
@@jjc5407 Like I just said, some of us can't read between the lines, but hey ho, as an autistic person, I'm used to being blanked. 🙂🤷♂️