I'm happy to have played a small part in this music video. I was one of the original software engineers on the Bosch FGS 4000 responsible for the animation editor. I moved to Paris in 1987 from Salt Lake City where the FGS 4000 was invented and continued to work on the animation editor. From time to time I visited London where Ian Pearson and Gavin Blair were working on the animation for Money For Nothing. The blocky extruded characters in Money For Nothing were about the best a modeler could do at the time so I began working on the Hyperspace Modeler that allowed artists with no 3D modeling experience to create freeform organic models. The rest is history 😊
It's takes all those small parts to create the magic. Regardless to what they say about the animation not looking like much today; it's the way I will always remember the video, and the only way I'd want to see it.
I tried learning this on guitar Using Mark's finger picking style instead of a pick Guess what happened ? I got a blister on my finger & a blister on my thumb !
No mention of the badass drum solo at the beginning with the epic keyboards that build up the ultimate crescendo AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SONG. Usually that happens in the middle or near the end. It was genius to put it on the front and then go dead silent for that guitar. Incredible!!
And the ONLY part of Terry Williams’s drumming, that was included on the whole album! The rest of Money for nothing and all the other songs on Brothers in arms , is actually Omar Hakim, completed in 2 days!
I’m just a drummer who has performed for 60 years. Money 4 NUTHIN’ has been one of my ALL TIME tunes to play. I play in 4 bands and 2 of them have it on their Set List. Always a Pleasure. Thanks MARK🥁🎸🥁🎸🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
Wow, "just a drummer " me too since 1987. I play some guitar also. If most people knew what it was like being a drummer that statement would not be thrown around. I just don't like hearing that because We know that a band is only as good as their drummer
Don't disrespect the graphics in the video - they're iconic, they have character, and were made 30 years before the blocky graphics of minecraft were a thing.
@@davidhartley94 I really respect this. They seem to be one of the most common sponsors and I see so many creators ignore or even delete comments talking about betterhelp's bad practices. Class act.
You missed a pretty massive part of the accidental guitar tone. The reason they thought it sounded so great was because they didn't realize there was a wah pedal in the chain that was inadvertently turned on and in a partially cocked position. It gave it a very mid-forward tone much like what Billy Gibbons would sometimes have. Without that, you don't get anywhere near the guitar tone as it was otherwise set up. When they said they couldn't replicate it afterwards, that was why. They hadn't realized for quite some time later that there was a wah pedal turned on. In fact they had already broken down all the equipment and finished recording the whole album before realizing the wah was in the mix of that particular song.
Thanks. I saw a video with Mark mentioning that. But I've never been able to find it again, and *everyone* else told this same story. Finally, they *have* to let me out of my padded cell!
I was helping farmer Bill in southern Illinois loading hay out to pasture for the horses from his pickup truck. This song came on and he scrambled to turned it all the way up. I remember seeing all the dust in the air as the music played against the colorful evening sky, and the horses didn't mind at all. Working hard and listening to the radio, and a song that seemed to merge the spirit of the Midwest and the limelight.
"Mtv is not what it once was..." is an understatement. To have been a part of that generation where Mtv and even Vh1 were actually about music was an exciting time. We used to have music video parties on the weekends. People would tape on VHS, their favorite or popular videos. You could get 8 hrs of videos on tape, then setup multiple VHS players in several rooms. Everything else would be a normal party, but you wouldn't need anyone to DJ.
But as the MTV network execs have famously said, VIEWERS STOPPED WATCHING just after the 80's heyday. They had to pivot to animation (Beavis and Butthead, Liquid Television), reality (Real World, Road Rules) and TRL just to keep the lights on. Other than Yo' MTV Raps and Headbangers Ball, no one was watching. We grew up and moved on, but we love to say that MTV changed. They did because our generation graduated college, got jobs and started families.
I'm from '85 and I think I have clocked waaay more VH1 hours than Mtv's ... I remember in Vh1 watching Hotel California from the eagles and so many great classics.
@@terrygray7465 Except we stopped watching BECAUSE of that crap - they just got upset because they saw typical fluctuations of their ratings as "OHMYGOD! everyone is tuning out!" because they had some consultant tell them that's what was happening. Our whole MTV generation would have never permanently switched it off had they not gone in the shitter with whatever crap they continue with today.
@@basketballjones6782 I've spent my career working in television, largely due to watching MTV as a kid, and I can assure you that no one (in my 30+ years in the game) walks away from a winning formula. It's advertiser driven. If people aren't buying the products in the ads, network revenue goes down. That's what happened. It was also the beginning of the media cooperate merger era as well. They turned to the alternatives out of desperation - some worked, some didn't. If you noticed, TRL worked like gangbusters for years - until THAT audience grew up and left. It's all cyclical. We can argue if it was a chicken/egg thing, but ultimately, it was a money thing.
When this song came out i was actually working at an appliance store as a appliance repairman. One of my jobs was to deliver and install microwave ovens, the above stove type, and deliver TV's when they sold them. Needless to say i loved this song!
" INSTALL " microwave ovens ? I'm an old fart . Used them since they 1st came out . Had many in my time . Never " installed " a single one - just plugged them in . Sorta like ' installing ' a floor- lamp .
@@deanoverlie224 Those are counter top microwaves. The kind i was talking about that we installed are above the range microwaves. They are a combination microwave, vent hood exhaust fan and light. You have to install a mounting bracket into the studs in the back wall, then cut a hole for the vent duct. Also drill holes for the mounting bolts that go through the cabinet above to hold it in place. We also had to tap into the electric and install an electrical outlet that you could plug it into in the cabinet above. Most homeowners didn't want to mess with all that.
Can you imagine being that guy who worked in the appliance store, one day hearing and seeing Money For Nothing while at work, and realizing "Wait a tick, that sounds like something I'd say!"
On one hand, I would be pleased that a pragmatic look at life became a hit record. On the other, Mark Knopfler describing me as a "bonehead" would be f**kin' insulting, and borderline defamation...
@@JohnPreston888I think it’s more of a “typical” look at life than a “pragmatic” one. Dude tosses out a ton of stereotypes during the song which are certainly common even today forty years later, but not always all that true or reasonable.
Dude I thought the same thing. I bet he is fucking really pissed . Since he now sees that the guy that he was bitching too about the banging on the bongles like a chimpanzee. Is now not working on MTV using his sayings. Double fucked
Of note regarding the CGI in Money for Nothing video is that the Bosch FGS-4000 video graphics system used could produce more complex graphics (though obviously still extremely primitive by today's standards) and the boxy style seemed to be a deliberate aesthetic choice. I think that because of its extreme simplicity it's aged incredibly well compared to much other CGI.
The video was done at Rushes, Old Compton St, London, where I worked. The Bosch FGS was still in our storeroom until the mid 1990's until we gave it away to a college.
I came down here to say that the "Primitive" graphics seemed to me to be deliberate, It was staying with the mocking of music videos. You go here first.
The guitar riff, when it comes on the radio......is so precise,and has so much energy, it almost takes the paint off the walls. Its razor sharp and very unique.
When I was 17, one of my friends tried to tell me Money for Nothing's guitar riff is one of the best in Rock history. Now that I'm 44, and my taste in music is no longer limited to only metal, I totally agree with him. This song fu-king rocks. I also happen to love the primitive CGI and have been losing my mind trying to get a similar look from Blender.
I was some kind of audiophile back in the mid eighties when it came out, and I can tell you *every* audio shop or departement had this album on hand to showcase their sound systems. It was one of the very first 'DDD' album, entirely digital. We do know that analog sounds better today, but at the time digital was quite the revolution.
Completely agree. I took my mother's cassette and could not stop playing it when I was a kid. I remember going to my sister room when she was not here so I can use her piano and found the descending notes in "Why Worry?" :)
@@martinportelance138 Interesting. It was in the mid-80s when I heard the state-of-the-art CD played over state-of-the-art equipment by a friend who worked in a stereo store. It made me decide to buy a turntable. I have exceptional hearing (even at 68), and digital just sounded wrong to me. The tech is better now, so the "wrongness" (and I'll be danged if I know how to describe it) is reduced, but I think it'll always be there. Oh, and I still have the turntable I bought -- Sony made great ones. It still works like a champ. And, after years of wishing for it but always having other places to put my money, I finally got _Brothers in Arms_ on vinyl. Lordy, but I love blasting "Money for Nothing" over my husband's 60s-era floor speakers!
@p_e_t_e I'd moved on by the mid 80s from selling hi fi into more lucrative selling, but I fully agree that pumping 'Money for Nothing' through a top qual stereo of the day would sell units. Funny enough my vinyl copy of Brothers in Arms is a Direct to Disc master recording that sounds just as good through my Linn Sondek, Naim amp & Dyna Audio speakers as any cd could dream of
The iconic album cover was another accident. There was a bad storm during the time they were recording that did some damage to the building. After it passed, the sky was spectacular. Knopfler was carrying the National resonator guitar near the swimming pool and held it up to the sky for their photographer, who was snapping the view. The result was so good, they made it the album cover. A few attempts were made to reshoot it better, but nothing worked as well as the first quickly snapped shot. That’s how John Isley told it.
Animations for Money for Nothing done on a system by Quantel Paintbox. The company was based in a fancy Manor House in Kenley. At 17 years old, in 1985 I put on my suit and went into the building and someone shook my hand at the entrance and led me up to a room that had the full Quantel Paintbox system. They showed me all the different effects and latest features and ran a few of the demos they were working on. About an hour went by. "What do you think?" they asked me. "Amazing" "Are you thinking of buying one?.. which company do you work for again?" "eh? I'm here for the gardening job" Oh how they didn't laugh. I was led to the gardener and got the job, probably the best job I ever had, racing around the place on sit on lawnmowers. Not much of a story about Dire Straights though :)
It's always great when someone hears something you already know and has an appreciation for it. It's like watching modern reactions to a song you loved 20 years ago and heard '1 thousand' times. It makes you relive the feelings you had when you first heard it and the song, or story, is fresh again. So good.
My dad bought the first CD player that came to town. It was a Philips portable. With that, he also bought the first CD - Brothers in Arms. That was the first ever CD I've listened to. With headphones. I was blown away.
When I bought my first CD player, there were two brands, Phillips and Sony. I think I paid over $300 for the lower end Sony, while higher end units were near $1000. I think CD player prices have come down a bit.
@@BrianStDenis-pj1tq Philips (single L, yeah) and Sony made it happen and patented it, so yeah. Now, buckle up and hang tight, my American friend, cause here we go: My Philips CD player model was D6800, with a small jack audio out, and 2 (A + B) headphones outs. I've taped A LOT of Cr02s, back then. 1989 is the year, I guess, and Split (I know) Croatia, then Yugoslavia, is the location. We have pre-war YU dinars, then temporary HR dinars, then HR kunas, aand Deutsch Marks as a reference. The D6800 portable was the same price as the standalone low-tier deck unit, I'm guessing about 1000 DM (Deutschmarks), which was about 1 mid-range monthly salary in Croatia. You, Yanks, had higher standard, and cheaper tech always. Now, the fun fact part: in 1985. (I was too young to know or care), Dire Straits appear in my town Split, with 12 semi trucks, and stay here for a month to prepare for their upcommig world tour, and have their first gig here.
@@BrianStDenis-pj1tq Philips (single L, yeah) and Sony made it happen and patented it, so yeah. Now, buckle up and hang tight, my American friend, cause here we go: My Philips CD player model was D6800, with a small jack audio out, and 2 (A + B) headphones outs. I've taped A LOT of Cr02s, back then. 1989 is the year, I guess, and Split (I know) Croatia, then Yugoslavia, is the location. We have pre-war YU dinars, then temporary HR dinars, then HR kunas, aand Deutsch Marks as a reference. The D6800 portable was the same price as the standalone low-tier deck unit, I'm guessing about 1000 DM (Deutschmarks), which was about 1 mid-range monthly salary in Croatia. You, Yanks, had higher standard, and cheaper tech always. Now, the fun fact part: in 1985. (I was too young to know or care), Dire Straits appear in my town Split, with 12 semi trucks, and stay here for a month to prepare for their upcommig world tour, and have their first gig here.
@@BrianStDenis-pj1tq Philips (single L, yeah) and Sony made it happen and patented it, so yeah. Now, buckle up and hang tight, my American friend, cause here we go: My Philips CD player model was D6800, with a small jack audio out, and 2 (A + B) headphones outs. I've taped A LOT of Cr02s, back then. 1989 is the year, I guess, and Split (I know) Croatia, then Yugoslavia, is the location. We have pre-war YU dinars, then temporary HR dinars, then HR kunas, aand Deutsch Marks as a reference. The D6800 portable was the same price as the standalone low-tier deck unit, I'm guessing about 1000 DM (Deutschmarks), which was about 1 mid-range monthly salary in Croatia. You, Yanks, had higher standard, and cheaper tech always. Now, the fun fact part: in 1985. (I was too young to know or care), Dire Straits appear in my town Split, with 12 semi trucks, and stay here for a month to prepare for their upcommig world tour, and have their first gig here.
@@BrianStDenis-pj1tq Philips (single L, yeah) and Sony made it happen and patented it, so yeah. Now, buckle up and hang tight, my American friend, cause here we go: My Philips CD player model was D6800, with a small jack audio out, and 2 (A + B) headphones outs. I've taped A LOT of Cr02s, back then. 1989 is the year, I guess, and Split (I know) Croatia, then Yugoslavia, is the location. We have pre-war YU dinars, then temporary HR dinars, then HR kunas, aand Deutsch Marks as a reference. The D6800 portable was the same price as the standalone low-tier deck unit, I'm guessing about 1000 DM (Deutschmarks), which was about 1 mid-range monthly salary in Croatia. You, Yanks, had higher standard, and cheaper tech always. Now, the fun fact part: in 1985. (I was too young to know or care), Dire Straits appear in my town Split, with 12 semi trucks, and stay here for a month to prepare for their upcommig world tour, and have their first gig here.
I've heard comments from people who hadn't been born yet when this song came out wondering "where they got that unusual animation" or simply, "That's so cute." I guess only those of us who there look at it now and notice how drastically different it is. If you don't know how limited computer animation was back then you would assume that all the options of today were available then and that the style was deliberately chosen.
@57WillysCJ Max Headroom may do a comeback, worst sh!t has. But he was a product of his time & would be difficult to do today with any relevance to today's world
I lived in Montserrat in 2008, I met George Martin and visited what was left of Air studio after the volcano. I was there planning an aquaponic project, Sir George wanted me to convert the swimming pool into a fish pond. I didn't know this song was recorded there, beautiful place, tragic what the volcano did, the studio was basically a shell when I was there. A lot of great music was made there; Synchronicity, Steel Wheels, Too Low for Zero...
The conversion of the pool wasn't the project I was there for, we met at one of the few remaining restaurants, got to talking, and he invited me to tour the studio and talk about converting the pool, which was no longer working due to the ash.
I've visited a few times, I got up as close as the steel fence surrounding Air, but it was sad to see a derelict building where so many great albums were made. Montserrat is a paradise
My parents are from Montserrat and I used to spend summers there. My neighbors older brother worked at air Studios and gave him a bunch of albums that influenced my musical tastes including albums by America and George Harrison amongst others.
I'm 57 so I was there when it came out, I own it and play it often ever since. One of those records that will be great forever, the song though, while a hit, it turned out grossly overplayed through the decades. The best song is by far Your Latest Trick, but didn't get as much attention. Love it anyways and is ranked number 97 in my list of The 120 Best Rock Albums of the XX Century. Cheers!
the guitar sound is from a cocked wah pedal. I never realised " i want my MTV" had the "don't stand so close to me" melody, that's clever. Money for Nothing is a classic for sure.
Brothers in Arms was NOT one of the first CD's released. They'd been out for three years (1985 vs 1982). It *WAS* one of the first (if not the first) CD's to be pure digital - DDD. It was recorded and mixed in pure digital. Most audio CD's at that point were AAD (analog recorded, analog mixed, digital release) with a few being ADD.
All true, plus, the reason why Brothers in arms got so much fuzz on cd, is that it became the first million seller on cd. Manufacturer Phillips regretted immediately that they hadn't patented the cd format as a whole. They never thought the cd would become so successful.
Brothers in Arms was used as part of Philips CD Player campaign with the DDD argument and was often bundled free with the player (I got it with my Philips CD-304). The path from initial idea to the CD took approx 25 years. David Paul Gregg invented the optical storage in the late 50s and James Russell how to put digital signals on optical storage in the 60s so Sony and Philips licensed the patents when they developed the CD format.
@@PeterGrew Don't forget LaserVision, that's what put Philips on the route towards Compact Disc. And the thing about owning half the phonographing industry popably helped too.
2:03 the fact they they had no big hits between their debut with “Sultans” and this says more about audience tastes (or lack thereof) than it does about the quality of their music. “Skateaway,” from that in-between period, is one of my favorite pop rock songs of all time. Great video, too. So Mark couldn’t have been totally against videos.
Big hits were irrelevant. The quality was all over those albums. Who would bother buying singles when the albums were so perfect you had to buy them anyway.
To be specific you mean American audiences because although in the US Brothers In Arms is considered a ‘come back’ album, in the rest of the world it was just their next album. Love Over Gold and Making Movies were huge at the time.
There's one more story about this song (and the whole Brothers in Arms album for that matter), the drummer you hear is not the Dire Straits drummer Terry WIlliams, it's Sting's drummer Omar Hakim. He rerecorded every track from the album on Knopfler's request as he didn't like Terry's takes. But there is one surviving piece of Williams' drumming on the album and it's actually the intro drum fills on Money for Nothing.
Back in the 80s, I created Halloween costumes of the two guys in the MFN video. Spruce framing with colored bristol board, and cloth joints. My girlfriend wore the short guy suit, and I wore the tall guy. We went to a nightclub on Halloween night and won first place in the costume competition...$200, not chump change for a late-teens guy working as a short-order cook at the time. Great memories! EDIT: I added a short clip on my RUclips channel that shows the costumes. First video I've ever added to my YT channel...no audio 😊
As a highly impressionable kid in his senior year in 1985 when Brothers in Arms came out on cassette and the cassette was the very first clear cassette I'd ever seen, I think I burned through four or five of them replaying it over and over again and my mom's 1979 Mustang. Just because of that clear cassette and that awesome guitar riff!
Mark loved the sound of the Eliminator album by ZZ Top from 1983. The distortion on Money For Nothing was influenced by Gimme All Your Lovin’. Unmentioned here is the fact that in the studio the cocked Wah pedal was the crux of the sound.
I had a fella explaining how he tuned his equalizer to this song and it was perfect, so I decided to do the same thing and it was perfection. I’m so glad I grew up during the MTV video rage and there was so many good videos!
Thank you so much for posting this video. Love Dire Straits, and The Police~ Sting, right up there with Jethro Tull, Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, good days, when music was full of body and soul.
My favorite line from the lyrics on this song is: "maybe get a blister on your little finger, maybe get a blister on your thumb" that's pure gold there.
yes, they assumed it was easy street and had no idea of the insane workload, Dire straits did 248 gigs in one year on the brothers in arms tour, unimaginable.
Weird Al Yankovic parodied the song and video in his movie UHF in 1989. The song is called Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies. Mark Knopfler gave him permission, but only if he were allowed to play on it. When you hear it, you'll know it's him.
I heard that Yankovic asked Mark to play it because he couldn't find anyone that could get it right and Mark said yes. By the time that Mark recorded the guitar part for Yankovic's version, Dire Straits had been touring a while and Mark had refined the riff quite a bit. You can hear a difference in the Yankovic version.. still sounds like him, but definitely sounds like he'd played it a million times hah. I first heard the Yankovic version as a kid before hearing the original so I always preferred that version of the riff but I could understand why people would disagree. There's a sweet little vibrato though in the yankovic version that's more pronounced and I always loved
@@swish007 I thick it was the other way round. Mark said he would only give his blessing if he was allowed to play the guitar part himself. I prefer it straight in the original without the wobble
I absolutely loved the music video as a small child and I still do. I wish they still made videos, with chunky computer game style graphics. My brothers and I used to do somersaults and go absolutely mental, every time this came on the telly, every Saturday morning. It did used to freak me out a bit though, it’s so surreal and I had no idea what cgi was. I thought the chunky graphics people were real people and the instruments were magical.
In my top 10 songs of all time. I got the cassette tape in 1985 when I was 10 years old and listened to this album 5000 times.. a massive inspiration for my own music career. The 80s were King.
This was a such a huge hit at the time and the video was cutting edge for sure! I remember seeing it for the first time and everyone was talking about it. Dire Straits were massively huge when MOney for Nothing came out. To this day it has one of the catchiest, coolest guitar licks of all time.
Before this song, DS were already very popular but were a very 'easy listening' kind of band and had never featured anything like that iconic intro riff. I remember hanging out at my dad's house with some friends when we were suppoed to be at school, and another friend came over with this tape and pressed play. The slow build-up of sting's voice and all the instruments slowly getting louder was already unlike anything DS had done before, but then the cut to a beat of silence and then this absolutely ripping distorted guitar left us literally speechless for a few seconds. Possibly the most famous guitar intro of all time. Brothers in Arms was the first CD I ever bought, to go with the new CD player I had persuaded my mum to buy. The rest of the album was *nothing* like 'money for nothing', and not exactly like previous DS albums either. Once I heard the full album I didn't think it would sell well, back in those days it was common to just buy a single if the album only had one song you liked, so the song was #1 for a long time, but to my surprise the album sold like crazy as well.
And one additional story - from the Hungarian point of view - regarding the music video itself: The two additional music videos in the video (at 1::50 and 3::00 in the official music video) were taken in Budapest while Dire Straits were touring in Hungary. The director, Steve Barron - knowing that Knopfler isn't into music videos at all - traveled to Budapest to convince Mark about the concept of the music video. According to reports, Mark was not at all impressed with Barrett traveling so much for him. So here is how it happened that the first ever Hungarian pop band having been shown on MTV (in the later award winning Dire Straits video) was the pop group "Első Emelet" ("First Floor" in English). In the other video (Ian Pearson Band) you see a Hungarian model-actress and yes, the fictional band was named after one of the CGI artists of this masterpiece.
Yes, thank you! These should be mentioned in the video! Ezt vártam, hogy végre megemlítse a beágyazott videót, és az Első Emeletet, de csak nem jött össze neki...
My first jobs after high school (1985) were delivering furniture by day and washing down a fish processing line by night. I played the hell out of this song via cassette & cd. It was a great song and a great time to be alive.
You can add to this story the fact that Mark Knopfler really loved what ZZTOP did with their guitar sound, but Mark didn't know how they did it. So Mark contacted ZZTOP and asked them, but they didn't want to share their secret, and they did not let Mark know how they did it
hehe!! Yeah Billy's guitar tone was off the charts and probably took a ton of experimentation to get that secret sauce, why would he just give that to the competition?
@@poindextertunes The only thing that is cringy is acting entitled: Free handouts are for children, not adults. Gatekeeping would be saying 'You can't have a guitar'. By telling someone to get their own sound rather than lazily copying his, he's absolutely not preventing him from doing anything. Anyway Billy Gibbons is a legend and a blues man pays his dues in road miles, Mark should know this and it's pretty disappointing he would even ask for such a trade secret tbh, hoping the story isn't true.
Your channel is wonderful. I deliver for Amazon & spent much of my day listening to your channel. Your voice is pleasant, you aren’t a bot & I learned things I never knew & musically I know a lot, im old AF. Keep up the great content. I appreciate you 💪🏼🤘🏼
We were the class of 1984 and a very close friend lost his life when this song first hit. We were all piled in a car, headed to his mother’s house when this song came on and I’ll never forget it. RIP Tony. Our 40th HS graduation ceremony is in September and the band better be able to play it or we’re going to spin a CD 😂
I love the pauses in the guitar riff at the beginning.it really demonstrates how important those rests are and how dynamic they can make a song.Mark is super creative and I love it😊
Genuinely entertaining video with a lot of fun facts and not a lot of filler or bs. Good content is getting harder and harder to find. This is good content.
I'm seventy years old and raised in Los Angeles. MTV was novel at the time, but so was the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, at the time ! The place we are Compared to the place we were ! An amazing musical trip from One Track recording to MTV. And now......Great Video !!
Artists getting stupidly rich imitating real life Joes mocking artists getting stupidly rich. That's the way ya do it! Mark told ironic stories that people could relate to. Sultans of Swing is another example. Poking fun at the dive bar music scene while simultaneously paying tribute to the spirit of playing live music just for the love of it. Brilliant.
I love the way he mixed the descriptions. "Brown baggies and their platform soles / they don't give a damn about any trumpet playing band." He wasn't aiming at any one group (brown baggies when I went to college were the frat boys who favored kahki shorts. They wouldn't have been caught dead in platform shoes).
Gen X kid born 1964. Summer of 85 was epic. When CDs first came out we realized that there were a few albums that must be bought on CD: Brothers in Arms, Avalon by Roxy Music and Aja by Steely Dan, and with good reason
Mark Knopfler's a master of turning these quotidian stories into songs: Money for Nothing, Sultans of Swing, and the later song "Basil" are all direct from his experiences.
MFN was the song that turned me on to Dire Straits. Great hook, great rhythm, amusing lyrics, and still not even in their top 5 songs, at least to these old ears. Check out the re-issue of a bunch of their live recordings that just came out. On The Night now has a full 2-disc run time, if you're into that sort of thing. Sting was super busy, or just in a lot of places in 1985. He guest starred with this song, he did a song with Phil Collins on No Jacket Required, and with Arcadia (Duran Duran side project) on So Red The Rose.
I'd really like to know if the 2 sales guys ever found out they were the inspiration for the song. It's quite possible they did. That would be a cool thing to realise. Maybe they'd want a writing credit too!
Maybe "no big hits" in the US, but Romeo and Juliet (no.2) and Private Investigations (no.8) happened in the UK. Mark Knopfler's guitar work is beautiful on both, as per usual.
Glad you're on the mend, Rick. As a pro musician I enjoy all the aspects of your channel, but it was the "what makes this song great" that drew me in. Keep those coming...but love the interviews too.
I was 24 when this single & this record came out… it was huge in Australia, played every party over and over again, and the animation looked so cutting edge and cool in a video
From a fellow Aussie I concur. There were hits that were huge often during the 80s but this one stood out as the 'Greatest'. Others came after, maybe bigger, but none had the impact of THIS song on pop culture. It truly was a world wide hit of the type that cannot be done today
I was 19 and will never forget hearing it for first time on the radio, sting's unique voice then that fkn awesome guitar riff followed by the drums! I can still feel it.
I don't think it is about 2 salesmen selling microwaves and fridges. It is about 2 guys that work for a big store and have to move, deliver & install these appliances.
The childish computer graphics were not a shortcoming. They were the heart of the video. They perfectly represented the new technological order. The simple block shapes emphasized the revolutionary concept of 3D graphics. The bright colors reflected the boldness of popular fashion as well as the RGB computer graphics of the time. I guess you had to be there, but everything was new and exciting; computers, video games, music videos. The digital world had arrived, and we were all aware of living in a cultural inflection point. With modern graphics, this video would have had none of the visual impact that made it so iconic.
nothing 'childish' about it at the time, maybe the presenter said this because he's so young... this was state of the art for computer graphics in 1986.
Brilliant, informative video! No self-important jabbering & personal promotion/ego cruising! What a rarity! Well done, sir! Knopfler DOES do those character songs so well, as you pointed out - ESPECIALLY in his solo career. Thank you for a quality video.
I still have the CD & one my favourite to play in my hifi sound system, the recording was so clear. I do not know the story behind until I watch your video today. Thank you for sharing 🙏🇺🇸
Nobody ever points out that none of these masterful riffs, songs and musicians themselves overanalyzed and obsessed over the music that came before them like this. They weren't just copycats and obsessed with the same old things that had already been done. Same with Hollywood, all the brilliantly original and great films still worshipped to this day were so great and still set the standard because there were actual artists and passionate craftspeople working tirelessly to get original visions through the studio. Now the industry 100% controls everything with software technology and has no need for real artists, just corporate dogbody types who'll do what they're told to do according to "the data"...which obviously will only ever tell us that what will sell best is stuff that's already been done...
I don't know how I, as a musician, never realized that melody was from "Don't Stand So Close To Me" - ok boys, time to pack it up. I have 25 guitars for sale. All must go. Also im ripping my vocal cords out. I'll get me coat.
What a cool video! I loved learning about how this iconic song was recorded. Thank you so much for showing yourself recording the lines. I'm very glad to know that this wasn't just some AI computer generated video, like most are these days. Love it! Great job!
Both sting and knoffler humble boys from north of England...both defining unique talent. They are unassuming and modest, both of them, and how much richer is the world for their vision.
I’m not sure anyone has ever called sting modest. Not that he needs to be. If he wants to be arrogant, he’s earned it. He is a fantastic musician as composer, player, singer, and performer.
"unassuming and modest" to a video in which Knopfler describes the domestic appliance salesman from which he took part of the song's lyric as a "bonehead".
@RebeccaTurner-ny1xx I can only assume that you come from a long line of appliance salesmen, and feel the need to stand up for their much maligned profession. How culturally insensitive of knoffler to use that most egregious term "bonehead" to such a beloved profession. I'm sure the world stands behind you and your cause of keeping the term bonehead from degrading the dignity of all salesmen of any white goods. Keep up the good fight.
@@RebeccaTurner-ny1xxPerhaps it was the words the "salesmen" (they were deliverymen) used that warrants their being called boneheads. Quite charitable of Knopfler, actually. You should look up the original lyrics, which are now heavily edited on the radio and RUclips; the presenter in this video just sidesteps that whole modern controversy entirely.
Mark's work is always literary in one sense or another. I love hearing the story behind the music, and in Knopfler's case it is always interesting and adds character to the recordings.
Ironic how the song mocking MTV lasted longer than MTV itself. MTV maybe technically still a thing but not really, it was extremely popular when it first came out now it's just a low budget reality tv station.
I thought the song and filmclip sucked, but over the years discovered that Knopfler had composed all these fantastic scores, and I realised that I'd dismissed Dire Straits completely out-of-hand before giving them any presence of mind. Fantastic artists. Suggestion: Joan Armatrading
Funny, Shane gillis was just talking about this song during his recent podcast. Talking specifically about the lyrics. A nice the coincidence of life here. Thanks!
Thank you. Years ago I saw a vid with Mark describing the Monserrat/Sting event but was unable to relocate a vid with that being explained. Now I have the vid indicating that it was happenstance that Sting (Gordon) was "in the neighborhood" and worked with Mark on MFN.
Very informative. I'm 76, and have always liked the music of this song. Now with your explanation of how some of the lyrics were formed, it's very cool. Thanks
Just a small, nitpick note: "I want my MTV" wasn't so much the network's slogan. It was their marketing push in the days when MTV was relatively new and not all cable providers had it in their line-up of available channels. The pitch was, basically, "Call your cable operator and tell them 'I WANT MY MTV!'."
Thank you for this great video. Money For Nothing was one of my favorite songs from that year (along with Brothers in Arms) and I was fascinated by the computer processing needed to make the workers.
Very cool to know the back story on this. I worked in the recording biz for a minute, that is how things happen. Right place, right time for all the elements to come together. I would have been the assistant engineer that knocked over the guitar mic, just thankful I did not get fired. :) Thanks for the great content!
![Coheed and Cambria - Searching for Tomorrow [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hDsYGLbmadg/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm happy to have played a small part in this music video. I was one of the original software engineers on the Bosch FGS 4000 responsible for the animation editor. I moved to Paris in 1987 from Salt Lake City where the FGS 4000 was invented and continued to work on the animation editor. From time to time I visited London where Ian Pearson and Gavin Blair were working on the animation for Money For Nothing. The blocky extruded characters in Money For Nothing were about the best a modeler could do at the time so I began working on the Hyperspace Modeler that allowed artists with no 3D modeling experience to create freeform organic models. The rest is history 😊
Just a cog in the machine that keeps us all happy. Good on ya mate
How fantastic!
Love it!
Wow, fantastic, thanks for sharing this! The vid made such an impact on me as a teen!
It's takes all those small parts to create the magic. Regardless to what they say about the animation not looking like much today; it's the way I will always remember the video, and the only way I'd want to see it.
I tried learning this on guitar
Using Mark's finger picking style instead of a pick
Guess what happened ?
I got a blister on my finger & a blister on my thumb !
I don't care that this comment is only 3 days old. It should still have a thousand 'thumbs up/likes' by now.
I am a, or was, a huge Sting fan. I have everything Sting and it was so exciting for me to here him on this awesome song!
@@kingcassius2586Only one thumb.
LOL... Ohhhh you didn't! That's so funny it made my day! Thanks!!!
Yep, when I was learning how to finger pick songs on guitar, I got blisters, but I had already gotten blisters when I learned to play violin. 🎻
The publisher wanting a percentage for a melody, against the author will; for a song titled Money for nothing... Case in point!
She should have done another version with the melody to Have a Cigar.
Incidentally I don't see them claiming over the same tune in Nelly Furtado's Maneater (repeatedly in the choruses!)
that same company made ReBoot and Beast Wars!
Who needs a melody, I concur😅🎉please notify the authorities😅
@@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017UR gonna go FAR
No mention of the badass drum solo at the beginning with the epic keyboards that build up the ultimate crescendo AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SONG. Usually that happens in the middle or near the end. It was genius to put it on the front and then go dead silent for that guitar. Incredible!!
Genius, indeed!
And the ONLY part of Terry Williams’s drumming, that was included on the whole album! The rest of Money for nothing and all the other songs on Brothers in arms , is actually Omar Hakim, completed in 2 days!
@williammorris1384 Yep. I believe you are correct.
lol. Thanks high school band teacher
This was, and is, one of my stereo room tuning songs.
So good.
I’m just a drummer who has performed for 60 years. Money 4 NUTHIN’ has been one of my ALL TIME tunes to play. I play in 4 bands and 2 of them have it on their Set List. Always a Pleasure. Thanks MARK🥁🎸🥁🎸🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
working drummer, too?
@@themadmallard still booking on a regular basis. It’s in the Blood. 🤣🤣🥁🎸
@@danstephensen9032 Respect to the grind. ~~
Playing for the love of music. *tip of the hat
Wow, "just a drummer " me too since 1987. I play some guitar also. If most people knew what it was like being a drummer that statement would not be thrown around. I just don't like hearing that because We know that a band is only as good as their drummer
Don't disrespect the graphics in the video - they're iconic, they have character, and were made 30 years before the blocky graphics of minecraft were a thing.
The cheesy quality of the graphics is perfect. They add a faint sarcastic element that complements the lyrics. Forty years later they still hold up
it was 1 of the few most perfect in continuity of design as it reflects the "factory" mind not the "ceo" mind
This , so much this. I wholeheartedly concur with your comment 👍👍👍👍
EXACTLY!
It's almost 40 years
To anyone who doesn’t know, better help were caught selling their customers data, don’t use them
Among other things
I've removed the ad and cancelled the sponsorship, thanks for the comment.
@@davidhartley94 that’s cool I’m glad you didn’t just ignore it
@@davidhartley94thank you, many creators don’t care.
@@davidhartley94 I really respect this. They seem to be one of the most common sponsors and I see so many creators ignore or even delete comments talking about betterhelp's bad practices. Class act.
You missed a pretty massive part of the accidental guitar tone. The reason they thought it sounded so great was because they didn't realize there was a wah pedal in the chain that was inadvertently turned on and in a partially cocked position. It gave it a very mid-forward tone much like what Billy Gibbons would sometimes have. Without that, you don't get anywhere near the guitar tone as it was otherwise set up.
When they said they couldn't replicate it afterwards, that was why. They hadn't realized for quite some time later that there was a wah pedal turned on. In fact they had already broken down all the equipment and finished recording the whole album before realizing the wah was in the mix of that particular song.
Exactly he’s spouting the same mic placement bullshit, what a clown.
Thanks. I saw a video with Mark mentioning that. But I've never been able to find it again, and *everyone* else told this same story.
Finally, they *have* to let me out of my padded cell!
Thank you for pointing that out! I read that in a guitar magazine sometime around 1995, and you're the first person I've seen bring it up.
Correct. Frank Zappa used that same technique for years.
Nothing accidental about out of phase pickups.
I was helping farmer Bill in southern Illinois loading hay out to pasture for the horses from his pickup truck. This song came on and he scrambled to turned it all the way up. I remember seeing all the dust in the air as the music played against the colorful evening sky, and the horses didn't mind at all. Working hard and listening to the radio, and a song that seemed to merge the spirit of the Midwest and the limelight.
"Mtv is not what it once was..." is an understatement. To have been a part of that generation where Mtv and even Vh1 were actually about music was an exciting time. We used to have music video parties on the weekends. People would tape on VHS, their favorite or popular videos. You could get 8 hrs of videos on tape, then setup multiple VHS players in several rooms. Everything else would be a normal party, but you wouldn't need anyone to DJ.
But as the MTV network execs have famously said, VIEWERS STOPPED WATCHING just after the 80's heyday. They had to pivot to animation (Beavis and Butthead, Liquid Television), reality (Real World, Road Rules) and TRL just to keep the lights on. Other than Yo' MTV Raps and Headbangers Ball, no one was watching. We grew up and moved on, but we love to say that MTV changed. They did because our generation graduated college, got jobs and started families.
I'm from '85 and I think I have clocked waaay more VH1 hours than Mtv's ... I remember in Vh1 watching Hotel California from the eagles and so many great classics.
Ashes to ashes, funk to funky, we know Major Tom's a junkie...
@@terrygray7465 Except we stopped watching BECAUSE of that crap - they just got upset because they saw typical fluctuations of their ratings as "OHMYGOD! everyone is tuning out!" because they had some consultant tell them that's what was happening. Our whole MTV generation would have never permanently switched it off had they not gone in the shitter with whatever crap they continue with today.
@@basketballjones6782 I've spent my career working in television, largely due to watching MTV as a kid, and I can assure you that no one (in my 30+ years in the game) walks away from a winning formula. It's advertiser driven. If people aren't buying the products in the ads, network revenue goes down. That's what happened. It was also the beginning of the media cooperate merger era as well. They turned to the alternatives out of desperation - some worked, some didn't. If you noticed, TRL worked like gangbusters for years - until THAT audience grew up and left. It's all cyclical. We can argue if it was a chicken/egg thing, but ultimately, it was a money thing.
When this song came out i was actually working at an appliance store as a appliance repairman. One of my jobs was to deliver and install microwave ovens, the above stove type, and deliver TV's when they sold them. Needless to say i loved this song!
Similar here, I worked for a rental company, in our stock room, we were always moving refrigerators and color tv's
Word!😄
" INSTALL " microwave ovens ? I'm an old fart . Used them since they 1st came out . Had many in my time . Never " installed " a single one - just plugged them in .
Sorta like ' installing ' a floor- lamp .
@@deanoverlie224 Installed microwave ovens come in custom kitchens.
@@deanoverlie224 Those are counter top microwaves. The kind i was talking about that we installed are above the range microwaves. They are a combination microwave, vent hood exhaust fan and light. You have to install a mounting bracket into the studs in the back wall, then cut a hole for the vent duct. Also drill holes for the mounting bolts that go through the cabinet above to hold it in place. We also had to tap into the electric and install an electrical outlet that you could plug it into in the cabinet above. Most homeowners didn't want to mess with all that.
Can you imagine being that guy who worked in the appliance store, one day hearing and seeing Money For Nothing while at work, and realizing "Wait a tick, that sounds like something I'd say!"
On one hand, I would be pleased that a pragmatic look at life became a hit record. On the other, Mark Knopfler describing me as a "bonehead" would be f**kin' insulting, and borderline defamation...
Yeah, and he's still making little more than minimum wage while the guy with the earing and the makeup is making a million dollars off his words.
@@JohnPreston888I think it’s more of a “typical” look at life than a “pragmatic” one. Dude tosses out a ton of stereotypes during the song which are certainly common even today forty years later, but not always all that true or reasonable.
Dude I thought the same thing. I bet he is fucking really pissed . Since he now sees that the guy that he was bitching too about the banging on the bongles like a chimpanzee. Is now not working on MTV using his sayings. Double fucked
@@JohnPreston888 I can imagine that person going: "Mark Knopfler called me a bonehead... THAT IS SO AWESOME!"
Of note regarding the CGI in Money for Nothing video is that the Bosch FGS-4000 video graphics system used could produce more complex graphics (though obviously still extremely primitive by today's standards) and the boxy style seemed to be a deliberate aesthetic choice.
I think that because of its extreme simplicity it's aged incredibly well compared to much other CGI.
It predicted "Minecraft" graphics LOL.
The video was done at Rushes, Old Compton St, London, where I worked. The Bosch FGS was still in our storeroom until the mid 1990's until we gave it away to a college.
I'm looking at the demo for the FGS-4000 and it's not really noticeably better... haven't found anything else from it yet
I came down here to say that the "Primitive" graphics seemed to me to be deliberate, It was staying with the mocking of music videos. You go here first.
Minecraft Aficionado: This
The guitar riff, when it comes on the radio......is so precise,and has so much energy, it almost takes the paint off the walls. Its razor sharp and very unique.
Couldn’t agree more! Excellent observation! 👍
so true i cant get it out of my head for weeks after hearing it. so so cool.
When I was 17, one of my friends tried to tell me Money for Nothing's guitar riff is one of the best in Rock history. Now that I'm 44, and my taste in music is no longer limited to only metal, I totally agree with him. This song fu-king rocks. I also happen to love the primitive CGI and have been losing my mind trying to get a similar look from Blender.
I think the "Lady Writer" riff is severely underrated.
@@rdrrr
The first little bit of Lady Writer makes me think of a ska version of Sultans of Swing.
The whole album is a masterpiece
It really is.
I was some kind of audiophile back in the mid eighties when it came out, and I can tell you *every* audio shop or departement had this album on hand to showcase their sound systems. It was one of the very first 'DDD' album, entirely digital. We do know that analog sounds better today, but at the time digital was quite the revolution.
It really is. 👍
Completely agree. I took my mother's cassette and could not stop playing it when I was a kid. I remember going to my sister room when she was not here so I can use her piano and found the descending notes in "Why Worry?" :)
@@martinportelance138 Interesting. It was in the mid-80s when I heard the state-of-the-art CD played over state-of-the-art equipment by a friend who worked in a stereo store. It made me decide to buy a turntable. I have exceptional hearing (even at 68), and digital just sounded wrong to me. The tech is better now, so the "wrongness" (and I'll be danged if I know how to describe it) is reduced, but I think it'll always be there. Oh, and I still have the turntable I bought -- Sony made great ones. It still works like a champ. And, after years of wishing for it but always having other places to put my money, I finally got _Brothers in Arms_ on vinyl. Lordy, but I love blasting "Money for Nothing" over my husband's 60s-era floor speakers!
The song was an anthem for people selling HiFi in the 80s. And the thrill of that guitar riff played loud sold a lot of systems. Fond memories.
check farther down in the comments. there's a former hi fi store owner who was not fond of the song! 😀
That and Blue Monday.
@p_e_t_e I'd moved on by the mid 80s from selling hi fi into more lucrative selling, but I fully agree that pumping 'Money for Nothing' through a top qual stereo of the day would sell units. Funny enough my vinyl copy of Brothers in Arms is a Direct to Disc master recording that sounds just as good through my Linn Sondek, Naim amp & Dyna Audio speakers as any cd could dream of
@@frackjagsand New Order too
Money for nothing
The iconic album cover was another accident. There was a bad storm during the time they were recording that did some damage to the building. After it passed, the sky was spectacular. Knopfler was carrying the National resonator guitar near the swimming pool and held it up to the sky for their photographer, who was snapping the view. The result was so good, they made it the album cover. A few attempts were made to reshoot it better, but nothing worked as well as the first quickly snapped shot. That’s how John Isley told it.
That was the Brothers in Arms cover.
@@ylekiote99999 the album with Money for Nothing on it
@@ylekiote99999that’s the very album that Money for Nothing was first on.
AWESOME!!! 😃
I looooove that chrome resonator... so I went out and bought one!! Very, very unique sound!! 👌
Animations for Money for Nothing done on a system by Quantel Paintbox. The company was based in a fancy Manor House in Kenley. At 17 years old, in 1985 I put on my suit and went into the building and someone shook my hand at the entrance and led me up to a room that had the full Quantel Paintbox system. They showed me all the different effects and latest features and ran a few of the demos they were working on. About an hour went by. "What do you think?" they asked me. "Amazing" "Are you thinking of buying one?.. which company do you work for again?"
"eh? I'm here for the gardening job" Oh how they didn't laugh. I was led to the gardener and got the job, probably the best job I ever had, racing around the place on sit on lawnmowers. Not much of a story about Dire Straights though :)
It's always great when someone hears something you already know and has an appreciation for it. It's like watching modern reactions to a song you loved 20 years ago and heard '1 thousand' times. It makes you relive the feelings you had when you first heard it and the song, or story, is fresh again. So good.
My dad bought the first CD player that came to town. It was a Philips portable. With that, he also bought the first CD - Brothers in Arms. That was the first ever CD I've listened to. With headphones. I was blown away.
When I bought my first CD player, there were two brands, Phillips and Sony. I think I paid over $300 for the lower end Sony, while higher end units were near $1000. I think CD player prices have come down a bit.
@@BrianStDenis-pj1tq Philips (single L, yeah) and Sony made it happen and patented it, so yeah. Now, buckle up and hang tight, my American friend, cause here we go:
My Philips CD player model was D6800, with a small jack audio out, and 2 (A + B) headphones outs. I've taped A LOT of Cr02s, back then. 1989 is the year, I guess, and Split (I know) Croatia, then Yugoslavia, is the location. We have pre-war YU dinars, then temporary HR dinars, then HR kunas, aand Deutsch Marks as a reference. The D6800 portable was the same price as the standalone low-tier deck unit, I'm guessing about 1000 DM (Deutschmarks), which was about 1 mid-range monthly salary in Croatia. You, Yanks, had higher standard, and cheaper tech always.
Now, the fun fact part: in 1985. (I was too young to know or care), Dire Straits appear in my town Split, with 12 semi trucks, and stay here for a month to prepare for their upcommig world tour, and have their first gig here.
@@BrianStDenis-pj1tq Philips (single L, yeah) and Sony made it happen and patented it, so yeah. Now, buckle up and hang tight, my American friend, cause here we go:
My Philips CD player model was D6800, with a small jack audio out, and 2 (A + B) headphones outs. I've taped A LOT of Cr02s, back then. 1989 is the year, I guess, and Split (I know) Croatia, then Yugoslavia, is the location. We have pre-war YU dinars, then temporary HR dinars, then HR kunas, aand Deutsch Marks as a reference. The D6800 portable was the same price as the standalone low-tier deck unit, I'm guessing about 1000 DM (Deutschmarks), which was about 1 mid-range monthly salary in Croatia. You, Yanks, had higher standard, and cheaper tech always.
Now, the fun fact part: in 1985. (I was too young to know or care), Dire Straits appear in my town Split, with 12 semi trucks, and stay here for a month to prepare for their upcommig world tour, and have their first gig here.
@@BrianStDenis-pj1tq Philips (single L, yeah) and Sony made it happen and patented it, so yeah. Now, buckle up and hang tight, my American friend, cause here we go:
My Philips CD player model was D6800, with a small jack audio out, and 2 (A + B) headphones outs. I've taped A LOT of Cr02s, back then. 1989 is the year, I guess, and Split (I know) Croatia, then Yugoslavia, is the location. We have pre-war YU dinars, then temporary HR dinars, then HR kunas, aand Deutsch Marks as a reference. The D6800 portable was the same price as the standalone low-tier deck unit, I'm guessing about 1000 DM (Deutschmarks), which was about 1 mid-range monthly salary in Croatia. You, Yanks, had higher standard, and cheaper tech always.
Now, the fun fact part: in 1985. (I was too young to know or care), Dire Straits appear in my town Split, with 12 semi trucks, and stay here for a month to prepare for their upcommig world tour, and have their first gig here.
@@BrianStDenis-pj1tq Philips (single L, yeah) and Sony made it happen and patented it, so yeah. Now, buckle up and hang tight, my American friend, cause here we go:
My Philips CD player model was D6800, with a small jack audio out, and 2 (A + B) headphones outs. I've taped A LOT of Cr02s, back then. 1989 is the year, I guess, and Split (I know) Croatia, then Yugoslavia, is the location. We have pre-war YU dinars, then temporary HR dinars, then HR kunas, aand Deutsch Marks as a reference. The D6800 portable was the same price as the standalone low-tier deck unit, I'm guessing about 1000 DM (Deutschmarks), which was about 1 mid-range monthly salary in Croatia. You, Yanks, had higher standard, and cheaper tech always.
Now, the fun fact part: in 1985. (I was too young to know or care), Dire Straits appear in my town Split, with 12 semi trucks, and stay here for a month to prepare for their upcommig world tour, and have their first gig here.
I've heard comments from people who hadn't been born yet when this song came out wondering "where they got that unusual animation" or simply, "That's so cute." I guess only those of us who there look at it now and notice how drastically different it is. If you don't know how limited computer animation was back then you would assume that all the options of today were available then and that the style was deliberately chosen.
As a 17 year old at the time the animation blew me away. It was really novel and we’d never seen anything like it.
They need to watch some Max Headroom from the same year. Actually I am surprised someone hasn't revised him for modern comentary.
Limited but stylistically effective.
Not only the 3D. The painting of those bright color strokes over the video image were also a novelty.
@57WillysCJ Max Headroom may do a comeback, worst sh!t has. But he was a product of his time & would be difficult to do today with any relevance to today's world
I lived in Montserrat in 2008, I met George Martin and visited what was left of Air studio after the volcano. I was there planning an aquaponic project, Sir George wanted me to convert the swimming pool into a fish pond. I didn't know this song was recorded there, beautiful place, tragic what the volcano did, the studio was basically a shell when I was there. A lot of great music was made there; Synchronicity, Steel Wheels, Too Low for Zero...
The conversion of the pool wasn't the project I was there for, we met at one of the few remaining restaurants, got to talking, and he invited me to tour the studio and talk about converting the pool, which was no longer working due to the ash.
I've visited a few times, I got up as close as the steel fence surrounding Air, but it was sad to see a derelict building where so many great albums were made. Montserrat is a paradise
My parents are from Montserrat and I used to spend summers there. My neighbors older brother worked at air Studios and gave him a bunch of albums that influenced my musical tastes including albums by America and George Harrison amongst others.
For someone who was 28 in ‘86, your analysis was great to hear. These guys are heroes!
I'm 57 so I was there when it came out, I own it and play it often ever since. One of those records that will be great forever, the song though, while a hit, it turned out grossly overplayed through the decades. The best song is by far Your Latest Trick, but didn't get as much attention. Love it anyways and is ranked number 97 in my list of The 120 Best Rock Albums of the XX Century. Cheers!
the guitar sound is from a cocked wah pedal. I never realised " i want my MTV" had the "don't stand so close to me" melody, that's clever. Money for Nothing is a classic for sure.
Yes, everybody should know it comes from a cocked wah, by now. But apparently some people prefer to believe the fairy tale...
Brothers in Arms was NOT one of the first CD's released. They'd been out for three years (1985 vs 1982). It *WAS* one of the first (if not the first) CD's to be pure digital - DDD. It was recorded and mixed in pure digital. Most audio CD's at that point were AAD (analog recorded, analog mixed, digital release) with a few being ADD.
All true, plus, the reason why Brothers in arms got so much fuzz on cd, is that it became the first million seller on cd. Manufacturer Phillips regretted immediately that they hadn't patented the cd format as a whole. They never thought the cd would become so successful.
@@svenlabots1869 The no-patent thing was their idea from the beginning, they wanted as many HiFi manufacturers and music labels to opt-in
Brothers in Arms was used as part of Philips CD Player campaign with the DDD argument and was often bundled free with the player (I got it with my Philips CD-304). The path from initial idea to the CD took approx 25 years. David Paul Gregg invented the optical storage in the late 50s and James Russell how to put digital signals on optical storage in the 60s so Sony and Philips licensed the patents when they developed the CD format.
@@PeterGrew Don't forget LaserVision, that's what put Philips on the route towards Compact Disc.
And the thing about owning half the phonographing industry popably helped too.
It was one of the first rock DVDs that was DDD. There were many classical DVDs out that were digitaly recorded and mastered before Brothers in Arms.
I never caught the melody for Don’t Stand So Close To Me! What, 38, 39 years later? Great video!
I definitely noticed it back when the song was new.
And they still use Stings vocals in the MTV commercials.
I've heard both songs dozens of times, and it never hit me. Then again, I can barely carry a tune in a bucket
I want my.... I want my MTV......
Don't stand so...Don't stand so close to me.....
@@compugasm I actually miss those glory days of MTV. They've been gone a LONG time.
2:03 the fact they they had no big hits between their debut with “Sultans” and this says more about audience tastes (or lack thereof) than it does about the quality of their music. “Skateaway,” from that in-between period, is one of my favorite pop rock songs of all time. Great video, too. So Mark couldn’t have been totally against videos.
Big hits were irrelevant. The quality was all over those albums. Who would bother buying singles when the albums were so perfect you had to buy them anyway.
Skateaway, absolute top shout there butt.
Yes but... Tunnel of Love and Romeo and Juliet were sure hits. I remember well. I also love Skateaway, by the way.
To be specific you mean American audiences because although in the US Brothers In Arms is considered a ‘come back’ album, in the rest of the world it was just their next album. Love Over Gold and Making Movies were huge at the time.
Great tune, love hearing more of the story and love the Sting collaboration!
There's one more story about this song (and the whole Brothers in Arms album for that matter), the drummer you hear is not the Dire Straits drummer Terry WIlliams, it's Sting's drummer Omar Hakim. He rerecorded every track from the album on Knopfler's request as he didn't like Terry's takes. But there is one surviving piece of Williams' drumming on the album and it's actually the intro drum fills on Money for Nothing.
I miss Pick Withers
How did Terry take this?
You know what, that's why it sounds like China Girl by Bowie. Same groove, similar fills.
@@Lozzie74 according to internet he was also not happy with his takes so I guess not so badly
@@gabrieldotterweich7388top drummer, lot of taste
Back in the 80s, I created Halloween costumes of the two guys in the MFN video. Spruce framing with colored bristol board, and cloth joints. My girlfriend wore the short guy suit, and I wore the tall guy.
We went to a nightclub on Halloween night and won first place in the costume competition...$200, not chump change for a late-teens guy working as a short-order cook at the time.
Great memories!
EDIT: I added a short clip on my RUclips channel that shows the costumes. First video I've ever added to my YT channel...no audio 😊
That's very cool, great story. 👍
cool story!
@@malthus101 I'm thinking I'm gonna add a photo to my YT channel with the 'receipts'.
@@malthus101 Short video added to my channel. I hope it works.
Those costumes are awesome!
The computer animation is fantastic wouldn't change it
Exactly. Considering how the majority of animation today looks so generic, The videos animation now makes it look unique.
I was a stoner at that time period. It made us say "Whoa"
OMG! I was a kid when this came out! It was the coolest video for ever! Love the band and this song!!
One of my favourite tracks ever!!! Brilliant... So Brilliant!!!!.. and Sting on it is another great touch!
Great scoping of the greatest hit of the mid 80s. I was a fan of the Police & Sultans of Swing, but Money for Nothing was a mind blower
As a highly impressionable kid in his senior year in 1985 when Brothers in Arms came out on cassette and the cassette was the very first clear cassette I'd ever seen, I think I burned through four or five of them replaying it over and over again and my mom's 1979 Mustang. Just because of that clear cassette and that awesome guitar riff!
Mark loved the sound of the Eliminator album by ZZ Top from 1983. The distortion on Money For Nothing was influenced by Gimme All Your Lovin’.
Unmentioned here is the fact that in the studio the cocked Wah pedal was the crux of the sound.
I had a fella explaining how he tuned his equalizer to this song and it was perfect, so I decided to do the same thing and it was perfection. I’m so glad I grew up during the MTV video rage and there was so many good videos!
Thank you so much for posting this video. Love Dire Straits, and The Police~ Sting, right up there with Jethro Tull, Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, good days, when music was full of body and soul.
My favorite line from the lyrics on this song is: "maybe get a blister on your little finger, maybe get a blister on your thumb" that's pure gold there.
my favorite line has mysteriously come up missing?
I thought he said “tongue”.
And I thought he was singing about a pistol on his thumb, which I thought was a bit strange, but whatever 😊
What about ‘that little faggot is a millionaire…..’
Imagine THAT line being written 2024
Yeah, great line. Out of context, it seems pretty mundane, but it fits the meter perfectly, and perfectly emphasises the contrasts.
Not really about “salesmen”, the song is from the point of view of the installation guys.
'We gotta install microwave ovens'.
Yeah it's pretty clear.
@@BWater-yq3jx I remember when I realized that later in life, too. “That ain’t workin” is such a clever lyric
yes, they assumed it was easy street and had no idea of the insane workload, Dire straits did 248 gigs in one year on the brothers in arms tour, unimaginable.
@@RandomButBeautiful ok that’s literally insane wow
Thank you for that vital correction. Thanks to your efforts, there is one less outrageous inaccuracy on the Internet. Not all heroes wear capes.
Weird Al Yankovic parodied the song and video in his movie UHF in 1989. The song is called Money for Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies. Mark Knopfler gave him permission, but only if he were allowed to play on it. When you hear it, you'll know it's him.
I was going to say, that bit of the story was completely omitted.
I heard that Yankovic asked Mark to play it because he couldn't find anyone that could get it right and Mark said yes. By the time that Mark recorded the guitar part for Yankovic's version, Dire Straits had been touring a while and Mark had refined the riff quite a bit. You can hear a difference in the Yankovic version.. still sounds like him, but definitely sounds like he'd played it a million times hah. I first heard the Yankovic version as a kid before hearing the original so I always preferred that version of the riff but I could understand why people would disagree. There's a sweet little vibrato though in the yankovic version that's more pronounced and I always loved
@@swish007 I thick it was the other way round. Mark said he would only give his blessing if he was allowed to play the guitar part himself. I prefer it straight in the original without the wobble
@@herseemthat’s what I had heard out of Al’s mouth
@@andyto629 ok, you win!
I absolutely loved the music video as a small child and I still do. I wish they still made videos, with chunky computer game style graphics.
My brothers and I used to do somersaults and go absolutely mental, every time this came on the telly, every Saturday morning.
It did used to freak me out a bit though, it’s so surreal and I had no idea what cgi was. I thought the chunky graphics people were real people and the instruments were magical.
Money For Nothing the song and the video are quintessential 80s, absolutely classic 80s in every sense.
100 years in the future, kids will be asking "what's mtv" while they jam out to Money for Nothing
Money won’t exist
@@LilyGazou are the chicks are still free?
@@123mathtutorabc4 i bet my grandchildren don't know.
@@123mathtutorabc4 if you play and sing well enough...
LOL
In my top 10 songs of all time. I got the cassette tape in 1985 when I was 10 years old and listened to this album 5000 times.. a massive inspiration for my own music career. The 80s were King.
1986 was a MONSTER of classic hits!!!
And movies!
all the 80's where full of really fantastic music. Not sure what happened to today's music. but glad I lived through that decade .🤘
@@box1u The 80's was the *WORST* decade for music *BY FAR.*
@@philsurtees Worse than 2010 to the present? No way.
Jan 1, 1986, on that day I shipped out for basic training in New Jersey. I left New Orleans with a Levis blue jean jacket just incase it was cold.
This was a such a huge hit at the time and the video was cutting edge for sure! I remember seeing it for the first time and everyone was talking about it. Dire Straits were massively huge when MOney for Nothing came out. To this day it has one of the catchiest, coolest guitar licks of all time.
Before this song, DS were already very popular but were a very 'easy listening' kind of band and had never featured anything like that iconic intro riff. I remember hanging out at my dad's house with some friends when we were suppoed to be at school, and another friend came over with this tape and pressed play. The slow build-up of sting's voice and all the instruments slowly getting louder was already unlike anything DS had done before, but then the cut to a beat of silence and then this absolutely ripping distorted guitar left us literally speechless for a few seconds. Possibly the most famous guitar intro of all time.
Brothers in Arms was the first CD I ever bought, to go with the new CD player I had persuaded my mum to buy. The rest of the album was *nothing* like 'money for nothing', and not exactly like previous DS albums either. Once I heard the full album I didn't think it would sell well, back in those days it was common to just buy a single if the album only had one song you liked, so the song was #1 for a long time, but to my surprise the album sold like crazy as well.
And one additional story - from the Hungarian point of view - regarding the music video itself: The two additional music videos in the video (at 1::50 and 3::00 in the official music video) were taken in Budapest while Dire Straits were touring in Hungary. The director, Steve Barron - knowing that Knopfler isn't into music videos at all - traveled to Budapest to convince Mark about the concept of the music video. According to reports, Mark was not at all impressed with Barrett traveling so much for him. So here is how it happened that the first ever Hungarian pop band having been shown on MTV (in the later award winning Dire Straits video) was the pop group "Első Emelet" ("First Floor" in English). In the other video (Ian Pearson Band) you see a Hungarian model-actress and yes, the fictional band was named after one of the CGI artists of this masterpiece.
Thanks for your revealing story. And Mark Knopfler as you probably know is part Hungarian (His parents left Hungary for England.)
Yes, thank you! These should be mentioned in the video!
Ezt vártam, hogy végre megemlítse a beágyazott videót, és az Első Emeletet, de csak nem jött össze neki...
My first jobs after high school (1985) were delivering furniture by day and washing down a fish processing line by night. I played the hell out of this song via cassette & cd. It was a great song and a great time to be alive.
You can add to this story the fact that Mark Knopfler really loved what ZZTOP did with their guitar sound, but Mark didn't know how they did it. So Mark contacted ZZTOP and asked them, but they didn't want to share their secret, and they did not let Mark know how they did it
hehe!! Yeah Billy's guitar tone was off the charts and probably took a ton of experimentation to get that secret sauce, why would he just give that to the competition?
Black Face Twin and a TS808
@@jk-76Lol, that's it boys, pack up and go home!
Surely tho there's a lot more to it than that.
@@RandomButBeautifulgatekeeping is so cringy
@@poindextertunes The only thing that is cringy is acting entitled: Free handouts are for children, not adults. Gatekeeping would be saying 'You can't have a guitar'. By telling someone to get their own sound rather than lazily copying his, he's absolutely not preventing him from doing anything. Anyway Billy Gibbons is a legend and a blues man pays his dues in road miles, Mark should know this and it's pretty disappointing he would even ask for such a trade secret tbh, hoping the story isn't true.
Money For Nothing is one of my favourite records. I never realised until now that "I want my MTV" is the same tune as "Don't Stand So Close To Me" !
Sting
@@scotconnolly880 er...yeah
Your channel is wonderful. I deliver for Amazon & spent much of my day listening to your channel. Your voice is pleasant, you aren’t a bot & I learned things I never knew & musically I know a lot, im old AF. Keep up the great content. I appreciate you 💪🏼🤘🏼
We were the class of 1984 and a very close friend lost his life when this song first hit. We were all piled in a car, headed to his mother’s house when this song came on and I’ll never forget it. RIP Tony. Our 40th HS graduation ceremony is in September and the band better be able to play it or we’re going to spin a CD 😂
Sorry to hear that:(
Nice way to mark Tony’s 40th anniversary 👍
I think the vintage animation is very artistic and humorous
A HA!
I love the pauses in the guitar riff at the beginning.it really demonstrates how important those rests are and how dynamic they can make a song.Mark is super creative and I love it😊
Genuinely entertaining video with a lot of fun facts and not a lot of filler or bs.
Good content is getting harder and harder to find. This is good content.
I'm seventy years old and raised in Los Angeles. MTV was novel at the time, but so was the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, at the time ! The place we are Compared to the place we were ! An amazing musical trip from One Track recording to MTV. And now......Great Video !!
Artists getting stupidly rich imitating real life Joes mocking artists getting stupidly rich. That's the way ya do it!
Mark told ironic stories that people could relate to. Sultans of Swing is another example. Poking fun at the dive bar music scene while simultaneously paying tribute to the spirit of playing live music just for the love of it. Brilliant.
*Sultans of Swing. There was more than one sultan and there was nothing possessive.
@Lozzie74 womp womp
Sultans of Swing was my first ever own LP-record. Before that i got Rumours on cassette. Some pretty epic music was made in those years.
I love the way he mixed the descriptions. "Brown baggies and their platform soles / they don't give a damn about any trumpet playing band." He wasn't aiming at any one group (brown baggies when I went to college were the frat boys who favored kahki shorts. They wouldn't have been caught dead in platform shoes).
@@Lozzie74 An apostrophe catastrophe! Have no idea how that got in there. I must have been possessed.
Just as an aside the video was incredible for it's time. The 3d was fantastic for it's time
Gen X kid born 1964. Summer of 85 was epic. When CDs first came out we realized that there were a few albums that must be bought on CD: Brothers in Arms, Avalon by Roxy Music and Aja by Steely Dan, and with good reason
GenX starts in ‘65. You’re a boomer.
@@noserlyJonses aren't boomers
@@noserly let's compromise ....BoomX
Mark Knopfler's a master of turning these quotidian stories into songs: Money for Nothing, Sultans of Swing, and the later song "Basil" are all direct from his experiences.
That Drum Solo ROCKED. What a spectacular song and fantastic story!
MFN was the song that turned me on to Dire Straits. Great hook, great rhythm, amusing lyrics, and still not even in their top 5 songs, at least to these old ears. Check out the re-issue of a bunch of their live recordings that just came out. On The Night now has a full 2-disc run time, if you're into that sort of thing.
Sting was super busy, or just in a lot of places in 1985. He guest starred with this song, he did a song with Phil Collins on No Jacket Required, and with Arcadia (Duran Duran side project) on So Red The Rose.
So Red the Rose, The Promise good one
Sting is one of those guys who owes some measure of his notoriety to being literally everywhere back then. Such a great music scene!
They’re not salesmen! They’re the delivery guys. I mean Jesus, it’s right in the lyrics!
it's blatantly obvious in the video too.
That's the way you do it.
"That ain't workin'!"
I'd really like to know if the 2 sales guys ever found out they were the inspiration for the song. It's quite possible they did. That would be a cool thing to realise. Maybe they'd want a writing credit too!
Maybe "no big hits" in the US, but Romeo and Juliet (no.2) and Private Investigations (no.8) happened in the UK. Mark Knopfler's guitar work is beautiful on both, as per usual.
Glad you're on the mend, Rick. As a pro musician I enjoy all the aspects of your channel, but it was the "what makes this song great" that drew me in. Keep those coming...but love the interviews too.
I was 24 when this single & this record came out… it was huge in Australia, played every party over and over again, and the animation looked so cutting edge and cool in a video
96FM in Perth flogged this song to death... and none of us minded a single bit!! 🙂
From a fellow Aussie I concur. There were hits that were huge often during the 80s but this one stood out as the 'Greatest'. Others came after, maybe bigger, but none had the impact of THIS song on pop culture. It truly was a world wide hit of the type that cannot be done today
I was 19 and will never forget hearing it for first time on the radio, sting's unique voice then that fkn awesome guitar riff followed by the drums! I can still feel it.
My dude picking up that the riff was a banjo style riff is rad
👍👍
Makes you wonder if bluegrass and country music might be tolerable if they ran it through a distortion pedal.
@@EtienneLawnga could be something new. You could try it.
@@EtienneLawnga Makes you wonder if death metal would be tolerable if they ran it through spoons and acoustics.
@@TheLettersJ Bela Fleck & the Flecktones did exactly that about 1991.
8:23 The video still looks awesome.
I never thought of it as a technical issue but a style.
I don't think it is about 2 salesmen selling microwaves and fridges. It is about 2 guys that work for a big store and have to move, deliver & install these appliances.
And they work so they can buy chicks for money
LOOK AT THEM YO YOS
Exactly
The childish computer graphics were not a shortcoming. They were the heart of the video. They perfectly represented the new technological order. The simple block shapes emphasized the revolutionary concept of 3D graphics. The bright colors reflected the boldness of popular fashion as well as the RGB computer graphics of the time. I guess you had to be there, but everything was new and exciting; computers, video games, music videos. The digital world had arrived, and we were all aware of living in a cultural inflection point. With modern graphics, this video would have had none of the visual impact that made it so iconic.
nothing 'childish' about it at the time, maybe the presenter said this because he's so young... this was state of the art for computer graphics in 1986.
@@pixelfrenzy Precisely!
all these decades and i never knew Sting was on the track loooool
Same. How strange.
Huh?!
Dire Straits was such a great band, but everything sting touched in that time turned to gold. Except Dune maybe…
He played a good part in dune,same in quadrophenia and brimstone and treacle 😂
@@paulf2898 Lock, Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels.
I heard better help is a scam.
They also got caught selling data, don’t use them
It is, a major scam
I heard some birds chirping this morning
I heard life’s a scam!
They also endorsed conversion therapy
Brilliant, informative video!
No self-important jabbering & personal promotion/ego cruising!
What a rarity! Well done, sir!
Knopfler DOES do those character songs so well, as you pointed out - ESPECIALLY in his solo career.
Thank you for a quality video.
I still have the CD & one my favourite to play in my hifi sound system, the recording was so clear. I do not know the story behind until I watch your video today. Thank you for sharing 🙏🇺🇸
That was the first year I had cable and MTV. This song was on all the time!
No doubt. That's why it says "heavy rotation" on the microwave in the video
Nobody ever points out that none of these masterful riffs, songs and musicians themselves overanalyzed and obsessed over the music that came before them like this. They weren't just copycats and obsessed with the same old things that had already been done. Same with Hollywood, all the brilliantly original and great films still worshipped to this day were so great and still set the standard because there were actual artists and passionate craftspeople working tirelessly to get original visions through the studio. Now the industry 100% controls everything with software technology and has no need for real artists, just corporate dogbody types who'll do what they're told to do according to "the data"...which obviously will only ever tell us that what will sell best is stuff that's already been done...
This song was in great part- #RIPPEDOFF!!! #Sting and #KNOPFLER are jackasses. More details to anyone who wishes to know...
I don't know how I, as a musician, never realized that melody was from "Don't Stand So Close To Me" - ok boys, time to pack it up. I have 25 guitars for sale. All must go. Also im ripping my vocal cords out. I'll get me coat.
What a cool video! I loved learning about how this iconic song was recorded. Thank you so much for showing yourself recording the lines. I'm very glad to know that this wasn't just some AI computer generated video, like most are these days. Love it! Great job!
This song is iconic and thank you for putting together this commentary. Well done David.
Both sting and knoffler humble boys from north of England...both defining unique talent. They are unassuming and modest, both of them, and how much richer is the world for their vision.
I’m not sure anyone has ever called sting modest. Not that he needs to be. If he wants to be arrogant, he’s earned it. He is a fantastic musician as composer, player, singer, and performer.
"unassuming and modest" to a video in which Knopfler describes the domestic appliance salesman from which he took part of the song's lyric as a "bonehead".
@RebeccaTurner-ny1xx I can only assume that you come from a long line of appliance salesmen, and feel the need to stand up for their much maligned profession. How culturally insensitive of knoffler to use that most egregious term "bonehead" to such a beloved profession. I'm sure the world stands behind you and your cause of keeping the term bonehead from degrading the dignity of all salesmen of any white goods. Keep up the good fight.
@@powerdither7309yeah lets shxt on the common man lmao
@@RebeccaTurner-ny1xxPerhaps it was the words the "salesmen" (they were deliverymen) used that warrants their being called boneheads. Quite charitable of Knopfler, actually. You should look up the original lyrics, which are now heavily edited on the radio and RUclips; the presenter in this video just sidesteps that whole modern controversy entirely.
Is there a "how this song was made" story that doesn't include Sting somehow getting royalties? lol
When I was 10, I air guitared this every day
Eastern Block 1988.
I saw a guy air guitar-ing this riff and I was mesmerized. I'm 52 ad I still have this vivid memory.
Still a great song after all these years. Thanks for trip, David.
Mark's work is always literary in one sense or another. I love hearing the story behind the music, and in Knopfler's case it is always interesting and adds character to the recordings.
Ironic how the song mocking MTV lasted longer than MTV itself. MTV maybe technically still a thing but not really, it was extremely popular when it first came out now it's just a low budget reality tv station.
I thought the song and filmclip sucked, but over the years discovered that Knopfler had composed all these fantastic scores, and I realised that I'd dismissed Dire Straits completely out-of-hand before giving them any presence of mind. Fantastic artists.
Suggestion: Joan Armatrading
He also wrote Private Dancer for Tina Turner which was originally a dire straits song called Love Over Gold.
@@evanwalters63 Thanks
Funny, Shane gillis was just talking about this song during his recent podcast. Talking specifically about the lyrics. A nice the coincidence of life here. Thanks!
Thank you. Years ago I saw a vid with Mark describing the Monserrat/Sting event but was unable to relocate a vid with that being explained. Now I have the vid indicating that it was happenstance that Sting (Gordon) was "in the neighborhood" and worked with Mark on MFN.
Very informative. I'm 76, and have always liked the music of this song. Now with your explanation of how some of the lyrics were formed, it's very cool. Thanks
The song needs an update though about Influencers and RUclipsrs. "Money for nothing and clicks for free"......
👍😆
Nan, I still play music for the women ❤
@@BennieTarrMusic "I want my, I want my, I want my social media...."
This comment needs more thumbs up!
@HangoverTelevision One can agree or not with the content - but that comment in itself was absolutely brilliant.
Sting getting royalties for a song he had next to nothing to do with. I bet he never had such luck again.
😂😂
Wasn't it his label getting royalties?
Ask P Diddy about that...but maybe you are alluding to this...
Same with Englishman, Jamaican, African....in new York lol😂
Money for nothing ... ?
Just a small, nitpick note: "I want my MTV" wasn't so much the network's slogan. It was their marketing push in the days when MTV was relatively new and not all cable providers had it in their line-up of available channels. The pitch was, basically, "Call your cable operator and tell them 'I WANT MY MTV!'."
Thank you for this great video. Money For Nothing was one of my favorite songs from that year (along with Brothers in Arms) and I was fascinated by the computer processing needed to make the workers.
Very cool to know the back story on this. I worked in the recording biz for a minute, that is how things happen. Right place, right time for all the elements to come together. I would have been the assistant engineer that knocked over the guitar mic, just thankful I did not get fired. :)
Thanks for the great content!