Dire Straits, Money For Nothing

Brothers in Arms was one of my favorite albums growing up.  I remember when my dad bought a CD Stereo system in 1989 (a huge awesome piece of audio tech in those days), he bought a boatload of CDs, and this Dire Straits classic was one of them.  It was also right around the time we got cable TV, and of course I was obsessed with the song and video of “Money For Nothing.”  Co-written with Police legend Sting, Mark Knopfler crafted one of the 80s greatest anthems, and delivered Dire Straits first #1 hit in the US.  It features the decade’s sleekest guitar riffs, a heavily processed digital blues line that still blows my mind.  The song is a clever commentary on the excessive 80s consumer culture, vapid 80s pop music, and MTV, the Mount Olympus of cool in that era.  As a bonus, I found an awesome video of present day Knopfler explaining the origins of the song, both the riff, and the lyrics, and how he created the sounds.  It’s completely rad, so enjoy both the original ground breaking video and Knopfler’s precious behind the scenes story on the songs creation.

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