'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Bob Landry
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 08:55 PM

Oh, good God! My sons (then 5 and 12 years old) and I first heard Money for Nothing on the road near Halifax, NS. I cranked up the volume and all three of us grooved to the guitar riffs. I have the song on vinyl, on CD and on my iPod. It's only due to the sheer volume of tunes on my iPod that I didn't hear it this week on a 707km round trip over the ice- and snow-covered roads of central Alberta. As the stepfather of an adult lesbian who I love very dearly, I can only opine that CBSC fucked up on this one. As for the Newfoundlander who complained, I wonder if he'd object to my posting the lyrics to the Newfoundland song, Saltwater Cowboys to the Mudcat. The word "Newfie" is being considered perjorative in some Candian (dead)heads.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: bobad
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 08:57 PM

As previously noted these agencies act on complaints, I would surmise that no one complained 'til now.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: 3refs
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 10:59 PM

bobad
Yer right, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council made the objection to the lyrics. Keep playing the song containing the
offensive "F" and the C.R.T.C. doesn't renew your license or just suspends it.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: EBarnacle
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 11:04 PM

We shall always have bluenoses [usage intentional] with us.

In this case, the word "faggot" is routinely used by gays to and about each other in common speech, without any sense of insult as is common with many of the users of the "n-word."

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Beer
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 11:21 PM

I bet the next thing this particular Newfie will complain about is the word "Newfie". God help us all if this becomes a word that is looked down upon.
When I was there 4 years ago I was warned by the folks I stayed with to be careful not to use the word Newfie in public. i was shocked but thought to myself. Fuck it. I'll use it if I wants to.
Yes B'y.
ad.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: open mike
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 11:57 PM

what is C.R.T.C.? even though it apparently is not the agency which has banned the song, what do the initials stand for?

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Howard Jones
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 08:35 AM

While they're about it, they'd better ban the Canadian national anthem too:

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

Clearly sexist!

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Bob the Postman
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 08:52 AM

CRTC = Canadian Radio and Television Commission. Among other things, it is mandated to allocate frequencies to broadcasters and regulate cable distribution networks. It performs functions similar to the USA's FCC.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 09:55 AM

Howard, there has been some serious discussion about changing that very word in the anthem.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 10:16 AM

I had better give up on my idea to export Mr Brains's Faggots to Canada I suppose, then. Ah well...

BTW - I am not sure about rissoles either. The other day someone asked me for pissholes and chips. When I said it as an 'r' not a 'p' they asked for r-soles and chips. You can't win:-)

DeG

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: JedMarum
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 10:27 AM

ludicrous! the song does NOT have a homophobic message (the reason the correct poklice ban the word). The song shows the absurdity of small minded guys who talk like that.

But the all-powrful, small minded beuarocrat who imposed this ban - apparently isn't capable of understanding the message.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Jeri
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 10:39 AM

Maybe the correct poklice are after the song, but the English language poklice are gonna kick your ass all over the playground!

Live version of song on YouTube.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Jeri
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 10:43 AM

And on that version, he sings "maggot" and "mother".

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 12:48 PM

It's a great song, who cares if it mentions a person who doesn't know what his backside is for??

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: terrier
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 04:19 PM

From: Jeri - PM
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 10:43 AM

And on that version, he sings "maggot" and "mother".
................................

and what's this "Mother trucker" he's singing about, LOL
must dig out my copy of Brothers..

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 04:28 PM

Jed beat me to it - that song is ironic and sarcastic. Whoever filed the complaint is showing their shortcomings as far as understanding what the song is about.

"Money for nothing, chicks for free." That used to bug me, when I first heard it, until someone pointed out the entire song is meant to do that.

SRS

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 04:36 PM

If they can retroactively ban oldies based on recently established moral criteria, what's to keep 'em from banning '50s rock-n-roll classics like "Sweet Little Sixteen" or "Little Queenie" ('She's too cute to be a minute over seventeen') because they depict females under the legal age of eighteen as (shudder!) sexually attractive? Nevermind that, at the time they were written, scarcely anyone over the age of eighteen even listened to rock-n-roll and that they were talking about 16-year-old girls being attractive to 17-year-old boys, not to dirty old men.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: The Vulgar Boatman
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 06:14 PM

Sorry Joe - that might have been me not noticing my cookie had gone missing.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Tim Chesterton
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 07:20 PM

Please note that, contrary to the headline, 'Money for Nothing' has not been banned in Canada. An independent body made up of representatives of Canada's broadcasting community has ruled that its member radio stations may not play the unedited version of the song on the radio. That's not the same as saying the song is banned.

Note: there has already been a rebellion .

Also, for those who were complaining about government, the CBSC is not a government agency; it's radio policing itself.

Personally, for all the reasons given above, I think it's a silly ruling. And it prompted me to get 'Brothers in Arms' out again, which I hadn't for a long time.
.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Mrs Brigand
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 11:01 AM

The Song HAS NOT BEEN BANNED and the CRTC had NOTHING to do with the decision regarding the word faggot. So typical people like you spreading things that are wrong and have so many people to accept lies as being the truth

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,999
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 11:09 AM

Article from The Globe and Mail.

Prepare for the chugga-chugga guitar riff of the Dire Straits 1985 hit Money for Nothing to be lodged in your brain for more time to come as federal regulations seek to continue the debate over the banned song on a national scale.

In a letter to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Commission, federal regulators are asking the commission to rethink its ban of Money For Nothing and the derogatory use of the word "faggot."

In the letter, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said it has since received a number of complaints, "most of which have suggested that the CBSC made an incorrect decision." The CRTC has forwarded approximately 250 letters from the public to the CBSC, and it is recommending that the standards commission take the issue before a national panel.

Ronald Cohen, national chair of the standards commission, said it isn't mandatory that the CBSC follow the request, but "there is no reason that we would not embrace the opportunity to do exactly what they are asking."

The CRTC, however, "has ultimate authority, as they do in all broadcasting and telecom matters," he added.

Although the original ruling banning the song was by the CBSC's Atlantic regional panel, the ban is effective across Canada. So, the CRTC says it should be re-examined from that larger perspective.

As a staple of classic-rock radio for 2½ decades, some stations, such as Q104 Halifax, have flouted the decision altogether and have continued to play the song.

"I think audiences in general have felt that this impinges on their right to free speech," said J.C. Douglas, program director at Q104, which even played the song eight times in a row from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. a week ago.

Mr. Douglas has called the offending word "ugly, destructive and hurtful," but he also feels that given the context of this song, the ban merely trivializes gay-rights issues. He has received around 1,000 e-mails, mostly supporting the station's position.


The CBSC announced the ban on Jan. 12 in response to a complaint in Newfoundland last February about radio station OZ FM broadcasting the song, specifically its original version from the band's career-defining album Brothers In Arms. Some other versions have had the lines with the word "faggot" altered or edited out, in part to cut down the song's original length of more than eight minutes. Sometimes band frontman Mark Knopfler has substituted a different word, such as a "queenie." The CBSC ruled that stations can play an edited version without the offending word.

With backup vocals by Sting, the lyrics are meant to be from the perspective of a not-too-bright delivery man, who watches rich rock stars on MTV and disparages their seeming ability to have everything in life. Over the years, the song has also been criticized for apparent racism ("bangin' on the bongos like a chimpanzee") and sexism ("get you money for nothin' and your chicks for free").

Supporters e-mailing radio stations like Q104 "felt like we were sticking up for the common man – which is more credit than we deserve, because we were really taking to task a niggling point in the CBSC's decision," Mr. Douglas said.

"It was what the decision was hinged on: Whether or not contextual consideration should be extended to a songwriter in the same fashion they would be to a screenwriter or documentary producer. That's what it came down to for us, that songs should be considered for context the same as any longer-form artwork is," he said.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Cool Beans
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 12:39 PM

Three things I learned from reading Mudcat today that I didn't know yesterday:
1. There's an album version of "Money for Nothing."
2. Dire Straits is from Scotland.
3. They've got gay people in Newfoundland.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Smedley
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 12:59 PM

Just to correct a couple of errors around here:

Dire Straits are NOT Scottish - so the Canadian newspaper got that wrong. Mark Knopfler is from the NE of England.

The rich pop singer attacked by the 'narrator' in the lyrics was Boy George.

And a couple of observations:

Just once, in a Mudcat discussion which mentions homosexuality, can we not have the extraordinarily lame and predictable anti-gay ''''quips'''' from a small minority of posters ? There are of us faggots (oh irony) out here reading the site, and enjoy doing so despite its overwhelming heteronormativity (look it up!)

And it's very scary that so many here seem to rate this bland dreary song so highly! I do like some DS songs, but by the time of MFN they were dull corporate FM-radio soft-rock.

I wouldn't ban the song, if you're wondering, but I'd rather never hear it again on the grounds of personal taste!

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: gnu
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 01:19 PM

"I will just say this: the (council) is a private body that works with broadcasters, makes its own decisions," Harper said.

It's private? Then how can it impose a ban?

Smedley... "... can we not have the extraordinarily lame and predictable anti-gay ''''quips'''' from a small minority of posters ?"

No. We can not not. Humour is not censored here unless it is personal. Now, if you wanna have a discussion about poor taste, fine, but it will never end. I really don't think my quip was "anti-gay". Poor taste, childish, etc, perhaps.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 01:20 PM

"Mark Knopfler is from the NE of England."

Sometimes both sides of a discussion can be kind of right. The Knopflers were born in Glasgow and Mark lived there for the first 7 years of his life. So while I presume he regards himself as a Geordie he was originally from Scotland.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: gnu
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 01:42 PM

I don't care where he is from. His chops and licks are superb. Many DS tunes are amazingly crafted with intricate music and lyrics. MFN is one as it spoke to a generation, nay, generations, in a new media form... that time was an explosion of creative genius and DS was up there with the best... them guys ain't dumb.

BTW, while we are at it, Tommy Makem originally sang, "...she's the devil, she's black..." Now, we all know TM was NOT referring to ethnicity but he changed the word to "cracked". So glad the mentally challenged police didn't get after him for "cracked". Hey, what would have been next?

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 03:25 PM

Banned only on the air waves.
I will sing a chorus of "I Don't Care."

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Smedley
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 05:10 PM

Gnu, be as anti-gay as you feel you need to be, but why not break a habit and do so with just a glimmer of originality ? The least I can ask is not to be insulted in ways I've heard for the past forty years.

As for humour not being censored here, I look forward to seeing how long the next racist joke lasts.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Raptor
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 05:29 PM

I'm a huge fan of Mark Knopfler and dire straits and I'm pretty sure Mark himself is Gay. Not that I give a shit he's onne of the greatest of all time.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 05:33 PM

Two old men sitting on a park bench.

The Jewish man turns to the Chinese man and says, "I've decided to forgive your people for Pearl Harbor."

"What are you talking about? The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor - I'm Chinese, not Japanese!"

"Chinese, Japanese - what's the difference?"

The Chinese man thinks about this for a while, then says, "I've decided to forgive your people for sinking the Titanic."

"What are you talking about? The Titanic was sunk by an iceberg!"

"Iceberg, Goldberg - what's the difference?"

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 05:45 PM

Famous old pre- punchlines:
And you, my friend, are pissing on my feet.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 07:07 PM

"be as anti-gay as you feel you need to be, but why not break a habit and do so with just a glimmer of originality ?"

Smedley, it's not easy to come up with an original way of being anti-gay or making jokes and quips about gayness, etc, because all the available and possible ground has already been well and fully covered by the last few thousand years of our western civilization. I fear that you shall remain insulted in the same old familiar ways as long as the rivers flow and the grass grows, to use the old Native American analogy.   

I was a skinny, pacifistic kid with thick glasses...and I got insulted in all the old familiar ways too. Not a glimmer of originality! We all have crosses to bear. ;-)

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 07:38 PM

"The rich pop singer attacked by the 'narrator' in the lyrics was Boy George."

Would the narrator be jealous of Boy George not only getting money for nothing but also getting his "chicks for free"? IMHO that doesn't sound likely

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 08:03 PM

Ah, but how can you be sure?

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: gnu
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 09:28 PM

Smedley... "Gnu, be as anti-gay as you feel you need to be, but why not break a habit and do so with just a glimmer of originality ?"

I don't care in the least if you or anyone else is gay. I DO, however, care if you are a gentleperson and have a sense of humour. Your post is unblievably ridiculous. How dare you! I am beside myself. Your intolerance really bothers me.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Jan 11 - 09:33 PM

The intolerant take refuge in excessive political correctness.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Smedley
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 04:38 AM

Little Hawk, you're quite right, but I'm an optimist. I keep hoping there's at least one straight person out there somewhere who can transmute their prejudices into something fresh.......

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Callie
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 05:43 AM

He is singing IN CHARACTER. He's showing up how ridiculous the character is.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Raptor
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 09:16 AM

How dare you accuse gnu of being anti-gay I read nothing in his posts that hint that here or in any other threads. Be gay all you want but stop being a victim as Little Hawk points out everyone gets picked on but that doesn't mean everyone is picking on you. They are picking on Mark Knopfler for pointing out the ignorance of gay hate.Its all misunderstood.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Tootler
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 11:35 AM

Go into a pub in a working class district in any major city in the UK (and, I bet in Canada and elsewhere) and you will encounter the type of attitude that Mark Knopfler is parodying in Money for Nothing. Not just in pubs, either. My daughter was complaining about someone expressing such attitudes - and worse - in a very loud voice on the bus to work one day last week.

If the CBSC had listened to the song properly instead of reacting in a knee jerk manner to the presence of a single word, perhaps they might have taken a more robust line. Then again, in our present PC world, perhaps not.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Stringsinger
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 01:27 PM

Apparently the term comes from Oxford where the lower classmen were required to fetch "fags" (cigarettes) for the seniors. The fetchers became "fags".

The best thing it to do is "fag-gid-a-boud-id!"

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Stower
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 04:14 PM

The song is quite obviously written deliberately from the point of view of a pinhead.

That it has been banned reminds me of the reaction to a song by the late great Jake Thackray, 'One Of Them', in which he uses several offensive words relating to groups of people. On one occasion at a performance several audience members walked out shouting - they just didn't get that the lyrics were deliberately written from the viewpoint of a smallminded moron to illustrate just how smallminded morons can be.

I expect a song by Randy Newman - another master of 'character songwriting' - 'Sail Away' will be banned next. If it hasn't been already.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: sandinmyears
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 04:49 PM

The meaning of the word makes the difference. Not just the word itself. I remember watching a show with Betty White showing her pet dogs. This was around 1970 and she referred to one of them as a bitch. At that time, the "B" word couldn't be broadcast in the US but it went by because of its meaning.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,999
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 04:55 PM

For those who know, the song was sung with Elton John. He didn`t mind. He`s the `little faggot who`s a millionare`.

He don`t mind. Why do any of you.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Smedley
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 05:02 PM

It was sung with Sting, not Elton. Get your facts right/

As for me accusing gnu of being anti-gay, I didn't. I complained about a small number of posts/posters, not naming names. He stepped up! For what it's worth, his lame jokes were by no means as bad as a few others, which were specifically aimed at gay people and were not about the song.

I'm not a victim, by the way, I merely reserve the right to express my perceptions, just like everyone else.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Raptor
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 05:19 PM

Fair enough please accept my apoligy, Bad spelling and all.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Allan Conn
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 05:41 PM

"The song is quite obviously written deliberately from the point of view of a pinhead."

http://victorian.fortunecity.com/stanmer/288/intervw/interv.htm

Quite so in this link he explains in an interview that it is based on a guy he overheard ranting in a hardware store.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Smedley
Date: 23 Jan 11 - 05:43 PM

Apology accepted, however spelled.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Reality
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 11:37 AM

This "ban" hasn't stopped any radio stations from playing the song anyway...

So, what's the big deal?

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 12:52 PM

Savoury Ducks


100