'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: gnu
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 03:22 PM

Smedley... "As for me accusing gnu of being anti-gay, I didn't."

You did. You posted it. I quoted it. You specifically used my name and now you are trying to weasel out of it on a technicality regarding your grammar. Pffft!

I hope I haven't offened any weasels, PETA, the SPCA...

Just don't bother discusiing it anymore. Make your points and leave me out of it. I don't deserve it and I don't need it. If you can't take a joke...

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: PHJim
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 03:53 PM

The ban only applies to stations that are members of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Commission, which is not a government agency. In fact, the CBC, a coast to coast government owned radio station played the song at least two times while reporting the Canadian Broadcast Standards Commission's ban. Canadians can still listen to the song, just not on radio stations that belong to the CBSC.
Just as anyone can still read and buy new copies of the Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn, just not in the edition that has been abridged.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: PHJim
Date: 24 Jan 11 - 04:21 PM

"The only valid censorship of ideas is the right of people not to listen." (Tommy Smothers)

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 14 Jul 19 - 01:49 PM

But I've heard it done live there more than once. What gives?

This just in! (Sept., '11)

Repealed!
"The new decision was based on what CBSC calls “considerable additional information” – such as learning that alternative versions of “Money For Nothing” have existed since 1985, proving “the band and the composer considered that there was a less offensive way of presenting the song to the public long ago” and the context in which the word is used demonstrates that “the composer’s language appears not to have had an iota of malevolent or insulting intention.”

You don't want to sound dumb, don't want to offend
So don't call me a faggot
Not unless you are a friend
Then if you're tall and handsome and strong
You can wear the uniform and I could play along.
[Joe Jackson, Real Men]

Stumbled across this gem searching for "dire straits" nautical folklore. Oh Canada!

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: meself
Date: 14 Jul 19 - 03:53 PM

' proving “the band and the composer considered that there was a less offensive way of presenting the song to the public long ago”'

Now if I were prosecutor and this were a criminal case, I would call that "consciousness of guilt"!

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 14 Jul 19 - 07:53 PM

They (not sure exactly who) threw Burl Ives into prison for 30 days for singing The Foggy Dew. Check it out on Wikipedia. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Starship
Date: 14 Jul 19 - 08:42 PM

' He was jailed in Mona, Utah, for vagrancy and for singing "Foggy Dew", which the authorities decided was a bawdy song. ' Somewhere near 1930.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: meself
Date: 14 Jul 19 - 10:59 PM

... yeah ... except no one was thrown into prison over this one ... or fined ... or - anything, much .......

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Jul 19 - 11:03 PM

Ya learn something new every day.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 15 Jul 19 - 04:32 AM

From a Guardian reader, Raghu Shetty;

Aged 18, I met the world's first spaceman, Yuri Gagarin at Bombay University.

I asked him: "What did you see below from the spacecraft?"

He said: "Nothing much except the clouds of injustice."

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jul 19 - 05:57 AM

"...learning that alternative versions of “Money For Nothing” have existed since 1985,...”

“...and the context in which the word is used demonstrates that “the composer’s language appears not to have had an iota of malevolent or insulting intention.”

Radio Edits "...often come with any necessary censorship done to conform to decency standards imposed by government agencies.”

Translation: “We incorrectly banned the wrong song.” Oopsy.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 15 Jul 19 - 05:59 AM

Oops. That was me.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 15 Jul 19 - 06:37 AM

And here's another volte-face. Announced today; computer pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing will feature on the new design of the Bank of England's £50 note. Can't say that I've ever seen a £50 note!

Bank of England governor Mark Carney said, "As the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, as well as war hero, Alan Turing's contributions were far ranging and path breaking. Turing is a giant on whose shoulders so many now stand."

In 2013, he was given a posthumous royal pardon for his 1952 conviction for gross indecency following which he was chemically castrated. He had been arrested after having an affair with a 19-year-old Manchester man.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 15 Jul 19 - 07:26 AM

If I was gay, I'd have sense to tolerate certain words in art and songs
if I felt sure they were not intended maliciously.
I would certainly make those allowances for creative works written in the less enlightened past,
when such words were more acceptable in normal everyday common use.

If I was a member of any minority - ditto...

Actually I am, and do...

I get more annoyed by self indulgently over-censorious folks who are too hyper-sensitive and quick to take offence.
Particularly when they are not members of the minority they are being offended on behalf of...

My sister was an LGBTQ+ and disabled rights activist.
She was so full of her own self-importance, so fanatical,
she became utterly obnoxious as a human being.
A complete stereotype, more of a liability and harm to her causes than she would ever accept...
As a close member of family, I knew her history of mental health issues
underlying her unforgiving public persona and zealotry...

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: meself
Date: 15 Jul 19 - 12:01 PM

I'm disappointed in Yuri Gagarin, but I suppose he was just saying what he had been told to say.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 17 Jul 19 - 02:01 PM

Of course, Mark - in the lyrics -is simply quoting what an idiot in a shop is saying.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: robomatic
Date: 17 Jul 19 - 03:27 PM

I am all for absolute freedom of expression - until I am offended.

I don't think I saw the origin of this thread, I remember the MTV primitive but funny and endearing animated version of the song not long after it came out.

I remember the word from my youth, tough I didn't hear it often in any of its meanings: the original bit of wood, the allusion to a cigarette, or the pejorative.

What's on my tiny mind is the moving target nature of the offense. An earlier posting mentioned that the radio version of the song does not contain the offending word.

I have in mind that its so easy to offend or allude by simply using good old plain non-offensive words. How about the Rolling Stones' song "Some Girls" which had a line: "Black girls just want to **** all night, honey I don't have that much jam!" On a "Saturday Night Live" Garrett Morris did a number where he asked the Stones where did they find such girls...he wanted to know.

I also have a warm memory of singing "Imagine" in a chorus in a chu)rch all friendly even though the lyric contains "and no religion, too".

And personally I'd like to find a substitute for the term "Indian giver" because it shows up in a lyric I really like, otherwise: Gordon Bok's "Little River" (It is not Gordon Bok's lyric, he set a poem to music and the poem contains the line)

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: robomatic
Date: 17 Jul 19 - 03:32 PM

Oh, and let's not forget Randy Newman's immortal "Short People" or my favorite United Nations Promo: "Political Science".

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 12 Nov 20 - 08:36 AM

Well, if it's in song lyrics, it should not be allowed in a play or movie. Ironically, the character in the song using the word "faggot" is depected as an idiot.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Jeri
Date: 12 Nov 20 - 09:43 AM

Wow.
This is an ancient thread.

This has been a non-issue since 2011.

Some people are way too into the whole "recreational offendedness" trip, but whatever...

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 13 Nov 20 - 02:13 AM

But the guitar sound is wonderful, all those harmonics, the words are irrelevant.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 13 Nov 20 - 06:30 AM

Here is a List of songs banned by the BBC!!

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 13 Nov 20 - 06:32 AM

Interesting that Money for Nothing is not on the list - showing what stupid pc idiots the Canadians are, they should stick to being lumberjacks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Thompson
Date: 13 Nov 20 - 09:33 AM

And me thinking it was "chicks for free" that offended!

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 14 Nov 20 - 11:35 AM

And the Dixie Chicks will always be the Dixie Chicks!!!

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: robomatic
Date: 14 Nov 20 - 04:09 PM

Well, there are some singers who have modified earlier songs or simply left verses out of them.

Randy Newman I don't know if he has modified "Rednecks" or not. And I haven't heard the song "Short People" on the radio in ages, but that doesn't mean much.

Meanwhile, the right wingers including politicians have developed a way to get under Democratic skins for some time now: truncating the name of the Democratic Party to "Democrat Party". I used to notice it every time they did it, but now I'm beginning to ear-adapt to it and I believe it has crept into usage by those who do not mean to offend, just because they've heard it so many times.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 14 Nov 20 - 08:12 PM

I have had it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday-to-Friday plane! (See my previous.)

The album cut runs 8:20+, it has an extended intro and outro and three (3) faggots in the second verse. This is the song the CBSC 'banned.' Problem being it's not licensed for airplay pretty much anywhere on the planet. Pity, the guitar work in the last 1:50 is first rate headphone listening.

The radio edit is trimmed down to an MTV friendly 4:00 and the problematic verse is dropped altogether*. This is also the standard music video cut.

Pants first… then shoes. Everybody involved, from offended consumer to bureaucrat knew the album lyrics and had an opinion about them but, obviously, had never once during the entire process listened to the actual product the record company licensed for radio airplay.

CBSC banned the radio edit for offensive lyrics it did not have. Never mind anybody's opinion of them. There was never anything there to have an 'official' opinion of in the first place.


* Chicks not included.

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: GUEST,Phil d'Conch
Date: 14 Nov 20 - 08:15 PM

The artist's take:

“In a late 1985 interview in Rolling Stone magazine, Knopfler expressed mixed feelings on the controversy:

    "I got an objection from the editor of a gay newspaper in London – he actually said it was below the belt. Apart from the fact that there are stupid gay people as well as stupid other people, it suggests that maybe you can't let it have so many meanings – you have to be direct. In fact, I'm still in two minds as to whether it's a good idea to write songs that aren't in the first person, to take on other characters. The singer in "Money for Nothing" is a real ignoramus, hard hat mentality – somebody who sees everything in financial terms. I mean, this guy has a grudging respect for rock stars. He sees it in terms of, well, that's not working and yet the guy's rich: that's a good scam. He isn't sneering."

    By this he most likely means that the so called "Fa****" knows what he is doing and has a life of luxury, not meaning at all a racial slur. Not withstanding, it might seem controversial, but instead is a tribute to the credit of the LGBTQIA community, especially in rock and roll.” [song wiki]

Subject: RE: 'Money for Nothing' Banned in Canada
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Nov 20 - 12:35 PM

Why should calling the Democratic Party "the Democrat party" be a way to get under the skin of any Democrat? What's the difference, and where's the reason to be offended?