Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Records I Can't Stand: 6

Dire Straits: Money For Nothing (Vertigo, 1985)

Download it, listen to it, then tell me it's not just about the most god-awful song you've ever heard. Still, at least the lads are looking good!

35 comments:

Heidi said...

Yay! I'm with you 100%! It is bad and beyond!

Dire Straits still fills stadiums in Finland.

James Franco said...

I am sorry, I am not with you on this one.
Money for Nothing is one of my favourites.
Not enough songs mention refridgeration for my liking.

Rob said...

I'm with James. You can try to hate this all you like - and I have - but it explains exactly what pop music was like in 1985 and, 22 years later, it is an iconic, utterly memorable choon. However, Dire Straits are the uncoolest band ever (apart from Romeo & Juliet which was also ace). Having said that, I'm listening to the Traveling Wilburys twice a day at the moment - so don't take any notice of me...

Anonymous said...

I had a terrible attack of listening to Dire Straits while i was up the duff, and indeed Eloise nearly ended up being called Juliet after a 3 hour car journey of listening to nothing but knopfler and co... :-o
(money for nothing is possibly my least favourite, though the guitar riff has been borrowed by others to good effect)

May i ask where you stand on Counting Crows "Mr Jones"?

Miles said...

I was quite keen on Romeo & Juliet-era Dire Straits, but I've never liked this, and their oeuvre really hasn't aged well.
I'm sure I read David Hepworth speaking enthusiastically about Money For Nothing recently, and was quite perturbed by that.
But I did really enjoy The Killers' cover of Romeo & Juliet on the telly a few weeks ago. So now I'm thinking the songs were probably fine - it's just Mark Knopfler's voice/performance that make me want to lodge a machette in my forehead.

Rob said...

Counting Crows! Awful! I liked it at the time, but it's so obviously written to be Dylan-esque and weighty it makes me want to cry...

James Franco said...

The Counting Crows' August and Everything after was permanently in my CD player all through university.
Still partial to a listen very occasionally, I think it is on my Ipod somewhere.

Valentine Suicide said...

I'm with you Silvana on Money for Nothing. Dreadful.

On Counting Crows I'm a little conflicted. Not because I like them especially, but because I can hear echoes of them in the Hold Steady album "Boys and Girls in America". Which I can't stop playing.

BLTP said...

It may have been the "thatcher's" cider i was necking or the heady musk of teenager hormones but the first time I heard "Money for Nothing" at party it sounded like the best thing ever. The drum intro and when the guitars kick in brilliant. I even own the picture disc which is probably the ugliest record even made.

Gwen said...

I have to say that I quite like Dire Straits, but I make a habit of liking uncool bands. Example - I bought Chesney Hawkes album. I really have no shame.

Anonymous said...

I'm kind of with you on Dire Straits in general and MFN in particular...but really nothing beats my favorite worst ever record "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles. I had to get hold of a copy so that when I feel that I've achieved too little in life, I put it on and console myself with the fact that that I never gave birth to THAT record.

Rob said...

But! But! Video Killed The Radio Star is a fantastic record!

Valentine Suicide said...

Video Killed the Radio Star IS a fantastic record!!!

James Franco said...

Wasn't that the first ever video played on MTV?

Great record though.

Anonymous said...

Video Killed is good, but not as good as POP MUZIK by M. Utter genius. Robin Scott is inspired. The song is of its time but timeless too, with a fantastic intro and including rapping of sorts. By a white Brit. In 1979. Get it out and play it NOW! Nero

Rob said...

James - you're right...
Nero - you're right too. Pop Muzik is a brilliant record.

Now, what about Fat Larrys's Band, Zoom?

Valentine Suicide said...

I think if I heard Zoom it'd put a big smile on my face. And Stomp by the Brothers Johnson...

Anonymous said...

I used to be in the M Club, complete with MI5-style laminated badge and M logo t shirt. The fan club literature came printed on 1940s-style blotchy typography, complete with blankings for that genuine secret service feel. Check out 'Moderne Man/Satisfy Your Lust' for its fab, stompy beat and disco strings, predating Pet Shop Boys' 'Left to My Own Devices' 12'' mix by years. Yes, I know I sound pseudy, but it is worth a listen. Nero

Rob said...

That is a choon - as is this. S and I are throwing each other round the kitchen to it right now.
And my world would collapse if I didn't hear this at least once a week.

Rob said...

nero - you don't sound pseudy at all! I couldn't agree more... Any decent You Tube links?

Valentine Suicide said...

Wooohoooo DISCO REVIVAL !

Valentine Suicide said...

Better get this on..

dulwichmum said...

It sure is the pits...

Anonymous said...

/www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW_oBrySja0
for a Shonen Knife vibe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr1AlQ2KKsA

for the original

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=64305578

v good too

Anonymous said...

Also, are you partial to Modern Talking? Or is it too guilty a pleasure? Brother Louie, Geronimo's Cadillac, etc. Pass me a can of Breaker and spray me with Kouros! Nero

Rob said...

Hey Nero: Modern Talking mark the point we must part company, I fear... But only because I'm too busy watching this and this.

Anonymous said...

The first is ace, the second is a tad recherche. Black Star Liner might make some good of it. Nero

One final thing. Laptop. Am off to doc now for to see a quack for my suspected e coli/giardia/gastro entritis or summink or nuffink.

Rob said...

Best of British, old boy...

Gwen said...

Our school, it would seem, also had no shame - we sang "Video Killed the Radio Star" in our school choir, but with the words changed so that they were about us at school. Happy Days

David Hepworth said...

Sorry but it's a masterpiece.

Nick said...

Trying to give MFN a fair chance, I just downloaded it. I needn't have. I think it's as horrible now as I did when I first heard it as a schoolboy. Everything about it makes me shudder, from the self-satisfied vocal, to the constant references to consumer products, Sting, to the guitar-heavy mix - he "shoulda learned" to use his guitar's tone controls. It's like everything bad about 80s music condensed into 8 minutes. Horrible, can't stand it.

Rob said...

Hey Nic
I'll take all those things onboard and still really like it. It really could be worse, you know...

Valentine Suicide said...

Sorry mate.
That's an improvement.


(What happened to the disco revival?)

Nick said...

Thing is, Rob, I much prefer the Jazzmen version of Money For Nothing - they seem to have found the perfect vehicle for it.

But Zoom by Fat Larry's Band, that's a different story - I love that!

Valentine Suicide said...

Just for clarity.. Is Mr 'Epworth talking about MFN or VKTRS?