Look at them (Canadian) Yoyos

[Gob]

Canadian radio stations can resume playing Dire Straits' Money For Nothing after a ban on the song was lifted.

The 1985 hit single was taken off the airwaves in January after a listener in Newfoundland complained about Mark Knopfler's use of the word "faggot".

His lyrics were deemed to be in a breach of a human rights clause in Canada's broadcasting code.

Now the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has overturned the ruling, saying the word was used satirically.

The organisation took into account the origin of the lyrics, which Knopfler wrote after observing a shop worker complaining about the differences between his lifestyle and that of musicians he watched on MTV.


The council ruled that "the story told in this song, developed at some length over more than eight minutes, provides sufficient plot development, story line and context to justify" the lyrics.

"The composer's language appears not to have had an iota of malevolent or insulting intention," it added in its decision.

But the body upheld the section of the previous ruling stating the offensive word was inappropriate for broadcast under normal circumstances.

It added that "alternative versions of the song (without the challenged word) by Dire Straits exist and have existed since 1985, the year in which the song was first released".

Stations now have the option to play the original version or any of the alternative versions.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14750076

Now look at them yo-yo's that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and your chicks for free
Now that ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Lemme tell ya them guys ain't dumb
Maybe get a blister on your little finger
Maybe get a blister on your thumb

We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's

(See the little faggot with the earring and the makeup
Yeah buddy that’s his own hair
That little faggot got his own jet airplane
That little faggot he’s a millionaire)

Gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchen deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
Gotta move these colour TV's

I shoulda learned to play the guitar
I shoulda learned to play them drums
Look at that mama, she got it stickin' in the camera
Man we could have some
And he's up there, what's that? Hawaiian noises?
Bangin' on the bongoes like a chimpanzee
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Get your money for nothin' get your chicks for free

We gotta install microwave ovens
Custom kitchens deliveries
We gotta move these refrigerators
We gotta move these colour TV's

Look a' here
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on your MTV
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and your chicks for free
Money for nothin' and chicks for free

Money for nothin' and your chicks for free

Look at that, look at that

Money for nothin' and your chicks for free
I want my, I want my, I want my MTV
Money for nothin' and chicks for free

(Fade)
I want my, I want my, I want my MTV

[Scooter]

When I first heard this, I thought, idiots, do they not get the context in which the lyric was used? Then I heard that the group itself had taken to changing the word when they sang it live in concert. Why would they change it if they meant it satirically? Is the word on its way to becoming like the n-word, not to be used in any context regardless of intent?

[Sean]

They probably meant it satirically but changed it in live performances when they realised that not everybody would see it that way. Dire Straits were never the most controversial of bands...

[Crackpot]

You obviously haven't been listening to the same band I have.

On top of money for nothing You're telling me you didn't hear the culturally insensitive "Sultans of Swing"

What about the one two punch to both the non-ambulatory and the undead that was "walk of life"

Those guys have been thumbing their noses at decent society for a long time my friend.

[Gob]

[Gob]

Through these fields of destruction
Baptisms of fire
I've witnessed your suffering
As the battles raged higher
And though they hurt me so bad
In the fear and alarm
You did not desert me
My brothers in arms

Bragging up the military! How un-pc is that?