The story of Money for Nothing is weirder than you thought

You missed a pretty massive part of the accidental guitar tone. The reason they thought it sounded so great was because they didn't realize there was a wah pedal in the chain that was inadvertently turned on and in a partially cocked position. It gave it a very mid-forward tone much like what Billy Gibbons would sometimes have. Without that, you don't get anywhere near the guitar tone as it was otherwise set up. When they said they couldn't replicate it afterwards, that was why. They hadn't realized for quite some time later that there was a wah pedal turned on. In fact they had already broken down all the equipment and finished recording the whole album before realizing the wah was in the mix of that particular song.

Of note regarding the CGI in Money for Nothing video is that the Bosch FGS-4000 video graphics system used could produce more complex graphics (though obviously still extremely primitive by today's standards) and the boxy style seemed to be a deliberate aesthetic choice. I think that because of its extreme simplicity it's aged incredibly well compared to much other CGI.

The whole album is a masterpiece

The iconic album cover was another accident. There was a bad storm during the time they were recording that did some damage to the building. After it passed, the sky was spectacular. Knopfler was carrying the National resonator guitar near the swimming pool and held it up to the sky for their photographer, who was snapping the view. The result was so good, they made it the album cover. A few attempts were made to reshoot it better, but nothing worked as well as the first quickly snapped shot. That’s how John Isley told it.

The song was an anthem for people selling HiFi in the 80s. And the thrill of that guitar riff played loud sold a lot of systems. Fond memories.

When I was little my dad was a truck driver, and one day he heard this tune for the first time on the radio and it so happened he was moving a truckload of refrigerators.

To anyone who doesn’t know, better help were caught selling their customers data, don’t use them

Back in the 80s, I created Halloween costumes of the two guys in the MFN video. Spruce framing with colored bristol board, and cloth joints. My girlfriend wore the short guy suit, and I wore the tall guy. We went to a nightclub on Halloween night and won first place in the costume competition...$200, not chump change for a late-teens guy working as a short-order cook at the time. Great memories! EDIT: I added a short clip on my YouTube channel that shows the costumes. First video I've ever added to my YT channel...no audio 😊

It blew my mind to realise that "I want my MTV" is the same tune as "Don't stand so close to me", I heard both songs a million times without realising it.

I've heard comments from people who hadn't been born yet when this song came out wondering "where they got that unusual animation" or simply, "That's so cute." I guess only those of us who there look at it now and notice how drastically different it is. If you don't know how limited computer animation was back then you would assume that all the options of today were available then and that the style was deliberately chosen.

I lived in Montserrat in 2008, I met George Martin and visited what was left of Air studio after the volcano. I was there planning an aquaponic project, Sir George wanted me to convert the swimming pool into a fish pond. I didn't know this song was recorded there, beautiful place, tragic what the volcano did, the studio was basically a shell when I was there. A lot of great music was made there; Synchronicity, Steel Wheels, Too Low for Zero...

1986 was a MONSTER of classic hits!!!

My favorite line from the lyrics on this song is: "maybe get a blister on your little finger, maybe get a blister on your thumb" that's pure gold there.

When this song came out i was actually working at an appliance store as a appliance repairman. One of my jobs was to deliver and install microwave ovens, the above stove type, and deliver TV's when they sold them. Needless to say i loved this song!

My dad bought the first CD player that came to town. It was a Philips portable. With that, he also bought the first CD - Brothers in Arms. That was the first ever CD I've listened to. With headphones. I was blown away.

Artists getting stupidly rich imitating real life Joes mocking artists getting stupidly rich. That's the way ya do it! Mark told ironic stories that people could relate to. Sultan's of Swing is another example. Poking fun at the dive bar music scene while simultaneously paying tribute to the spirit of playing live music just for the love of it. Brilliant.

Not really about “salesmen”, the song is from the point of view of the installation guys.

There's one more story about this song (and the whole Brothers in Arms album for that matter), the drummer you hear is not the Dire Straits drummer Terry WIlliams, it's Sting's drummer Omar Hakim. He rerecorded every track from the album on Knopfler's request as he didn't like Terry's takes. But there is one surviving piece of Williams' drumming on the album and it's actually the intro drum fills on Money for Nothing.

As a highly impressionable kid in his senior year in 1985 when Brothers in Arms came out on cassette and the cassette was the very first clear cassette I'd ever seen, I think I burned through four or five of them replaying it over and over again and my mom's 1979 Mustang. Just because of that clear cassette and that awesome guitar riff!