CRTC Reconciders: Money For Nothing Back on the air.

It’s a great day in Canada today, the forces of good and the sensible have prevailed over one single voice that tried to staunch our freedom of expression.

Mark Knophler of Dire Straights (Shaughn Butts, Edmonton Journal)

As I wrote many moons ago the Dire Straits song Money For Nothing was pulled in its unedited form from the Canadian airwaves.  My local station, 92.1 CITI fm, took a hard-line on this fiasco and simply refused to play the song in any form due to the censorship debate.  Afternoon DJ Shadoe Davis summed it up perfectly in my opinion.  “We at CITI fm refuse to alter in any form the artists original intent, so when a song is banned in its original form we simply will not play it.”

I for one am glad that people like music director Frank Andrews and Shadoe Davis have stuck to their guns on this one.
As I gave frequent example in my earlier posts It’s only rock and roll and they don’t like it and Money For Nothing Revisited I went on ad nauseum about the frequent slurs and vocal images portrayed on today’s hit radio that go completely overlooked.  Then for one person to complain about a song released in the freaking 1980’s to have a classic yanked.

Needless to say I was a bit upset, come to grips people. The gay rights movement has made substantial gains since the late 20th century. So why pick on a song that was in no way mocking a gay person.  The satire of the song, should you choose to listen to it is that a dullard is expressing his beliefs on the rock and roll industry.

That’s the point of the piece people!!

So lets all just relax a little and lets see that little jem from the creative minds of Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits again, shall we.

UPDATE

I did some more digging so Mark can tell you himself where the song came from.  It’s a great interview but the Money For nothing part starts around the 8 minute mark.

Money for Nothing Revisited

It seems that the wheels that make the government go round and round here in Canada are getting a good oiling from outraged citizens after the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council decision to effectively ban Money for Nothing.

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms album artwork

The precedent setting ruling stated that due to one complainant, a gay and lesbian rights supporter in Newfoundland, the award-winning 1985 classic rock hit be pulled from the airwaves in its unedited form.

It’s Only Rock and Roll… And They Don’t Like It.

It’s a dark day for music lovers in Canada.  This week the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council announced that a hit from the mid 1980’s has been deemed unfit for broadcast on Canadian radio stations.

Money For Nothing

The classic rock song in question is Money For Nothing, by British rockers Dire Straits.   The ruling states that due to a complaint from a listener of CHOZ-FM in St. Johns, Newfoundland an investigation was launched based on his outrage of hearing the word faggot three times in the twenty-five year old song.

The word faggot has apparently become a lightning rod as the council states in the official ruling that even if the word was at one time acceptable it has evolved and become unacceptable in most circumstances in today’s society.