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when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****t"?

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when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****t"?

Old 06-21-15, 08:22 AM
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when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****t"?

I'm 40, but I just don't remember...

when MTV used to play videos, in particular Dire Straits "Money For Nothing" which I clearly recall was on heavy rotation, did they censor out the word "faggot" back then?

and when the band plays that song now, did they change the word to something a little more politically correct?
Old 06-21-15, 08:39 AM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

I seem to recall that they had to change 'faggot' to 'homo'.
Old 06-21-15, 09:45 AM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

This doesn't actually answer the question, but there's a good discussion here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_f...29#Controversy
Old 06-21-15, 10:04 AM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

No, they did not censor it. But back in 1985 people didn't try to hard to be offended about everything.

Nowadays people seem to think they have won a prize if they can find something to be outraged about.
Old 06-21-15, 02:13 PM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

Originally Posted by Eddie W
Nowadays people seem to think they have won a prize if they can find something to be outraged about.
Outrage is the new clickbait.

I don't remember them censoring the word, at least at first. But the whole point of the song is that it's a blue collar schlub whining about how cushy rock stars have it. It wasn't unlike one of Archie Bunker's rants, and was intended to be interpreted as such. Speaking of, can you imagine someone saying "'cos he's a Jew commie ***, Edith!" on broadcast TV today?
Old 06-21-15, 03:07 PM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

MTV didn't, but other nationally-televised shows that showed music videos would cut out the entire verse.

On a similar note, I saw the video for Billy Joel's "Allentown" about a week ago on Vh1Classic. Was the guys' bare-ass (In the shower) always visible to see?
Old 06-21-15, 04:30 PM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

No, they didn't censor it.

I wasn't watching MTV when "Money for Nothing" would have been in heavy rotation, but when they did play it in the late 1980s, it was uncensored. I had never heard that song before, and the lines See that little faggot with the earring and the make-up, that little faggot he's a millionaire definitely stood out.

MTV can be kind of inconsistent on what they will and won't allow. They would play Aerosmith's "Janie's Got a Gun" but then censor the lyrics to the Butthole Surfers "Pepper."

Last edited by Josh-da-man; 06-21-15 at 09:25 PM.
Old 06-21-15, 07:26 PM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

Originally Posted by Eddie W
No, they did not censor it. But back in 1985 people didn't try to hard to be offended about everything.

Nowadays people seem to think they have won a prize if they can find something to be outraged about.
Yeah, this is how I remember it as well.
Old 06-21-15, 11:17 PM
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Originally Posted by Josh-da-man
No, they didn't censor it.

I wasn't watching MTV when "Money for Nothing" would have been in heavy rotation, but when they did play it in the late 1980s, it was uncensored. I had never heard that song before, and the lines See that little faggot with the earring and the make-up, that little faggot he's a millionaire definitely stood out.

MTV can be kind of inconsistent on what they will and won't allow. They would play Aerosmith's "Janie's Got a Gun" but then censor the lyrics to the Butthole Surfers "Pepper."
I remember them banning Vanessa Carlton's "White Houses" for the thematic content of the lyrics, if I've read correctly, while apparently having no quarrel with a number of explicit rap lyrics.
Old 06-22-15, 05:31 AM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

I'm not sure about MTV, but I remember it being censored on the radio, in the form of just skipping the whole verse containing the word.
Old 06-22-15, 05:46 AM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

I do remember hearing those specific lyrics so I had to hear it on either Radio or MTV at the time. I'm pretty sure it was played on MTV simply because it was Cable TV and you could get away with it, where Radio had more regulations from the FCC.

The problem with today's media is that there is so much 24/7 crap out there, that they would make a bigger story about this then it needs to be. Back then you had CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS, no internet, no blogs, no social media, so there wasn't a forum to argue about stuff like this cause there were other pressing problems in the country. Now it would be all of twitter, debated on FOX and MSNBC, plastered on the front of Huffington Post or DrudgeReport. Everyone would take sides, and it would blow up to an issue that isn't worth debating. Caitlyn Jenner is a perfect example of a story that gets way too much coverage in todays media.
Old 06-22-15, 08:45 AM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

Originally Posted by mcnabb
Back then you had CNN, ABC, NBC and CBS, no internet...
This isn't technically true. ARPANET was already up and running, and Usenet was created in 1980. So there were forums online for discussion, although it was limited to mainly academic institutions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Internet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet

So there was an internet, just not many people using it.
Old 06-22-15, 09:25 AM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

They didn't necessarily censor it for the radio, but there was an edit of the song that left out that verse. This was common for a lot of songs for time reasons. I remember the pizza place near my house had a jukebox and I was annoyed to find out the jukebox had the edit.
Old 06-22-15, 09:42 AM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

I googled the lyrics and the first result (from Google Play) omits that verse.
Old 06-22-15, 10:17 AM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

I don't think I've ever heard it censored. That includes MTV and the other video channels (didn't NBC have Friday Night videos or something like that) back in the heyday. I heard the full version on a classic rock station recently. Always fascinates me on what songs don't have the naughty words censored and which have take out even the words now allowed on network TV. Not sure if there is any official rules since it all seems very random.
Old 06-22-15, 12:01 PM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

Originally Posted by dstrauss
They didn't necessarily censor it for the radio, but there was an edit of the song that left out that verse. This was common for a lot of songs for time reasons. I remember the pizza place near my house had a jukebox and I was annoyed to find out the jukebox had the edit.
I was young when the song came out but was familiar enough with it from hearing it on the radio. I don't know if I had never heard the uncensored version before, but the shortened one was the one that was in heavy rotation. When I bought the cd years later I was kind of blown away when I heard that verse.
Old 06-22-15, 12:46 PM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

As others have said - MTV had the full verse.

It wasn't until recent times that the word was taken out, and I don't remember if it was taken out of the radio version.

I have never heard a version that had the whole line taken out. Even one of the music channels on my cable just drops out the word, but has the whole line.
Old 06-22-15, 01:09 PM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

I always thought they were referring to Billy Idol with that line...
Old 06-22-15, 01:32 PM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

Originally Posted by d2cheer
I always thought they were referring to Billy Idol with that line...
Wasn't there an interview or something where Mark admitted it was about Motley Crue?
Old 06-22-15, 01:48 PM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

Originally Posted by CPA-ESQ.
It wasn't until recent times that the word was taken out, and I don't remember if it was taken out of the radio version.

I have never heard a version that had the whole line taken out. Even one of the music channels on my cable just drops out the word, but has the whole line.
OT, but I was on another message board a couple months ago, and someone was complaining about US TV networks censoring dumb stuff, so I pointed out that BBC Radio banned Blondie's "Heart of Glass" due to the last verse's "soon turned out\to be a pain in the ass" line. Debbie Harry recorded a special "BBC version" that changed the line to "soon turned out\to be a heart of glass". You sometimes hear that version in the US on "listen while you work" stations. A few weeks ago - with that message board discussion still fresh in my mind - I heard a local station play a different version: this one replaced the entire last verse by repeating the bridge. I guess this was more "edit for time" than "edit for content", but I've been listening to that song on the radio for 36 years and somehow never heard this version before.
Old 06-22-15, 01:54 PM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

Originally Posted by hdnmickey
Wasn't there an interview or something where Mark admitted it was about Motley Crue?
I'm not sure Knopfler has said one way or another. Nikki Sixx has always said the song was about Mötley Crüe, but that don't make it true. After all, I could claim Lou Reed wrote "Perfect Day" about me.
Old 06-22-15, 02:21 PM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

Since the opening lyrics is a free plug for MTV, kinda be hard for them to censor the song.
Old 06-22-15, 03:19 PM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

Huh, I always thought it was "Clampett".
Old 06-22-15, 03:20 PM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

Are there two versions of Cat Scratch Fever?

"got it from some kitty next door"
"got it from some pussy next door"

I know I've heard it both ways. Maybe the "pussy" version was live?
Old 06-22-15, 04:09 PM
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Re: when MTV played the video for "Money For Nothing" did they censor the word "f****

I didn't have cable then (and still don't!) but pretty sure I saw that video at a friend's house without any censoring- this was during the last couple months of my all-time favorite radio station "The Quake" in San Francisco and they played it quite regularly with no censoring, though they were always more daring than the other stations. The mainstream rock stations played it a lot too though and I never heard them censor it- back then I thought the word just meant "idiot" or something like that. I remember seeing the video on broadcast TV and don't remember if the word was still there or not- I have a VHS tape that was put out of the 1986 MTV Video Music Award winners that includes the video with no censoring (and a clip of Bobcat Goldthwait onstage saying "I beat the shit out of Stevie Ray Vaughn!" also uncensored.)

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