We got to install microwave ovens

[Triple-o]

Do you find  the lyrics in “Money for Nothing” a little weird ?  Are  the verses in the song the result of a band  “breasting the waves”  of song writing or responding to a bet they couldn’t use microwave ovens, refrigerators  and MTV in  a song?
 

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction. Mark was in an appliance store and in the vicinity of  a delivery man talking to a store employee. Both were also watching MTV. He started to write down the conversation between the two about the work of installing microwave ovens vs the musician on MTV playing a guitar,  how guitar playing wasn’t really work and how he was making “Money for Nothing ”.

First rule of song writing. Always carry a notepad and pencil, because sometimes all it takes is three words.

[Steve Krenz]

Ha! Great song. 

- Steve 

[Peadar]

Yeah I also love the story behind Sultans of Swing, basically Mark was at a pub in London and saw a couple of terrible jazz musicians giving it their best and having the gall to call themselves “the sultans of swing” which he found hilarious. 
 

https://www.loudersound.com/features/the-story-behind-the-song-dire-straits-sultans-of-swing

 

I guess it’s not very encouraging as a new guitarist though thinking that you might become the next joke of someone more successful than you 😅

[Eracer_Team-DougH]

This song is a “social commentary “

MTV channel and the music video was just getting started 

also in the 70’s microwave ovens were large like Frig’s  not those neat little boxes that sit on you counter now. 
 

Mark and many other musicians would have heard the comments about not working very hard to make music.

Esp compared to a group of people that had to do lifting heavy things every day for whatever minimum wage was back then. When you see musicians making millions. (Look at a Swift person making billions)

parts of this song are now considered socially unacceptable in content 

but “maybe get a blister on your thumb” would directly imply the musician wasn’t working hard

 

another song Take’n Care of Business has  several lines in it

”people see you having fun just  lying in the sun, Tell them that you like it this way

it’s the work we avoid, and we’re all self employed. We love to work at nothing all day”

Yes BTO heard those “you don’t work hard at all” comments, so it ended up in their song.

Yes Mark and the band made “money for nothing and they had chicks for free”

Edited September 22, 2025 by Eracer_Team-DougH

[Steve Krenz]

Another great song!

Here's Randy Bachman talking about the making of "Takin' Care of Business"...