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By LIZ THOMAS
Last updated at 2:17 AM on 14th January 2011
Mark Knopfler's song has been blasted as 'extremely offensive' to gays and lesbians
It may be a classic rock song but 26 years after it was first released Dire Straits hit Money For Nothing has been banned from radio.
The song was ruled too offensive for the airwaves in Canada because it contains the word “faggot” and can now no longer be played in its original form.
Any station that wants to play the song will have to edit it or disguise the word, according to a ruling by the Canadian Broadcasts Standards Council.
The decision came after a listener complained that the broadcast of unedited version of the song – which mentions the word faggot three times – was “extremely offensive” to gay, lesbian and bisexual people.
The songs second verse contains the offensive word three times.
It says: ‘The little “faggot” with the earring and the makeup. Yeah, buddy, that’s his own hair'
‘That little “faggot’s” got his own jet airplane. That little “faggot” he’s a millionaire'.
The entire verse is edited out of some versions of the song, or the word is simply replaced.
The council concluded that 'faggot,' when used to describe a homosexual man, is a word 'that, even if entirely or marginally acceptable in earlier days, is no longer so.'
'The societal values at issue a quarter century later have shifted and the broadcast of the song in 2010 must reflect those values, rather than those of 1985.'
Co-written in 1985 by Mark Knopfler and Sting, Money For Nothing is penned from the perspective of a working class man who spends his time watching music videos and comments on what he sees.
In an interview with Rolling Stone around the time the song was released Knopfler said: ‘I got an objection from the editor of a gay newspaper in London - he actually said it was 'below the belt.'
'Apart from the fact that there are stupid gay people as well as stupid other people, it suggests that maybe you can't let it have so many meanings - you have to be direct.
'In fact, I'm still in two minds as to whether it's a good idea to write songs that aren't in the first person, to take on other characters.
'The singer in 'Money for Nothing' is a real ignoramus, hard hat mentality - somebody who sees everything in financial terms.
'I mean, this guy has a grudging respect for rock stars. He sees it in terms of, well, that's not working and yet the guys rich: that's a good scam.’
The song was a number one hit in the US, reached number four in the UK charts and was the first music video to air on MTV Europe.
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