Money for Nothing by Dire Straights is one of the band's most popular songs. Part of the reason for that was the 'high tech' graphics. In Dire Straights' defense they were about as high tech as you could find at the time, but it's hard to see it that way these days. The song is from the perspective of a TV, appliance, everything kind of store who is talking about his perspective on life as a rock star.
The main gist of the song is that the main character/singer is jealous of the sweet con that rock stars are running. Think about how this works. The band travels around and puts on a show or two and then moves on. They don't do much but travel and play, but they get tons of money and plenty of women, providing the memorable line "money for nothing and the chicks for free." The song and video are fun even if it does get a little offense from time to time. Also listen closely for the "I love my MTV in the background."
The Parody-Money for Nothing/Beverly Hills
So what better way to put together a parody than to make it a crossover? Weird Al does it quite often and it usually works out pretty well. This one isn't Star Wars. Instead it ties in with the Beverly Hillbillies. It pretty heavily borrow the lyrics from the Beverly Hillbillies' theme song, and the video is almost the same as the Dire Straight's version with the exception of Weird Al watching the TV and the main speakers becoming Jed Clampett. It's just a lot of fun to hear such a great song with those familiar lyrics.
So why does this one rank as high as it does? I love both versions and I love being able to patch either set of lyrics into the music. I don't even care which is playing, I'll just sing the song I want it to be at the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment