# What does "money for nothing and kicks for free" mean? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2013, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-money-for-nothing-and-kicks-for-free-mean/671455 "2013-10-17T02:33:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2018, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-money-for-nothing-and-kicks-for-free-mean/671455/61 "2018-08-10T20:38:42Z")
> [@MichaelTomWest](#): > > What does money bring us beyond the obvious of being able to buy food, shelter and ‘basics’?And even for that it “ain’t working”. It just brings us uniformity of colour TVs and free chicks of nature of buy one get one free. We’ve got to move away from the rat race of consumerdom. . . A version of the song , incidentally, that I just listened to, unless I heard wrong , substituted the refrain I want one for “how long now? “ …The song also says: ‘well, ofcourse you could escape from this stupid being a cog in a machine working by becoming the millionaire propelling it, but even here, you’re gonna find yourself in another straight jacket of being envied rather than envying. Concluding then, the song says the capitalist system or the state capitalist system if you’re in China, “ain’t working”, is bringing us nothing worth having except envy and endless wars. ‘That ain’t workin’ is more a reference to the fact that Motley Crue was able to make millions of dollars (and get endless groupies) without doing actual work. They’d play music 2 hours a day, 4 days a week on tour and make a ton of money. I believe the backstory of the song is that a musician in dire straits saw some appliance movers at a store watching a Motley Crue video and he listened to their conversation about how easy guys in bands like Motley Crue had it. When I read Motley Crue’s biography, I found out that 3 of the 4 main members were chronically suicidal (Mick, Vince and Nikki were all pretty depressed suicidal people). Only Tommy wasn’t always trying to kill himself (but he sank pretty close to suicide when he ended up in jail). So even with all that money and all the groupies they were still pretty miserable people. ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2018, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-money-for-nothing-and-kicks-for-free-mean/671455/62 "2018-08-10T21:29:37Z")
> [@MichaelTomWest](#): > > …you’re gonna find yourself in another straight jacket of being envied rather than envying… **Strait** jacket. Like…umm…pertinently enough, the name of the band. Though many words like “faggot” are pointed to as markers of the backwards attitudes of the people who lived way back in the 80’s, they were often used (in the case of Money For Nothing, clearly) to parody those backwards attitudes, or in a progressive effort to banalise them. The snap judgments projecting bacwards attitudes onto people who used those words, no matter the context, came much later. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2018, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-money-for-nothing-and-kicks-for-free-mean/671455/63 "2018-08-10T23:47:19Z")
> [@si\_blakely](#): > > . . . The whole verse is excised from later releases of the song on collections. . . . Really? Pity. > [@aldiboronti](#): > > So _kicks for free_ is a mondegreen and the real lyric is _chicks for free_? Ignorance fought. I’d guess it’s more likely a euphemism that a mondegreen. I could hear “chicks” pretty clearly. Once I noticed that it was a zombie, I had to check to see if I’d said this: > [@Yllaria](#): > > The shift reminds me of my son, when the song came out, being embarrassed to say “chicks” in front of his mom. He shifted to “checks” and blushed a little. He’d have been around six. And I had. Decades later, that’s what I think of when I hear this song. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2018, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-money-for-nothing-and-kicks-for-free-mean/671455/64 "2018-08-11T14:32:40Z")
> [@Arkcon](#): > > I hope you’re able to remember the dialog, and can let us have it. Was it something like: > > “Those girls are ugly.” > > “They’re not ugly, and they’re men.” > > “Nuh-uh” > > “Uh-huh” > > “Mommmm…Rick is making fun of me again.” > > Oh and yes, I know its a zombie thread, but **Mister Rik:** has posted recently. Nope, afraid I can’t recall it verbatim, it was 35 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-money-for-nothing-and-kicks-for-free-mean/671455/65 "2018-08-14T05:00:47Z")
I’ve always imagined that Knopfler’s appliance store was Crazy Eddie’s. “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 guy’s rich: that’s a good scam. He isn’t sneering.” Crazy Eddie’s was a stereo/TV/appliance store in the New York area: according to their TV and radio ads, “[Our prices are insane](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rer9W58-qQQ).” Their prices were so low, that they drove other retailers out of business, for example [Tech HiFi](https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/27/business/27ruby.html). Bring an ad into their store and they would beat the price. How did they provide such low-low prices? [Fraud](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Eddie). First they faked their books to avoid paying sales taxes. Then they cleaned up their books for 3 years, floated an IPO, and ripped off their stock market investors. Then they went to jail. Sordid tale here: [Crazy Eddie Fraud](https://whitecollarfraud.com/crazy-eddie/crazy-eddie-fraud/) Anyway, they chose their workers carefully. They had a certain attitude, not an altogether unpleasant one. One of them told me there was a better ad I could bring in if I wanted to: try the Village Voice he said. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-money-for-nothing-and-kicks-for-free-mean/671455/66 "2018-08-14T06:24:23Z")
> [@MichaelTomWest](#): > > What does money bring us beyond the obvious of being able to buy food, shelter and ‘basics’?And even for that it “ain’t working”. It just brings us uniformity of colour TVs and free chicks of nature of buy one get one free. We’ve got to move away from the rat race of consumerdom. . . A version of the song , incidentally, that I just listened to, unless I heard wrong , substituted the refrain I want one for “how long now? “ …The song also says: ‘well, ofcourse you could escape from this stupid being a cog in a machine working by becoming the millionaire propelling it, but even here, you’re gonna find yourself in another straight jacket of being envied rather than envying. Concluding then, the song says the capitalist system or the state capitalist system if you’re in China, “ain’t working”, is bringing us nothing worth having except envy and endless wars. Cool! Now do “Walk Of Life”. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-money-for-nothing-and-kicks-for-free-mean/671455/67 "2018-08-14T07:31:19Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > That’s what I’ve heard also. As engineer\_comp\_geek posted, the song was inspired by what a blue collar guy was saying about some music videos in a store. And supposedly a Prince video came on and prompted the comments about “that little faggot”. Maybe, but the guy shown in the video during that verse is pretty clearly supposed to be George Michael. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2018, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-money-for-nothing-and-kicks-for-free-mean/671455/68 "2018-08-14T07:40:19Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Cool! > > Now do “Walk Of Life”. Why not one that is [thematically identical](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1k8B-qw040)? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-money-for-nothing-and-kicks-for-free-mean/671455.md?page=3)