Whatever else he does, Donald Trump remains committed to the Art of the Grift. Amid his soporific campaigning and military cemetery lawbreaking, he found time to peddle a new line of so-called digital trading cards. This is as close as one can come to paying money for nothing, but Trump fans can be counted on to fork it over. He’s not getting his chicks for free, however. Last time I checked he was paying more than $100,000 apiece for them.
I’m not sure this is Dire Straits’ signature song – “Sultans of Swing” might still hold that distinction – but it was MTV’s theme song during the video music channel’s Golden Age, mainly because it was the first hit that was actually about MTV, and had a video with what were then groundbreaking computer animation. Mark Knopfler didn’t write the lyrics so much as transcribe a conversation between two workers at an electronics store who were watching Def Leppard on the store’s wall of televisions tuned to MTV.
Sting’s guest appearance on the tune was a serendipitous coincidence. Knopfler, who was recording his “Brothers in Arms” album on Montserrat, speculated that it would be great if he could get Sting to add background vocals, and was told that Sting just happened to be on the island at the time. “I want my MTV” was the slogan the company used in its commercials at the time, as they were trying to convince cable companies to add their channel to their packages. That the line’s melody was the same as the Police’s “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” added a sly wink to the proceedings.
The song still gets played on classic rock radio, but only in its chopped-down single version, so it had been years since I heard this full-length LP edit. It starts with a long fade-in that builds to a frenzied drum-and-synth climax, erupting into Knopfler’s killer guitar riff (the tone was achieved with a half-open wah wah pedal), and fades out with three minutes of a long solo. It also eliminates the song’s second verse, which tends to shock young listeners by talking about “that little faggot” who’s a millionaire.
