No Money

Album: Confidence Game (2004)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Dating can be a challenge in any stage of life. Dating when you're a recording star after a divorce is something else altogether. Larry Burnett, sense of humor solidly intact, says this song is a tongue-in-cheek reporting of his own experience with going out and dating. "It gets lots of laughs, actually, in person," he told Songfacts in 2009. "I've been divorced twice, I'm not proud to say, but after my first divorce I was devastated. I'm going, 'Jesus Christ, that wasn't supposed to happen.' So all of a sudden now here I am, I'm older and now I've got to, like, date. Oh God. So, I started building up my courage, go out and be okay and confident. And I'm thinking, 'You're a good guy. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You're smart, you're respectful, your mom raised you right.' And what are women looking for? They're looking for a good guy. You're a good guy. So I went out.

    Anyway, what I discovered is that, no, I was wrong, that's not what women are looking for. They're looking for a guy with money - for the most part. They will tell you many things, but when you get to the part where there's no money, then they go, 'Oh, oh God, I've gotta go. I'm sorry.' So anyway, after a couple of dates I came home and I was laughing. I'm going, 'Boy, this is really weird.' And this song just came out. It's about bumping into two women and getting to the point in the conversation where they discover that there ain't no money. The chorus is, 'No money, no deal, it doesn't matter, baby, how I feel. The things they told you about love ain't real, because no money, no deal.' And like I say, it gets a lot of laughs. It's kind of, I guess, cleverly written in a way that people go, 'Oh, funny.' Or else a lot of people have noticed the same thing that I noticed, and that's where the laughter's going."

Comments: 1

  • Veeb from Phx, AzJust plain clever!
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Mike Love of The Beach Boys

Mike Love of The Beach BoysSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer/lyricist of The Beach Boys talks about coming up with the words for "Good Vibrations," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Kokomo" and other classic songs.

Jim McCarty of The Yardbirds

Jim McCarty of The YardbirdsSongwriter Interviews

The Yardbirds drummer explains how they created their sound and talks about working with their famous guitarists.

American Hits With Foreign Titles

American Hits With Foreign TitlesSong Writing

What are the biggest US hits with French, Spanish (not "Rico Suave"), Italian, Scottish, Greek, and Japanese titles?

He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss): A History Of Abuse Pop

He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss): A History Of Abuse PopSong Writing

Songs that seem to glorify violence against women are often misinterpreted - but not always.

The Police

The PoliceFact or Fiction

Do their first three albums have French titles? Is "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" really meaningless? See if you can tell in this Fact or Fiction.

Laura Nyro

Laura NyroSongwriting Legends

Laura Nyro talks about her complex, emotionally rich songwriting and how she supports women's culture through her art.