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Who really said it

The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side

Not Hunter S. Thompson — a reworded version of his line about TV Hunter S. Thompson 1937–2005 · American journalist and author
Disputed In copyright

Thompson wrote the “money trench” and “long plastic hallway” lines about the TV business, not music, in a San Francisco Examiner column of November 4, 1985, later collected in Generation of Swine (1988). The “music business” wording and the punchline “There’s also a negative side” are later changes that are not in his published text.

Last verified 2 Nov 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

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Disputed wording — copy with the correction

“The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side” Hunter S. Thompson, San Francisco Examiner, November 4, 1985; collected in Generation of Swine (1988). The "music business" version and its "There's also a negative side" tag are later alterations. · Verbatim: “The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.”

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by The Estate of Hunter S. Thompson and its publishers). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Hunter S. Thompson — American journalist, author and founder of Gonzo journalism. Theme: "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

What Thompson actually wrote

Work
Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80s
Published
New York: Summit Books, 1988 (p. 43, per David Emery)
First appeared
San Francisco Examiner column, November 4, 1985
Subject
The TV business (TV journalism), not music

The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason. Which is more or less true. For the most part, they are dirty little animals with huge brains and no pulse.

The text as David Emery transcribed it from page 43 of the 1988 Summit Books edition. It has no “music business” and no “There’s also a negative side.”

David Emery, “Where Thieves and Pimps Run Free” (cont.), About.com Urban Legends (archived)

How the source was found

  • A reader sent the urban-legends writer David Emery the exact “music business … There’s also a negative side” wording, and Emery found that and several other versions (TV, radio, corporate communications, show business) all over the web, almost never with a source. Emery, page 1 (archived) ↗
  • Emery traced it to page 43 of Generation of Swine (Summit Books, 1988): the passage is about the TV business. He dates the column to the San Francisco Examiner of November 4, 1985, and says the “negative side” tag is “nowhere to be found in the original article.” Emery, page 2 (archived) ↗
  • Wikiquote gives the TV-business passage under Generation of Swine (1988), notes the November 4, 1985 Examiner date, and cites Emery for the finding that Thompson did not write “There’s also a negative side.” Wikiquote: Hunter S. Thompson ↗
  • In 2007 John Gruber passed on the correction: the popular music-business quote is “a widely-cited misquote,” and the real passage is about the TV industry. Daring Fireball ↗
In copyright

Thompson’s real passage first appeared in the San Francisco Examiner in 1985 and in Generation of Swine (Summit Books, 1988). Both are after 1931, so the text is in copyright in the US. The popular “music business” version is an anonymous rewording of it with no known author of its own.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

How a line about TV became a line about music

The passage gets reworded to fit whatever industry the speaker resents, and a joke punchline was added along the way. David Emery found at least half a dozen versions on the web, and almost none of them named a source.

“The music business is …” Altered

Thompson wrote “The TV business is uglier than most things,” about TV journalism. Emery stresses that the piece “was not about the music industry.” Emery (archived) ↗

“There’s also a negative side.” Added

This tag is not in Thompson’s published text. Emery calls it a “nice joke, but Thompson didn’t write it,” and Wikiquote repeats his finding. Wikiquote ↗

Radio, show business, corporate communications Variants

Emery recorded versions that put radio, show business and “the corporate communications world” in place of TV. Emery, page 1 (archived) ↗ A radio-engineering blog notes the line is often heard as “The Radio business …” Engineering Radio ↗

“cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway” Trimmed

The original reads “some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry” and ends “for no good reason.” The popular version cuts both the journalism framing and that ending. Daring Fireball ↗

The imagery is Thompson’s, but it describes the TV business, in his San Francisco Examiner column of November 4, 1985, collected in Generation of Swine (1988). “Music business” and “There’s also a negative side” are later changes. Emery’s investigation ↗

Context

Why it spread

The line spreads because it fits almost any industry. Emery notes how “sardonically true” it sounds whatever business is named, and that is exactly why people keep swapping in their own. Musicians and music writers made the music version the best known, often with the deadpan “There’s also a negative side” added as a punchline.

Thompson’s actual target was TV journalism. In his San Francisco Examiner column he called it a “cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry.” The Examiner columns were collected in Generation of Swine (Summit Books, 1988).

“It was about television. Period.” — David Emery

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Work Success Creativity

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Wikiquote: Hunter S. Thompsonen.wikiquote.org

Sourced TV-business passage under Generation of Swine (1988), with the 1985 Examiner date and a note on the “negative side” tag
David Emery, “Where Thieves and Pimps Run Free” (page 1, archived)web.archive.org

The reader’s question with the exact music-business wording, plus the other versions Emery found online
David Emery, “Where Thieves and Pimps Run Free” (page 2, archived)web.archive.org

Traces the passage to Generation of Swine p. 43 and the Examiner column of November 4, 1985, and confirms the tag is not Thompson’s
Generation of Swine (1988 Summit Books edition)archive.org

Internet Archive catalog record for the 1988 New York Summit Books edition (ISBN 0671661477)
Generation of Swineen.wikipedia.org

About the book: Thompson’s San Francisco Examiner columns from September 1985 to November 1988
Daring Fireball: “Where Thieves and Pimps Run Free”daringfireball.net

2007 post calling the music-business version a widely cited misquote of a passage about TV

The author

About Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson

1937–2005 · American journalist, author and founder of Gonzo journalism

Hunter S. Thompson was the American writer behind Hell’s Angels and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and the founder of Gonzo journalism. From 1985 he wrote a column for the San Francisco Examiner, and the columns were collected in Generation of Swine (1988). One of those columns attacked the business of TV journalism, and it is the real source of this much-altered quote.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source

Hunter S. Thompson, Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the ’80s (New York: Summit Books, 1988), 43; first published in the San Francisco Examiner, November 4, 1985. The passage concerns “the TV business”; the “music business” wording and “There’s also a negative side” are not in the original.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side’?” Last verified 2 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/the-music-business-is-a-cruel-and-shallow-money-trench-a/

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