B-side "Solid Rock" (U.S.) Genre Rock Label Vertigo Records | Released 1982 Length 5:48 Writer(s) Mark Knopfler | |
"Industrial Disease" is a song by the British rock band Dire Straits and written by Mark Knopfler. It appeared on their 1982 album Love over Gold.
Contents
The song was released as a single in the U.S. and as a rare B-side to "Private Investigations" on cassette tape in the United Kingdom. The B-side to the U.S. "Industrial Disease" single was "Solid Rock" from the previous Dire Straits album Making Movies.
Meaning
The song takes a look at decline of the British manufacturing industry in the early 1980s, focusing on strikes, depression and dysfunctionality. For example, the absurdity of media-driven maladies is laid out in a segment of the song describing the narrator's visit to a doctor's office for treatment of his "Industrial Disease".
The reference to "Brewer's Droop" as a medical condition is an in-joke, referring both to the effect of alcohol on libido and to the band of the same name that Mark Knopfler played in prior to Dire Straits.
The fictitious "Industrial Disease"
While most of the song is about the reaction of different characters to the outbreak of Industrial disease, there are still plenty of references to the actual ailment itself. None are definitive and many seem to contradict and confuse, and make use of double entendre and irony.