Industrial Disease (song)
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"Industrial Disease" | ||||
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Single by Dire Straits | ||||
from the album Love over Gold | ||||
B-side | "Badges, Posters, Stickers, T-Shirts" | |||
Released | November 1982[1] | |||
Genre | Rock | |||
Length | 4:17 (single version) 5:48 (album version) | |||
Label | Vertigo Records | |||
Songwriter(s) | Mark Knopfler | |||
Producer(s) | Mark Knopfler | |||
Dire Straits singles chronology | ||||
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"Industrial Disease" is a song by
Meaning
The song's title is a British term for work-related illness or disease, a frequent subject in British news media at the time. The significance of the phrase was obscure to listeners in the United States, where the term occupational disease is used instead. There is a double meaning in that , at the time, "industrial disease" referred to both an occupational illness and the decline of British industry.
The background and subject matter of the lyrics was ostensibly the decline of the
A reference to "brewer's droop" as a medical condition is an in-joke, using a British colloquial term for alcohol-related erectile dysfunction to allude to Brewers Droop, a 1970s pub rock band in which songwriter Mark Knopfler and drummer Pick Withers had played prior to Dire Straits.
Charts
Chart | Peak Date | Weeks on Chart
|
Peak Position
|
US Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay[3] | 4 December 1982 | 18
|
9
|
US Billboard Hot 100[4] | 22 January 1983 | 4
|
75
|
References
- ISBN 9780862415419.
- ^ Sexton, Paul (8 January 2021). "'Industrial Disease': Dire Straits Work Up A Rock Radio Hit". uDiscoverMusic.
- ^ "Mainstream Rock Airplay". Billboard. 4 December 1982.
- ^ "Dire Straits Chart History". Billboard. Retrieved 20 June 2021.