“Industrial Disease” by Dire Straits

"Industrial Disease" found Mark Knopfler in a satirical mood on Love Over Gold, Dire Straits' 1982 album. The title is British shorthand for illness picked up on the job, a phrase all over the UK news at the time and one that meant little to Americans, who say occupational disease. Knopfler leans on its second meaning too: the decay of British industry. On the surface he tours the wreckage of the early-1980s manufacturing slump, strikes, depression both economic and clinical, a society coming apart, but the real villain is the numbing grind of the nine-to-five.

Knopfler wrote, sang and produced it and plays guitar alongside Hal Lindes, with John Illsley on bass, Alan Clark on keyboards and Pick Withers on drums. America got it as a single; in Britain it turned up as a rare cassette B-side to "Private Investigations".

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