In America, the singles heyday of Dire Straits didn’t arrive till the Brothers In Arms album phenomenon of 1985 put them on nearly each chart you possibly can think about. But as they constructed as much as that, January 8, 1983 introduced them a Billboard Hot 100 entry with “Industrial Disease,” a rock radio favourite from the album that had come out a number of months earlier than, Love Over Gold.
The track, which at slightly below six minutes was the shortest on the album, was Mark Knopfler’s usually pithy tackle the decline that by then had set in throughout the British manufacturing trade. “The work force is disgusted, downs tools and walks,” he wrote. “Innocence is injured, experience just talks/Everyone seeks damages and everyone agrees/That these are classic symptoms of a monetary squeeze.”
The lyric additionally had a sensible reference to “brewer’s droop,” the phrase that described lack of libido by way of ingesting an excessive amount of alcohol, however which had one other that means for Knopfler. As devotees know, Brewers Droop was the band that latterly featured each the writer-guitarist and fellow future Dire Straits member Pick Withers, who performed on “Industrial Disease.” Both had been a part of the sooner band’s line-up in the direction of the top of their run in 1973.
“Industrial Disease” was already in its 11th week on Billboard’s chart of the most-played songs on US rock radio when the only entered the Hot 100. It was backed by “Solid Rock,” one other of the band’s early rock favorites, from the Making Movies album.
Listen to uDiscover Music’s Dire Straits Digging Deeper playlist, starring a number of the lesser-played gems of their catalog.
As a forty five, “Disease” did not make a big crossover, peaking at No.75 and totalling simply 4 weeks on the chart, however the track was a considerable hit in Canada and the dad or mum album continued to promote and lived as much as its title with gold certification by the RIAA in 1986. By then, Dire Straits’ American – and international – takeover was in full impact.
Buy or stream “Industrial Disease” on Love Over Gold.