In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Now warning lights are flashing down at quality control
Somebody threw a spanner and they threw him in the hole
There's rumors in the loading bay and anger in the town
Somebody blew the whistle and the walls came down
There's a meeting in the boardroom they're trying to trace the smell
There's leaking in the washroom there's a sneak in personnel
Somewhere in the corridors someone was heard to sneeze
Goodness me could this be industrial disease?
The caretaker was crucified for sleeping at his post
Refusing to be pacified it's him they blame the most
Watchdog got rabies the foreman's got fleas
Everyone's concerned about industrial disease
There's panic on the switchboard tongues in knots
Some come out for sympathy, some come out in spots
Some blame the management some the employees
Everybody knows it's the industrial disease
Yeah and the work force is disgusted downs tools and walks
Innocence is injured, experience just talks
Everyone seeks damages and everyone agrees
That these are 'classic symptoms of a monetary squeeze'
On ITV and BBC they talk about the curse
Philosophy is useless theology is worse
History boils over there's an economics freeze
Sociologists invent words that mean 'industrial disease'
Doctor Parkinson declared 'I'm not surprised to see you here
You've got smokers cough from smoking, brewer's droop from drinking beer
I don't know how you came to get the Betty Davis knees
But worst of all young man you've got industrial disease'
He wrote me a prescription he said 'you are depressed
But I'm glad you came to see me to get this off your chest
Come back and see me later - next patient please
Send in another victim of industrial disease haha'
Ah, splendid
I go down to speaker's corner I'm thunderstruck
They got free speech, tourists, police in trucks
Two men say they're Jesus, one of them must be wrong
There's a protest singer, he's singing a protest song - he says
'They want to have a war to keep their factories
They want to have a war to keep us on our knees
They want to have a war to stop us buying Japanese
They want to have a war to stop industrial disease
They're pointing out the enemy to keep you deaf and blind
They want to sap your energy incarcerate your mind
Give ya Rule Brittania, gassy beer, page three
Two weeks in Espana and Sunday striptease'
Meanwhile the first Jesus says 'I'd cure it soon
Abolish Monday mornings and Friday afternoons'
The other one's out on a hunger strike he's dying by degrees
How come Jesus gets industrial disease
Somebody threw a spanner and they threw him in the hole
There's rumors in the loading bay and anger in the town
Somebody blew the whistle and the walls came down
There's a meeting in the boardroom they're trying to trace the smell
There's leaking in the washroom there's a sneak in personnel
Somewhere in the corridors someone was heard to sneeze
Goodness me could this be industrial disease?
The caretaker was crucified for sleeping at his post
Refusing to be pacified it's him they blame the most
Watchdog got rabies the foreman's got fleas
Everyone's concerned about industrial disease
There's panic on the switchboard tongues in knots
Some come out for sympathy, some come out in spots
Some blame the management some the employees
Everybody knows it's the industrial disease
Yeah and the work force is disgusted downs tools and walks
Innocence is injured, experience just talks
Everyone seeks damages and everyone agrees
That these are 'classic symptoms of a monetary squeeze'
On ITV and BBC they talk about the curse
Philosophy is useless theology is worse
History boils over there's an economics freeze
Sociologists invent words that mean 'industrial disease'
Doctor Parkinson declared 'I'm not surprised to see you here
You've got smokers cough from smoking, brewer's droop from drinking beer
I don't know how you came to get the Betty Davis knees
But worst of all young man you've got industrial disease'
He wrote me a prescription he said 'you are depressed
But I'm glad you came to see me to get this off your chest
Come back and see me later - next patient please
Send in another victim of industrial disease haha'
Ah, splendid
I go down to speaker's corner I'm thunderstruck
They got free speech, tourists, police in trucks
Two men say they're Jesus, one of them must be wrong
There's a protest singer, he's singing a protest song - he says
'They want to have a war to keep their factories
They want to have a war to keep us on our knees
They want to have a war to stop us buying Japanese
They want to have a war to stop industrial disease
They're pointing out the enemy to keep you deaf and blind
They want to sap your energy incarcerate your mind
Give ya Rule Brittania, gassy beer, page three
Two weeks in Espana and Sunday striptease'
Meanwhile the first Jesus says 'I'd cure it soon
Abolish Monday mornings and Friday afternoons'
The other one's out on a hunger strike he's dying by degrees
How come Jesus gets industrial disease
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This song was released in 1982 and it's about the industrial decline and economic malaise that affected the UK in the 1970s and continued into the early 1980s. Even though the economy would recover later in the decade, this was only really due to the growth of the service sector. The lyrics of the song compare the economic malaise to a literal disease - I quite like how Mark Knopfler describes the absurd things happening in a deadpan manner. Especially the brillaint lines"Two men say they're Jesus / One of them must be wrong!"
The "protest singer" is just a reference to daft conspiracy theorists who feel the need to imagine that there's a secret plot behind everything the government does. What the protest singer is claiming is that the government deliberately engineered the Falklands War to distract people from their economic problems. He then goes on to claim that the 'system' gives people distractions like "gassy beer, page three / Two weeks in Espana and Sunday striptease" to further cover it up.
The "Brewers droop" effect is when someone's sex drive is damaged by alcoholism. It was also the name of a band that Mark Knopfler previously played in.
@noonebeatsdylan Wow...every single government in the Western World is OWNED by the ruling elites, the world is controlled by the Fascist elite. EVERYTHING is thus a conspiracy...everything! We can no longer afford to be so naive about the reality of this world. Knopfler wrote a song exposing precisely HOW society operates and why...