"Industrial Disease" is a song by the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 rock band

Rock Band

Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...

 Dire Straits

Dire Straits

Dire Straits were a British rock band active from 1977 to 1995, composed of Mark Knopfler , his younger brother David Knopfler , John Illsley , and Pick Withers .Dire Straits' sound drew from a variety of musical influences, including jazz, folk, blues, and came closest...

 and written by Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler

Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...

. It appeared on their 1982 album Love over Gold

Love over Gold

Love Over Gold is the fourth album by British rock band Dire Straits.- History :Due to its lengthy atmospheric instrumental passages, the album has been cited as the band's attempt at progressive rock....

.

The song was released as a single in the US and as a rare B-side to "Private Investigations

Private Investigations

"Private Investigations" is a popular song by Dire Straits from their album Love Over Gold. Although it was not released as a single in the US, it reached the number 2 position in the UK , and is one of their biggest chart successes in the United Kingdom, on a par with "Walk of Life"...

" on cassette tape in the United Kingdom. The B-side to the US "Industrial Disease" single was "Solid Rock" from the previous Dire Straits album Making Movies

Making Movies

Making Movies is the third album by English rock band Dire Straits, released in 1980.- History :The title of the album comes from a line in the song "Skateaway" and the unreleased song "Making Movies". Rolling Stone ranked the album #52 in their survey of the "100 Best Albums of the 80s"...

.

Meaning

The song takes a look at decline of the British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 manufacturing industry

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

 in the early 1980s, focusing on strikes

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

, depression

Clinical depression

Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...

 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

Erectile dysfunction

Erectile dysfunction is sexual dysfunction characterized by the inability to develop or maintain an erection of the penis during sexual performance....

 and to the band of the same name that Mark Knopfler

Mark Knopfler

Mark Freuder Knopfler, OBE is a Scottish-born British guitarist, singer, songwriter, record producer and film score composer. He is best known as the lead guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter for the British rock band Dire Straits, which he co-founded in 1977...

 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.

• A sneeze arouses fear of a possible case of Industrial Disease
• Workers are reported to come out in spots
• 'Dr Parkinson' diagnoses a patient with 'Smoker's Cough', 'Brewer's Droop', 'Bette Davis
  Bette Davis
  Ruth Elizabeth "Bette" Davis was an American actress of film, television and theater. Noted for her willingness to play unsympathetic characters, she was highly regarded for her performances in a range of film genres, from contemporary crime melodramas to historical and period films and occasional...
  
  knees', Industrial Disease and depression. He writes an unknown prescription but it is unclear whether the depression is a symptom of any conditions above.
• The singer poses the hypothetical question of 'How come Jesus gets Industrial Disease?' but it is unknown which one if not both of these men he is referring to:

• The first man at Speaker's Corner declaring he is Jesus claims he will cure Industrial Disease soon by abolishing Monday mornings and Friday afternoons
• The second man at Speaker's Corner declaring he is Jesus is on hunger strike