Dire Straits - Industrial Disease lyrics
[Dire Straits - Industrial Disease lyrics]
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 a 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
They're refusing to be pacified
It's him they blame the most
The watchdog's got rabies
The foreman's got the fleas
Everyone's concerned about industrial disease
There's panic on the switchboard
Tongues in knots some come out in sympathy
Some come out in spots
Some blame the management, some the employees
And everybody knows it's
The industrial disease
Yeah, now the work force
Is disgusted, downs tools, 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 smoker's 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
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
Ha ha ha, splendid!"
And I go down to
Speaker's Corner I'm-a 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 you Rule Brittania, gassy beer
Page three
Two weeks in España 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 hunger strike
He's dying by degrees
How come Jesus gets industrial disease?
Oh no i'm sick!
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 a 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
They're refusing to be pacified
It's him they blame the most
The watchdog's got rabies
The foreman's got the fleas
Everyone's concerned about industrial disease
There's panic on the switchboard
Tongues in knots some come out in sympathy
Some come out in spots
Some blame the management, some the employees
And everybody knows it's
The industrial disease
Yeah, now the work force
Is disgusted, downs tools, 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 smoker's 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
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
Ha ha ha, splendid!"
And I go down to
Speaker's Corner I'm-a 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 you Rule Brittania, gassy beer
Page three
Two weeks in España 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 hunger strike
He's dying by degrees
How come Jesus gets industrial disease?
Oh no i'm sick!