Love over Gold

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
they're refusing to be pacified it's him they blame the most
the watchdog's got rabies the foreman's got fleas
and everyone's concerned about Industrial Disease
there's panic on the switchboard tongues are ties 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

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'

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 singing a protest song - he says
'they wanna have a war to keep us on our knees
they wanna have a war to keep their factories
they wanna have a war to stop us buying Japanese
they wanna have a war to stop Industrial Disease
they're pointing out the enemy to keep you deaf and blind
they wanna sap your energy incarcerate your mind
they give you 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 on a hunger strike he's dying by degrees
how come Jesus gets Industrial Disease

I hear the Seven Deadly Sins
and the Terrible Twins came to call on you
the bigger they are babe
the harder they fall on you
and you you're always the same you persevere
on the same old pleasure ground
oh and it never rains around here
it just comes pouring down

You had no more volunteers
so you got profiteers for to help you out
with friends like that babe
good friends you had to do without
and now they've taken the chains and the gears
from off your merry-go-round
oh and it never rains around here
it just comes pouring down

And your new Romeo
was just a gigolo when he let you down
see the faster they are babe
the faster they get out of town
leaving make up stains and the tears
of a clown
yes and it never rains around here
it just comes pouring down

Oh you were just a roller coaster memory
I don't know why I was even passing through
I saw you making a date with Destiny
when he came around here asking after you
in the shadow of the Wheel of Fortune
you're busy trying to clear your name
you say 'I may be guilty yeah that may be true
but I'd be lying if I said I was to blame
see we could have been major contenders
we never got no money no breaks'
you've got a list of all the major offenders
you got a list of all their major mistakes
and he's just standing on the shadows
yes and you smile that come-on smile
oh I can still hear you say as clear as the day
'I'd like to make it worth your while'

Ah but it's a sad reminder
when your organ grinder has to come to you for the rent
and all you've got to give him
is the use of your side-show tent
yes and that's all that remains of the years
spent doing to rounds
and it never rains around here
well it just comes pouring down

Now you know what they say about beggars
you can't complain about the rules
you know what they say about beggars
you know who's the first to blame his tools
you never gave a damn about who you pick up
and leave lying bleeding on the ground
you screw people over on the way up
because you thought that you were never coming down
and he takes you out in Vaudeville Valley
with his hand up smothering your screams
and he screws you down in Tin Pan Alley
in the city of a billion dreams

It's a mystery to me - the game commences
for the usual fee - plus expenses
confidential information - contained in a diary
this is my investigation - not a public inquiry

I go checking out the reports - digging up the dirt
you get to meet all sorts in this line of work
treachery and treason - there's always an excuse for it
and when I find the reason I still can't get used to it

And what have you got at the end of the day?
what have you got to take away?
a bottle of whisky and a new set of lies
blinds on the windows and a pain behind the eyes

Scarred for life - no compensation
private investigations