Lyrics: https://genius.com/Dire-straits-telegraph-road-lyrics
My favorite part is Knopfler's 'instrumental author' beginning at 8min55sec.



I had to deal with a medical procedure yesterday. 20% of everyone who has this procedure winds up with days, sometimes weeks of pain. I was in the lucky 80%. Not knowing which way it would go was a concern. I wound up listening to Telegraph Road more than a couple of times to steel myself. I googled something about 'inspiration for Telegraph Road' and found this on Wikipedia:

The Telegraph Road is a major north-south 70-mile [[110 km) thoroughfare in Michigan, and Mark Knopfler was inspired to write the song while riding in the front of the tour bus, which made the journey down Telegraph Road. At the same time, Knopfler was reading the novel Growth of the Soil by the Nobel Prize winning Norwegian author Knut Hamsun and he was inspired to put the two together and write a song about the beginning of the development along Telegraph Road and the changes over the ensuing decades.

The song is about the first farm to the industry to the rot to the getting back to the country and starting over. I did a Google images search for Telegraph Road and it looks more prosperous and cleaned up than I remember it when I moved to the country. Fast food places have replaced much of the raunch. Bigger picture - fast food wages have replaced a lot of UAW wages. I think Mark Knopfler nailed it beat and all.