"Heavy Fuel" is a song by British rock band
Dire Straits from its 1991 album ''
On Every Street''. The song was also released as a single and reached 1 on the US ''
Billboard''
Album Rock Tracks
Mainstream Rock is a music chart in ''Billboard'' magazine that ranks the most-played songs on mainstream rock radio stations in the United States, a category that combines the formats of active rock and heritage rock. The chart was launched in M ...
chart, making it the band's second song to do so.
Lyrical content
In "Heavy Fuel,"
Mark Knopfler ironically extols the virtues of such vices as
cigarette
A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opp ...
s,
hamburger
A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, ...
s,
Scotch, lust, money and violence. The phrase "You got to run on heavy fuel" is from the novel ''
Money
Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money ar ...
'' by
Martin Amis, on which Knopfler based his lyric.
Track listings
#"Heavy Fuel"
#"Planet of New Orleans"
#"Kingdom Come"
Chart performance
See also
*
List of ''Billboard'' Mainstream Rock number-one songs of the 1990s
References
1991 singles
1991 songs
Dire Straits songs
Music videos directed by Steve Barron
Song recordings produced by Mark Knopfler
Songs written by Mark Knopfler
Vertigo Records singles
{{1990s-single-stub