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The Story and Meaning Behind "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five," Paul McCartney and

Sunday, July 21, 2024

The song arrived just a dozen years before the date promised in its forward-looking title. But thanks to the cleverness and talents of Paul McCartney and Wings, “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five” seemed like a distant future that none of those who were living would still be around to see.

What is the song about? How did McCartney write it based on a single line? And how did he and the two remaining Wings members manage to pull together for such a dynamic song and album? Let’s look back, and then ahead (or maybe forward, and then back?) at “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five.”  The story of Wings, the band that Paul McCartney formed not long after The Beatles collapsed, is one of stalled momentum and impressive resilience. Case in point: their 1973 album Band on the Run. It ended up a triumph, but only after a series of events that raised the degree of difficulty exponentially.

When first formed, Wings struggled to impress critics, but they were coming off a string of successful singles in 1972 and an album from earlier in ’73 (Red Rose Speedway) that contained their first U.S. No. 1 hit (“My Love”). But at the moment when there seemed to be no stopping them, disaster struck when two members of the band (Henry McCullough and Denny Seiwell) bailed on the project right before recording was set to start in Lagos, Nigeria.

A series of mishaps befell the remaining three members of the group (McCartney, wife Linda, and Denny Laine) once they arrived in Nigeria, not least of which was having the working tapes of the songs stolen from McCartney by knife-wielding robbers. But the trio kept their focus, and they ended up with what’s regarded as their best album. “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five” plays a big part in that as the evocative closing track.

Source: Jim Beviglia/americansongwriter.com

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