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Released in 1982

The Pound Is Sinking

Written by Paul McCartney

Last updated on May 9, 2020

Album This song officially appears on the Tug Of War Official album.

Timeline This song was officially released in 1982

Timeline This song was written, or began to be written, in 1977, when Paul McCartney was 35 years old)

Master album

Related sessions

This song was recorded during the following studio sessions:

Related song

Related interviews

“The Pound Is Sinking” is a song from 1982 album “Tug Of War“. Like “Dress Me Up As A Robber” on the same album, it was written in 1977. Like many other McCartney’s songs, “The Pound Is Sinking“ was assembled from the fragments of two songs, “The Pound Is Sinking” and “Something That Didn’t Happen” officially released in demo form in 2015.

When you are looking through the papers, you always see headlines saying, ‘The Pound Has Moved A Quarter Of An Inch Today’, and ‘The Mark Has Made A Surprising Move Today In The Money Markets’. I see these pictures of all the hundreds of people on the phones saying, ‘Did it go up? Did it go down?’ But I’ve never really been into that. I’m not a big stocks and shares man, just because it all seems so crazy, it’s just a big gamble to me. I think it’s funny how you see how the pound is sinking, no it isn’t, it’s gone up and against the dollar, it’s 2.000003 or whatever. I think it’s funny how everyone gets serious about something that is obviously just going to keep on altering. The song ‘The Pound Is Sinking’ laughs at how everyone gets so serious about it.

Paul McCartney, from Badman, Keith. The Beatles: The Dream Is Over – Off The Record 2 (p. 303).

From an interview with Club Sandwich, 1982:

Andy Mackay – “The Pound is Sinking”, that’s an interesting song, I am curious about this. Obviously there is sort of pleasure in the words and the rhythms and the idea of it all, the sort of irony.

Paul – For me, it’s just the funny thing about the pundits day to day giving us an update so that all the people who’ve got money can gauge it all, like the weather. There is something which sort of amuses me about this constant update of something that is always going to be different, you are never going to be able to put your finger on it, but it just might help, knowing if there is snow on the M6, but generally they make more mistakes than they make correct predictions, it seems to me. You know, the pound is sinking — panic — and then the pound’s all right now, and everyone gets back into it. It’s a funny idea; I like the idea of all the ants doing what the lead ant tells them, you know, the oracle.

Andy – There is someone whose father is a remarkable man. Anyone in particular?

Paul – It’s not about anyone, no. Sometimes I just get little jumbles of words that sound nice and I haven’t even really got a meaning to them, but I know that they’re words, and that they have a meaning so I don’t really attempt to resolve that…

In this, it’s mainly just the ridiculousness, apparent ridiculousness, of the money market — the ups and downs and then and the indexes and stuff — that little bit there that comes in the middle, it’s the funny little conversation: I always imagine it like a sort of film where there is one character doing this pound is sinking bit, and explaining all the rest, and there is this little inter-cut scene with this other little bit about “your father is an extraordinary man, but you haven’t inherited any of his mannerisms.” It’s just a bunch of words, it just kinda says something that people say all the time…

Paul’s handwritten lyrics for The Pound Is Sinking – From the “Tug Of War Archive Collection” @ 2015 MPL Communications Inc

Lyrics

The pound is sinking

The peso's falling

The lira's reeling

And feeling quite appalling

The mark is holding

The franc is fading

The drachma's very weak

But everyone's still trading

The market's bottom

Has fallen right out

And only the strong are survivors

Well I fear, my dear

That it's eminently clear

That you can't see the trees

For the forest

Your father was an

Extraordinary man

But you don't seem to have inherited

Many of his mannerisms

Oh, any of his mannerisms

The dollar's moving

The rouble's rising

The yen is keeping up

Which hardly seems surprising

The market's bottom

Has fallen right out

And only the stout are survivors

Hear me lover

I can't be held responsible now

For something that didn't happen

I knew you for a minute

Oh, it didn't happen

Only for a minute

Your heart just wasn't in it any more

The pound is sinking

The peso's failing

The lira's reeling,

And feeling quite appalling

Officially appears on

Bootlegs

See all bootlegs containing “The Pound Is Sinking”

Live performances

Paul McCartney has never played this song in concert.

Going further

Paul McCartney: Music Is Ideas. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1989

With 25 albums of pop music, 5 of classical – a total of around 500 songs – released over the course of more than half a century, Paul McCartney's career, on his own and with Wings, boasts an incredible catalogue that's always striving to free itself from the shadow of The Beatles. The stories behind the songs, demos and studio recordings, unreleased tracks, recording dates, musicians, live performances and tours, covers, events: Music Is Ideas Volume 1 traces McCartney's post-Beatles output from 1970 to 1989 in the form of 346 song sheets, filled with details of the recordings and stories behind the sessions. Accompanied by photos, and drawing on interviews and contemporary reviews, this reference book draws the portrait of a musical craftsman who has elevated popular song to an art-form.

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[…] for the music extends all the way to deep cuts like “The Pound is Sinking,” a song Paul has never played live and in which, Howie and Bard suggest, Paul reaches the apex of his vocal prowess while […]

James Percival • 5 years ago

Agree with the comment about Fabcast. I'm working my way through them, and although I don't agree with absolutely everything they say, their enthusiasm is infectious.

My comment: no drummer credited, but sounds like Steve Gadd to me

Who Plays drums on "The pound is Sinking"? Doesn't sound like Paul. More like Steve Holly. Anyone know? Thanks!

The PaulMcCartney Project • 3 years ago

Hey, on the "Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions" book by Luca Perasi, Paul McCartney is mentioned as the drummer. On the "Tug Of War" archive collection, no drummer is credited - and that's where I took the credits from ! So yes, there's a gap.

On the "Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions" book by Luca Perasi, it is mentioned:

"Although drums are not officially credited in the album liner notes, this detail was revealed by Martin to a fan outside Abbey Road Studios: maybe Paul re-did the drum part that was cut the previous weeks by [Dave] Mattacks"

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