The Police song Sting wrote as a joke: “I had my tongue firmly in my cheek”
When it comes to enigmatic rock stars like Sting, frontman of The Police, sometimes art imitates life, and sometimes, well, it’s all a bit of a joke, isn’t it? The track ‘When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around’ had slipped itself rather nicely into the band’s 1980 album Zenyatta Mondatta but had been penned as more of a tongue-in-cheek venture. The song was also one of Sting’s first attempts to address issues outside of his own, its infectious pop sound and earth-shaking bass blended with a bleak, post-apocalyptic vision, one that made it all the more comical – but was it really just a joke?
“I swear I had my tongue firmly in my cheek when I composed this misanthropic, postapocalyptic vision,” Sting wrote in Lyrics By Sting. “I imagined a solitary future eking out my days with canned food, a VCR, and old tapes of James Brown and Otis Redding. How many of us have these Robinson Crusoe fantasies of surviving some sort of holocaust? Whereas our survival can only be a collective effort.”
A lone survivor, Sting’s narrative plays out in a rotting, post-nuclear bunker in a barren world. He describes watching reruns and nefarious video tapes, driving around in the same old car, and begrudgingly eating an assortment of canned foods, all of which continue in a Groundhog Day fashion for “years and years”. It’s the stuff of an absurd Mad Max fever dream – but was very much in tandem with The Police’s new wave groove, causing it to reach number three on the Billboard Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart in 1981.
Interestingly, the humour extended beyond the first recording session, landing the tune in pop culture infamy. In a survey of commonly misheard lyrics, the line “you make the best of what’s still around” ranked at the top of the list, with many fans believing Sting was singing, “You make the best homemade stew around.” This wasn’t the case, but many pointed out that a stew recipe in a post-apocalyptic world certainly would have been helpful.
A remixed version, which originally appeared as an illegal bootleg, was picked up and released as a single under the guise “Different Gear Vs The Police”. It reached number 28 in the UK singles chart and was featured in the 2000 film Red Planet. Although its humorous intent was lost on some, it only made the song thrive more, remaining a staple within the band’s discography – even today.
It’s no secret that The Police thrived on creative tension. Their ability to marry dark themes with hypnotic melodies captured the essence of campy 1980s rock. If anything, it mirrored the globe’s growing fear of annihilation. The Cold War was looming in the background, and politics seemed more divisive than ever. “Our survival can only be a collective effort,” Sting mused, hinting at the human need for unity, a sentiment that often feels impossible.
So, was it all a joke? Basically, yes – but the joke appears to be on us. The song serves as a reminder that satire can exist but sometimes falls on deaf ears – literally. When the world is running down, you write a not-so-serious song about the end of existence and make it a hit, apparently.
