{"id":6309,"date":"2026-10-14T14:52:53","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T18:52:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/articles\/?p=6309"},"modified":"2026-10-14T14:52:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T18:52:54","slug":"paul-mccartney-and-wings-look-to-the-future-in-nineteen-hundred-and-eighty-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.songfacts.com\/articles\/paul-mccartney-and-wings-look-to-the-future-in-nineteen-hundred-and-eighty-five\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul McCartney and Wings Look to the Future in \u201cNineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

After The Beatles came to an end, Paul McCartney continued making music with Wings<\/a>, and they released their second album and most acclaimed album, Band on the Run<\/em>, in 1973. Its closing track was “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five,” a reference to a year over a decade away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McCartney began writing the song with the very first line, a common practice for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“With a lot of songs I do, the first line is it,” he once explained<\/a>. “It\u2019s all in the first line, and then you have to go on and write the second line. With \u2018Eleanor Rigby\u2019 I had \u2018picks up the rice in the church where the wedding has been.\u2019 that was the one big line that started me off on it. With this one it was \u2018No one ever left alive in nineteen hundred and eighty-five.\u2019 That\u2019s all I had of that song for months. \u2018No one ever left alive in nineteen hundred and eighty\u2026 six?\u2019 It wouldn\u2019t have worked!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musically, “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five” revisits some moments from earlier in the album, most notably by reprising “Band on the Run.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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