Paul McCartney Said His ‘Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five’ Is a Love Song About the Future
Paul McCartney said his song “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” is a love song about the future. Everyone wants a loving relationship to last forever, even to a time we can’t even comprehend.
The former Beatle felt that the future in literature and film seemed so distant
In his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul wrote that he was just a kid when he read George Orwell’s 1984. The future described in the book seemed too far that Paul thought he mightn’t live to see it. He felt the same about 2001: A Space Odyssey. “Now they’re well behind us,” Paul wrote.
In the 1950s, a small Paul more than likely balked at the future Orwell or anyone else described. Barely anyone had enough money to buy a television. Rock ‘n’ roll hadn’t even been invented yet. Futuristic literature and film blew everyone’s mind, not just the curious Paul McCartney.
However, something about the future stuck with the former Beatle. Paul used his love of the future in his song “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five.”
Paul McCartney said ‘Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five’ is a love song about the future
In The Lyrics, Paul explained that the idea behind his song “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” is a relationship that was “always meant to be.” All anyone wants in life is to find a relationship that’ll last forever.
“No one in the distant future is ever going to get my attention, because I’ve got you,” Paul wrote. “But when this was written, 1985 was only twelve years away; it wasn’t the very distant future – only the future in this song. So, this is basically a love song about the future.”
That message is clear in the lyrics, “Oh, no one ever left alive/ In nineteen hundred and eighty-five, will ever do/ She may be right, she may be fine/ She may get love, but she won’t get mine, ’cause I got you.”
No matter who comes along in the future, the speaker and their love’s relationship will never wilt and die.
Paul embraced writing about love in ‘Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five’
Despite everyone else’s thoughts of love songs, Paul fully embraced love in “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five.” He wrote that sometimes you try to avoid using the word “love” in a tune. However, he wrote a song asking what’s wrong with silly love songs. It’s something Paul thinks about often.
He thinks “love” is a “staggeringly” important word and a staggeringly important feeling. It’s what’s going on everywhere on the entire planet right now.
“I think about this whole planet and the whole human race,” Paul wrote. “I think about how in China right now there are two people who love each other and they’re getting married and committing their whole lives to each other, or in South America right now there’s a mother having a baby and loving this baby and the father is loving the baby too.
“The point I’m making is obvious – that this ‘love thing’ is global, really universal. And it’s true not only for humans but also for animals, which we too often forget about, and that commonality outweighs the fact that it might be soppy. But you’re always trying to say it in a way that’s not soppy. That’s why I write about it.”
So, Paul’s “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” is like a space-aged love song.
