Despite Repeated Warnings (song)

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Album This song officially appears on the Egypt Station Official album.

Timeline This song has been officially released in 2018

Song facts

“Despite Repeated Warnings” is a track from 2018 album “Egypt Station“. From “Words Between The Tracks” YouTube series:

I was in Japan and I was reading a newspaper – I think it was like the Tokyo Times, Japan Times or something – and there was something about climate change and it’s typical, you know, the way people are kind of not doing anything about it.
“It’s all gonna be fine, don’t worry, oh yeah sure there’s icebergs melting but it doesn’t matter, it’s not melting in London so don’t worry about it, you know”
And the phrase was in this article, it started off “Despite repeated warnings, they’re not listening”. You know, it’s the idea. I like that phrase “Despite repeated warnings”. I thought, yeah, that sums up a lot of people’s feelings. And then thought, well, what I’ll do is I’ll do a kind of song where I used symbolism and so the person will be symbolic of certain politicians and people who argue that climate change is a hoax, and we know a few. So I’ll do it about that and I’ll get somebody to symbolize one of those people. So I thought, okay it’s a sea captain and he’s steering a boat and he’s gonna go towards the icebergs but he’s been warned, and he’s going because he thinks he’s right, and he thinks they’re all making too much of it. The usual arguments you know…
So that’s what it’s about. It’s a sort of story like the Titanic. If they’d been warned, hey, you’re gonna sink from icebergs, and if the captain said “it doesn’t matter, it’ll be fine”. So it’s that, using that kind of idea, so there’s a sort of mad daft captain, and then there’s all the people on the boat who know he’s got it wrong.
So it’s very symbolic for what’s going on in some areas of politics in my mind. So it’s one of those songs like Band On The Run or Live And Let Die that is kind of episodic and it’s kind of an epic production. That is it, and it is hopefully trying to remind people that climate change is not a hoax, and that we should avoid having a mad captain steering us towards the icebergs.
Paul McCartney

In some other interviews, Paul has been clearer regarding the “certain politicians” he refers to. For instance:

Beatles legend Paul McCartney has written a song about Donald Trump on his new album. Macca was speaking to students at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA) when he made the announcement. While McCartney, 75, didn’t imply whether the song was in favour of the US President or not, he did say that he felt he HAD to write it.

He told students at LIPA : “Sometimes the situation in the world is so crazy, that you’ve got to address it.”
From Liverpool Echo, July 28, 2017

Trump is in there. Not Brexit, it was written before Brexit. But Trump, definitely. It’s more about anyone who would deny climate change. Y’ know, I’m married to an American, I go to America a lot and I have a lot of American family, American friends… and we tend to be liberal. But there’s one or two that you don’t talk to if you’re out having dinner, ‘cos you know they’re gonna stick up for him. I don’t want to be an activist particularly, but if I feel there’s an injustice I want to make myself heard. Putting this guy Pruitt in charge of the environmental agency, a guy who fought against it when he was in the office – it’s so insane. I know who the captain is, I think most people get it.
From Paul McCartney interview in MOJO October 2018

On a Twitter Q&A in September 2018, Paul explained his goal on making a song about bullying:

You talk about a lot of social issues on the album, such as bullying and global warming. What was your goal or your reasoning for these songs? They’re great.
Oh thanks! They’re subjects that interest me & the nice thing about being a songwriter is you can sometimes make a difference with a song. If you don’t lay it on too thick and become preachy then I think it can influence people’s thoughts in a good way. That’s what I hope anyway!
Paul McCartney

Here is what producer Greg Kurstin has to say about “Despite Repeated Warnings“:

I’ve read that “Despite Repeated Warnings” is a real epic.
It is. That’s in the style of some of Paul’s other epic, extended songs like “Band on the Run” and “Live and Let Die.” These are songs that are epic and orchestral and have many different sections and movements to them. This one was his concept. Lyrically, he could probably tell you what it’s about, but there’s definitely some political references there.

He took the band into the rehearsal room and worked out the structure of it and brought it to L.A. and I worked with them and we tweaked it and worked out the arrangement. It was a long evolution to get it to where it got in the end. A lot of orchestral musicians came in. We had brass players and the Muscle Shoals horn guys came in to do some brass stuff. It was quite the job of getting that together because it was like five or six songs in one. It’s about seven minutes long.
Interview with producer Greg Kurstin, from Rolling Stone, July 3, 2018:

Each track of “Egypt Station” has been given individual artwork that was first published on Twitter on August 14, 2018

Last updated on December 22, 2019

Lyrics

Despite repeated warnings
Of dangers up ahead
The captain won’t be listening
To what’s been said

He feels that there’s a good chance
That we have been misled
And so the captain’s planning
To steam ahead

What can we do, what can we do
What can we do to stop this foolish plan going through
What can we do, what can we do
This man is bound to lose his ship and his crew

Despite repeated warnings
From those who ought to know
He’s got his own agenda and so he’ll go

Those who shout the loudest
May not always be the smartest
But they have their proudest moments
Right before they fall

Red sky in the morning
Doesn’t ever seem to phase him
But a sailor’s warning signal
Should concern us all

How can we stop him
Grab the keys and lock him up
If we can do it
We can save the day

The engineer lives with
His wife and daughter Janet
But he misses them so

Although he’s working with
The best crew on the planet
They never want him to go

He had a premonition
He senses something’s wrong
And by his own admission
He knew it all along
The captain’s crazy
But he doesn’t let them know it
He’ll take us with him
If we don’t do something
Soon to slow it

How can we stop him
Grab the keys and lock him up
If we can do it
We can save the day

Below decks the engineer cries
The captain’s gonna leave us when the temperatures rise
The needle’s going up
The engine’s gonna blow
And we’re gonna be left down below
Down below

Yes we can do it
Yes we can do it now
Yes we can do it

Yes we can do it
Yes we can do it now
Yes we can do it
Yes we can do it now
Yes we can do it
Yes we can do it now

If life would work out
The way you plan it
That’d be so fine
For the wife and Janet
Sometimes you might
Have to battle through it
But that’s the way you learn
How you’ve got to do it

Yes we can do it whoa, whoa
Yes we can do it whoa, whoa
Yes we can do it whoa, whoa
Yes we can do it whoa, whoa

Despite repeated warnings
Of dangers up ahead
Well the captain wasn’t listening
To what was said

So we went to the captain
And we told him to turn around
But he laughs in our faces
Says that we are mistaken

So we gather around him
Now the ropes that have bound him
Prove that he should have listened
To the will of the people
It’s the will of the people
It’s the will of the people