- Album This song officially appears on the Tug Of War Official album.
- Timeline This song has been written (or started being written) in 1977 (Paul McCartney was 35 years old)
Related sessions
This song has been recorded during the following studio sessions
August 1980
Recording "The Pound Is Sinking"
Feb 10, 1981
Overdubs for "The Pound Is Sinking"
Mar 12, 1981
March 2-30, 2015
Related songs
Something That Didn’t Happen / Hear Me Lover
Officially appears on Tug Of War - Archive Collection
Related interviews
Paul McCartney Talks 1983 Classic ‘Pipes Of Peace’ With James Dean Bradfield
Sep 30, 2015 • From DIY
Tug Of War - Paul McCartney talks to Andy Mackay
Aug 01, 1982 • From Club Sandwich
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Song facts
“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…

Last updated on May 9, 2020
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
Official album • Released in 1982
2:55 • Studio version • A
- Paul McCartney :
- Acoustic guitar, Arrangement, Backing vocals, Electric guitar, Synthesizers, Vocal
- Linda McCartney :
- Backing vocals
- Denny Laine :
- Acoustic guitar
- Stanley Clarke :
- Bass
- Eric Stewart :
- Backing vocals
- George Martin :
- Arrangement, Producer
- Geoff Emerick :
- Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
- Jon Jacobs :
- Assistant mixing engineer, Assistant recording engineer
- Mike Stavrou :
- Assistant recording engineer
- Session Recording:
- Feb 04, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, Montserrat
- Session Recording:
- Feb 10, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, Montserrat
- Session Overdubs:
- Mar 12, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, London, UK
- Session Mixing:
- Sep 01, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, London, UK
Official album • Released in 1993
2:55 • Studio version • A1993 • 1993 remaster
- Paul McCartney :
- Acoustic guitar, Arrangement, Backing vocals, Electric guitar, Synthesizers, Vocal
- Linda McCartney :
- Backing vocals
- Denny Laine :
- Acoustic guitar
- Stanley Clarke :
- Bass
- Eric Stewart :
- Backing vocals
- George Martin :
- Arrangement, Producer
- Geoff Emerick :
- Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
- Jon Jacobs :
- Assistant mixing engineer, Assistant recording engineer
- Mike Stavrou :
- Assistant recording engineer
- Session Recording:
- Feb 04, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, Montserrat
- Session Recording:
- Feb 10, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, Montserrat
- Session Overdubs:
- Mar 12, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, London, UK
- Session Mixing:
- Sep 01, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, London, UK
Tug Of War - Archive Collection
Official album • Released in 2015
2:55 • Studio version • B • 2015 remix
- Paul McCartney :
- Acoustic guitar, Arrangement, Backing vocals, Electric guitar, Remixing, Synthesizers, Vocal
- Linda McCartney :
- Backing vocals
- Denny Laine :
- Acoustic guitar
- Stanley Clarke :
- Bass
- Eric Stewart :
- Backing vocals
- George Martin :
- Arrangement, Producer
- Geoff Emerick :
- Recording engineer
- Jon Jacobs :
- Assistant recording engineer
- Mike Stavrou :
- Assistant recording engineer
- Alex Wharton :
- Mastering
- Steve Orchard :
- Remixing
- Session Recording:
- Feb 04, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, Montserrat
- Session Recording:
- Feb 10, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, Montserrat
- Session Overdubs:
- Mar 12, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, London, UK
- Session Mixing:
- March 2-30, 2015
- Studio :
- Hog Hill Studio, Rye, UK
Tug Of War - Archive Collection
Official album • Released in 2015
Tug Of War - Archive Collection
Official album • Released in 2015
Studio version • A
- Paul McCartney :
- Acoustic guitar, Arrangement, Backing vocals, Electric guitar, Synthesizers, Vocal
- Linda McCartney :
- Backing vocals
- Denny Laine :
- Acoustic guitar
- Stanley Clarke :
- Bass
- Eric Stewart :
- Backing vocals
- George Martin :
- Arrangement, Producer
- Geoff Emerick :
- Mixing engineer, Recording engineer
- Jon Jacobs :
- Assistant mixing engineer, Assistant recording engineer
- Mike Stavrou :
- Assistant recording engineer
- Session Recording:
- Feb 04, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, Montserrat
- Session Recording:
- Feb 10, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, Montserrat
- Session Overdubs:
- Mar 12, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, London, UK
- Session Mixing:
- Sep 01, 1981
- Studio :
- AIR Studios, London, UK
Bootlegs
Unofficial album
2:28 • Outtake • Studio demo
- Studio :
- Rude Studio, Campbeltown, Scotland
Unofficial album • Released in 1989
Unofficial album • Released in 2004
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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In Praise of Fabcast, The Best Beatles Podcast Ever | Podcast Review 4 years ago
[…] 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 […]
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!
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"