A song about the end of the world that was actually a joke

One of The Police's more unusual songs was created as a blend of dark future, irony, and the distinctive sound that was characteristic of new wave.

The track "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around" from the 1980 album "Zenyatta Mondatta" presented a post-apocalyptic vision of the world, but behind the serious theme there was also a dose of humor.

The song is about a lonely man trying to get on with life in a world that has been devastated by a major disaster. He spends his days eating canned food, old cassettes, and videos, repeating the same routine as he tries to survive. Although the lyrics describe a rather bleak future, Sting intended it as more of an ironic look at the human need to imagine one's own survival after a major tragedy.

“I swear, when I wrote this misanthropic, post-apocalyptic vision, I had a completely ironic attitude. I imagined a lonely future in which I survived my days on canned food, a VCR and old tapes of James Brown and Otis Redding. How many of us have this fantasy of surviving some kind of catastrophe? And in fact, our survival can only be a collective effort,” Sting wrote in the book “Lyrics By Sting.”

However, the song came out at a time when the fear of nuclear war was very present. The Cold War marked the everyday lives of many people, and stories about the end of the world were a common theme in films, literature and music. Therefore, Sting's combination of a dark script and an infectious melody had additional weight, because listeners could experience it as both a joke and a commentary on the times in which it was written.

It is this combination of seriousness and irony that makes the song special. Beneath the energetic sound of The Police lies a story about loneliness, isolation, and the question of what a person would look like if they were left completely alone.

The song reached number three on the Billboard Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart in 1981, and its popularity continued for years afterward. Interestingly, it also gained additional attention because many listeners misunderstood part of the lyrics, believing that Sting was singing something completely different from the actual lyrics. This confusion became a part of the story of the song, with many joking that such a detail would even fit the absurd picture of a post-catastrophe world it describes.

Although Sting intended the song as satire, its message eventually took on a more serious tone. “When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around” remains one of the more interesting examples of how The Police manage to combine humor, social commentary, and a distinctive musical style.