When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around Lyrics

Turn on my V.C.R.
Same one I've had for years
James Brown on the T. A. M. I. show
Same tape I've had for years
I sit in my old car
Same one I've had for years
Old battery's running down
It ran for years and years

Turn on the radio
The static hurts my ears
Tell me where would I go
I ain't been out in years
Turn on the stereo
It's played for years and years
An Otis Redding song
It's all I own

When the world is running down
You make the best of what's still around
When the world is running down
You make the best of what's still around

Plug in my M.C.I
To exercise my brain
Make records on my own
Can't go out in the rain
Pick up the telephone
I've listened here for years
No one to talk to me
I've listened here for years

When the world is running down
You make the best of what's still around
When the world is running down
You make the best of what's still around

When I feel lonely here
Don't waste my time with tears
I run 'Deep Throat' again
It ran for years and years
Don't like the food I eat
The cans are running out
Same food for years and years
I hate the food I eat
When the world is running down
You make the best of what's still around
When the world is running down
You make the best of what's still around

When the world is running down
You make the best of what's still around
When the world is running down
You make the best of what's still around

{fade}

Turn on my V.C.R.
Same one I've had for years
James Brown on the T. A. M. I. show
Same tape I've had for years
I sit in my old car
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10 Meanings

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Cover art for When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around lyrics by Police, The

gotta look up M.C.I. Don't think Sting meant the phone company. Cold war tensions were high with Reagan and Thatcher on their respective thrones. So the nuclear apocalypse happened, and he's in his fallout shelter with dusty old records and VHS tapes. Why ELSE would he be sitting arond with all those moldy oldies?

M.C.I. manufactured audio mixing consoles.

And yeah, I agree - seems like a post-apocalyptic bomb shelter survivor persevering with his favorite/only videos (T.A.M.I. show & Deep Throat) and record (Otis Redding) to pass the time. (hey, at least he's got good taste.)

Dwindling supply of canned food reinforces the bomb shelter interpretation. He can't go out in the rain because it's radioactive. Static on the radio and no one on the phone lead me to believe he's maybe the last survivor. But good for him - he's keeping up that pragmatic outlook.

Not Valid

Absolutely. When I sat and listened to the lyrics yesterday, this was the same interpretation I got. Stuck in a bomb shelter with nowhere to go and nothing to do, but wait.

Always love the upbeat downer songs. :)

Not Valid
Cover art for When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around lyrics by Police, The

IMHO Andy Summers has one of the coolest guitar tones I've ever heard in this song. The whole song just flows perfectly, and they didn't screw up with groove with anything besides the breakdown/buildup which totally brings you back into the song. The groove is so good that after listening to it over and over for the entire length of the song you still want to put it right back on again.

I would like to think that Sting wrote this song while being cooped up in the studio for an extended period of time. The Police were known for feuding with each other, so more than likely they all just went in and wanted to get the hell out of there but couldnt leave. I would like to think the song is about how even though your situation is not what you want it to be and you have to repeat things a million times that you don't want to do, you still have to find the fun part of it and make the best of it you can.

The reference to the T.A.M.I. show, for all the kiddies who have no clue what it was, refers to James Brown's performance on the said show. Basically, the T.A.M.I. show was a rock concert with the biggest name rock bands of the time (the stones, etc.) all performing their asses off. In short, after you watched all the biggest names in rock (who would definately be a hard act to follow), James Brown came out and unexpectedly blew them all out of the water. James Brown's performance on the T.A.M.I. is generally noted to be one of the best live shows of the era ever recorded.

I think Sting used the T.A.M.I. reference not only as a nod to his inspirations, but as a reminder that if you are in a position where you don't want to do something, you should still do it with everything you have because you might just blow somebody away with what you do.

Mojo is right about the TAMI show comment - James Brown came off incredibly and introduced a wide audience to the finitely known funk sound in America and in it's way, changed the face of music in the US and beyond According to a Sting interview from the Zenyatta Tour, it is about a man who is the last person on earth after nuclear holocaust which fits into the spirit of the lyrics.

WTWIRD fits beautifully with the haunting Shadows In The Rain which also is about Nuclear destruction leaving just the narrator left.

Not Valid
Cover art for When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around lyrics by Police, The

Meanwhile, 'When The World Is Running Down You Make The Best Of What's Still Around' fully deserves its fourteen-word title with Summers' echoey ringing chords and Sting's excellent vocal workout. [George Starostin]

Cover art for When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around lyrics by Police, The

Mojo's got it wrong. It was the Stones who were the final performance at the TAMI show and they were terriffied of having to follow James Brown.

Quite a groove this song has...cannot be listened apart from "Driven To Tears"

Cover art for When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around lyrics by Police, The

This song is about a guy who's really dissatisfied with life, but just makes the best of what he's got. Great song

Cover art for When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around lyrics by Police, The

this is about life.

haha good enough i hope :) I feel sting pretty doubtful of progress here lol accusing the losing of soul among many things.. not particulary too much a fan of new technologies either lol and still right about not wanting to trade all for empty subsitutes. most importantly to not give in in general

Cover art for When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around lyrics by Police, The

about the song, for what i got is about the last man on earth. and about trying to keep sanity by trying to keep a routine.. might also be a metaphor for being misunderstood or an outcast on the actual society that keeps sinking down and down.. also depression and not being able to make contact with the "outside world". or even a person still attached to the "old ways" that doesn't feel the need to get new experiences and likes his world the way it is.

about the several lyrics parts:

"Plug in my M.C.I. to exercise my brain"

for those who didn't get it, the M.C.I. acronym refers to Music Center Incorporated.. so in this song Sting is refering to a multitracker recorder..

"Make records on my own can't go out in the rain"

this might be due the nuclear winter the survivors of a nuclear blast will be facing.

"Pick up the Telephone, I've listened here for years No-one to talk to me I've listened here for years"

trying to use the radio to keep track of any people in the same situation.. not getting much luck. but he still has hope and keeps doing it even after years and years of silence.

"When I feel lonely here, don't waste my time with tears I run 'Deep Throat' again it ran for years and years Don't like the food I eat, the cans are running out Same food for years and years I hate the food I eat"

at this time he tries to forget about what's going on and to delude himself by trying to recreat things the used to do. also, he starts to get sick of eating the same food over and over again, something that usually happen to depressed people.

and that's pretty much it.. a nostalgic song.

My Interpretation

The screamingly obvious thing in this lyrics is that the singer is NOT making the best of what's still around, or at least it's a poor set of options – he's adopted a life of unspeakable isolation, and there's no indication that that isn't by choice. He gets his food from cans, his sex from watching one porn video over and over, and his only stated human contact is from listening to music and watching videos, and he "ain't been out for years."

Either this man has chosen a hermit's lifestyle by choice or the world literally has run down in some unstated way – is he living in a bunker or fallout shelter in a post-apocalyptic world? If the radio is truly only playing static, then perhaps he's living in the ruins of a world destroyed by nuclear war or some other catastrophe, and his pitiful surroundings are the best he has available. But if human civilization and its handiwork have all fallen apart, then where is the electricity for all of his appliances coming from?

This is either or both of a warning about isolation in material things and/or the threat of nuclear war – both are things that Sting has spoken out about in other songs. The canned food makes me suppose that the nuclear war hypothesis is the correct one, and the rain is perhaps a reference to fallout. And then the detail about his electricity is nitpicking, or the lyrics spare us boring details about his personal generator.

Cover art for When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around lyrics by Police, The

Anselm Hollo & Donald Hall (paraphrased poetry)

Life is complicated Drains are roaring Percy B. Shelley—was fond of soaring Flowers of spring—tra-la—suddenly In this lone kitchen Ferocious sociopath—rubs ace of hearts Against his crotch for luck

[She said] So why not stay up, brother and think about everything and I mean—everything [He said] I’m not going to read any of these—to anyone over the phone tonight

[They said] God knows … back there in his snug chair or his perishing tower wistful sniffing a flower So—let it slide And let’s abide And sigh As dawn is drawing nigh There is the rain—there is the snow The dew—the fog—the mist—the glow Hers—Mine Possessive forms of action Giving one little—or no traction

[She said] The radio keeps talking It tells me news and weather and feelings About products and sadness Boxes and boxes of sadness

[Someone said] You’re not going to sleep anyway You’re going to lay around and curse [We said] How do—he plus she hang together on their still beautiful (though in this case—slightly bent) frames? [We said] Beautifully

[And uh, she said, making the best of what's still around ... love the song ...]

Cover art for When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around lyrics by Police, The

Seasons of flame Seasons of shadow With the slow snow, the lepers come down Suddenly Love—the peer of terror With unseen hand, arrests the fire Puts right the sun Reconstructs the loved one Nothing foretold an existence of such strength Snow is falling from the mouth of this cannon There was hell in our heads At the same time—spring’s at our fingertips The earth’s in love The grasses exuberant The constellation of the lonely one is stretched taut (With me—lightning lasts …) One cannot begin …! How we resemble you! She guesses … The heart Shared by us during what is improperly called a fine storm Sinks several times