Meaning of “Despite Repeated Warnings” by Paul McCartney

“Despite Repeated Warnings” is a song by the English singer-songwriter Paul McCartney who gained worldwide stardom as a member of the legendary rock band the Beatles. The lyrics of “Despite Repeated Warnings” center on nothing but global warming.

Speaking with the tabloid newspaper The Sun, McCartney said he was motivated to write this song on global warming during a visit to Japan. He said while in that country, he came across an article from a newspaper which talked about people who deny climate change. As he read on, he stumbled upon the profound phrase “Despite repeated warnings, they’re not listening.”

It was at that moment he came up with the idea of writing a song about a mad sea captain rapidly “steering a boat towards icebergs” despite being warned again and again. According to McCartney, the mad sea captain is symbolic of politicians who deny climate change and call it a hoax.

Later, during an interview with the BBC, McCartney was asked whether during the writing process, he had any famous politician in mind. He answered by saying he did and that the politician was none other than U.S. President Donald Trump. He however stated that despite the mad captain in his song representing Donald Trump, the message in the song can apply to many other leaders and prominent figures out there who deny climate change. Here are McCartney’s exact words to the BBC:

“Well, I mean obviously it’s Trump but there’s plenty of them about. He’s not the only one.”

So all in all, “Despite Repeated Warnings” is a song that  does two things. First, it tries to make the world aware of the dangers of climate change. Second, it strongly attacks climate change deniers such as U.S. President Donald Trump.

Facts about “Despite Repeated Warnings”

• “Despite Repeated Warnings” was written solely by Paul McCartney.
• American musician and record producer Greg Kurstin handled the production of this song about the environment. Kurstin is famed for his works with other greats such as Pink, the Foo Fighters, Adele and Kelly Clarkson. For example, he co-wrote and produced Adele’s Grammy Award winning song “Hello”.
• This tune was released on 7th September, 2018. It is the 14th track from McCartney’s 18th solo studio album titled Egypt Station. The album knocked Eminem’s album Kamikaze off the number 1 spot on the U.S. Billboard 200. In doing so, Egypt Station saw McCartney grab his first number one album in the United States in almost 4 decades (approximately 36 years).

Has Donald Trump responded to this track?

As of the time of the publishing of this post (17th September, 2018), President Trump hasn’t made any comments about this track. However, knowing the kind of person the US president is, we wouldn’t be surprised if at some point he tweets about it!