The Police: Classic or Dud, Search and Destroy

For all that, the Police were classic!

Great Stewart Copeland interview here, wherein he admits that much of his awesome ride bell playing was overdubbed. Haha!

That ain't nothin' new. Copeland was never afraid to use studio technology to build drum tracks. "Every Breath You Take" was half live, half programmed - the kick & snare were Linn Drum, with Copeland overdubbing the high-hat & cymbals seperately.

auto mash-up !

I thought that song was great when I was about 11, even though I had no idea what he was going on about. By the time I was old enough to realize how silly it was my fondness for it was firmly entrenched. Totally stupid, but not a bad hook. As fake as fake-punk got.

Because it's a hopelessly pretentious sack of tepid, runny DUNG wherein Sting grabs an unsuspecting Paul Bowles novel by the sensitive bits, pours syrup all over it and then proceeds to bugger it inconsiderably, whilst coming up with some of the worst couplets of his already pock-marked career. It's AWFUL!

Very interesting.

Then after performing the works of Elizabethan lute master John Dowland for US TV last weekend he was asked about the rumours.

I'm listening to "Bring On The Night" right now and I'm kinda freaking out about it.

I also just listened to "Born In The 50's." My God.

"My mother cried
When president Kennedy died
She said it was the communists
But I knew better"

AGHHHHHHH!

http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn306/Floridian_20/PoliceSynch.jpg

Just about the best mother fucking thing from 1983. Beware. I don't care if John D. jumps on my ass. I really don't care. I'll willingly take a beating for this record.

There's a little black spot on the sun today.

something i remember: sitting in 8th grade art class and telling john crichton (who wasn't a particular friend of mine, just the kid sitting next to me) that synchronicity was coming out the next day. he looked at me and said "so what?" i said something like the police were the best band in the world and he just kind of shook his head.

in retrospect i think it's the least of the police, but that's a relative measure and i'll defend most of it on one ground or another.

(but it's not the best thing from '83, even if i thought so then)

KING OF PAIN

Listen to the fucking BASS on that!

"Synchronicity I" is pretty underrated.. and I still love "Oh My God" and "Tea In The Sahara."

and then there's 'mother'

yup..

"Mother" adds character. Police albums aren't complete without at least 1 huge WTF moment.

And I like that "Mother" is in 7/8.

many miles away
there's a shadow on the door
of a cottage on the shore
of a dark
scottish lake
many miles away

oh scottish monster please listen
don't devour me

I WILL LISTEN HARD TO YOUR TUITION

ska horseshit is horseshit

I know they get no respect these days but I still feel - walking on the moon - if it comes on in public. I love the double snare hit near the end and the subsequent hi hat solo of sorts

Cool Copeland and Summers bits more than make up for even the band's worst moments.

even sting's depths in to wretched irrelevance and this photo

http://https%3A//pbs.twimg.com/media/BNnKXTeCIAAohZo.jpg

cannot destroy how good the Police are

bah https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BNnKXTeCIAAohZo.jpg

The horror

Sting in bringing the tantric lute jams SHOCKAH!

Let "Tantric lute jams" never again be spoken of on ilx

fuck tha Police

okay Stew making that his background is indeed very funny

Chances that he arranged that with the camera crew on purpose ? 75%?

You don't have to put on the red lute

got that Klark Kent compilation on again, you know what he's annoying but damn he writes really catchy songs. or maybe he just drums in a way that makes everything sound catchy. I mean "Too Kool to Kalypso" says it all - obnoxious vocals, obnoxious lyrics, obnoxious kazoo, but he's a force of nature on the kit and the song will be stuck in your head forever. also love that half this shit was clearly written for Sting

like c'mon he was wrong to reject this. imagine how good this would've been on Reggatta.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIMitPazAgQ

If that picture of Sting with the Lute was Dimebag Darrell, it would be him with some crazy Dean lightning bolt guitar at a strip club with an exotic dancer on a riser next to a stripper pole in that pose.

like c'mon he was wrong to reject this. imagine how good this would've been on Reggatta.

📹

he can rewrite all the lyrics if he wants, the song itself such pure power pop

Exactly. Police don't do power pop.

On the first two albums they sorta did. Which I think is when these songs were written

Hmm, I still don't hear the power pop. Maybe "Born in the 50's", and if you squint sideways something like "Next to You" miiiiight fit, but you'd have to be pretty generous with what you consider power pop.

fuck, i’m like “fall out” is who-style powerpop, and i assumed it was on outlandos, but no.

i actually only knew it from an off-the-air recording i made from wlir in 82 of police playing live from like 79. last listened to in the 80s? that memorable? senility?

Last three tracks on Reggatta are power poppish