The Police: Classic or Dud, Search and Destroy

No, we're mad at Sting because the Police used to be so "BAD-ASS", considering how fucking indisputably CRAP he is now.

Don't tell me how, why, when and what I'm mad at, godfuckingdammitalltohell!

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

https://preview.redd.it/what-does-stewart-copelands-kit-say-about-sting-v0-pb8bi4smlsib1.jpg?auto=webp&s=3ee12027be7d363dccbeedc617b419ff9e6e8d81

So I was watching the Fire Aid thingy and in "Message in a Bottle" the guitar player* interpolates the plinky bit from "Spirits in the Material World."

Just a tiny quote, a dozen notes, and you have to be such a Policehead to even recognize it and yet there it is.

* = Dominic Miller, apparently

I watched a whole video of one of their more pompous shows yesterday, and: destroy. I just don't get any enjoyment out of their music. They're enormously individually talented, granted! I wish they'd done something else altogether, it grates on me terribly.

I'm really enjoying this. jam after jam! I haven't listened to them in forever. Feel like they deserved a Stop Making Sense of their own. This was the show on VHS back then, right? Synchronicity Tour or bust for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgSt06JAk0A

i like the opening act list for that tour. Talking Heads! Ministry! R.E.M.! my heroes Kissing The Pink!

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts (Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, New York City, Philadelphia, Indianapolis)
A Flock of Seagulls (Chicago, Rochester, Foxborough, Tallahassee)
The Fixx (Fresno, Chicago, Toronto, Rochester, Foxborough, Lexington, Knoxville, Miami, Tacoma, Inglewood, Atlanta, Orlando)
Ministry (Chicago, Minneapolis)
Stevie Ray Vaughan (Montreal, Honolulu)
Peter Tosh (Montreal, Toronto)
Talking Heads (Montreal)
Blue Peter (Toronto)
King Sunny Adé (Toronto)
James Brown (Toronto)
R.E.M. (Hartford, New York City, Norfolk, Philadelphia, Landover)
Madness (Philadelphia, San Diego, Phoenix)
Thompson Twins (Fresno, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Phoenix, Tacoma, Inglewood)
Oingo Boingo (San Diego, Fresno, Oakland)
The Animals (Orlando, Miami)
UB40 (Denver, Kansas City, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Oklahoma City, Champaign)
Passionate Friends (St Austell, Birmingham)
Bryan Adams (Sydney, Melbourne, Honolulu)
Australian Crawl (Melbourne)
Sunnyboys (Sydney, Melbourne)
Kids in the Kitchen (Melbourne)
Split Enz (Richfield, OH)
Berlin (Inglewood, CA)
Re-Flex (Syracuse, Providence, Memphis, Williamsburg, Buffalo, Carbondale, Cincinnati, Greensboro)
Kissing the Pink (Baton Rouge, Biloxi)
China Crisis (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Blackpool)

They made $418,990 for their two nights in Atlanta.

holy crap the strobing in spirits in the material world might kill you! its pretty unwatchable on my t.v. maybe if i was wearing sunglasses. i blame godley & creme.

I want an alternate cut with just shots of the audience

Kinda cool seeing the Animals in that list. I guess Eric Burdon was an early Newcastle hero of Sting. Sting shows up as a talking head in the BBC documentary on Burdon from a couple years ago.

There’s a closer connection than that - Andy was actually in the Animals for a short while

For a brief time in 1968, he was a member of the Animals, then known as Eric Burdon and the Animals, with whom he recorded one album, Love Is. The album features a recording of Traffic's "Coloured Rain", which includes a 4 minute and 15 second guitar solo by Summers. The LP also included a reworked version of Dantalian's Chariot's sole single "Madman Running Through the Fields".

I want an alternate cut with just shots of the audience

I feel like something like this exists! From the era of DVDs with alternate angles.

Aha!

The Police's Synchronicity Concert video, previously only available on VHS has now been released on DVD. It was first released on DVD in Europe and in other regions back in September while the American release was delayed.

The original VHS tape was released in September 1984 and had 15 songs filmed and recorded from two soldout shows at the Omni Arena in Atlanta Georgia on November 2nd and 3rd, 1983.

The DVD has better sound and film quality, plus four songs not on the original VHS tape have been added. Synchronicity II, Roxanne, Invisible Sun, and Don't Stand So Close To Me have been included as extra songs and can each be viewed from four different camera angles(only two for Roxanne). The only song not included from the shows appears to be "Murder By Numbers".

seriously, watch your eyes when spirits in the material world comes on. that hurt!

Just happened to be reading Peter Ames Carlin's biography The Name of This Band Is R.E.M and, well.

I hadn't known about the role played by the middle Copeland brother in getting R.E.M. their slot opening for the Police when they were very very new.

Maybe everyone here already knew this but I did not: Peter Buck had worked for Ian Copeland in a minor clerical capacity in pre-Athens days.

Peter Tosh (Montreal, Toronto)

Interesting how a reggae act might set up the headliner in a different way than many of the others on the list.

That 1983 Toronto show was the last in a series of three yearly summer shows they played in the Toronto area, called "Police Picnics". They were more like festivals than opener/headline shows, as you can see by the six acts on the bill, which might change the dynamic between them somewhat.

Had a sentimental listen to the first side of Regatta De Blanc this morning (first record I bought, still got my name on the back from where I took it to school so that we could dance on stage to Walking On The Moon during school assembly). Funny the details that jump out now I’ve got old man ears instead of being like 9 years old. Definitely think that a lot of my later musical likes were because of the little things here that became so embedded in my brain, albeit subconsciously…

- that loooong moment of whining guitar feedback and drums on Bring On The Night, such a cool moment when the bass comes back in
- the last minute of the song Regatta De Blanc where it’s just pure motorik music, though admittedly it’s more Hawkwind than Neu
- the gnarly blues guitar solo in It’s Alright For You, very When The Levee Breaks. Why did I never notice that before? Is Andy playing with a slide? And I never really cared for this song but even in their bad songs they sometimes pull out a gorgeous coda - this one sounds just like Echo Beach to me
- how weird Deathwish? dubby raga rock, but this also has sections of the motorik thing too

Deathwish in the fading light
Hitler running through the night

It was among the dozen or so records my slightly cooler older sister had.

Regatta de Blanc
My Aim Is True
Punch the Clock
Cool Places
English Settlement
A Flock of Seagulls
Blinded by Science
Night and Day

All of them still relevant for me, 40 years on