Bring On the POLL - ILM Artist Poll #116 - THE POLICE - (Results Thread)

would be a great name for a french bakery

Creepazoid narrators in Sting songs are common, yes, but so is ventriloquism. I am reasonably certain he has not worked as a coal miner (despite "We Work the Black Seam") and he is almost certainly not a vampire (despite "Moon Over Bourbon Street").

The early-era Police lyrics that might give one pause are readily identifiable:

"Their logic ties me up and rapes me," not a very good image; disproportionate to the lyrical setting.

"Limp wrist, tight fist, contact, no twist
Black dress, no mess, I want no less." Limp-wrist a homophobic slur at the time.

"On Any Other Day" throws "my fine young sun has turned out gay" into a list of other perceived calamities.

I am not sure there's a way to ferret out the exact state of mind of a prolific lyricist at the moment of lyric writing, to have some kind of final verdict about which lines were heartfelt and which were portraying a character.

So fun to sing in the car!

"King of Pain" is histrionic twaddle that works like hell.

Also hilarious imagining Sting enduring any sort of pain.

"King of Pain" would be a great name for a french bakery

...until the skeleton chokes on the crust!

"Their logic ties me up and rapes me," not a very good image; disproportionate to the lyrical setting.

This is why Tom Monroe's version changes the line to "ties me up and takes me".

it takes a special knack to be able to stand INSIDE the pouring rain

the bits where sting isn't saying a word are brilliant. love that guitar solo, but that chilly little interlude that comes right after it is magical to me - sounds just like something off tinderbox by siouxsie & the banshees

Too low! Of all the really mopey hits, this is the one that somehow works the best -- carried by the music, somehow. It's absolutely amazing that a chorus that goes "I'll always be king of pain" could be non-embarrassing, but it is, it's totally satisfying.

That said I voted the mopey "Every Little Thing" higher than this, but what can I do, I imprinted on that song in the mopiest period of my life, there are some things about ourselves we cannot remove or revise

^ perfect encapsulation of how I feel about a lot of this, I was obsessed with the Police and then Sting from ages 11-15 before The Cure took all my attention. I’ve loved revisiting it.

https://i.imgur.com/2o1PRHt.jpg

13. Synchronicity I
From: Synchronicity
Released: June 17, 1983
589 Points, 17 Votes, 1 Number One

"Synchronicity I", as well as its more famous counterpart "Synchronicity II", features lyrics that are inspired by Carl Jung's theory of synchronicity. Also included in the lyrics is a term from "The Second Coming," "Spiritus Mundi" (translating to "spirit of the world"), which William Butler Yeats used to refer to the collective unconscious, another of Jung's theories. Like other songs on Synchronicity, "Synchronicity I" is driven by a synthesizer riff.

When asked how "Synchronicity I" is connected to "Synchronicity II," Stewart Copeland said, "I've had Sting up against the wall on this issue before, and he point blank refuses to explain the connection. None of us in the band can even remember which one's which. The only way I can keep them straight is that 'Synch I' has Sting's cool sequencer part, that 'dunga dunga dung' thing that I, to this day, get all the credit for. People think it's me playing some percussive instrument, and I have to put them right. It was real 'rama-lama' way of starting our set on tour, though it almost killed me to start with that kind of onslaught every night."

According to Summers, there was originally going to be a link between this song and counterpart "Synchronicity II":

"We had this section for 'Synchronicity' which we referred to as The Loch. I went in and detuned my guitar synth to C sharp and it produced a great wash of sound, lovely. And there was an acoustic on top, a few cymbals and an oboe, really serene. We were going to have it at the end of 'Synchronicity I' — it was supposed to be the Loch Ness Monster — and then it would go into 'Synchronicity II'. But we couldn't really get it to work. Miles (Copeland) didn't like it... it was too psychedelic for him.

Oh.

Incredible opener. But never has there been a harsher drop off between track 1 and 2

I think I thought the two Synchronicities were different planes happening simultaneously, like I was the cosmic perspective and II was mired in the mess of modern life.

It's an irritating kick in the crotch iirc

the vocals on the chorus sound so good, absolutely soaring stuff

love king of pain, the verse chord progression is surprisingly complex

I wonder if anyone has ever thought about covering this song in the style of Husker Du? Kicks off the album with the same energy as New Day Rising

well not really but

"King of Pain" is permanently overshadowed, for me, by Weird Al's "King of Suede," which I heard first, many many many times. The original is good, but imho Al's lyrics are better, or at least avoid the corny business about skeletons. In both versions, it's the composition and arrangement that make such an incredible earworms, not the words... Though the entire "two-for one sale on our three-piece suits" section is pretty amazing.

Along the same lines, whenever I mentally reach for Every Breath You Take, there's a two-second adjustment where I first dip into Al's rendition in "Polkas on 45." Here I do think The Police have him beat, but then again, "Velvet Elvis" might be a better Police song than all of the above.

https://i.imgur.com/9zxiGBD.jpg

12. So Lonely
From: Outlandos d'Amour
Single Released: November 3, 1978
599 Points, 17 Votes

"People thrashing out three chords didn't really interest us musically. Reggae was accepted in punk circles and musically more sophisticated, and we could play it, so we veered off in that direction. I mean let's be honest here, 'So Lonely' was unabashedly culled from 'No Woman No Cry' by Bob Marley & The Wailers. Same chorus. What we invented was this thing of going back and forth between thrash punk and reggae. That was the little niche we created for ourselves."

— Sting, Revolver 4/2000

Sting recycled the lyrics in the song's verses from his earlier Last Exit song "Fool in Love". The lyrics themselves, about someone who is lonely after getting his heart broken, were thought to be "ironic" to large audiences.[4] Sting denied this claim, however, saying, "No, there's no irony whatsoever. From the outside it might look a bit strange, being surrounded by all this attention and yet experiencing the worst lonely feeling...but I do. And then suddenly the attention is withdrawn a half an hour later. You're so isolated...

Doubling back in the list as I give Ghost probably my third or fourth ever listen: man, Demolition Man is a lot of fun. Their answer to Fishbone or Oingo Boingo maybe? Makes me wish the Stallone/Snipes film had been an conceived as more of a retro 80s teen party comedy.

oh mannnn So Lonely RULES

disappointed to learn Sting is not proclaiming "I'm a fuckin' nightmare, I'm Mister Magoo" on DM. Wonder if this was an influence on "Firestarter," nonetheless.

This has been a very fun poll.

Here's another song with dubious sex-themed lyrics: "Salami! Salami! Salami!"

xxp I wish he was singing that! "I'm a three-line whip, I'm the sort of thing they ban" is just complete cobblers, a shit metaphor followed by hand-wavy waffle

yes Bee OK, thank you for running it

i saw the group in msg for their final show in 2008, and sting sang "welcome to the andy summers show" instead of "one-man show" lol

he wasn't wrong

Going into a long meeting so this one will be the last one for a minute.

https://i.imgur.com/dKCmlcY.jpg

11. Spirits in the Material World
From: Ghost in the Machine
Single Released: December 11, 1981 UK. 1982 US
600 Points, 19 Votes

'Spirits in the Material World' was written on one of those Casio keyboards while I was riding in the back of a truck somewhere. I just tap, tap, tap and there it was, just by accident. That was the first time I'd ever touched a synthesizer, that album.

— Sting, Synchronicity Tour Program, 1983

Andy Summers' presence on the studio track is considerably less pronounced than on the vast majority of Police songs, and in fact, Sting wanted to record it without him entirely. Having written the song on a synthesizer, he wanted for it to use synthesizer instead of guitar, and to play the synthesizer part himself. Summers thought the synthesizer part should be replaced by guitar, and after considerable argument, they compromised by recording the part on both instruments, with a mix such that the synthesizer drowned out much of Summers's guitar. In live performances this part was played on guitar only, with synthesizer used only for background chords. The bass part for the song is distinctively complex, with music producer and cognitive psychologist Daniel Levitin writing that it "takes this rhythmic play to such an extreme that it can be hard to tell where the downbeat even is." The track was recorded at Air Studios Montserrat.

The lyrics comment on the nature of man's existence and the failure of his earthly institutions.

god i love this song!

there's a lot tricky about the downbeat here, but i think the trickiest thing is that copeland rests on the "1-e" and plays on the "and-a"

“So Lonely” is SO GODDAMN ANNOYING.

that one drum hit going into the chorus is secretly the key to the whole song.

(re: Spirits)

kind of another one of their ska songs tbh (i do love it though)

Dr. C.: Yeah it sounds so wrong and feels so right. That Stewart was able to play it so precisely, so often, indicates that it was completely deliberate and intentionally placed exactly there.

what instrument is that plucky thing that arrives halfway through?

xp yeah the snare hits directly on the 4 of the previous measure before the chorus

NickB, I used to think it was a nylon-string classical guitar, very processed. Nowadays I suspect it was a sample of classical guitar played on an emU or similar keyboard.

ah okay! always made me think of a balalaika or something. or that one that's made out of half an armadillo or whatever it is

Just recently stumbled on Andy Summer's recent string of solo guitar albums and they are really beautiful.

I often lose the “one” in this song if I’m not paying attention

xp wait what? tell me more!

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