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

My wife can't stand Sting and doesn't really care for the Police either. But she was really taken by "Bring on the Night" when I played it the other day and was asking me if it was one of the tracks they recorded at George Martin's studio in the Caribbean (we watched the doc).

The verse with the guitar arpeggios is absolutely stunning -- poss. the song that grew on me the most that I already knew for this poll. I'd have put it top 5 if I had more time to debate it.

Yes that beautiful guitar playing during the verses, so lilting and lovely

Also: it's worth noting that the live version of this on the Sting album of the same name is fucking great -- I actually think the chorus is maybe a little better. Kenny Kirkland's piano on the "When the World Is Running Down" part blew me away as a kid and is actually just as amazing today.

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

https://i.imgur.com/koR5Pu5.jpg

6. Don’t Stand So Close to Me
From: Zenyattà Mondatta
Released: October 3. 1980
1986 Version - 2 Votes
653 Points, 20 Votes, 1 Number One

The song deals with the mixed feelings of lust, fear and guilt that a school teacher has for a student and the fallout when the inappropriate relationship is discovered by other adults. The line "Just like the old man in that book by Nabokov" alludes to Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita, which covers somewhat similar issues.[5] The line was criticised for rhyming "shake and cough" with Nabokov. Sting replied, "I've used that terrible, terrible rhyme technique a few times."

Before joining The Police, Sting had previously worked as an English teacher. He referred to the song's story progression as "the teacher, the open page, the virgin, the rape in the car, getting the sack."

In 1993, however, he said of the song's inspiration, "You have to remember we were blond bombshells at the time and most of our fans were young girls so I started roleplaying a bit. Let's exploit that." He also stated that the song does not have a basis in fact, stating that "To be frank, it was right in our market. A lot of teenage girls were buying our records. So the idea was, let's write a Lolita story." Ultimate Classic Rock critic Mike Duquette describes the theme as "a man going insane in a post-apocalyptic world." In a 2001 interview for the concert DVD ...All This Time, Sting denied that the song is autobiographical.

That is all so gross.

eww

stunning promotion for miss gradenko if she's made the top 5 though

“a man going insane” yeahhhh, right, it’s what you’d do when the pressure really got to you, is it?

when I was a kid I played some PC game for which the BGM was just like a MIDI version of "Bring on the Night". wish I remembered what it was!

Surprised that the 1986 version only got two proclaimed votes.

have grown to really dislike this one

yeah me too and sting songsplaining it is not helping

https://i.imgur.com/Et1X2Az.jpg

5. When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around
From: Zenyattà Mondatta
Released: October 2. 1980

"When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around" was one of Sting's earliest attempts at a song whose lyrics deal with concerns of the outside world rather than just his own issues. Ellie O'Day of Vancouver Free Press describes the lyrics as being mostly a "repetitive chant". Ultimate Classic Rock critic Mike Duquette describes the theme as "a man going insane in a post-apocalyptic world." Sting regards the song as having a post-apocalyptic vision, something it shares with an earlier Police song, "Bring on the Night", from the 1979 album Reggatta de Blanc. Sting has said of the two songs "such vanity as to imagine one's self as the sole survivor of a holocaust with all one's favorite things still intact".

My number one, after naming the voting thread after this song it just seemed right.

5. When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around
From: Zenyattà Mondatta
Released: October 2. 1980
672 Points, 19 Votes, 4 Number Ones

Oh I'd forgotten about this one, stand down miss gradenko

Huh, it was my #5

lol Mike Duquette weighing in again

My #1, was hoping it’d top the poll. MONSTER jam.

when the poll is running down

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

4. Walking on the Moon
From: Reggatta de Blanc
Released: November 4, 1979
748 Points, 21 Votes, 1 Number One

I was drunk in a hotel room in Munich, slumped on the bed with the whirling pit when this riff came into my head. I got up and started walking round the room, singing 'Walking round the room, ya, ya, walking round the room'. That was all. In the cool light of morning I remembered what had happened and I wrote the riff down. But 'Walking Round the Room' was a stupid title so I thought of something even more stupid which was 'Walking on the Moon'.

— Sting, L'Historia Bandido, 1981

In his autobiography, Sting implies that the song was partially inspired by an early girlfriend:

Deborah Anderson was my first real girlfriend...walking back from Deborah's house in those early days would eventually become a song, for being in love is to be relieved of gravity.

— Sting, 2003

According to Sting, the song was originally recorded "as a rocker" in early versions, but it was reworked. The riff, which is played on the bass, was described as "weird" and "jazzy" by Sting. Guitarist Andy Summers came up with the chord "which hits after the bass notes" throughout the song.

Ellie O'Day of Vancouver Free Press describes the lyrics as being mostly a "repetitive chant"

Hello, every Police song ever.

Cha!

One of his best basslines

“James Brown on the T.A.M.I. Show / same tape I’ve had for years”

xp

Had no idea that anyone regarded "When the World Is Running Down" as more than filler!

"Walking on the Moon", meanwhile, isn't my favourite Police song but feels like their essence distilled.

https://i.imgur.com/D5z2lo9.jpg

3. Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
From: Ghost in the Machine
Single Released: November 2, 1981
753 Points, 22 Votes, 3 Number Ones

Although the song was recorded in 1981, Sting wrote it as early as late 1976 prior to the formation of the Police. An early (1976) demo of the song can be heard on the Strontium 90 album Strontium 90: Police Academy, which Sting recorded entirely by himself while the song was still fresh in his mind (according to Mike Howlett), using equipment in the loft of Howlett's home in Acton, London which included an acoustic guitar, a bass guitar, an African drum, a TEAC 4-track recorder and some cheap microphones. For Howlett, this demo is "a powerful testimony to the raw, undiluted talent that is Sting". The recording was made prior to the launch of the Portastudio in the late 70s, which Sting would later use for writing and demoing songs for The Police and so on. A second demo was recorded in January 1981 at Le Studio in Morin Heights, Canada, with Nick Blagona engineering:

This was first recorded as a demo, with the piano figure, in a studio in Montreal. I had written the song long before the Police were successful, but it seemed a bit soft for the band at first. But the demo was really great. It sounded like a No 1 song to me. I took it to the band, who were reticent, still thinking it was soft. I was saying, "But listen, it's a hit." We tried to do it from scratch as the Police, but it didn't have the same energy as the demo. After a degree of hair-pulling and torturing on my part, I got the band to play over the top of my demo.

— Sting, The Independent, September 1993

The piano part was added by session keyboardist Jean Roussel, whom Sting would fly over to help re-record the track against the wishes of his bandmates Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland while they were recording the Ghost in the Machine album at AIR Studios, Montserrat. Summers did not approve of Roussel's inclusion in the track, claiming that he was "incredibly pushy" and that "there wasn't room for him. He must have played 12 piano parts on that song alone." Copeland, however, said that Roussel "wasn't pushy ... He was just like us actually."

Feeling that the arrangement of the track was not enough like The Police style, Summers (who recalled, "as the guitar player I was saying, 'What the fuck is this? This is not the Police sound'") and the band tried to "Police-ify" the track by attempting different arrangements and styles, but none of them clicked. However, as Copeland remembers, the remaining two members of the band had to overdub onto Sting’s demo in the end:

"I remember saying, 'Okay put up Sting's original demo and I'll show you how crummy it is.' So Sting stood over me and waved me through all the changes. I did just one take, and that became the record. Then Andy did the same thing on the guitar. We just faced the music, bit the bullet, and used Sting's arrangements and demo. Damn."

— Stewart Copeland, Revolver, 2000

In the chorus, Sting, not knowing any other word which would rhyme with "magic," used the word "tragic." Copeland said of this moment, "I remember Sting for years trying to think of a rhyme for 'magic', as in 'Every Little Things She Does Is Magic.' I think the only word he could come up with, apart from 'tragic', was 'pelagic', which means 'ocean going'. There I was in my leather pants and punk hairdo, pondering the distinction between ocean-going and river-going fish." This moment was, in his estimation, implied by scholars to be fairly comical.

xp I have never thought of "When the World is Running Down" as filler.

Stewart clowning on Sting's lyric writing is always so funny

anyway I am pretty sure this was my #1. just a perfect pop song start to finish

xp I have never thought of "When the World is Running Down" as filler.

To me, it's in the same category as something like "Hungry For You", which isn't even going to place.

"When The World" was my #4, I love that guitar sound

and the groove

There was so much gold on Wikipedia that I felt it would enhance this poll. Hope you all didn't mind.

a powerful testimony to the raw, undiluted talent that is Sting deez

I was also a #1 for When the World, musically and lyrically both it's them firing on all cylinders. "Every Little Thing" was my #3 (and top-ranked of their big hits), so I approve this placement.

Still holding out hope that my #1 comes out on top.

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

2. Synchronicity II
From: Synchronicity
Single Released: October 21, 1983
802 Points, 21 Votes, 2 Number Ones

https://i.imgur.com/kRxZH4G.jpg

1. Message in a Bottle
From: Reggatta de Blanc
Single Released: February 1979
875 Points, 22 Votes, 5 Number Ones

Whoop, not quite.

1	875	22	5	Message in a Bottle
2	802	21	2	Synchronicity II
3	753	22	3	Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
4	748	21	1	Walking on the Moon
5	672	19	4	When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around
6	653	20	1	Don’t Stand So Close to Me
7	652	20	1	Bring on the Night
8	628	19	1	Driven To Tears
9	603	19		Invisible Sun
10	601	16		Can’t Stand Losing You
11	600	19		Spirits in the Material World
12	599	17		So Lonely
13	589	17	1	Synchronicity I
14	529	17		King of Pain
15	508	15	1	Roxanne
16	492	16		The Bed’s Too Big Without You
17	486	14	2	Ωmegaman
18	473	17		Wrapped Around Your Finger
19	436	13	1	Secret Journey
20	374	11		Every Breath You Take
21	366	11	1	It’s Alright for You
22	354	11		Next to You
23	322	10	1	Darkness
24	312	10		Canary in a Coal Mine
25	276	9		De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
26	271	8		Voices in My Head
27	266	8		Truth Hits Everybody
28	245	8	1	No Time This Time
29	209	6		Demolition Man
30	200	7		Man in a Suitcase
31	183	5	1	I Burn for You
32	176	6		Tea in the Sahara
33	174	6		Bombs Away
34	170	6		Does Everyone Stare
35	165	6		Contact
36	149	5		Murder by Numbers
37	148	5		Shadows in the Rain
38	143	5		Too Much Information
39	119	4		Rehumanize Yourself
40	110	4		Mother

I will post full results later.

Good poll, thanks Bee OK!

Yes, great poll. It was my first to vote in and was a lot of fun.

So thanks for running it, Bee!