Police - Synchronicity POLL

That interview is amazing, it’s so good I almost suspected it was fake

Is it true that Summers didn’t know about the Puff Daddy song until he heard it on the radio?

Andy's account of writing/recording that guitar line in his autobiography is great. It only sounds simple, but to play those single notes and nail the tone all the way through the song is a bit of mastery.

just remembered that andy summers will be 80 years old this year, which is just unfathomable to me

Andy is an absolute genius, and his sound/effects and knowing how to use them is a huge part of that. But give credit where credit is (literally) due: as much as it (king of) pains me to say it, I have no doubt Sting wrote the bulk of those songs. But Andy and Stewart were absolutely essential in coming up with those key creative parts and arrangements, and the fact that Andy does't get credit for making "Every Breath" better than Leo Sayer's "I Love You More Than I Can Say" is a travesty.

Still:

who knows how far Sting could've gone without the other two

Again, pains me to say it, but the fact that he has had a long solo career with lots of hits, whatever we think of them, says a lot. When was the last time any of you listened to Animal Logic?

Biggest mystery to me remains "Magic." There's famously next to no Andy on it, and the story goes Sting demoed and arranged it with a keyboard player named Jean Roussel, but no one talks about him.

In January 1981 Jean Roussel recorded the demo version of Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic with Sting at Le Studio in Morin Heights near Montreal.

They played all of the instruments, basses, guitars, synths, marimbas pianos , clavinets etc... and Sting sang.

The song was destined for Sting's first solo album.

Several months later Jean Roussel got a call in Montreal (where he was still living at the time) from Sting and Miles Copeland to fly ASAP to Monserrat, to re-record the title with Sting and the other two members of the band.

They worked on the song for about a week, and none of the versions recorded were anywhere as good as the demo...

Finally Sting decided to use the original demo - and the version that is on the group's album is the exact original demo which Sting & Jean Roussel recorded, with Stewart's drums replacing the drum machine used on the demo and Andy's additional guitar parts.

There's a new book out about Stewart Copeland's drumming. Got it for Christmas and I just read about that Magic story! Book's really fun so far.

anything about this in it? would love to know what banshees track it was:

"Bombs Away" was recorded on a tape that Nigel Gray had just used with Siouxsie and the Banshees. Copeland said that "when he first set up his home studio he got hold of a load of second hand tape which included some stuff by Siouxsie and the Banshees. 'Bombs Away' was written on a Siouxsie and the Banshees backing track. I changed the speed and did things to the EQ to change the drum pattern. So with the desk I can get my song playing, then press a switch and there's Siouxsie singing away."

Does the book reveal the inspiration for all the hi-hat rolls/fills/flourishes or bringing back splash cymbals?

Don’t tell the director I said soooooooo
But are you safe miss gradenkoooooooo

re: "everything little thing she does is magic", that's also covered in the revolver interview. they make it pretty clear that the usual band dynamic was sting recording demos that had the core of the song, but the other two never liked his arrangements & they'd totally rearrange the songs as a band. since sting wrote the core melody & lyrics, he got the credit even though the others wrote original parts of the arrangement too. for "magic", summers & copeland couldn't figure out any sort of satisfying rearrangement at all so they eventually resentfully resorted to just replicating sting's demo for once.

Revolver: More Schadenfreude. What can you tell me about 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic'?

Summers: Well, I'm going to get very insulting here. When Sting was off doing the demos in Canada, he used this pianist who was incredibly pushy.

Copeland: He wasn't pushy.

Summers: f*** he was! He even managed to come down to Montserrat when we were recording.

Copeland: He was just like us actually.

Summers: Well, yeah, but there wasn't room for him. He must have played 12 piano parts on that song alone. And as the guitar player I was saying, 'What the f*** is this? This is not the Police sound'.

Copeland: So we tried to make the song a Police song - which meant undoing all of Sting's arrangement. That was our basic policy anyway. Always has been. Throw out Sting's arrangement, keep his lyrics and the song. So we tried playing it slower than the demos, we tried my "rama-lama" punk version. Andy tried turning the chords upside down. We spent more time on this song than on all the other songs put together. One morning, in a state of extreme grumpiness, 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, but the bullet, and used Sting's arrangements and demo. Damn.

is that the demo that was on the Strontium 90 CD?

TS: The Police (band) vs The Police (interview subjects)

gotta be honest this is tough for me. they were a world-historical pop act but they may be the greatest band interview of all time.

it's interview all the way for me

that interview excerpt is great. also, now i wanna hear Copeland's "'rama-lama' punk version" (also what exactly does he mean by that phrasing?).

The estimable 80sography podcast recently published a track-by-track commentary by Hugh Padgham!

The Revolver interview:

https://www.sting.com/news/title/revolver

Man, that Pittsburgh joke reminds me of an awkward evening with a loud relative.

Lmao

Revolver: Bands like the Offspring cite 'Can't Stand Losing You' as an important early punk song. Wasn't it banned by the BBC?

Copeland: Actually, we got a lot of mileage out of it being supposedly banned by the BBC. In fact, all that really happened was that we didn't make their playlist, so we turned that into 'Banned by the BBC'.

Sting: Wait a minute - it was 'Roxanne' they wouldn't play. Then we had that publicity campaign with posters about how the BBC banned 'Roxanne'. The reason they had a problem with 'Can't Stand Losing You' was because the photo on the cover of the single had Stewart standing on a block of ice with a noose around his neck, waiting for the ice to melt.

Copeland: Oh, so it was all my fault?

Sting: No, no, I applauded you for doing that Stewart. The only problem is... you didn't actually go through with it. (laughs)

seriously they could reunite without instruments for a comedy banter tour and I'd be first in line for tickets

We’re watching Only Murders in the Building; turns out Sting is in the show, in kind of an amusing way (speaking of comedy).

Sting otm about Copelands rhythms being completely in danceable though

for bookmarkers who might not have seen: When the World is Running Down, You Make the POLL of What's Still Around – ILM Artist Poll #116 – THE POLICE - (Voting is open until Sunday, Nov 27)

box set coming:

https://wmgk.com/2023/08/22/sting-confirms-police-synchronicity-box-set-is-coming/

Does the world need a Sychronicity boxed set?

tbh, except for Pet Sounds, I can't think of a single rock album box set that needed to be box set. They all should have been carved up into separate releases - e.g. a remastered (or remixed) edition of the album, a live album, and an outtakes/demos/studio rarities compilation. But economically speaking, when it comes to reissues, album box sets are the most viable products a label can come up with.

Looking forward to that 21-minute version of "Mother"

A whole disk of "Mother" ala the Fun House sessions.

the motherlode

Looking forward to that 21-minute version of "Mother"

― pplains, Wednesday, 23 August 2023

Extended remix by Arthur Baker.

this is an album that easily could have landed in my top 50 if I'd thought about it. certainly interested in hearing outtakes, but like most box sets, I'd go for a digital version.

Listening to it again now after 30+ years and nope... still nowhere near as good as "Ghost In the Machine".

Love Summers' playing on "Synchronicity II', though.

6CD deluxe reissue was supposed to be released today

The box set contains the following content:

CD1 is the original album including ‘Murder By Numbers’, all remastered directly from the original source tapes
CD2 features 18 tracks containing all original 7” / 12” B-sides plus 11 exclusive non-album bonus tracks, available on CD for the first time
CD3 and CD4 contains previously unreleased alternate takes of all the Synchronicity songs
CD4 also features unreleased Police songs including an early version of Andy Summers’ 1982 track ‘Goodbye Tomorrow’ (later renamed ‘Someone To Talk To’); a demo of a Stewart Copeland penned song ‘I’m Blind’ which later resurfaced as the renamed ‘Brothers on Wheels’ for Copeland’s acclaimed soundtrack to Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Rumblefish’; an unreleased first take of ‘Truth Hits Everybody’ (originally from the 1978 debut Outlandos d’Amour’); and rare covers of the Eddie Cochran song ‘Three Steps To Heaven’ and ‘Rock and Roll Music’ by Chuck Berry
CD5 and CD6 features 19 live recordings – all previously unreleased – captured on 10th September 1983 at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, USA
As well as the hardcover book, the 6CD box includes four art prints. Other formats include a 2CD set (repeats first two discs of the super deluxe), a 4LP vinyl edition (42 tracks instead of the 84 on the 6CD set) and a vinyl picture disc that rejigs the running order.

would be an instant buy for me 10 years ago, now i think i'm happy with just listening to the album very occasionally

https://superdeluxeedition.com/news/the-police-synchronicity-6cd-box-set/

A library checkout for me, something to dive into for a not-busy week and that’s it.

Results from the ILM Police poll:

2 802 21 Synchronicity II
13 589 17 Synchronicity I
14 529 17 King of Pain
18 473 17 Wrapped Around Your Finger

20 374 11 Every Breath You Take
32 176 6 Tea in the Sahara
36 149 5 Murder by Numbers
40 110 4 Mother

― Bee OK, Friday, December 9, 2022

a vinyl picture disc that rejigs the running order

This actually probably makes for a more listenable (albeit front-loaded) record (I won't miss "Murder By Numbers"):

Side 1

Synchronicity I
Every Breath You Take
Wrapped Around Your Finger
Miss Gradenko
Synchronicity II

Side 2

King Of Pain
Walking In Your Footsteps
Mother
O My God
Tea In The Sahara

Conveniently on Spotify. If anything, I appreciate the band more - live cuts are great, and demos are edifying, revealing what the others brought to the songs. Sting could've gone in a bad direction on some of these - just listen to the "Every Breath You Take" demo and the "O My God" outtake.

If they release the Oakland show separately, I might actually buy that.

Love the box set. It's super weird to me that The Police never had the same cultural reevaluation that so many other bands of that era received.

Do they need it? They've never gone away!

I hope I'm not being glib. They're omnipresent on oldies radio, as background music in cafes and shops -- hell, my students know the super hits. Most of these hits are real good.

their reunion tour in 2007 was one of the highest grossing tours ever

Sting could've gone in a bad direction on some of these - just listen to the "Every Breath You Take" demo

I have to say that the demo, for me, significantly undermines Andy Summers' contention that he deserves a co-writing credit for that song. What's really striking is that every last nuance of the vocal melody is already there. All Summers did was to substitute in some cooler-sounding chords for Sting to sing over. (And, yes, arpeggiate them in a distinctive fashion.) By Summers' own telling, his harmonic choices were inspired by studying the works of Béla Bartók, so maybe the latter's estate should also get a share of the spoils?

Oh, I wasn't implying the band had a bigger hand in composing the songs, but to me it underlines how much of a difference their arrangements had on the music.

xps They never struck me as needing a reevaluation either - as long as I've known about them, they were both critically acclaimed and massively popular, probably more true after the fact than it was in the '80s when they were filling stadiums, racking up awards and critical hosannas (#5 album in 1983's Pazz & Jop poll before they split). If anything, I'm stunned Sting alone is still massively popular - I've never seen his shows and considered catching his latest tour since he's doing a lot of Police songs, but not only were tickets jaw-droopingly expensive, they had no problem selling out.

(too much alliteration there, with the "st---" words)

I have to say that the demo, for me, significantly undermines Andy Summers' contention that he deserves a co-writing credit for that song. What's really striking is that every last nuance of the vocal melody is already there. All Summers did was to substitute in some cooler-sounding chords for Sting to sing over. (And, yes, arpeggiate them in a distinctive fashion.) By Summers' own telling, his harmonic choices were inspired by studying the works of Béla Bartók, so maybe the latter's estate should also get a share of the spoils?

― Vast Halo,

Claims like Summers' -- and I agree with you -- rely on the generosity of the composer. Should Dylan have given Al Kooper credit for the hook in "Like a Rolling Stone"? Maybe? U2 and R.E.M. avoided problems by splitting the publishing.

Always a challenge with bands of any kind and especially one like the Police (or, say, the Band) where the individual players do bring so much to the final song. Every Breath You Take may have been a hit as a solo Sting tune, who knows, but it wouldn't have been the hit or the song it is without that specific guitar line.

You can see, though, that the writer of "Every Breath You Take" might look askance at the idea that the writer of "Behind My Camel" was contributing equally to the compositional success of the group.
A number of Police songs were written by Sting before he ever met the others.

Yup Every Little Thing She Does is Magic is from like 1977 I think, but the demo arrangement is nothing like what wound up on the album. The melody is there though.

Yeah, I mean if Sting were a more generous sort maybe he would've worked something out where Andy and Stewart each got like 5% of the songwriting. But also I think Andy and Stewart both did just fine off of being in Sting's band.