When the World is Running Down, You Make the POLL of What's Still Around – ILM Artist Poll #116 – THE POLICE - (Voting extended to Friday, Dec 2, 2022)

whoa that actually sounds a lot like Fortress Around Your Heart. like I almost expected that chorus to come in after the mid section

Indeed!

I dunno, aside from "Demolition Man" I can't think of much Andy at all on the jammy stuff. "Hungry for You," "Too Much Information," ""One World (Not Three)"... those are the ones that are barely songs, and I can't recall off the top of my head what Andy is doing there. And as for "Demolition Man," that guitar stuff is pretty run of the mill, especially for Andy. Even the guitar synth stuff on that album is pretty simple, at least the stuff more recognizable as guitar synth. It's Andy finding something to do on tracks that don't necessarily lend themselves to what it is he does. I mean, Mike Rutherford was using guitar synths to at least trigger synth pads in a lot of Genesis, but I don't think what he was up to was particularly interesting, either. Just a way to thicken the sound a little and/or find something to do with himself.

But for sure I agree those last three songs on the album are great, because they're distinctive and weird. And I love Stew's playing on the record.

Too Much Information is so good! That afrobeat riffing in the right channel and the wah pedal on the left, bassline nicked from 'A Love Supreme'

I'm not saying they're bad or no fun, they're just not really songs, imo. Just kind of repetitive jams.

xp No wait, Hungry For You has the Love Supreme bassline, always getting those muddled in my head, pretty similar iirc

I'm not saying they're bad or no fun, they're just not really songs, imo. Just kind of repetitive jams.

Well they'd obviously been listening to Fela and a lot of jazz, so no they're not typical western rock songs but that is sort of the point

on the "covering your own song" topic: i agree! i think it's something a lot of bands work out in a live setting, which would probably be really fun and stimulating especially if you've been playing the same song another way for a long time. and maybe if you're enjoying it in that way, it doesn't seem necessary to record it... see also, bands with songs where some later, different live arrangement becomes THE definitive version, in the eyes of the fans. (is that a thread btw?)

(also: putting it on record risks giving the impression that you're desperate, out of ideas, trying to boost your new album with a whiff of past glories, etc. you have to be in a mood where you're not afraid of all that stuff.)

tbh I love the "not really a song" stuff on Zenyatta & Ghost...I guess Reggatta had some of this as well ("Deathwish"??). in retrospect this band was touring constantly and doing a bazillion interviews so it's not surprising they didn't have much time to develop actual material....so it's a testament to how great the band was that this stuff actually sounds pretty great

This re-recording of "Truth Hits Everybody" from 1983 is apparently based on the live arrangement they had been doing:

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

There's some suspicion that it's actually a demo with Sting playing guitar as well as bass and programmed drums.

I'm into that, it sounds like an early Husker Du song like Amusement or something

It’s all in the Wikipedia article so hardly deep lore, but I was surprised to hear the 86 version of DSSCTM sounded so synthetic because Copeland broke his collarbone and sequenced the drum parts. No wonder it sounds leaden.
The unforgivable thing about Ghost for me is how shrill and ugly it sounds. Sting sounds like he’s being pushed against the bars of an iron fence most of the time, and when you add deliberate discord on some tracks it’s just unlistenable. Hard to believe they signed off on the mix.

"Shrill and ugly" is what I love about "Demolition Man"!

Sure, but not an entire album of it.

I used to listen to the cassette of Ghost while working my morning paper route. My brother listened to it every night at bedtime. It was a perfect album for both contexts.

I always thought the production on Ghost matched the album cover - a sea of blackness with these bright slanted shapes in the center. feels like it was recorded in a space with unknown but generally large dimensions. kind of a Robocop vibe to it.

I think I owned the record for 3 years before I understood the cover, I’d thought it was just a graphic showing malfunction and chaos.

It's kind of chilling when you figure it out.

...I always thought it was a representation of the three band members?

think I had it for 20 years before I finally figured that out! thought it was some sort of code, or an ancient script rendered in lcd, which fitted in with my understanding of Secret Journey, a song about ancient knowledge played on synths

I always thought it had a dual symbology in that it spells out "666."

Well, it seemed cool in high school.

I have never heard that the band was way into or even knew of Fela in 1981, as Talking Heads very clearly did: jazz? Yeah, Der Stingle and Andy were very much 'bout it, and Stew was very obviously familiar with non-western music, different time signatures and accents, but if someone can cite evidence of them being Fela fans, please let us know…

early this year, I heard "Synchronicity II" on Sirius, and it occurred to me that this could be the one and only song that could almost pass for a Rush-influenced Police song, whereas the advent of the Police more than anything else prompted Rush to change their shit up in '81: there are many many Police-ish Rush tunes, and the band was crystal clear in acknowledging as such. And also that Stewart surely knew of and at least appreciated Rush, due to him and Neil being at the utter zenith of the Modern Drummer milieu, whereas the other two but particularly Sting would take one look or listen to Rush and make a face like somebody let out a truly vile fart. Like, he was keeping company with McCartney and Bowie, and would tell everyone he could that Wayne Shorter and Arthur Koestler were what he was into, and Rush would be no different to Motley Crue to him…

Sting was into Koestler, Peart was more of an Ayn Rand devotee

if someone can cite evidence of them being Fela fans, please let us know…

only evidence i could give you is just listen to 'too much information'. imo there's clearly a firsthand afrobeat influence at work there.

and obviously they both did that Amnesty benefit tour later in the 80s...

https://i.ibb.co/BTBxD6H/sting-fela.jpg

and sting's definitely a fan now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk1BUJpTPM8

yeah I think a lot of people hear Rush in that track, in fact once hearing it in the grocery store my brain registered it as Rush until the vocals came in

one observation I've made is that if The Police had stayed together they would've wound up sounding like Big Generator-era Yes. not the worst thing in the world I guess, but still I think they broke up at the right time.

Stewart surely knew of and at least appreciated Rush

From RS:

-You were close to Neil Peart. I imagine you’re still in a state of shock over his death.

Yes. It took longer to hit me than his family and so on. He was a really good friend and a unique character. And a big part of my enjoyment of life was going down to the Bubba Cave and shooting the shit about cars, or him coming over here with Danny Carey and others to have it up at the Sacred Grove. I am very sad to miss those times.

When he first passed, I was pleased for him, because (his illness) was a two-to-three-year process. At one point during it, he said, “Look, I’m a year past my sell-by date. I’m still here.” And then another year went by. So when he passed, my first thought was, he had an incredible life. What a great way to go out. He saw his train coming and he got a first-class seat. That’s him. Then comes me, thinking, “Wait a minute. He’s not there anymore. I can’t call him up anymore.” I started to just miss him. I just wish he was back. Like, “That was really cool, Neil! Wow! You really aced it there, buddy! OK, you can come back now.” And that’s the part that sticks with me. I just wish he was here.

-Can you tell me about the last time you saw him?

It was at his birthday party, (four) months before he passed. He still had his dignity. You could tell he was appreciating to still be here, but you could see it was beginning to take its toll. It went from not great to really bad very quickly. It was a gradual, gradual impairment. Socially, he was still Neil. He was still the Doctor, still the Professor. Still Neptune on high! But he said, “I’m not getting on my motorcycles again and I’m not getting on a drum set anytime again.” And those were disappointments to him, but he was still glad to be here.

-Do you have a favorite memory of Neil?

A few … the favorite is bound to be him over here at the Sacred Grove. Because usually, everyone says, “Wow, saxophone! I’ve never played a saxophone!” ‘Cause I’ve got the world’s largest collection of the cheapest instruments money can buy. I’ve got one of everything. I got tuba, I got baritone saxophone, I got cello, I got timpani. Most musicians come over here, it’s like a candy store. Alex Lifeson came over here one time. Snoop Dogg comes over, he just picks up everything. Neil, he gets behind the drums and commands the chariot for the duration.

-The public perception of him was as this very quiet, serious guy. But he was obviously very funny and engaging.

Yes. Very dry, very deadpan. He had some quirks. One of the stranger quirks, which any Rush fan probably knows, or anyone who has loved Neil, (is that) he cannot take compliments. He cannot take adulation. It just touches a button. I should be speaking in past tense. He had, I suppose, a dour exterior, but that craggy, dour exterior just made his wit more piercing. If you’ll forgive the pun.

sounding like Big Generator-era Yes

Supposedly the other guys used to make fun of Sting's high voice in the early days by comparing him to Jon Anderson!

but but but Synch II is all in 4/4!

'Mother' is the one in 7/4 on that album, take that sting you poseur

due respect and affection for the earnest Canadians, but Rush is pretty much the answer to the previously posed question, “what would the Police have been without Sting’s pop writing talents?”

truthbomb

Eh, I don't think that's fair at all, not least because Rush was Rush and being Rushy well before the Police formed. But sure, Rush borrowed a bunch from the Police in the early '80s, and got some commercial traction thanks to that good timing. So did Yes. So did Men at Work.

Not too many Police songs in odd signatures, other than "Mother" and "Sync 1" though they are really good with beat displacement and polyrhythms. Like, I think "Tea in the Sahara" is in 4/4, but it kind of floats in this amorphous space between the beat.

yes, but without Sting …

Omegaman, Does Everyone Stare, Darkness - all top-notch non-Sting songs imo

Big fan of Behind My Camel too, but that might be a bit more of a niche interest

also add “Deathwish” to the tally of songs in 4 but you can’t be sure without counting it

From wiki

The music video for "Synchronicity II" was directed by Godley & Creme... The band members stood apart from each other on separate towers made of scaffolding, wearing dystopian outfits... During the filming, Copeland's tower caught fire and the crew started to leave the building. Creme told the director of photography to keep the cameras rolling despite the danger.

Now that's rock 'n' roll.

Lol!

Lol Creme, that is.

I’ll take Rush’s Police-isms over The Police any day.

Listened to the first two albums today thinking I might vote and outside the singles and Bring on the Night, shit was dire.

aw c'mon, "Walking On The Moon" is great

I thought they would be an act with a bunch of deep cuts I would find were just as good as the overplayed stuff we all know. No, imo.

"On Any Other Day" would be in my top 10 were it not for the homophobic lyric

"It's All Right for You" is still a banger imo

voted

and obviously they both did that Amnesty benefit tour later in the 80s...

Fela only appeared on the final date of that tour, at Giants Stadium, alongside Ruben Blades and Carlos Santana. He did not bring his band.

On the earlier dates of that tour, few knew if it would be Sting’s solo band or the Police closing the show. I saw the Chicago date, and the place freaked out when the lights came up and the Police appeared. I remember it being a solid set, but U2’s set was much more exciting and unpredictable (two adjectives few would associate with U2 post-1997).

I'm much cooler with Rush imitating The Police than The Police imitating The Police.

Oh shit I forgot about Murder By Numbers, that’s a fucked up little tune. Doesn’t register as “The Police” at all, doesn’t even seem like a Sting solo song

It's Sting + Summers (i.e. Andy had the chords worked out independently). It'd fit pretty seamlessly on Blue Turtles I think.