THE POLICE

“There is no political solution

To our troubled evolution

Have no faith in constitution

There is no bloody revolution”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“C”

 

Main Decades: 70’s, 80’s

Main Eras:

New Wave (1976-1990)

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Key Members:

Gordon Summer (Sting) Vocalist and bass

Stewart Copeland, Drums

Andy Summers, Guitar

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Key Songs:

Message in a Bottle, So Lonely, Roxanne, Every Breathe You Take, Can’t Stand Losing You, Spirits In The Material World, Walking On The Moon, The Bed’s Too Big Without You, Regatta de Blanc, Synchronicity II, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, So Lonely, Wrapped Around Your Finger, Don’t Stand So Close To Me, King Of Pain, Bring on the Night, Driven To Tears, Voices Inside My Head, Invisible Sun, Hole In My Life, Driven to Tears, Demolition Man, Masoko Tanga, Next To You.

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The Police is another very strange band. There must be a universal consensus that they are one of the greatest and most influential bands in history; at least at the time, their influence was such that they set a whole trend in the 80s, being fundamental to the sound that would dominate the decade, and the important bands of the early 80s built upon the foundations they laid. They were primarily the ones who took the Punk sound and broadened it with other influences for what would be called New Wave. We've all heard The Police. We all agree that they are instrumental monsters, and almost all of us completely ignore them. We know that all their albums are good, and if we hear one of their songs on the radio, we happily hum along, but we rarely put them on our stereos and they are rarely the life of the party. Why is this? Again, because of the New Wave label, whose mere mention gives us goosebumps? Why is Cream, to give a similar example of a power trio with few albums, so sought after and listened to, while The Police, in some ways also glorious, is overshadowed, ignored, and avoided as much as possible? Is it because of the elevator music for executives that Sting prescribed as a solo artist? I don't think so.

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After listening to their albums, I think The Police's problem is that they're very monochromatic. They achieved an amazing fusion, essentially creating a new genre by mixing influences from punk, jazz, reggae, pop, and even funk. They found their sound and tried to experiment with it as much as possible. It's not that they aren't creative, daring, and innovative, but their albums sound very uniform, one-dimensional, and flat. The formula they found was very good, but even though they changed the proportions of their influences on their albums, they never tried to break free from them or explore further. That's why it's impossible to decide which is the best album. They're all good and maintain a standard level, but some overuse the raw punk sound ("Hole in My Life"), others silly pop ("Do Do Do"), and still others experimentation ("Behind My Camel" or "Synchronicity I"). Their albums, therefore, become tedious to listen to in one sitting, and it's easier to just focus on their hits. It's not even that they have too much filler; the problem, I insist, is the uniformity of the sound, and at this point, I still don't know if any of them deserve a 10, but I know that none deserve less than an 8.5. If we add to that the absurd and forgettable album titles, one ends up seeing The Police as a band of songs rather than albums.

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But let's get to the group's virtues. First of all, they are an incredibly professional band, possessing a sound that appears raw due to their punk heritage, but which is actually obsessively perfectionistic. They are devilishly clever, and all three have excellent technique on their instruments. Someone who has never heard them would hardly realize that they are just three guys creating those walls of sound. Stewart Copeland is a master of the drums, inventive, constantly playing with the cymbals, incorporating a lot of jazz influence in this aspect and a lot of reggae influence in the sense that he often plays off-beat to the guitar. He's not explosive or dramatic, but he's undoubtedly the best on his instrument in the band. Sting also stands out. Although he's generally mentioned more as a singer or songwriter, in The Police he was at least a great bassist, very solid, playing lead guitar while singing and then stepping back from the lines and using the bass more as a solo instrument than a rhythm guitar. And Andy Summers is good, without being spectacular. He was the most experienced and had been playing with bands since the 60s, including Eric Burdon & The New Animals on the album Love Is, and he also played in Zoot Money and The Soft Machine, among other more or less well-known bands. Although he's not a virtuoso by any means, his guitar playing is very precise; he knows how to use pedals to create textures, and you could say he's more of a technician than a wizard. An Irish lad named David Howell must have been heavily influenced by him in his early days.

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The band started in 1977 when drummer Stewart Copeland left Curved Air and began looking for members to form a new band. A young bassist and vocalist named Gordon Summers joined the group. Around that time, he wore a yellow and black striped sweater everywhere, which made him look like a bee or a wasp, and he became known as Sting. Henry Padovani, an enthusiastic young man who had only been playing guitar for a few months, joined on guitar. Since the group initially started as a punk band, this wasn't a major issue. In April, Mike Howlett, formerly of Gong, invited Sting and a friend of his named Andy Summers to a Gong reunion. When the drummer couldn't make it, Sting called Copeland, and they ended up forming a side project called Strontium 90, with which they recorded some demos and eventually played at the Gong reunion. By July, the band consisted of Sting, Copeland, Summers, and Padovani, and they called themselves The Elevators. The thing is, now that they had a seasoned guitarist, Padovani's shortcomings were painfully obvious. Stewart was the one in creative control, composing the songs, setting the direction, and even sometimes recording the guitars when Henry couldn't even keep up. Sting wanted to experiment with other sounds since punk clearly limited him terribly on bass, but Stewart insisted on sticking with the genre to keep his friend in the lineup. In August, due to internal pressures and his evident lack of ability, Padovani left the band, leaving it as a trio with the lineup we all know. It would later come to light that Andy Summers pushed Henry to the breaking point when he realized the band only had potential as a trio.

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In 1978, they went to Paris to open for a band, but the concert was canceled. When they returned, Sting went for a walk at night to process his frustration and "mysteriously" found himself in the Pigalle district, known for its prostitution. From that anecdote came… you guessed it: “Roxanne,” a song that originally started as a bossa nova, but which Stewart modified to a reggae rhythm and a brutal punk chorus. When they recorded it, Miles Copeland, Stewart's brother, was impressed with the result and got them a contract with A&M. With this label, they released their first album in November 1978, Outlandos D’Amour. It is perhaps the group's rawest and most powerful album, still leaning more towards punk, but where the influences of jazz and reggae are already noticeable. It features classic tracks like the aforementioned “Roxanne,” “Hole In My Soul,” “So Lonely,” and “Masoko Tanga.” The album had moderate success in England and led to a small tour in the United States.

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In October 1979, they released their second album, Reggatta de Blanc, with “Message in a Bottle” as its lead single, along with other good tracks like “Walking On The Moon.” This is where the reggae sound starts to become more prominent. This album brought them greater recognition in Europe, although they were still far from stardom.

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In 1980, they released Zenyatta Mondatta, considered a transitional album between their fresher beginnings and their more mature, experimental phase, featuring tracks like "Don't Stand So Close To Me." With this album, they finally climbed the charts in the United States, thanks to the aforementioned song and the banal "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da," an ode to idiocy and Dadaism that could only have been successful in the US. "Behind My Camel," an instrumental track by Andy, earned the group a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, and "Don't Stand" won for Best Rock Vocal Performance. The American tour, which had started in small venues, had to be completely rescheduled for stadiums and massive arenas. The Police had gone to collect their awards as a middling English band and returned as the Beatles of the '80s. Later, Sting would admit that they recorded the album in a rush. Hahaha!

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In 1981, they released their fourth album, Ghost in the Machine, which marked a shift towards a more mature sound with sonic experimentation, new instruments like saxophones, and a slightly more funky and pop sensibility. Standout tracks include "Spirits in the Material World," "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" (why did these guys give all their songs such lengthy titles?), and of course, "Invisible Sun," one of their most political and abrasive songs, already featuring synthesizers. The Ghost in the Machine tour was monumental, lasting until well into '82. The band then took a break, during which Sting and Summers had to go into exile in Ireland due to tax issues. Stewart, being American, remained in England. During the hiatus, they immersed themselves in various projects, acting in films, recording soundtracks, and making albums with Robert Fripp, who was also on hiatus from King Crimson at the time. During this period, Sting's fame skyrocketed. He was obviously the frontman and the one who hogged the spotlight, and the films he participated in gave him even more visibility, and this began to fracture his relationship with Stewart, who even at that point considered himself the "owner" of the band as its founder.

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Despite their internal problems, they returned to the studio in 1983 to record Synchronicity, their fifth album, which proved to be their most experimental, featuring the two title tracks and "Mother," while also including more commercial and radio-friendly songs like "Every Breath You Take," perhaps the band's most famous song, as well as "King of Pain" and "Wrapped Around Your Finger." During the recording sessions and the massive tour that followed, beginning in July 1983 and ending in March 1984, tensions between the three members became unbearable. The album was a huge hit, their biggest commercial success, and they even filmed videos for the singles, which further boosted their popularity. Without a doubt, in 1984 The Police were the biggest band on the planet. The album was only beaten at the Grammys by Michael Jackson's Thriller, but they got their revenge by winning Best Song with "Every Breath You Take," which beat "Billie Jean." During this tour, they played at Shea Stadium, breaking the Beatles' record. Afterward, the band took another break, and Sting used the time to release his first solo album, which leaned more toward jazz.

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In 1986, they reunited in the studio for what would have been their sixth album, but Copeland fell off a horse and fractured his collarbone, making it impossible for him to play drums. The only worthwhile results from these sessions were re-recordings of "Don't Stand So Close To Me" and "De Do Do Do De Da Da Da," to which they added electronic beats and released as a single in late '86. The band never officially broke up; they never issued a statement, but they would never again attempt to reunite, either to play live or to record another album. Copeland would later reveal that Sting's insistence on using a machine instead of a drum machine for the single was what ultimately broke up the group.

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The band reunited in 2007, first for a performance at the Grammys, and eventually decided to embark on a tour with dates across Europe and the Americas, which concluded in August 2008, becoming the third highest-grossing tour in history.

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In short, a great band that undoubtedly defined an era and influenced different generations, and is a must-have in any rock collection. Musically, they are enormous; without necessarily being virtuosos, they know how to almost miraculously combine melodic and tonal simplicity with a great bass-guitar-drums interplay. The mix they achieved by fusing rock, punk, reggae, jazz, funk, and pop is something no one has ever managed to equal. They are creative, use unusual rhythms, and the lyrics are generally very good, delving into social and political criticism. They have five very good albums, although none of them are phenomenal in my opinion. They can go to extremes of being too experimental when they want to be, or too commercial on the other hand, and that is perhaps their only flaw, along with the monochromatic nature of their albums, which we already mentioned.

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The Police is a band that generates admiration and respect worldwide… But I'm not so sure they generate the unconditional love that other big bands generate in their fans.

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By Corvan 

Oct/19/2011

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