bah https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BNnKXTeCIAAohZo.jpg
― akm, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 21:48 (seven years ago) link
The horror
― calstars, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 21:50 (seven years ago) link
Sting in bringing the tantric lute jams SHOCKAH!
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 19 April 2017 22:20 (seven years ago) link
Let "Tantric lute jams" never again be spoken of on ilx
― calstars, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 22:59 (seven years ago) link
fuck tha Police
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 23:02 (seven years ago) link
My favorite Sting and Police. No "Russians," sadly.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 20 April 2017 13:51 (seven years ago) link
i absolutely love everything about the police except the words. sometimes I just want to pitch a tent in their sound.
― iris marduk (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 20 April 2017 15:11 (seven years ago) link
when I get that urge I usually just listen to I Advance Masked
― sleeve, Thursday, 20 April 2017 15:14 (seven years ago) link
love that record, so joyfully underachieving
― iris marduk (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 20 April 2017 15:22 (seven years ago) link
best Fripp solo ever on the title track, imo
― sleeve, Thursday, 20 April 2017 15:23 (seven years ago) link
The guitar solo on Mother is almost note-for-note an echo of Fripps guitar solo on Enos Golden Hours.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 20 April 2017 15:32 (seven years ago) link
/ darkness / is good! Double tracked hi-hats in stereo
― calstars, Thursday, 20 April 2017 16:19 (seven years ago) link
indeed. their 4-disc boxset is great from start to finish, plus its great to get to hear their progression from one year to the next. there's almost something Beatles-like there, the way they evolved so quickly over only 6 or 7 years. even the minor songs have awesome moments on them - that neat little guitar lick on "Contact" during the chorus, for example.
― frogbs, Thursday, 20 April 2017 16:25 (seven years ago) link
i absolutely love everything about the police except the wordsi
...and even when the words finally fucking stop they go so hard on the dey-yo-yo-yos
― del esdischado (NickB), Thursday, 20 April 2017 17:19 (seven years ago) link
been hitting 'shadows in the rain' a lot lately, lyrics are actually okay on that
― del esdischado (NickB), Thursday, 20 April 2017 17:23 (seven years ago) link
don't listen to zenyatta much but voices / shadows / camel / stopping are all gold
― del esdichado (NickB), Thursday, 20 April 2017 17:26 (seven years ago) link
I see your yoga lute and raise you one chessboard.
http://imgur.com/a/JSmQa
― dinnerboat, Thursday, 20 April 2017 18:33 (seven years ago) link
― dinnerboat, Thursday, 20 April 2017 18:35 (seven years ago) link
just the way copeland hits a snare. why does a simple backbeat from him make me jump around so bad? (NB i have read several articles explaining why but there is still a mystery at the core of it IMO)
― iris marduk (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 20 April 2017 19:04 (seven years ago) link
XP oh hell no
― calstars, Thursday, 20 April 2017 19:46 (seven years ago) link
Is there a Stink / Police song that uses a chess metaphor? I'm sure there is but I can't remember
― calstars, Thursday, 20 April 2017 19:47 (seven years ago) link
Jon, totally agree. Tight and tasty
― calstars, Thursday, 20 April 2017 19:52 (seven years ago) link
I read that he had his snare head cranked so tight they had to beef it up with tons of fx, 1980s or no.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 20 April 2017 19:56 (seven years ago) link
Yes that's part of it, he tightened them til they were on the verge of failure
― iris marduk (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 20 April 2017 20:08 (seven years ago) link
"The guitar solo on Mother is almost note-for-note an echo of Fripps guitar solo on Enos Golden Hours."
yeah it's a complete lift of it. I love that.
I Advance Masked is really good, better than Bewitched certainly.
I don't have a problem with 99% of the Police's lyrics.
― akm, Thursday, 20 April 2017 20:17 (seven years ago) link
what the hell is going on with those pictures, they look like the cover of a CD-ROM circa 1996
― frogbs, Thursday, 20 April 2017 20:23 (seven years ago) link
Man, those pix with the lute etc are f-ing hilarious! Stinks' pretence and lack of reality checks is nearly unparalleled.
― VyrnaKnowlIsAHeadbanger, Friday, 21 April 2017 12:52 (seven years ago) link
blame david lynch imo
― mark s, Friday, 21 April 2017 13:34 (seven years ago) link
Not all the lyrics are terrible, but even when they are the rhythms and soundscapes mostly make up for it. (And don't forget Sting's playing as a key part of the sound -- don't throw the bass out with the bathos.)
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 21 April 2017 13:51 (seven years ago) link
cheery finns, huge lutes, upturned tables: https://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/wikla/Kuva_arkisto/Nordmaling2001/100-0086_IMG.JPG
― mark s, Friday, 21 April 2017 14:03 (seven years ago) link
Sting's Police lyrics are a strange contrast of hyper pretentious and totally stupid. I could have sworn when they reunited that they retroactively claimed the dumb rhymes were on purpose, but I have my doubts.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 21 April 2017 14:26 (seven years ago) link
That said, musicianship, including Sting, is so across-the-board great. I love how even at their most indulgent and overproduced and overdubbed, they rarely sound like more than three guys in a room. Even though there are all sorts of little nuances and stuff added and tweaked and embellished.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 21 April 2017 14:28 (seven years ago) link
Like, songs with three or four guitar parts that are so subtle and well arranged that it sounds almost just like one guitar. Until you pay close attention.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 21 April 2017 14:29 (seven years ago) link
To be clear, I adore stings voice and the way he sings his lyrics. I just hate the words sometimes.
An older friend, a jazz guy I used to play guitar with, had seen the police live during 83 or so and said something I found memorable: "they were making an awful lot of music for three guys"
― iris marduk (Jon not Jon), Friday, 21 April 2017 14:45 (seven years ago) link
I often think of that comment when listening to Rush too
― iris marduk (Jon not Jon), Friday, 21 April 2017 14:46 (seven years ago) link
there has always been this weird relationship between Rush and the Police, at least as far as fan overlap, and in Rush's case, actively taking influence from the Police.
I still have a bit of PTSD with Sting. I never really loved his voice, but once I started paying attention to his lyrics, I got more and more annoyed, to the point I couldn't listen to them. However, Copeland is in my top 3 drummers of all time. I can listen to just his isolated tracks all day. And it's incredibly fun to play almost any Police song as a musician. I should probably work on resolving this, because deep down, I know there were great.
― Dominique, Friday, 21 April 2017 14:53 (seven years ago) link
My guitar teacher pinpoints Andy Summers genius at recognizing the way his sus and seventh chords and other weird ideas work so well with chorus and echo, the way the effects sort of imply or fill out these broken chords in cool ways.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 21 April 2017 15:26 (seven years ago) link
otm, the effects are baked into the very musical structure, such a painter
― iris marduk (Jon not Jon), Friday, 21 April 2017 15:42 (seven years ago) link
yea there's some active overlap with prog there - "Synchronicity II" being the most obvious example. I think all three had a background in it at some point.
last time I heard Yes's Big Generator it struck me how many of the songs sounded like what the Police might've had they stuck around to 1987.
― frogbs, Friday, 21 April 2017 16:12 (seven years ago) link
Hell, even "Owner of a Lonely Heart" owes a huge debt to the Police.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 21 April 2017 18:38 (seven years ago) link
and everything produced by Rupert Hine
― gimmesomehawnz (Jon not Jon), Friday, 21 April 2017 18:43 (seven years ago) link
I think all three had a background in it at some point.
Andy: Guitarist w/Eric Burdon & The Animals in their last gasp, proto-prog periodStewart: Drummer for Curved AirSting: Fusion dude
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 21 April 2017 18:46 (seven years ago) link
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lYi1fBalGeg/TSYXc8dbz_I/AAAAAAAAFm0/K92djhEReiw/s1600/sc00008742.jpg
andy was also in soft machine but that was firmly during their psych phase
― del esdichado (NickB), Friday, 21 April 2017 19:05 (seven years ago) link
plus they had that proto-Police band Strontium 90, with the 4th member being Mike Howlett of Gong
― frogbs, Friday, 21 April 2017 19:09 (seven years ago) link
Andy was in Soft Machine.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 21 April 2017 19:10 (seven years ago) link
Ha, how did I miss that magazine cover?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 21 April 2017 19:11 (seven years ago) link
And Men At Work, how capitalized on the relatively long wait between Police records.
Read a good interview with Stewart recently that for all the band's supposed dabbling, he'd only call maybe three Police songs at all reggae derived.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 21 April 2017 19:13 (seven years ago) link
bring on the nightbeds too bigone world?
― del esdichado (NickB), Friday, 21 April 2017 19:21 (seven years ago) link
I dunno, there's a lot of reggae/dub influence all over the first three albums, less on the 4th and 5th. It's as much spatial as specifically structural, but it's definitely there.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 21 April 2017 19:26 (seven years ago) link
walking on the moon?
― akm, Friday, 21 April 2017 19:34 (seven years ago) link