THE POLICE

Although they originated from punk, The Police were too musically ambitious and highly sophisticated instrument players to be limited to that scene, so were often considered a ‘new wave’ band. The group members came from a variety of musical backgrounds — Stewart Copeland’s progressive rock drumming, Sting’s jazz ensembles and Andy Summers’ rhythm and blues guitar — contributing greatly to their ability to effortlessly blend genres. The Police had such an individual sound consisting of a fusion of musical influences such as reggae, jazz, funk, punk and sounds from around the world resulting in an iconic impact on the pop-rock genre.

The Police had a clear fascination with foreign cultures. This can be seen in their variety of romance-language-inspired album names and rigorous touring to parts of the world not normally visited by mainstream UK bands such as Mexico, India, Taiwan and Egypt. These travels in the early years also continued to have a noticeable influence on Sting’s solo career work after The Police.

Thanks to Sting’s previous career as a high school English teacher, literature clearly served as great inspiration to him and moulded his lyrical storytelling ability. Some of Sting’s songs feature references from: Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita — ‘Don’t Stand So Close to Me’, Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac — ‘Roxanne’, Paul Bowles’ The Sheltering Sky — ‘Tea in the Sahara’ and Arthur Koestler’s The Ghost in the Machine — ‘The Ghost in the Machine’.

The Police sometimes voiced their political views within their lyrics. ‘Driven to Tears’, written by Sting was an observation on the extreme rich and poor divide in the world and the fact nothing seems to be getting done to change this. Particularly by those with the means and power to do so. ‘Murder by Numbers’ can be interpreted as a political jab at politicians’ blasé attitude towards the lives they risk in their wargames. ‘Bombs Away’ described Stewart Copeland’s feelings about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Sting has always liked to include a curveball in his songwriting. To surprise the audience in some way and include something unexpected. A great example of this is when ‘Don’t Stand So Close to Me’ suddenly modulates to the relative major key for the chorus, brightening up the sound and completely changing the tone of the song for those bars before returning to the minor key for the verses. Another of the group’s signature sounds is their syncopation, their dynamic reggae inspired rhythms. These are very noticeable in tracks such as ‘Walking on the Moon’ and ‘So Lonely’. Their songs feature sophisticated, intelligent lyrics, partly due to Sting’s background in education and deep interest in a vast range of works by authors and philosophers. He was so inspired by Koestler’s philosophical psychology about the mind-body relationship that the fourth studio album took the same name as the book ‘The Ghost in the Machine’. Another defining aspect, which set them apart from their punk contemporaries was the obvious fact they were such accomplished, highly skilled musicians in comparison. These skills are evident in their artistic arrangements and effortless syncopation. Stewart Copeland’s subsequent careers as a much-sought-after film/T.V. score composer and highly respected orchestral writer of operas and symphonies is another clear indication of the musical talent within the band.

Some notable releases from the impressive catalogue are: Outlandos D’Amour ’78 — This album was recorded and produced for a mere £1500. Outlando’s is still considered a very strong debut album which cemented the band’s definitive reggae-rock sound. The debut featured classic hits such as ‘Roxanne’, ‘So Lonely’ and the controversial ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’ which was originally banned by the BBC due to its teen suicide content and shocking cover art photograph of Stewart Copeland hanging. Despite being shunned by the BBC initially and the ensuing lack of radio airplay, the track became very popular with the public, leaving the BBC no choice but to eventually embrace it. Roxanne proved its continuing cultural popularity when covered in the medley soundtrack of Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 blockbuster cinematic musical ‘Moulin Rouge!’.

De Dododo De Dadada (Zenyatta Mondatta ’80) — The Police are making a point here and do so effectively. They wanted to prove that simplistic, banal songs do very well in the charts. Despite some criticism over the ‘baby-talk’ lyrics — by those who missed the point — this track charted well, reaching the top ten in most territories across the world. The song’s verses were even translated for Spanish and Japanese release.

Ghost in The Machine ’81 — In their fourth studio album release, The Police made a notable evolution to synth keyboards, moving away from their previous guitar band sound. Sting was mostly behind these changes, becoming more experimental with instrumentation which didn’t help the growing tensions between the band members. Also, in another change of style, this was their first English language titled album.

Every Breath You Take (Synchronicity ’83) — Grammy award winner for song of the year 1984. This track is — to Sting’s great surprise — a wedding favourite, despite the lyrics depicting a rather sinister story about an obsessive, jealous stalker/ex-lover. Another of The Police’s tracks to be saluted over a decade after its release, ‘Every Breath You Take’ was sampled and reimagined as ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ in 1997 by P Diddy featuring Faith Evans. This track was a tribute to P Diddy’s best friend (Faith’s husband) Biggie Smalls/Notorious B.I.G who was killed in a gang-related shooting. The release won another Grammy Award and charted at number one in the US, UK and across the globe. Unfortunately, P Diddy did not get permission for the sample and therefore lost a copyright infringement case leading to Sting being awarded 100% song royalties from this track.

Synchronicity ’83 — This was The Police’s fifth and final studio album. Continuing on with the changes heard in ‘Ghost in The Machine’, ‘Synchronicity’ featured an even more production-heavy, synthesized sound. By this time the band members relationships had broken down so much that they had to record their individual parts in separate rooms. This album was their commercial and critical peak, truly going out on a high, no doubt in stark contrast to their true feelings at the time.

REFERENCES

Greene, A. (2013). Readers’ Poll: The 10 Best Police Songs. [online] Rolling Stone. Available at: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/readers-poll-the-10-best-police-songs-10402/10-dont-stand-so-close-to-me-218442/ [Accessed 12 Dec. 2020].

Encyclopedia Britannica. (2020). the Police | Members, Albums, & Facts. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/the-Police.

Wikipedia Contributors (2019). The Police. [online] Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Police.

The Police. (2019). The Police. [online] Available at: https://www.thepolice.com/the-police [Accessed 12 Dec. 2020].

The Dog Door Cultural. (2020). There Are No Happy Police Songs. [online] Available at: https://www.dogdoorcultural.com/music/there-are-no-happy-police-songs [Accessed 12 Dec. 2020].

Dean, O. (2017). Top 10 Police Songs. [online] ClassicRockHistory.com. Available at: https://www.classicrockhistory.com/top-10-police-songs/ [Accessed 12 Dec. 2020].

Parker, C. (2019). Stewart Copeland on his Police career: “We fought like cat and dog over the f**king hi-hat.” [online] MusicRadar. Available at: https://www.musicradar.com/features/stewart-copeland-on-his-police-career-we-fought-like-cat-and-dog-over-the-fking-hi-hat.