The Police

Next to You

The Police – Next to You

I was reading up a little on the early days of the Police and one of the things the Wikipedia article mentioned was how they had tried to shift their sound to be more punk because that was selling in England in 1977.

But they were all much better musicians than those bands. I was always pretty amazed by Stewart Copeland’s drumming. There’s no denying his drumming gave them their signature fast driving sound. But as I listened in the car the last couple of days, I really noticed Sting’s bass playing. You can hear his interest in reggae coming through on some songs. Of course Andy Summers was an accomplished guitar player, and ten years older than Sting and Stewart Copeland.

I suspect that my brother, who had been listening to all the same music I’ve been posting about, actually really liked that the Police were good at their instruments. Even if he loved the Ramones and the middle finger to the establishment that punk had at its center, he also appreciated talented musicians playing more complex songs.

I might be biased because I was young and impressionable but to me, early Police songs sound just like what you want from a band. Like a lot of people, he was less enamored with the later albums. I think he has no use for solo Sting at all.

The other thing I learned from Wikipedia was that Stewart Copeland’s dad was a founding member of the CIA and a raging conservative. His mother had been a UK secret agent during World War II. Wild.

Truth Hits Everybody

The Police – Truth Hits Everybody

It sure is nice to see the blue wave continuing. People like Mitch McConnell should be shitting bricks right about now. I’m still waiting for local results but what I could find online about it seems pretty positive.

I don’t know if there were any important elections where you live but having Republican asses handed to them in VA is pretty gratifying. Fingers crossed!

Synchronicity II

http://vimeo.com/62530159#t=9s

The Police – Synchronicity II

For Christmas, my younger sister put out a request for some music for her 14-year-old son. You see, though she was exposed to a wide variety of music as a young child and tween, by the time she hit high school, the rest of us were all out of the house. She played the piano and she liked to sing and she was good at both so my mother got her involved in the youth orchestra and some choral groups. I would make her tapes to try to keep her informed about new music that wouldn’t get air play on the local radio but the pull of her everyday music was strong. She spent so much time practicing that she didn’t have much time to listen to other stuff. By the time she got to college she was an early music voice major and it was all over. She met her future husband at the Gilbert & Sullivan society on campus and that was about as modern as her music collection got. Those grade school years spent singing along to I Wanna Be Sedated were all but forgotten.

As a toddler, my nephew could identify all the classical composers that were in constant rotation in their house. And I do mean constant. They have one of those multi-disc players and from the moment my brother-in-law comes down in the morning until they go up to bed at night, some kind of (usually choral) classical music is playing.

As her kids have gotten older, they’ve expressed an interest in listening to the top 40 stations in the car and she’s obliged. I think she’s hoping to make sure they fit in with their peers but it’s not usually music she completely endorses. And especially for a 14-year-old boy, she knows there’s better stuff out there, she just doesn’t know what it is. So she appealed to her older siblings to help out. She was thinking about what was playing in the house when she was young; David Bowie, The Police, Talking Heads but modern stuff was fine too.

I split the difference. I ordered a Kishi Bashi CD, thinking that might interest my cello playing nephew who has been immersed in classical music his entire life, since he puts a new twist on what you expect from a classically trained violinist. Then I made him a CD with a couple of Ramones songs, some Clash, The Police, Talking Heads, and Elvis Costello. I have to say, it’s pretty good. It’s skimming the surface to be sure but I tried to keep my quirky nephew in mind and picked songs that I think he might like. It has the bonus feature of being all songs my little sister will instantly recognize and shock her kids by being able to sing along, and, dare I say it, rock out? If my nephew doesn’t like it, I think she will at least.