The Police Appreciation Thread

[fah]

Originally posted by martha


It was the LA Christie's viewing of the paintings for Peter and the Wolf. I was able to attend an invitation-only showing. Gavin was there. ( ) And then I noticed Stewart was there. He was hanging around talking to Gavin, looking relaxed and fabulous.

Thanks

[U2democrat]

Ah the police. They were WONDERFUL. Like U2, they were very unique, no one else had a sound like them, and never will.

[MsMofoGone]

Originally posted by RademR


Bought all their albums, "Bed's Too Big Without You" is my favorite Police track.

Although, it's not my favorite ... that song is a GREAT tune!

[JOFO]

Originally posted by macphisto23
The Police are awesome, but what do you mean Sting wrote the songs? Did he just come up with the melody? Or did he come up with the guitar riffs, and bass lines etc..? Or what does he do to write the songs?

sting came up with the melody and lyrics, wrote most of the guitar parts, (since he plays guitar), came up with the arrangements, played keyboards/piano, also played all the saxophones...and of course wrote all the bass lines.

[RademR]

I always heard Andy Summers never got the credit he was due, is that true??

[MsMofoGone]

Originally posted by RademR
I always heard Andy Summers never got the credit he was due, is that true??

The only credit Andy Summers has on The Police albums is ::

Be My Girl - Sally ... from their 1st album which he wrote with Sting

Behind My Camel ... an instrumental track from Zenyatta Mondatta
which Andy wrote himself.

Omegaman ... from Ghost In The Machine which he wrote too.

and Mother ... from Synchronicity that he also wrote.


Other than these songs, Andy didn't participate in writing the songs or music for the band.

Stewart Copeland was credited alot more than Andy Summers. Just check-out The Police's second album Reggatta De Blanc, you'll notice immediately there are several of Stewart's songs splattered all over it !!

But Sting was the overall songwriter in general, as he wrote most of their songs and who took the lead credit for The Police and their success ...

[Infinity]

oh i did not know that Sting wrote Andy's guitar lines. but that makes me wonder, that if Sting wrote all the lyrics, bass lines, and guitar lines. then how come he sucks on his own. talk about a police reunion, if they even do reunite, they probably won't be as good as they were before.

[MsMofoGone]

Originally posted by Infinitum98
if Sting wrote all the lyrics, bass lines, and guitar lines. then how come he sucks on his own.

I wish people would stop with the criticism ...
This is supposed to be an APPRECIATION thread !!
For the record, Sting's music does NOT suck ...
Although not EVERY song is a hit ... there are many that are!
Overall, Sting's songs are GREAT !!

[Zoots]

Originally posted by MsMofoGone

This is supposed to be an APPRECIATION thread !!
For the record, Sting's music does NOT suck ...

I agree!

[Infinity]

Originally posted by MsMofoGone


I wish people would stop with the criticism ...
This is supposed to be an APPRECIATION thread !!
For the record, Sting's music does NOT suck ...
Although not EVERY song is a hit ... there are many that are!
Overall, Sting's songs are GREAT !!

Yea in this thread we have to appreciate the Police, not Sting tho

But let me get back on topic now, what does everyone think are the top 10 Police songs?

[JOFO]

Originally posted by Infinitum98
then how come he sucks on his own.

well, the suck factor you are speaking of comes from his age and desire to be more involved with world music and jazz, neither of which suck, but sting tries to hard to not be rock and roll.

plus, once you own your own castle with a moat and 7000 acres of land, you probably lose a bit of the edge to your songwriting.
not the same as writing a tune when you've got $5 to your name and you just stepped in a pile of dogshit on your way out of the subway coming from the latest job interview you did not get.

[No spoken words]

I cannot understand someone saying "Sting sucks". It's almost embarrassing to me.

That being said, this is about The Police, who we were just talking about at work last week.

Cannot believe how great they are, and I cannot believe how well their music holds up. They've been gone a long time, and some of their stuff sounds like it might have been recorded last week. It just reminds me of how much total shit is out there right now, being passed off as quality.

Anyway, a Police reunion would be nice, and if it ever happens, I hope it's more than a source for nostalgia, I'd hope they would go out there and kick some ass.

Sigh. Every Little Thing She Does is Magic was my personal theme song for 2 years in High School. Thank goodness I'm over my shyness (not).

[RademR]

Voices inside my Head

[KhanadaRhodes]

Originally posted by MsMofoGone
The only credit Andy Summers has on The Police albums is ::

didn't he also have some cowriting credits? i seem to recall him cowriting murder by numbers, but maybe that was stewart. my police cds are packed away (although the music is on my computer) and the composers aren't appearing on the mp3 ids.

since there's so much sting solo hate going on, i will reiterate i like some sting solo music. although lately i just feel so poor listening to it. i think it's just a combination of him teaming up with jaguar and all that, it's like all right...suddenly the man and the music feels out of your league entirely. the album brand new day was horribly underrated (and i'll get flamed for saying this but i do not like the song desert rose. i'm glad it gave the album a boost but that song sucks).

[STING2]

Originally posted by martha


I'm afraid this is true for me as well. I saw them a couple of times back in the day, and they were just great the first time, but the second time, not as great. It was the beginning of the end, I think.

What shows did you see? Which tour and where? What did you not like about the second show you saw?

[STING2]

Originally posted by fah
I saw them in 1982 It was 'the Ghost in the Machine' tour.

One of the best bands ever





~wants to hear more~

WOW, did you see them in Vancouver? They played there in 1982 on the Ghost tour and again exactly one year later on the Synchronicity tour in 1983 which was in fact their last show ever in Canada.

The final show of the Synchronicity Tour and the final FULL Police show ever, was in Melbourne Australia on March 4, 1984 before a crowd of 60,000+ people.

The Police re-united for the last 3 Amnesty 86 shows in 1986 where they headlined the show, with U2 going on before them. U2 in total opened for the Police 5 times. Once in July 1980 in Dublin, again in July 1982 at Gateshead Stadium near NewCastle England, and then the final three Amnesty shows in 1986; June 11, 1986 Omni Arena , June 13, 1986 Rosemount Horizon near Chicago, and June 15, 1986 at GIANTS STADIUM near New York City.

In March 2003, the Police re-united to play 3 songs for their induction into the ROCK HALL OF FAME.


On Sting's recent tour of Colleges and small towns across the United States, STING played mainly Police songs, some of which had not been played in 25 years. The encores started out with "NEXT TO YOU" at full throttle. Sting just had two guitarist and a drummer with him and the sound was all Rock unlike much of his Solo tours. Other great Police songs played at each show were, Message In a Bottle, Demolition Man, Syncronicity II, Roxanne, Invisible Sun, Driven To Tears, Voices Inside My Head, When the World Is Running Down...., Spirits In the Material World, King Of Pain, and Every Breath You Take!

The two shows I saw were just incredible and were obviously my two favorite Sting shows with so much Police material played closely to the way the Police would do the songs.

[Hawkfire]

Summers did co-write Murder by Numbers. I know he put his own feel and arrangement on many guitar parts, notably Every Breath, but essentially Sting wrote the song.

Top 10 Police (top of my head, I'm sure I'm excluding some candidates)...no particular order:

King of Pain
Every Breath You Take
Tea In the Sahara
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Don't Stand So Close ('86)
Message In A Bottle
I Burn For You
Spirits in the Material World
Synchronicity I
Walking on the Moon

[JOFO]

I actually like 95% of Sting's solo music.

[Infinity]

Originally posted by STING2


WOW, did you see them in Vancouver? They played there in 1982 on the Ghost tour and again exactly one year later on the Synchronicity tour in 1983 which was in fact their last show ever in Canada.

The final show of the Synchronicity Tour and the final FULL Police show ever, was in Melbourne Australia on March 4, 1984 before a crowd of 60,000+ people.

The Police re-united for the last 3 Amnesty 86 shows in 1986 where they headlined the show, with U2 going on before them. U2 in total opened for the Police 5 times. Once in July 1980 in Dublin, again in July 1982 at Gateshead Stadium near NewCastle England, and then the final three Amnesty shows in 1986; June 11, 1986 Omni Arena , June 13, 1986 Rosemount Horizon near Chicago, and June 15, 1986 at GIANTS STADIUM near New York City.

In March 2003, the Police re-united to play 3 songs for their induction into the ROCK HALL OF FAME.


On Sting's recent tour of Colleges and small towns across the United States, STING played mainly Police songs, some of which had not been played in 25 years. The encores started out with "NEXT TO YOU" at full throttle. Sting just had two guitarist and a drummer with him and the sound was all Rock unlike much of his Solo tours. Other great Police songs played at each show were, Message In a Bottle, Demolition Man, Syncronicity II, Roxanne, Invisible Sun, Driven To Tears, Voices Inside My Head, When the World Is Running Down...., Spirits In the Material World, King Of Pain, and Every Breath You Take!

The two shows I saw were just incredible and were obviously my two favorite Sting shows with so much Police material played closely to the way the Police would do the songs.

Thanks for all the info. I wasn't aware that U2 opened for the Police in other shows besides Amnesty. U2 opening for the Police must have been insane. Opening bands nowadays suck.

BTW, does anyone have pictures of Andy handing over his guitar to the Edge and Stewart handing his drums to Larry @ the Amnesty. Cos in the U2 Legends show, you can see Sting giving his bass to Adam, and then Sting gave Adam a kiss on the head.

[loverippedaway]

The Police are my third fav band, behind U2 and The Cure, I think there best song ever is "Wrapped around your finger" personally...and that song has really helped me over the years.
I'm kind of curious as to how fast they would play all there songs today if they reunited, currently listening to "Can't stand loosing you" from Live disc two...just there is no way they could play that fast now...synchronicity one as well...thats crazy fast.