Okay, here's another musical mystery. Why are thousands of people across the world paying good money to see a band who split nearly twenty five years ago and who are obviously only getting together for the money?
Now I know a lot of people like The Police (my wife included), but for me they are firmly in that category of music for people who don't really like music. I'd put them alongside Simply Red, Dire Straits and Robbie Williams - good musicians (apart from the fat bloke from Stoke obviously) but just that nothing more. It's the sort of music you'd put on if the gasman was coming round and you didn't want to blow his mind by offering something more interesting.
Just as the Bee Gees were white, blue eyed boys doing soul, so The Police were white, blue eyed boys doing some fucked up version of what they thought reggae should sound like, albeit reggae with all the soul, feeling and poverty removed. At least the Bee Gees owned up to the limit of their ambitions, and at least they did actually write a few good tunes. The Police even had the cheek to release two albums called Regatta De Blanc and Zenyatta Mondata - pretentious moi?
Rather than pay the best part of £70 to see a band play songs they released more than a quarter of a century ago I'd advise anybody tempted to part with their hard earned cash to buy the Synchronicity Tour video for less than a tenner.
10 comments:
It seems you can remember quite a bit of Fawlty Towers as well, Paul. One of the tracks I'm working on at the moment is basically me dabbling in Jazz-Rock Fusion music so I decided I would call it "Pretentious, moi?"
I'm glad I'm not the only one to remember that line.
Are you going through your Weather Report phase Shy?
Well, Paul, I don't know anout Weather Report but I've listened to lots of Joe Satriani over the years and I think a microscopic amount has rubbed off.
You leave Robbie alone! He's not fat at all in real life and he's also twice as handsome too.
I used to think that there was something wrong with me when The Police were winning all those awards all those years ago because I thought I was the only person in the world who didn't like them. Now I discover I wasn't alone!
Andy Summers is a pretty damned good guitarist but Sting is just so "up himself" it's not true. O.K. he's talented but his largest attribute has to be his ego and I always find it hard to appreciate people like this, even if they are a million times more gifted than me.
In any case, he's a Mag. (A Newcastle United fan, that is)
Andy Summers did a lot of local musicians round here, he's from Poole I think.
Agree about Sting, I mean sex for six hours - is that with or without meal breaks?
ROFL Paul!
You eat during sex, no breaks needed. Haven't you ever seen 9 1/2 weeks....if you haven't it might give you a few tips. I'm partial to full clotted cream with strawberries wedged in whereas Mr Mags is a chocolate sauce man!
Dare I ask where the strawberries are wedged in?
They're wedged in the cream, silly!
To my modest opinion guys you're missing the point - there is CONTENT in The Police their songs - but you haven't noticed how actual those songs are right now did you.
Secondly art needs 'ego's' to express themselve, and Sting's 'ego' is anger, or ambience or grief, he has an open soul. And open souls will make the world heal and grow instead of death metal stuff...
They didn't try to imitate rootsreggae, they tried to be themselves and bring something new.
They are a very very good example of fusion-music... In their style there as genious like the wheather report or joni mitchell in theirs...
If you don't get songs like 'spirits in the material world' or ' rehumanize yourself' or 'when the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around' or 'walking in your footsteps', or 'message in a bottle', think twice ......, they have NOTHING in common with Simply Red, not even the era coz simply red came up later.
they brought a musicstyle which soundwise showed a mistic cloud of human observed thoughts layers, layers which are very dusty and cloudy and abstractwise haven't been brought up yet by any band.
They had commercial stuff ok, but they had masterpiece songs which didn't appear on the main LP's...
But I don't judge them. They stood where they stood and the honesty of the lyrics says what people want in their lives...
Are your reactions bringin up jealousy? Or can't you handle your own life?
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