THE POLICE – “Message In A Bottle”
The number ones of 1979 look from one angle like a beauty parade – a line-up of ambitious talents sniffing a chance at genuine, lasting superstardom. Whether punk rock had actually cleared any decks, or whether disco had changed the market, or whether simply the enormous surges in singles sales led smart operators to look again at the medium’s potential for making names, there’s a feeling in the air of a brass ring up for grabs – for the first time maybe since Bowie and Elton’s early-decade breakthroughs.
1979′s contenders faced inevitably mixed fortunes. Ian Dury was too singular and knotty a talent; Bob Geldof had the hunger and self-seriousness, but not often the songs; Gary Numan could carry his loyalists beyond his initial impact, but not the mass audience. Debbie Harry had what it took, though, and so it turned out did ’79′s next newbie. With Sting, though, you sense he saw his particular opportunity and moved confidently and calculatingly to realise it – which is why I saved this little digression for the Police’s first number one.
If I liked what Sting did more I’d be first to applaud the charisma and chutzpah of his self-creation: the look of The Police, even if accidental, is perfect – bleach blonde, wiry, weatherbeaten enough to be acceptable as rockers, cute enough (well, mostly) for pop hearts to flutter. Sting was the sort of pop star people crushed on – not just young girls: later, the two artists on DC Comics’ Swamp Thing were so obsessed by Sting that they begged writer Alan Moore to create a character who looked just like him, so they could draw him. (The result, street-level warlock John Constantine, has gone on to become a film property and the star of his own, 200-plus issue series: Sting’s midas touch working even indirectly.)
The music – choppy guitar pop, reggae-ish rhythms and inflections, thoughtful lyrics – is as well-thought-out as the image. Reggae had never been more internationally successful or well-regarded, and instead of – like some of the punks – using its sound and philosophy to try and radicalise rock, Sting used reggae to add rhythmic spice and edge to otherwise ordinary (though well-crafted) new wave pop. He also used it – and this is more of a sticking point – to create a distinctive vocal personality. On “Message In A Bottle” he’s half way between the music of the Caribbean and Pirates Of The Caribbean, all his “sea-o” and “me-o” stuff quickly wearing thin.
It wasn’t just the unique vocals that marked the Police out as Sting’s group – using reggae also put his bass playing front and centre, and the stuttering basslines on the chorus are the catchiest thing about this track, which otherwise leaves me a bit cold for all its vigour: the parable of loneliness shared seems trite and Sting hadn’t yet learned to tone his vocal shenanigans down. An obvious star, but even at this early stage easy to resent.
5
Sorry Tom, this has got really silly. Back to the subject in hand – sort of – did you see the review of Sting’s recent lute album that said “Tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 1599″?
It seems so long ago.
…Nancy was alone, a forty-five beside her head, an open telephone.
NOT THAT ONE
On the “Cars” thread, I told you about my first time at a disco. Now let me tell you about my first time at a gig.
It was May 1977, and Cambridge’s first punk band (The Users) had just put out their first single (“Sick Of You”) as the first release on Cambridge’s first indie label (Raw Records, which was run out of the record shop where I bought “New Rose”, Sniffin’ Glue, Spiral Scratch and all the rest of them). To mark the occasion, a showcase gig had been arranged in what turned out to be a glorified scout hut, right out in the suburban sticks. The Users were only the support act, and I knew that I’d get into big trouble if I stayed for the headliners, but half my year at school were sneaking up there and I didn’t want to miss out on a vital piece of Punk Rock History.
Not yet knowing how these things worked, I turned up about half an hour before the start time on the ticket. In a nearly empty hall, I watched the headline act – a visiting singer from New York called Cherry Vanilla – sound-checking a song called “Shake Some Ashes”. Her backing band were a rather suspect trio – bandwagon jumpers, we reckoned – who had just earned a rotten review in Sniffin’ Glue for their suspiciously rear-guard, un-reconstructed debut single, “Fall Out”.
And so it came to pass that the first band I ever saw live were The Police, a month or so before Andy Summers joined them. (On the same night, he was playing in Kevin Ayers’ band in Manchester.)
I deliberately gave them a wide berth during 1978, for wholly snobbish reasons, but the re-issues of “Roxanne” and “Can’t Stand Losing You” had already given me cause to doubt my knee-jerk-ism. But by the time that “Message In The Bottle” came out, all the dullard meathead sports jocks at school had got into them, filing their copies of Outlandos D’Amour next to their Bat Out Of Hell and their Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds. My snobbery duly re-ignited – pah, which side had THEY been on during the Great Wars of Punk Rock? – I reinstated my critical distance.
I finally saw Sexy Sting (oh, I could never have denied him that, and I had the shirtless poster on my wall to prove it) perform an acoustic version of “Message” at the 1986 Anti-Apartheid gig on Clapham Common. The one where Gil Scott-Heron rocked it, Junkie George lost it, and where my all my ex-Uni housemates that had gone into advertising and moved to Wandsworth yakked their heads off all the way through Hugh Masekela.
They all shut up when this one came on, though. Yah, Sting, bloody good bloke actually.
I had never hated it more.
Time for another re-assessment?
I’ll add it to the list.
I love reading recollections like that.
Were the Police not playing their own stuff that night Mike? Just backing someone else?
Did they stand out as being good do you remember?
Ah, but I only saw that one soundcheck song, you see.
Some of my more daring classmates stayed out way past “lights out” in the dorm, but I don’t recall their reactions. Although I’m fairly certain that The Police played a set of their own, before Cherry Vanilla took to the stage.
The Users were a big disappointment, though. Just not ur-Punk enough for crypto-Maoist 15-year-old me.
#7: time for a belated Number Two watch. For yes, Sexy Sting did indeed keep my favourite single OF ALL TIME off the top of the charts: Blondie’s “Dreaming”.
I’m not going to attempt to explain why this is my favourite single OF ALL TIME, as a lot of the reasons are highly subjective and lyrically specific and autobiographical and blah blah blah this comments box isn’t my personal memoir you know. So let’s just say that it perfectly captures the giddy optimistic thrill of being 17 years old in late 1979: still re-inventing myself, re-establishing myself, enjoying all manner of new experiences, and generally having the time of my life. (In stark contrast to being 16 years old in late 1978: an all-time low that haunts me to this day.)
Mike – given the memoir Waldo’s just treated us to in the Buggles thread, you’ve probably got pretty free rein as far as personal memoirs go.
Not to mention DJP etc. but I’m being extremely careful about the rein I’m prepared to let my particular “personal” go here.
After all, “Popular” is a forum not just for analysis but for our personal associations with number one records, and if you had such a landmark linked with a particular record, it’s likely to be a strong association. Let’s just go easy on the detail…
Nah, it just wouldn’t make for very interesting reading in this particular case. No great earth-shattering revelations or nothing! My attachment to “Dreaming” is primarily a sentimental one which can’t readily be put into words, but I guess it also stands as a personal emblem/reminder of everything which great pop music can be.
Some things in life are too precious to be picked to bits, and this is one of them.
Fine, hope you didn’t think I was prying or being impertinent. Whatever the association is, what a glorious rush of a record.
I’ve got a couple of years to decide whether to reminisce about that particular landmark : )
Not at all! And yes, it’s basically one great big glorious, relentless, surging, rushing, tumbling, dizzying blur of optimism and energy and general lust for life and stuff.
With great drumming.
“Dreaming” would have been my pick for #1 at this time too, though I don’t mind MIAB, esp. when Kanye takes over, as he does here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QfoBHH8_Pk
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The Police seemed like the kind of band to shake things up as it were, to my 13 year old ears. This rock/reggae fusion band dressed in Post Punk combats were strikingly good looking and the songs were well crafted, hooky and immediate. The first album was a *wannabe* punk/reggae noisefest which at first was quite enjoyable, but after a few plays, I soon grew tired of. But the second album had more depth. The dubby, bass-heavy sound has aged badly I know, but then I was quite taken with it. I liked Copeland’s leftfield drumbreaks, and Summers’ unusual guitar playing style, with it’s ringing chords and that damping effect he used.
By the time MIAB was released, it felt as though the whole world was turning bleach-blond/e as most of the girls (and some of the boys) reached for the peroxide. Of course we had Debbie to lust after, while the girls would plant their kisses on pics of Sting. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to own up to that now!
This then represents a time when music mattered most, when so much was going on! The 2 lads in my class who I counted on as best friends hated The Police for some reason, but then one had an almost complete collection of Genesis albums(including bootlegs)as well as Yes and Camel, and the other was a big fan of Status Quo and Rainbow. They both fell big time for Numan, though.
This is a stunning record I reckon. It seems to get faster and faster, and like the Who’s best records you have a sense of stuff being played with real authority. Thus, you know for sure that even if you and your pals *could* pick out all the notes and beats yourself it wouldn’t sound half as good. Scoring it an average record just seems silly to me when the songwriting’s fab (you just *know* Elvis C. for all his talent heard this and felt a twinge of envy and wished he’d written it) and the playing’s great. Both major dimensions here as clearly superior as they are on Chic tracks of the period. Notwithstanding the cynicism that Sting has always rightly provoked, then, this one is a real credit to him. Cracking stuff:
9
@55 the chap who Andy Summers replaced was called Henri Padovani. Rumour has it he only knew one chord and was only recruited into the band, because he “knew people”. A kind of post-punk Stuart Sutcliffe, if you like.
i totally recall* the name henry padovani in reference to one of the classic punk bands — ie NOT the police :p — but he’s not mentioned in respect of this on wikipedia: except haha that he once auditioned for the band london…
was he briefly in the damned? it’s something like this — he stood in for someone famous (“famous”) at some point
*across c.32 years of not having given a it second’s thought mind you
in act he’s on one of the pete frame family trees, though i have misplaced the punkrawk one i had up in my bedroom when a postury student
Just checked his Wiki page (no citations I notice) seems he left The Police in August ’77. Then went on to join Wayne Country & The Electric Chairs.
Yes I read that too, but I’m (sort of) sure it wasn’t the Electric Chairs — it was London-based punk… though actually I think WC was London-based for a while.
TOTPWatch CONTEXT SPECIAL: Get this, the edition of Top of the Pops when this was number one, on the 11th of October 1979 was watched by 19.7 million people! Admittedly, this was during the ITV strike, but that’s still an extraordinary reach.
In the studio were; The Dooleys, The Headboys, Chic, Errol Dunkley, Cats UK, Dana and Viola Willis, plus Legs & Co’s interpretation of ‘Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough’. Andy Peebles was the host.
re 73/74 my first encounter with (what was to become) The Police was when they featured as band members in an article on Cherry Vanilla in Zigzag magazine in 1977 (an edition which featured a particularly memorable cover image of her thrusting her crotch at the camera – based on the photo bottom right on this page http://www.punk77.co.uk/groups/cherryvanillahistory2.htm).
Cherry Vanilla and Wayne County had both appeared in Warhol’s ‘Pork’ and also had a connection through Miles Copeland who had arranged Sting & Stewart Copeland’s role in CV’s backing band and which may have explained Padovani working with both.
Thanks lonepilgrim, looks like he was quite a popular character back then.