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
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DJ Punctum on September 30th, 2008
Before the Police the “acceptable face of punk/new wave” tended to mean the Stranglers and the Boomtown Rats and it’s noticeable how the chart placings of both acts tailed off pretty dramatically once Sexy Sting really got going.
But I can attest that plenty of girls in my class at school (’79-’80) found Sexy Sting very fanciable in a boys/Debbie parallel sense.
Waldo on September 30th, 2008
Hurrah! Off we go with The Police, a band I saw (as reported in another place) playing The Nashville, a pay-as-you-enter pub in West Kensington, only a matter of weeks earlier. I remember that gig so clearly all these years later. It was a wonderful evening. Myself and two buddies managed to get pretty much poll position at the front of the stage and even got to chat with Sting beforehand, the soon-to-be-iconinic front-man actually gifting one of my friends a pic-disc of “Can’t Stand Losing You”, which had flopped initially.
The performance that night was magnificent, three guys rocking away in a sweaty, smoky, beery drinking-dive. On the verge of great things, they played brilliantly and the punters responded appreciatively. I went home to Stockwell that night full of enthusiasm and Holsten Pils. We returned to The Nashville to catch Squeeze on another heady night. THese were super times for me, I have to say. Earning money, the first flush of adulthood and not a care in the world. Get in there!
MIAB was and is a fine piece. It is well constructed musically and was the perfect choice for a single hot on the heals of the disappointments over the two other tracks released from “Outlandos D’Amour (itself also initially a failure). The floodgates had now opened for this rather unlikely trio and we were in for many treats before Sting sank into a mire of one-rule-for-you-one-rule-for-me eco-warrior lunacy and became the self-righteous, sanctimonious figure of fun he is, alas, today.
One more word about that debut album: I always felt that the pick of the tracks was “Peanuts”, something which undoubtedly would have been a single (and a stone-bonker number one) had the band not drunk so thirstily from the same well already. This was a great pity. Such a good track.
Happy Days!
DJ Punctum on September 30th, 2008
Re. gimmicky packages, of course Factory had that sewn up beautifully and it did make a difference to whatever I bought any given Saturday lunchtime - Bloggs’ in St Vincent Street was the best punk/post-punk record shop in Glasgow (its sister shop Listen, round the corner in Renfield Street, wasn’t bad either and maybe a bit more rockist but Bloggs’ just had the edge) and the packages back then (especially singles) were so great I’d buy them on sight alone and I was nearly never disappointed by the music they contained - I’ve still got the first Durutti Column album in its sandpaper sleeve (currently wrapped in a protective B&Q carrier bag!!) and A Factory Sample avec stickers which cost me the princely sum of 79p.
Billy Smart on September 30th, 2008
A&M running parallel coloured vinyl campaigns with Squeeze and The Police at this time, a tradition that Therapy? tried to revive in the 1990s.
Again, yet another song that I loved when I was seven. The guitariness of it sounded grown up to me, but a type of grown-up music that i could follow. And the simplicity of Sting’s lyrics made it a song that I could follow, but not in a way that seems grating 29 years on, unlike the overwrought efforts of Geldorf.
I remember The Police being popular in my primary school, but then so where all of the big singles acts of the day; Blondie, Police, Numan, Jam (probably encouraged by older siblings, that one), Specials, Madness. Pop to us children then was like a carnival of songs, a few new ones every week, familiar faces returning - it may just be that we were older, but it didn’t seem to be as much a question of allegiances as following pop had become by about 1983…
jeff w on September 30th, 2008
Ooer I don’t get this Sting = sexy idea at all! Stewart Copeland though, he was pretty hot. Though really I just wished I could play the drums with his style and grace.
Yes, the emerging prog rock fan in me liked The Police a lot, although only from Regatta de Blanc onwards. There were flashes of greatness in Outlandos, but Sting’s prominent yelping and barking on that LP was a bit off a turn off. Regatta felt like a much more democratic trio record. It wasn’t to last, but in retrospect I’ll admit that without Sting’s pop nous, they’d have gotten nowhere. “MIAB” is a pretty good example of their ability to synthesize riffs, dub rhythms and a great hook. I’d give it 8.
I’d agree that in September 1979 there was a real sense of new(ish) talents competing for top dog status. The Regatta/”MIAB” versus Blondie’s Eat To The Beat/”Dreaming” battle meant as much to me as that Blur vs Oasis scrap you young’ns got so excited about in ‘95.
Blondie shoulda won, of course :(
DJ Punctum on September 30th, 2008
I wonder if Sting and Debbie Harry ever met in an abandoned studio.
Tom on September 30th, 2008
Employment has killed the blogosphere star: you’ll have to squeeze a bit more out of Sting for now :)
H. on September 30th, 2008
In the late eighties I was at a party with my girlfriend, and Sting walked in. He was a huge star by then, perhaps at his zenith star-wise. The effect of him walking in was absolutely electric, although everyone was trying hard to be cool and not go up to him or anything. He stayed for half an hour or so chatting with a friend and then left. My girlfriend was no fan of The Police or Sting, but she was enthralled, she found him incredibly attractive, and even I could tell he had real presence (how much of this was because I knew he was hugely famous I don’t know).
The song is one The Police’s better ones, I think, it’s got a bit of a ragged edge to it, that they quickly smoothed out once they became huge.
Tommy Mack on September 30th, 2008
Re: acceptable face of punk - it never occurred to me until recently that Teenage Kicks, I Fought The Law, Ever Fallen in love… et al weren’t massive hits at the time, I suppose that’s the distorting effect of history and the sort of places I (used to!) dance.
Re: sexy Sting. I only really knew him as a balding, sinewy yoga-pervert so I was struck by how good looking he was on the poster for the reissued Greatest Hits. I don’t fancy him though and anyone who says I do is lying.
Bit chrome-y sounding for my liking (never liked chorus-ed guitars) but not a bad tune, probably a 6 in my books.
LondonLee on September 30th, 2008
Even though I only lived about 15 minutes walk from The Nashville I never went there for some reason. I also passed up the chance of seeing The Specials at The Greyhound when ‘Gangsters’ had just come out. I still kick myself over that one.
I don’t think ‘I Fought The Law’ was that well regarded at the time, it felt a bit like The Clash were treading water and had lost it a bit.
Brian on September 30th, 2008
Toronto was bery kind to The Police and they were the top bill at a couple of Police Picnics , held in ‘80 & 81 , I think. They also played the “Edge” near Ryerson College a few times when they were here schmoozing Much Music ( Canada’a answer to MTV )….
I saw them at the venerable Massey Hall in Toronto on the Zenyata Mondata tour and they blew the roof off the place. It’s a pity that everyone’s view of The Police is slightly tainted by Sting’s later machinations. But at the time they were the punk movement gone global - and these guys could play.
I first heard this song in bar in Edinburgh - which should tell you what kind of effect it had on me - if remember where I heard it first - it had to make huge impression.
My wife went on to idolize Sting and I am familiar with most of his solo stuff and there is alot of good solo Sting. On the other hand - there is alot on the Police LP’s that’s rubbish , added to help SUmmers and Copeland get royalties from the sale of the records…..
vinylscot on September 30th, 2008
LL #35 - I agree with you on “I Fought The Law”. I don’t think they WERE treading water, and it would probably have been received better if it had just been a cover of the Bobby Fuller version, but most people’s point of reference to the song at the time was a rather anaemic version which had been a single for Rita Coolidge and Kris Ktistofferson only a couple of years earlier. Most people under about 25 would have thought “WTF? The Clash covering Rita Coolidge?” .. or something like that.
Its reputation has rather grown with time and separation from that association.
Mark G on September 30th, 2008
Rita/Kris? No, I certainly never heard that. And I’m fairly sure no-one I know did, either. If the feeling was that they were treading water, the fact of how it was a pop, radio friendly cover version would be why. Of course, the whole e.p. is a step forward and a great record in it’s entirety.
I have one fantastic BobFul4 live e.p. - they were pretty fierce for the time!
Erithian on September 30th, 2008
There’s a Kristofferson song coming up which is a LONG way away from the Clash… but we’ll get there one entry at a time.
Tommy Mack on September 30th, 2008
Like I say, it’s the distorting lense of history. I was born in ‘81 and never knew I Fought The Law was a cover until a few years ago. Since you hear it (and other punk classix) all the time on TV/films/ads/commercial radio (Virgin, not Heart obv.) I had assumed that they were big hits first time around.
But they weren’t. It was punk nerds getting positions of power in the media and using it to get their favourite music all over the airwaves. Not a bad thing, since most of it rocks, but it was still a shock to me to find out that something as good and as commercial as Teenage Kicks only got to #31 first time out.
LondonLee on September 30th, 2008
It sounds better now in the future context of ‘London Calling’ but at the time there was a bit of WTF? about it.
In the US it was put on their first album which is ludicrous.
Tommy Mack on September 30th, 2008
I suppose the other thing is that ‘77 punk sounds a lot more commercial to my ears than it was at the time now that Green Day et al have taken it into the charts.
wwolfe on September 30th, 2008
I don’t know if it was a cagey business sense or natural affinity that allowed Sting to write lyrics that were the perfect essence of Middlebrow Meaningfulness. Whichever the case, I think this more than anything is what made the Police a critics’ darling. Absent that one ingredient, I think they would have been viewed as roughly equal to the Cars, another steady source of cold, highly polished, mildly enjoyable machine-tooled pop songs from the same time. That same ingedient was also the most obvious expression of Sting’s towering, craggy ego - a rock too high for me to climb, standing between me and any real enjoyment of his band’s music.
fivelongdays on September 30th, 2008
29 - I just want to thank you for the only mention (arguably) my favourite band in the world are going to get on this ‘ere blogthing.
Doctor Casino on October 1st, 2008
Being born in ‘81, I have no particular memory of the first time I heard the Police, and they had become established as classic rock fill-in songs on the radio stations I listened to - although a few songs would show up on the alternative station’s once-a-week “retro” program. In any case, once I was aware of them I taped all the hits off the radio - definitely “Roxanne,” definitely “I Can’t Stand Losing You” and most definitely this one. On some listens it kind of bores me, seems too slow and aimless - and then sometimes the crackling energy of the buildup to the chorus is just irresistible. Something shifts gear or takes off or quantum-jumps or something with “I’ll send an SOS to the world” - incidentally the least stupid lyric in the entire song. The literal narrative of a castaway at sea is just too simple to bear paying attention to more than once or twice, but carved down to something resembling poetry, a mere analogy to a castaway at sea - “I’ll send an SOS to the world” - damned if I haven’t felt like that sometimes.
The hundred billion bottles, of course, belong in the “stupid” category - but there’s something to the way that, once they’ve been introduced, the song gains even more energy and then reaches the singalong “Sendin’ out an SOS” - no “I’ll” here, everybody can join in (although nobody can manage Sting’s range - this song is karaoke suicide)… we’re all sending out an SOS. To the extent that this song does forge a collective I think it’s largely accidental, and we’ve seen several better bands take on this same kind of work with more conscious execution and better results. (Beatles & ABBA especially.) But I have to give this song credit for working as well as it does.
If you prefer the zings, there is an ILX thread focused largely on this particular track. I suspect my post there might be my first-ever ILX contribution, to boot!
Waldo on October 1st, 2008
#39 - Sweet Jesus, Erithian, Bunny’s got his eye on you. And when’s he’s aroused, he’s capable of anything - Cheating and stealing, violence and crime…
Do tread carefully, bud (Lord, for your sake!)
Erithian on October 1st, 2008
Waldo, you’ve put a lot of unnecessary detail into that post. Couldn’t you have made it a bit, well… leaner?
FT's Conrad on October 1st, 2008
My Ma’ll tell on you for that Erithian
rosie on October 1st, 2008
I need a stiff brandy after all that. What kind have we got?
Waldo on October 1st, 2008
Give us a break, Erithian. I’m only human…
Erithian on October 1st, 2008
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″?
DJ Punctum on October 1st, 2008
It seems so long ago.
rosie on October 1st, 2008
…Nancy was alone, a forty-five beside her head, an open telephone.
DJ Punctum on October 1st, 2008
NOT THAT ONE
mike on October 1st, 2008
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.
FT's Conrad on October 1st, 2008
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?
mike on October 1st, 2008
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.
mike on October 2nd, 2008
#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.)
Erithian on October 2nd, 2008
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.
DJ Punctum on October 2nd, 2008
Not to mention DJP etc. but I’m being extremely careful about the rein I’m prepared to let my particular “personal” go here.
Erithian on October 2nd, 2008
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…
mike on October 2nd, 2008
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.
Erithian on October 2nd, 2008
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 : )
mike on October 2nd, 2008
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.
FT's Lena on October 2nd, 2008
“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