The Police - Roxanne: yea or nay?

[Thang-y]

Don't think the Mars track sounded much like The Police to be honest.

Reeeeeeaaaaally?

[sloopjohnc]

The way it speeds up into the chorus is still effective. And although early Police were reviled as bandwagon jumpers, they should be given credit for having their own distinct sound.

It's an idea for another thread but were the Police the least influential major rock band? Hardly anyone as tried to imitate the sound of their records, unless I'm missing something.

There was a spate of pop songs a few years ago with a vaguely Police sound, this one being the most obvious:


And this one, a bit:

Don't forget the P Diddy song. He sampled both the Police and Zeppelin.

[zoomboogity]

The less Stewart Copeland was involved in the writing, the less interesting they were to me. The second album was the only one I ever really liked all the way through. And what a drummer! Watching this clip, I can see how much fun they must have been to see in concert.

[naughty boy]

That Gotye thing is atrocious.

What were people thinking of?

[zoomboogity]

I can't speak for the rest of the world, but in the US, I think people had enough "brown" music to last them a lifetime (and don't get me started on "jazz fusion" - yeeeesh), so anything new was welcome. For some people it was disco, for others it was punk/new wave. The thing with The Police for me is, the more Sting is singing/writing, the less I enjoy them. That doesn't leave much, except for a few Copeland songs (Does Everyone Stare, On Any Other Day) and their non-vocal songs, where even if there's not a lot going on, it still sounds cool when the drums are leading the way (Shambelle, Flexible Strategies, The Other Way Of Stopping). These days I have the same problem with Talking Heads, whom I REALLY used to like back in the day - David Byrne's shtick just bugs me to the point where a little goes a long way. A lot of stuff that got labelled "new wave" was the product of "the old guard" doing what they could to stay relevant - Eno producing Talking Heads and Devo, Curved Air's drummer starting The Police. Not to mention Andy Summers' long resume before joining up (Animals, Soft Machine, Kevin Ayers, Kevin Coyne). I found a 30-minute clip of The Police from Beat Club in 1978, and I tried to watch it, but it was too Sting'd out and the songs didn't do it for me. But on Regatta De Blanc they found the right balance.

[Thang-y]

If you're talking early Police, you have to mention Henri Padovani - the original guitarist

[Bent Fabric]

Not to mention Andy Summers' long resume before joining up (Animals, Soft Machine, Kevin Ayers, Kevin Coyne).

And Sedaka. He talks a fair bit in his book about the Neil Sedaka gig (couple years, maybe?) more or less saving his ass when he came back to the UK in the mid 70s.

[Deebank]

If you're talking early Police, you have to mention Henri Padovani - the original guitarist

I can't help observing that Summers was doing the heavy lifting in that clip.

[Deebank]

The less Stewart Copeland was involved in the writing, the less interesting they were to me. The second album was the only one I ever really liked all the way through. And what a drummer! Watching this clip, I can see how much fun they must have been to see in concert.

I saw the Police at around that time and they were great.

I think a certain Mr Evans in Dublin was paying attention - to be fair he says as much in his intro to Summers' autobiog.

[pcqgod]