I’m pretty sure that Jenny is the song. I think that the Police connection is the rhythm and chord pattern, similar to Message In A Bottle. It would be nice if the OP would listen to a few of the suggestions.
Ah - hadn’t thought of that. True.
Yeah, being familiar with The Police’s catalog, I feel pretty confident in saying whatever song the OP’s talking about isn’t them. Maybe Stin(k)g solo?
I don’t know about the rhythm and cord progression but the list of numbers immediately brought AC/DC to mind.
Relevant verse:
Pick up the phone
I’m always home
Call me any time
Just ring 36 24 36 [oh!!]
I lead a life of crime
Those are the correct chords. It’s F#m,D,A,B. The melody (by that, I mean the notes that are sung in “8-6-7-5-3-0-9” over that is the one I gave before, “C#-C#-D-D-C#-C#-B-C#-B-A” (or something similar–I omitted a syllable here and there.) I transposed it up a fourth to better match the key the OP’s plucked-out melody is.
{Wanders through thread, singing Dirty deeds, done with sheep…}
You are truly Demento-ed. :dubious:
IANDD I am not Dr Demento
I knew that 
I wonder if I play enough strings in the power chord I hit to even know if I make it F#m vs. F#? The minute I read your post, I thought "oh yeah F3 *minor *- but typically I am just grabbing the lower 3 strings of the chord to establish the rhythm (I sing the song in the band so only need to hold down the basic rhythm…).
As for the OP - who knows. Maybe it’s the Bay City Rollers and there was confusion between calling out numbers and calling out letters - S A T U R D A Y - night!
Same here, except I was thinking of Whole Lotta Rosie:
She ain’t exactly pretty
She ain’t exaclty small
42-39-56
You could say she’s got it ALLLLLL!!!
I think that the original definition of “power chord” is the 3-string version you use, and it consists of the I V I (so your F# would be F# C# F#). No III = no major or minor = power chord.
If it’s a power chord, then no. A power chord by definition omits the third. Technically, it should be called a “power interval,” but that doesn’t sound very rockin’ does it? Anyhow, yes, you can get away with omitting the third. That’s pretty usual in rock music, especially if the guitar is distorted/overdriven.
I assume you’re playing something like a 2-4-4 fretting for the F# chord? Then, no you wouldn’t be hitting the minor (the A). If you’re playing a fully barred minor chord (like an Em shape barred at the second fret) than it’s the fourth string from the bottom (the G string) that gives you the minor color.
There was a song on Ghosts in the Machine (I think) called “Hungry for You (J’Aurais Toujour Faim de Toi)” where Sting did sing the French part a lot at the end. It’s a stretch but maybe that is it?
Yep, per you and Crotalus, that’s what I’m doing. And I knew it was a power chord - believe me, I rarely grab full chords when I am singing and playing rhythm in the band ;). But I had forgotten that if I *did *want to play the full chord, whether it would’ve been a major or a minor…
Carry on with this mysterious Police song…
…wait!!! Could it be Rio, by Duran Duran?
Back to “Jenny”, I think the interesting thing about the guitar part is that the main riff plays the same note consecutively on two different strings (it does this three times in each iteration of the riff) – but because the two strings are different thicknesses, there is a subtle timbre difference between them.
I think the Byrds pulled this trick on some of their riffs as well.
As for the Police song – “Masoko Tanga” contains all kinds of gibberish (or is it actually some language?), but I couldn’t find anything that fit the description.
I’m betting the OP confused the riffs for “Message in a Bottle” and “Jenny”, and so conflated the two songs.
It isn’t the thicknesses, per se, it is the slightly different intonations of the two strings.
Jim “Roger” McGuinn of the Byrds played Rickenbacker 12-string guitars, inspired by seeing George Harrison’s. Since the higher 2-string “courses” of strings (that’s what they are officially called: courses. A 12-string has 6 2-string courses; a mandolin has 4 2-string courses) are tuned in unison, you get the same “slightly out of tune” effect so it sounds interesing…kind of like having a Chorus effect, naturally.
Ah, thanks! And, rather akin to overdubbing with the same singer singing the same exact notes. I know most songs (e.g., nearly all Beatles songs) were done that way (John, in particular, apparently didn’t like the sound of his own voice when it was just single-tracked). And, I know this is often done, a la the Chorus effect you mentioned, by “artificially” double-tracking a single vocal performance – but that’s never as interesting as “real” double-tracking.
I’ll bet its Rio -
Having arrived at home and tried it out, the minor works better than the major.
There ya go. Thanks.
Gotta run; my son actually wants me to show him Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’…
I’m a pretty obsessive Police fan, and the OP’s description sounds like Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309/Jenny.” The guitar is chorus-y and sounds a little Summers-like, which might be where the OP gets the Police connection. The outro is the TT backing vocalist, mostly. Doesn’t sound too Sting/Copelandish.
I can’t think of a Police track that has random numbers called out. The number songs in my recollection are all in sequence (MBN, Invisible Sun)…
[QUOTE=Ludovic]
This reminds me of Warsaw by Joy Division: it starts off, not with a 1-2-3-4 call, but a “3 5 0 1 2 5 go!” The chorus simply consists of “3 1 g” repeated several times.
I mention it because Joy Division and early Police are fairly similar: intelligent, energetic punk/postpunk.
[/QUOTE]
Did you know that is a reference to Rudolf Hess’ prison number? 31G-350125. Love JD, but WTF, Ian?