I have no inside information on the Police. I CAN say this: if Stewart Copeland DID have any bad blood toward Sting, he seems to have gotten over it. Not long ago, I heard him doing a radio interview along with Adrian Belew, with whom he’s formed a new band called Gizmodrome. Belew was complaining about Robert Fripp’s huge ego.
The DJ quipped that Stewart had some experience with huge egos. But Stewart said, “Sting? You know… by the second Police album, it was pretty obvious that he was the star of the group and that he didn’t need Andy or me. But he stayed with us for five albums. So, for all his faults, Sting is a very loyal guy.”
I’m sure Copeland HAS been furious at Sting, but enough time has elapsed that he’s now forgiving and philosophical.
My friend P. and I rewrote some of the lyrics to that:
Undercover monkey
Midnight tragedy
I never had an ape that made sweet love to me
Undercover monkey
the answer to my prayer
You made me know that there’s a chimp for me
Out there, somewhere…
I watch lots of videos of Copeland (he’s got a pretty sweet musical set up at his place) and he just looks to always be having the time of his life. Manic as fuck, but he’s in his happy spot, so I can totally believe that he harbors no resentment whatsoever, if he did at one time.
“What’s Up” is my least favorite song ever, so I’ll definitely throw in another vote for that. Also “Red Solo Cup” by Toby Keith. The guy sounds like his drunk as he’s singing it, which I know is deliberate, but still – drunk people are bad singers.
And if you and P. can do a number on this stinker, that will really rate high in my book.
At first I thought - ok, I’ll cut this drummer/vox a little slack (considering my bias as a drummer/vox, myself), but then I thought, no - he’s a fucking dork. And the keyboardist - coolest posturing, ev-a!
The Romantics were a band that I knew only three songs from. “When I Look In Your Eye”, which is not too bad - a snappy little pop rocker, and there’s the bloodied deuce (Heat logo?) I dropped a couple pages back with “I Hear the Secrets That You Keep”, and the third one, below, was this bottom-of-the-barrel vintage spooge called One In a Million (Hey original title, huh? Yeah - try looking that up on youtube:p)
And the video itself…::shudder::…the fromage level offended my fine-honed sense of morals.
goddamn how can’t this be some of the most phoned-in, yawn-worthy lyrics -
One in a million - baby you’re the one.
One in a million - and you’re second to none.
Especially the way he sings that second line - so douchey, like he’s just doing it off-the-cuff and not giving any shit.
Piss-weaker than Coors Lite.
and yeah, sure - 4 Non-Blonde’s “What’s Up” could possibly be the quintessence of a puddle of dried up puke during a Bills’ tailgate. The vox in the chorus, in particular, absolutely defies any reasonable claims to the concepts of mercy and grace in humanity.
Hehehe, while I appreciate and am really quite flattered by the idea that I might be the anti-anything, and that people would tremble at the thought of accidentally summoning me, this isn’t factually correct. After all, I can play about half the solo to “Reeling in the Years” and threaten the health of my speakers with a good number of their songs. They took chances, and sometimes when you take chances, you land right where I’d like you to be. But they also have tight, well crafted songs that were muzak the day they were released, and I’m usually not fond of them.
Jeebus, you tell someone that their sacred cow doesn’t make the best hamburger once, and they never let you hear the end of it. Oh well, it’s nice to be remembered.
With that said, this is a thread that I have absolutely no business being in. The threads we’ve had on the #1 hits for each year have confirmed what I long suspected. You can get quite rich consistently going against my tastes. Popular just isn’t my bag.
Now, I’ve got to go dance to “Peg”, because it’s stuck in my head again. Yep, it will come back to you. Bastards.
By the way, with regard to Roxy Music crossing over with XTC in the 80s, I was so stoned when I first saw the video for Wonderland that I thought Colin Moulding at 1:37 was Bryan Ferry. I was like, “why would Bryan Ferry be in this video?” Something about the tuxedo, the posture, and the backdrop just screamed “Bryan Ferry”.
Jeez - took ya!
I could be way out wrong, but I coulda sworn you mentioned in another post maybe a year back that you like to sometimes bombard your better half with PEG-yells.
And you call us bastards!!!
Absolutely depraved.
I was wanting to mention Al Stewart’s “Year of the Cat” but figured naaa that would muss up peoples’ hair a little.
I think that song is sufficiently unique and alluring that it deserved to be a hit. It staked out its own distinctive sound, which is more than can be said for many songs that become hits. I think it stumbles a little during the bridge, though, which contains a combination of lyrics and chords that I don’t find appealing and which just doesn’t function very well as a bridge from a musical standpoint.
All makes sense to me - my problem was specifically his lilting, hyper-sibilant voice, but considering that aspect can be applied to basically to the rest of his songs, I’ll have to readily concede, then, that was a bit of a pot-shot on my part at Cat.
Take note, though, the lack of my usual hyperbole when I broached that one.
Hyperbole, though, might be the first item on the menu with this hazmat suit-friendly excursion into the very bowels of saccharine sappiness with Mr. Eric Carmen’s All By Myself.
While I’m on these wrong side of the tracks, he actually outdoes himself with Never Gonna Fall In Love Again featuring what I think is a recorder (or possibly flute) that needs to meet its end in “How not to be seen”.
And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know that Ain’t No Sunshine by Bill Withers deserves a mention in this thread.
Yes! Last year (or maybe two years ago), I was contacted by someone who wanted me to photograph her big house party/charity event. I gave her my very reasonable price. She wanted me to go down on price because the lead singer of the Plain White T’s was going to be there and it was going to be such a cool party. It took every ounce of willpower not to reply back with a higher price if I was forced to suffer through that. At any rate, I did not do the job.
Me too. “Ain’t No Sunshine” is a wonderful and evocative song through and through. (But I don’t hear any mumbled lyrics–they’re all perfectly understandable.)
At any rate, I did not do the job.