Hole In My Life

The Police were the most cold-blooded, evil band in history. Forget even their ominous name and the fact that they were probably CIA operatives - musically they were imperious and invincible technicians, carving up the world into territories ripe for plunder with their diamond-sharp perfection. Like Led Zeppelin (and even sharper and colder, due to having all the blues influence surgically excised), they were an organization designed to be respected and feared, never loved. Stewart Copeland described the Police experience as 'ultra-masculine', which may explain the emotional range of their un-emotional lyrics - "Can't Stand Losing You" and "Every Breath You Take" are pretty extreme in their conflation of Other-as-trophy-to-be-possessed/self-pity. Then there's the album titles - global domination as a series of cheeky/declamatory puns, with 'Synchronicity' a bald declaration of manifest destiny - not only a force of nature, but a force of SUPERNATURE...

So anyway...I think Sting was aghast at the negative forces his band let loose into the world, and will spend the rest of his life trying to atone for this by releasing well-meaning, boring drivel, accepting the critical abuse as part of his mortification process. (I recall a 1987 interview where he expressed discomfort with the power stadium rockers had over their audiences, but insisted weakly that the Police 'weren't all that bad...we had finesse...') dave q August 15th, 2001

Came across this interesting piece and figured dave q is into edgier pursuits which is fine but I can’t help but notice that there are so many people out there—afraid of being bored. Dave seems to miss “the most cold-blooded, evil band in history.” While we’re all having so much fun, we rarely consider that the joke is on us as we keep taunting our roof to cave in on our heads. Wanting to suspend judgment here, if only for lack of understanding, I shrug and figure it’s highly possible that we may eventually destroy ourselves because we were bored and too naive to realize the kind of games boredom can play. On the other hand, if Dave is inhaling cold blooded evil, he may be reveling in it but I doubt anyone else really thinks of him as someone to share life with. I feel that desire is basic for many humans and this is why the music changed—you can starve, eating only the brittle biscuits of evil and thirsting for cold blooded allure but oh well, that's life for you, I guess ....

Is that the best you can do? Always the taskmaster, aren’t you? I suppose you’re right. Let’s see. Love can conquer boredom. It can also fill holes in a life. But a desire for cold blooded evil—well that’s a matter of taste. Why mess with taste? People who crave cold blooded evil truly have little idea what they are yearning for while you are highly versed in what it can mean.
Ick—again, you are quite right. Okay, if you’re studying cold blooded evil, may your dreams wake you up to the reality of what you seek. After you vomit, love will still be around? Will it? Only if the mess is cleaned up first, I’m afraid. Yuck! Aren’t you funny …

I don’t think she’s funny. She bothers me. What’s wrong with cold blooded evil? Look, CB, and I’m laughing—who the hell are you?—oh well … I’m a good sport. Look, CB, there’s nothing wrong with you in digestible doses but too much of a good thing on an accelerated tear can be problematic and then you make the mistake of taking me seriously when I don’t. I don’t know that I can do anything but chatter like teeth in a frightened body. I haven’t seen myself do anything substantial—I feel quite the nothing—wasting my life on some stupid legend. But maybe you can do more than you think you can! Maybe but I wouldn’t know and I decided I wouldn’t want to know. If I knew, I might be held prisoner by Bono until I made sure the whole world was fat and sassy. I might be battling a fierce headache only to have some chick demand that I fix her broken nail now! because she has a hot date. I might scare myself. I could drive myself nuts thinking I should know what to do when I don’t and of course, I’ve done that. Not fun at all … Better to ignore me but since we’re on the subject and since I can be relentless, I’ll say that cold blooded evil has its allure but there’s no reason for musicians to stagnate in CBE just because fans want to call them gits if they venture into more diverse arenas of expression.
Then you’re not attacking me personally? How could I be? I’m not even sure what you are! Sorry. No, I’m not. My mind dances—that’s all I’m sure of and that’s not much. Best to ignore me or just laugh.

Oh no, I’ve said too much! I haven’t said enough ….

I'm also quite partial to the paranoid 'Hole In My Life', which is so desperate and aggressive in its simplicity that no sane person can resist it - it's a wonder, though, that the song actually includes a bunch of really cool vocal twists a la Beatles (cf. particularly the midsection) and even a descending guitar line a la 'Sunny Afternoon'. Others would just contend themselves with the basic grim groove. [George Starostin]