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 ....
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 ....