Recommendations of the Editorial team
The 100 best musicians of all time: The Police – Essay by Brandon Flowers
Oscar Wilde once said that an artist is successful when the audience no longer understands his works – but still loves her. If you follow this requirement, The Police was an extreme success. In America they run up and down at the pop and classic rock stations, and they will probably still play German radio stations in a hundred years. At the same time, they were incredibly smart and operated on different levels of meaning. They fell in love with one of their songs – and then found a year later that he actually had a completely different meaning.
“Every Breath You Take” is a good example: The number is incredibly Catchy and is also happy to be played at weddings, but actually acts from a stalker. And “Roxanne” is about a hooker: it is not about Sting loves and her heart breaks her, but simply for her existence as a hooker. And we can all be lucky that intelligent songs such as “Message in a Bottle”, “Walking on the Moon” or “King of Pain” became part of our lives. My favorite song is “Don’t stood so close to me” who treats the relationship between a teacher and his student. This approach to tell a story has unfortunately become rare in pop music.
The 100 best musicians of all time: The Police – Essay by Brandon Flowers
Of course they were also impressive musicians. They were already professionals when they set off in the punk years and then found their own niche. I love it how they integrated reggae, for example. Bands like The Clash had already connected with reggae before them, but they played it completely freely and unabashed.
The Police ripened quickly
Sting played bass and sang, which is a rather unusual combination. In this way, however, he had his thumb on the Rythmusection and was also responsible for the melody department. Stewart Copeland is a gifted drummer. Andy Summers has a great technology and an equally pronounced understanding of the task of a rhythm guitar. It is really a miracle that so many bands were recruited with a bomby groove from spinding English.
The Police ripened quickly – and all the bands should write this lesson behind the ears: you must always have taken the next step in your head.