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1000 results for “message_in_a_bottle”
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@amazing_undercover Yeah, I don’t know what to do other than post up in Masto & Bsky, crosspost in both places as well as my old Twitter account, & wait for some sort of critical mass to be reached. But I desperately want to just stop posting at TwiX. Still so much ugliness there. Doing so means I’ll have barely any followers & no interactions on my posts. It would be back to posting message-in-a-bottle style & sitting on my island w/binoculars. #XYourselfOut #Twitter #TwitterX #TwitterXtinction
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My brain came up with The Rasmus and the album Dead Letters for #TuneTuesday and #WriteMeALetter
However, sticking to the concept of a song, I love the Police version, but Machine Head really nail it with the heavier edge to it 🎵
Machine Head Message in a Bottle
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My brain came up with The Rasmus and the album Dead Letters for #TuneTuesday and #WriteMeALetter
However, sticking to the concept of a song, I love the Police version, but Machine Head really nail it with the heavier edge to it 🎵
Machine Head Message in a Bottle
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My brain came up with The Rasmus and the album Dead Letters for #TuneTuesday and #WriteMeALetter
However, sticking to the concept of a song, I love the Police version, but Machine Head really nail it with the heavier edge to it 🎵
Machine Head Message in a Bottle
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My brain came up with The Rasmus and the album Dead Letters for #TuneTuesday and #WriteMeALetter
However, sticking to the concept of a song, I love the Police version, but Machine Head really nail it with the heavier edge to it 🎵
Machine Head Message in a Bottle
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My brain came up with The Rasmus and the album Dead Letters for #TuneTuesday and #WriteMeALetter
However, sticking to the concept of a song, I love the Police version, but Machine Head really nail it with the heavier edge to it 🎵
Machine Head Message in a Bottle
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I genuinely don't like most Police/Sting covers, as they either don't do anything remotely as interesting as the original, or don't put their own stamp on it in any novel way. Prog-metal band #Chaosbay, however, have done a decent overhaul of the cut "Message in a Bottle". Do I like it as much as the original? Hell no. But they did at least take it in a divergent direction and work it to their aesthetic really well? Absolutely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBiSoIwyftA
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I genuinely don't like most Police/Sting covers, as they either don't do anything remotely as interesting as the original, or don't put their own stamp on it in any novel way. Prog-metal band #Chaosbay, however, have done a decent overhaul of the cut "Message in a Bottle". Do I like it as much as the original? Hell no. But they did at least take it in a divergent direction and work it to their aesthetic really well? Absolutely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBiSoIwyftA
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I genuinely don't like most Police/Sting covers, as they either don't do anything remotely as interesting as the original, or don't put their own stamp on it in any novel way. Prog-metal band #Chaosbay, however, have done a decent overhaul of the cut "Message in a Bottle". Do I like it as much as the original? Hell no. But they did at least take it in a divergent direction and work it to their aesthetic really well? Absolutely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBiSoIwyftA
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I genuinely don't like most Police/Sting covers, as they either don't do anything remotely as interesting as the original, or don't put their own stamp on it in any novel way. Prog-metal band #Chaosbay, however, have done a decent overhaul of the cut "Message in a Bottle". Do I like it as much as the original? Hell no. But they did at least take it in a divergent direction and work it to their aesthetic really well? Absolutely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBiSoIwyftA
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I genuinely don't like most Police/Sting covers, as they either don't do anything remotely as interesting as the original, or don't put their own stamp on it in any novel way. Prog-metal band #Chaosbay, however, have done a decent overhaul of the cut "Message in a Bottle". Do I like it as much as the original? Hell no. But they did at least take it in a divergent direction and work it to their aesthetic really well? Absolutely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBiSoIwyftA
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20 Great Songs by The Police
The Police in concert, Atlanta 1979; Sting (vocals, bass), Andy Summers (guitar, vocals), Stewart Copeland (drums, vocals). images: Acroterion (cropped).By the time The Police played Shea Stadium in August 1983 and with a number one album in the charts, they were the biggest band in the world. Somewhat unintuitively for fans soon after this pop pinnacle, they’d go on indefinite hiatus for decades. After a unique journey, it was a dignified way to bow out for three musicians – Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland – who’d come from such disparate backgrounds as to make their union an unlikely one to begin with.
From their start, they borrowed from everything around them to go along with their punk-inspired energy while not fitting in with any scene or specific sound. Too young to be classic, too old to be punk, they rode the new wave with their heads down, keeping their jazz and prog chops strictly under wraps. What they also did was turn the idea of the pop rock power trio on its head, developing a unique sound never to be replicated by any other band since. And they had great songs to get them there. Here are 20 of them, hits and deep cuts alike, that illustrate their singular identity.
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Roxanne
Bassist and singer Sting had been writing songs for several years before co-founding The Police with drummer Stewart Copeland in 1977. Soon after, the technically accomplished Andy Summers joined the band, with his background in progressive rock adding to their sonic arsenal. It was at this point that Sting’s penchant for more sophisticated and musically varied material found fertile soil.
For instance, “Roxanne” was a bossa nova number before they arranged it into the reggae-rock hybrid heard on 1978’s debut record Outlandos D’Amour. Sting’s clarion call voice is accompanied by the now familiar chopping chords and inverted pulse to accompany a story of obsession and control. After a slow-burn on the charts that took the better part of a year as it was re-released in North America, “Roxanne” was the initial vehicle in which they began their journey from clubs to stadiums and would become a live staple.
Listen: Roxanne
Can’t Stand Losing You
“Can’t Stand Losing You” follows a similar template as “Roxanne”, and then some, threatening to betray their skills as top shelf musicians in the field of raw and elemental punk aggression. The rock-reggae dynamic is in place, but also with a kind of dub-inspired ambient middle section. Luckily, dub was the accepted form of chill out music among punks by 1978. The band would expand upon that middle section on stage where it would later morph into the instrumental track “Regatta De Blanc”.
These musical additions of more ambient textures would inform their sound later on with their greater use of effects pedals and atmospherics. Lyrically, the song is marked by black humour, containing lines that are more of a parody of a particular kind of pop song than anything to take seriously. “Can’t Stand Losing You” eventually scored a number two position in the UK and played a vital role in convincing the record company to release their full-length debut.
Listen: Can’t Stand Losing You
Next to You
Opening the Outlandos D’Amour record, this cut is a callback to their days masquerading as a punk band, with only former Police guitarist Henry Padovani having any punk cred among the three of them. Of all their fast and short early songs, this one hits the sweet spot best. Like “Roxanne” it’s also a song about obsession, a theme that writer Sting would revisit throughout the band’s discography.
On this cut, you’d never know that Andy Summers had a well-established Sixties-era R&B, psychedelic, and progressive pedigree as he lays on the appropriate punk-oriented attack to match Sting’s growl of a voice and Copeland’s ferocious drumming. Still not exactly punk rock, it delivered the same spirit. Foo Fighters covered “Next to You” on stage a number of times in the 21st century, at least once with Stewart Copeland sitting in, proving that its immediacy and punk rock attack endures.
Listen: Next to You
Hole in My Life
“Hole in My Life” breaks the pattern of The Police as a punk-inspired band with an affinity for reggae. As it turned out, they were no one-trick pony. Although that reggae influence is in place particularly in Sting’s vocal, James Brown-inspired funk is present here, too. The band build tension on a sweaty groove, accompanied by the YEAH vocal shots to make this one funky track indeed. It certainly demonstrates their cohesion as musicians, revealing the advanced level at which they were operating as instrumentalists.
“Hole in My Life” doesn’t necessarily find them capturing the Police sound as it would come to be. But it hints at some of the stylistic influences that would feed its DNA later found in songs like “Too Much Information” and “O My God”. It also shows how versatile they are as musicians, holding an arrangement in balance while adding dynamic flair at the same time.
Listen: Hole in My Life
Message in a Bottle
“Message in a Bottle” is where The Police begin to come into their own sound, and where the signs that they’d thrown out the pop rock power trio rulebook are most evident. Stewart Copeland’s drums are way out front. Andy Summers’ guitar provides vibrancy and colour while remaining a few steps back. Sting’s bass and Copeland’s drums are often foils for each other instead of acting as a unified rhythm section.
With those dynamics in place, “Message in a Bottle” sounds and feels like a statement of intent outside of any particular genre or scene. The song delves into more sophisticated themes of isolation and vulnerability while still retaining the appealing aggression and instrumental prowess they’d hinted at on their debut. The Police really gel here like never before on their first number one single in the UK and top ten internationally, arguably against the odds considering how many rules they’ve broken.
Listen: Message in a Bottle
Walking on the Moon
Leaning into dub music even further as many post-punk bands were doing by late 1979, “Walking on the Moon” is spare and spacious, led by a low-end riff on which Copeland’s echoey drums and splashes of serrated guitar from Summers are anchored. Serving as their second single from Regatta de Blanc, and their second number one in Britain, “Walking on the Moon” suggests the euphoric feeling of being in love, and of being in the moment, suspended in time.
This cut isn’t derived from a traditional radio-friendly pop sound at all, and even hints at Sting’s background as a jazz bassist. Yet the subject matter and the hookiness of the bass riff make it utterly compelling as a mesmeric drone that works against traditional pop immediacy. In this, it becomes something more than the sum of its parts as one listens with that low-end throb being so hypnotic as to keep us engaged throughout.
Listen: Walking on the Moon
Bring on the Night
Andy Summers’ flowing guitar lines on this against Sting’s ominous bass sets the scene for this nocturnally-oriented cut with a literary angle. The opening lyrics borrow from T.S Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Proofrock” in this song about retreating into the darkness of non-existence. Like “Walking on the Moon”, this cut is designed with holes in its sound that helps create the backdrop for this dark night of the soul tune, in part inspired by Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song.
The Police go beyond a three-pronged attack found on their debut and enter into a world of greater sonic nuance. With that, they continue to redefine how a three-piece band operates to deliver more sophisticated material, going beyond the usual rock guitar-bass-drums dynamics to service the overall effect of pure atmosphere in support of a narrative. Also – this cut was a direct inspiration to the central riff and groove to Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen”. So, there’s that, too.
Listen: Bring on the Night
Deathwish
Notable for it being one of only a few co-writes between all three members, along with the absence of a chorus, “Deathwish” is like a post-punk teenage tragedy song just before the tragedy in question happens. A companion piece to “Bring on the Night” in a way, this song deals in dark roads, fading headlight beams, and a hint of youthful nihilism that served as the last vestiges of the punk rock mentality in their music.
The Police lock into a mechanical groove that is all about building tension. As well-known as they are as purveyors of hit singles, “Deathwish” is an excellent example of The Police as a jam band, creating a sound that is primarily about a vamping groove defined by a masterclass command of tension and release held in balance – something they’re great at which their singles don’t reveal in quite this same way.
Listen: Deathwish
Driven to Tears
When 1980’s Zenyatta Mondatta came out, The Police had ramped up as a global phenomenon. The pressure was on as their first world tour kicked off in the early part of the year. Even as rushed as they were to follow up with a third record in the middle of tour dates, they were still able to create some of their most memorable songs. This was one of them, a lament to Third World poverty and with its ire aimed at voyeuristic media; too many cameras, not enough food.
Rooted in an amalgam of reggae, dub, and rock music, “Driven to Tears” doubles down on the echoey and phased sound they’d established on their previous record, the highlights being Andy Summers’ minimalist shards of guitar and wail of a solo, sympatico with Sting’s resigned vocal, and Copeland’s percussive accents. This cut would be a precursor to the political material Sting would pursue in his solo career, with this tune remaining to be a mainstay in his setlists.
Listen: Driven to Tears
Don’t Stand So Close to Me
Inspired by Victor Nabokov’s Lolita, Sting’s “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” is one of The Police’s most recognizable and celebrated hits. By this time, Andy Summers’ command of effect pedals begins to take a bigger role in their sound, expanding what he’s able to do with his parts to create engaging sonic environments in which to present the songs. “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” is one of the best examples of that signature set of textures.
The low and ominous wash of sound from him sets the stage for the drama of misguided attraction, loss of innocence, and failed ethics. For a top ten hit, this is some dark subject matter. Adorned with an energetic and catchy chorus that contrasts the more sombre verses, “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” is a high point that demonstrates the pinnacle of their interplay as a band in the studio.
Listen: Don’t Stand So Close to Me
When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around
Contemplating the end of the world was a common pursuit by the dawn of the 1980s. This one is a post-apocalyptic story about being the last person on earth, with boredom and loneliness as more formidable enemies than zombies or giant insects. But what this song also does is to explore a common theme that Sting has expanded upon on other songs – the nature of isolation and its debilitating effects on the human spirit in the modern day.
The R&B influences heard on “Hole in My Life” come through here again in Sting’s phrasing, even if it’s within the context of a more consolidated Police sound full of spacious echo and phasing. His distant vocal sounds like its being broadcast over short-wave radio brings the point about loneliness and a lack of connection into sharp relief.
Listen: When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What Still Around
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
For such a literary-minded songwriter, Sting takes his own medium to task on this song that was a massive worldwide hit for The Police. “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” expounds on the language of the heart being more meaningful than political rhetoric used to obscure truths. In addition to the pointed lyrical subject matter, The Police’s skills as instrumentalists were well on display with sophisticated chords, unique textures, and rhythmic complexity a-plenty that really stood out on the radio at the time.
The middle instrumental section alone feels like they could have taken the song in any direction between the three of them. Their advanced instrumental proficiency was rightly celebrated at this point rather than denigrated as it might have been only a few years before when they were playing at CBGB for a punk audience. Times had changed and eventually so would The Police, particularly as the expectations for hit after hit plus the rigours of global tours increased.
Listen: De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
The pressures on the band would continue by the time they recorded 1981’s Ghost in the Machine. In the meantime, Sting had his eye on the headlines. “Invisible Sun” was his take on sectarian violence and military intervention in Northern Ireland at the time, those conditions making it difficult for people living there to see what the future would hold for them and for generations to come.
The Police sound morphed here thanks to a greater use of synthesizers and with a less pop-oriented, more post-punk feel. Sting uses a lower register to deliver his vocal in the verses, then double-tracked in the chorus to communicate a cry for hope in the bleakness of the times. “Invisible Sun” is tellingly far less oriented around the ensemble playing of the three members. That’s played out in various degrees on the whole record, made during a tense time when the ties were fraying between bandmates.
Listen: Invisible Sun
Spirits in the Material World
A big part of the change to The Police sound by Ghost in the Machine was a switch in the production team, with Nigel Gray replaced with Hugh Padgham. Another was Sting’s tendency to record solo demos rather than working out arrangements on the floor with the band. On this cut, that resulted in more synthesized sounds closer to his initial demos to accompany his amazingly bonkers dub-inspired bassline and almost frenzied double-tracked upper register vocals.
Reduced in his role in the arrangement on this cut, Andy Summers still makes his mark via his almost classical flourishes in the instrumental break and into the last verse. Stewart Copeland holds down a pulse anchored to his hi-hat as the song’s complex rhythm shifts in unexpected ways from off-beats in the verses to on-beats in the chorus to accompany the themes of failure and disconnection in human systems and the spiritual malaise that results.
Listen: Spirits in the Material World
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Sting wrote this song several years before The Police even formed, and certainly not with their sound in mind. For inclusion on Ghost in the Machine, he worked with keyboardist Jean Roussel who laid down the central piano riff around which this hit song was based. Summers and Copeland were not in favour of this outside element when it came to their material. Yet, the finished product was undeniable, even to them.
“Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” shines very brightly – a shimmering love song that sounded great on the radio at the time, and adds important colour to the album. Copeland’s drumming in particular is exceptional, adding the edge the song needs to keep it from being too soft, and still within the realm of The Police sound as listeners had come to know it.
Listen: Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Secret Journey
In the middle of a whirlwind of becoming the biggest band in the world while the connections between bandmates were strained to their limits, Sting turned inward. “Secret Journey” is concerned with spiritual exploration, possibly to counteract the very worldly expectations set upon his shoulders and those of his band.
Andy Summers distinguishes himself on this cut, his Roland guitar synthesizer creating the expansive introduction and atmospheric touches throughout. This tune tonally anchors the whole record which is decidedly less brightly lit and certainly more world-weary than Zenyatta Mondatta. This was during a time on which Stewart Copeland reflected in his excellent 2006 documentary Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out that “it was getting lonely in this band”.
Listen: Secret Journey
Every Breath You Take
After a period apart and in pursuit of solo projects – acting, film composing, and an ambient guitar album – The Police came back strong with a new album which is arguably their best. Synchronicity stormed up the charts in 1983, with this song leading the pack. A seemingly straightforward love song on the surface, it reveals the dark theme of possession found on “Roxanne” on closer inspection, paired with yet another disturbing element – surveillance.
Andy Summers’ arpeggiated guitar lines that cut between major and minor chords set the mood and are iconic by now, while Stewart Copeland’s drums are uncharacteristically restrained – a big part of what makes this song so tense. As much as this song is well-travelled by now, it’s easy to forget that it contains some of Sting’s best singing, making great use of his full range.
Listen: Every Breath You Take
Synchronicity II
Inspired by Arthur Koestler’s Roots of Coincidence, Sting’s story about a put-upon middle-class family man told in contrast to images of a rising horror beneath the surface of a dark Scottish loch is a terrifying statement about the human psyche and its limits. This song is Sting at his most cinematic as the pressures build inside the central character and as the beast far away rises further to the surface as both a metaphor and a parallel for the man’s repressed rage.
Musically, “Synchronicity II” is the full realization of The Police sound on an epic scale. Copeland’s drums are fully unleashed, sounding like waves crashing against a shore. Summers’ roaring riff answers Sting’s authoritative vocal, also adding in atonal squeals and bestial wails to fill in the gaps. This is a towering rock song full of portent, which in the Cold War era certainly reflected the atmosphere of its times.
Listen: Synchronicity II
Wrapped Around Your Finger
The imbalanced power dynamics only hinted at in “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” come to their maturity here in this tune about mentorship, ambition, and betrayal. With lines that reflect a kind of sorcerer’s apprentice tale, “Wrapped Around Your Finger” captures the imagination with a sense of foreboding, feeling like a whole movie inside its five-minute running time.
This song is arguably the most detailed of all The Police’s hit singles when it comes to the arrangement. Stewart Copeland provides a whole orchestra of percussion behind the spare synth lines and Andy Summers’ portentous wash of treated guitar and echoey phrasing. Sting shows his maturity as a songwriter here in a cinematic tune about how quickly the tables can turn in a relationship, with parties often taking what they can from each other before moving on.
Listen: Wrapped Around Your Finger
Tea in the Sahara
The final track on the UK version of Synchronicity, the lyrics in “Tea in the Sahara” take on the quality of a myth, inspired by Paul Bowles’ novel The Sheltering Sky that contains this tale of an unfulfilled promise. It’s appropriately accompanied by Andy Summers’ guitar effects that evoke the unspoiled dunes of a moonlit African desert with Copeland’s interplay between hi-hat and kick drum accents supporting Sting’s heartbeat-like bassline.
Of all the songs on Synchronicity, this one reflects what the band’s sound might have been had they gathered in the studio to record a sixth record – warm, timeless, stylistically ambiguous, and wonderfully multilayered. In this expectation by 1984, we listeners were the sisters waiting in the desert for the promised prince who would never return – at least not with a follow-up album.
Listen: Tea in the Sahara
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Runners up and bubbling under:
- Fall Out
- Truth Hits Everybody
- So Lonely
- Born in the 50s
- Bed’s Too Big Without You
- A Sermon
- No Time This Time
- Voices Inside My Head
- Canary in a Coalmine
- Man in a Suitcase
- Omegaman
- Demolition Man
- One World (Not Three)
- Darkness
- Shambelle
- I Burn for You
- Murder by Numbers
- King of Pain
- O My God
- Walking in Your Footsteps
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When the Police gathered for their reunion tour in 2007, they knew that the material they’d created no longer belonged to them, and that there was nothing more for them to add other than by playing it together again. That realization took the pressure off them, allowing them to frame the material as the star of the show, with the three musicians who created it as merely the conduits. Given the strong personalities involved, that certainly shows the depth of value of their songs – many of them driven by conflict and dark impulses that resonated with a whole generation.
For the three musicians, the reunion seemed to do them as much good as it did for fans to hear them play these songs again. After decades of solo projects, they could view The Police in retrospect at a safe distance. It certainly underscored the point that their material stands on its own in any era whether the three play together again or not. That’s a significant achievement that goes beyond any other ambition, Shea Stadium included.
To learn more about The Police, investigate thepolice.com
You might also want to check out YouTube host, producer, and musician Rick Beato’s series of interviews with all three members of The Police in which each of them talk about the band and their own musical approaches while in it:
Stewart Copeland | Sting | Andy Summers
Check out Stewart Copeland’s YouTube channel on which, among other things, he hosts impromptu jams with a lot of musicians you’ve heard of. And for an added delightful bonus, here’s some footage of Stewart Copeland playing percussion on “Wrapped Around Your Finger” during the band’s 2007-08 reunion tour. It is something!
Andy Summers is active on Instagram. Check out his feed at @andysummers_official
And of course, Sting hasn’t exactly slacked off as a solo artist. His site is (perhaps predictably) sting.com.
EEE-OH-oh!
Enjoy!
#20GreatSongs #70sMusic #80sMusic #AndySummers #StewartCopeland #Sting #ThePolice
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20 Great Songs by The Police
The Police in concert, Atlanta 1979; Sting (vocals, bass), Andy Summers (guitar, vocals), Stewart Copeland (drums, vocals). images: Acroterion (cropped).By the time The Police played Shea Stadium in August 1983 and with a number one album in the charts, they were the biggest band in the world. Somewhat unintuitively for fans soon after this pop pinnacle, they’d go on indefinite hiatus for decades. After a unique journey, it was a dignified way to bow out for three musicians – Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart Copeland – who’d come from such disparate backgrounds as to make their union an unlikely one to begin with.
From their start, they borrowed from everything around them to go along with their punk-inspired energy while not fitting in with any scene or specific sound. Too young to be classic, too old to be punk, they rode the new wave with their heads down, keeping their jazz and prog chops strictly under wraps. What they also did was turn the idea of the pop rock power trio on its head, developing a unique sound never to be replicated by any other band since. And they had great songs to get them there. Here are 20 of them, hits and deep cuts alike, that illustrate their singular identity.
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Roxanne
Bassist and singer Sting had been writing songs for several years before co-founding The Police with drummer Stewart Copeland in 1977. Soon after, the technically accomplished Andy Summers joined the band, with his background in progressive rock adding to their sonic arsenal. It was at this point that Sting’s penchant for more sophisticated and musically varied material found fertile soil.
For instance, “Roxanne” was a bossa nova number before they arranged it into the reggae-rock hybrid heard on 1978’s debut record Outlandos D’Amour. Sting’s clarion call voice is accompanied by the now familiar chopping chords and inverted pulse to accompany a story of obsession and control. After a slow-burn on the charts that took the better part of a year as it was re-released in North America, “Roxanne” was the initial vehicle in which they began their journey from clubs to stadiums and would become a live staple.
Listen: Roxanne
Can’t Stand Losing You
“Can’t Stand Losing You” follows a similar template as “Roxanne”, and then some, threatening to betray their skills as top shelf musicians in the field of raw and elemental punk aggression. The rock-reggae dynamic is in place, but also with a kind of dub-inspired ambient middle section. Luckily, dub was the accepted form of chill out music among punks by 1978. The band would expand upon that middle section on stage where it would later morph into the instrumental track “Regatta De Blanc”.
These musical additions of more ambient textures would inform their sound later on with their greater use of effects pedals and atmospherics. Lyrically, the song is marked by black humour, containing lines that are more of a parody of a particular kind of pop song than anything to take seriously. “Can’t Stand Losing You” eventually scored a number two position in the UK and played a vital role in convincing the record company to release their full-length debut.
Listen: Can’t Stand Losing You
Next to You
Opening the Outlandos D’Amour record, this cut is a callback to their days masquerading as a punk band, with only former Police guitarist Henry Padovani having any punk cred among the three of them. Of all their fast and short early songs, this one hits the sweet spot best. Like “Roxanne” it’s also a song about obsession, a theme that writer Sting would revisit throughout the band’s discography.
On this cut, you’d never know that Andy Summers had a well-established Sixties-era R&B, psychedelic, and progressive pedigree as he lays on the appropriate punk-oriented attack to match Sting’s growl of a voice and Copeland’s ferocious drumming. Still not exactly punk rock, it delivered the same spirit. Foo Fighters covered “Next to You” on stage a number of times in the 21st century, at least once with Stewart Copeland sitting in, proving that its immediacy and punk rock attack endures.
Listen: Next to You
Hole in My Life
“Hole in My Life” breaks the pattern of The Police as a punk-inspired band with an affinity for reggae. As it turned out, they were no one-trick pony. Although that reggae influence is in place particularly in Sting’s vocal, James Brown-inspired funk is present here, too. The band build tension on a sweaty groove, accompanied by the YEAH vocal shots to make this one funky track indeed. It certainly demonstrates their cohesion as musicians, revealing the advanced level at which they were operating as instrumentalists.
“Hole in My Life” doesn’t necessarily find them capturing the Police sound as it would come to be. But it hints at some of the stylistic influences that would feed its DNA later found in songs like “Too Much Information” and “O My God”. It also shows how versatile they are as musicians, holding an arrangement in balance while adding dynamic flair at the same time.
Listen: Hole in My Life
Message in a Bottle
“Message in a Bottle” is where The Police begin to come into their own sound, and where the signs that they’d thrown out the pop rock power trio rulebook are most evident. Stewart Copeland’s drums are way out front. Andy Summers’ guitar provides vibrancy and colour while remaining a few steps back. Sting’s bass and Copeland’s drums are often foils for each other instead of acting as a unified rhythm section.
With those dynamics in place, “Message in a Bottle” sounds and feels like a statement of intent outside of any particular genre or scene. The song delves into more sophisticated themes of isolation and vulnerability while still retaining the appealing aggression and instrumental prowess they’d hinted at on their debut. The Police really gel here like never before on their first number one single in the UK and top ten internationally, arguably against the odds considering how many rules they’ve broken.
Listen: Message in a Bottle
Walking on the Moon
Leaning into dub music even further as many post-punk bands were doing by late 1979, “Walking on the Moon” is spare and spacious, led by a low-end riff on which Copeland’s echoey drums and splashes of serrated guitar from Summers are anchored. Serving as their second single from Regatta de Blanc, and their second number one in Britain, “Walking on the Moon” suggests the euphoric feeling of being in love, and of being in the moment, suspended in time.
This cut isn’t derived from a traditional radio-friendly pop sound at all, and even hints at Sting’s background as a jazz bassist. Yet the subject matter and the hookiness of the bass riff make it utterly compelling as a mesmeric drone that works against traditional pop immediacy. In this, it becomes something more than the sum of its parts as one listens with that low-end throb being so hypnotic as to keep us engaged throughout.
Listen: Walking on the Moon
Bring on the Night
Andy Summers’ flowing guitar lines on this against Sting’s ominous bass sets the scene for this nocturnally-oriented cut with a literary angle. The opening lyrics borrow from T.S Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Proofrock” in this song about retreating into the darkness of non-existence. Like “Walking on the Moon”, this cut is designed with holes in its sound that helps create the backdrop for this dark night of the soul tune, in part inspired by Norman Mailer’s The Executioner’s Song.
The Police go beyond a three-pronged attack found on their debut and enter into a world of greater sonic nuance. With that, they continue to redefine how a three-piece band operates to deliver more sophisticated material, going beyond the usual rock guitar-bass-drums dynamics to service the overall effect of pure atmosphere in support of a narrative. Also – this cut was a direct inspiration to the central riff and groove to Stevie Nicks’ “Edge of Seventeen”. So, there’s that, too.
Listen: Bring on the Night
Deathwish
Notable for it being one of only a few co-writes between all three members, along with the absence of a chorus, “Deathwish” is like a post-punk teenage tragedy song just before the tragedy in question happens. A companion piece to “Bring on the Night” in a way, this song deals in dark roads, fading headlight beams, and a hint of youthful nihilism that served as the last vestiges of the punk rock mentality in their music.
The Police lock into a mechanical groove that is all about building tension. As well-known as they are as purveyors of hit singles, “Deathwish” is an excellent example of The Police as a jam band, creating a sound that is primarily about a vamping groove defined by a masterclass command of tension and release held in balance – something they’re great at which their singles don’t reveal in quite this same way.
Listen: Deathwish
Driven to Tears
When 1980’s Zenyatta Mondatta came out, The Police had ramped up as a global phenomenon. The pressure was on as their first world tour kicked off in the early part of the year. Even as rushed as they were to follow up with a third record in the middle of tour dates, they were still able to create some of their most memorable songs. This was one of them, a lament to Third World poverty and with its ire aimed at voyeuristic media; too many cameras, not enough food.
Rooted in an amalgam of reggae, dub, and rock music, “Driven to Tears” doubles down on the echoey and phased sound they’d established on their previous record, the highlights being Andy Summers’ minimalist shards of guitar and wail of a solo, sympatico with Sting’s resigned vocal, and Copeland’s percussive accents. This cut would be a precursor to the political material Sting would pursue in his solo career, with this tune remaining to be a mainstay in his setlists.
Listen: Driven to Tears
Don’t Stand So Close to Me
Inspired by Victor Nabokov’s Lolita, Sting’s “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” is one of The Police’s most recognizable and celebrated hits. By this time, Andy Summers’ command of effect pedals begins to take a bigger role in their sound, expanding what he’s able to do with his parts to create engaging sonic environments in which to present the songs. “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” is one of the best examples of that signature set of textures.
The low and ominous wash of sound from him sets the stage for the drama of misguided attraction, loss of innocence, and failed ethics. For a top ten hit, this is some dark subject matter. Adorned with an energetic and catchy chorus that contrasts the more sombre verses, “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” is a high point that demonstrates the pinnacle of their interplay as a band in the studio.
Listen: Don’t Stand So Close to Me
When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around
Contemplating the end of the world was a common pursuit by the dawn of the 1980s. This one is a post-apocalyptic story about being the last person on earth, with boredom and loneliness as more formidable enemies than zombies or giant insects. But what this song also does is to explore a common theme that Sting has expanded upon on other songs – the nature of isolation and its debilitating effects on the human spirit in the modern day.
The R&B influences heard on “Hole in My Life” come through here again in Sting’s phrasing, even if it’s within the context of a more consolidated Police sound full of spacious echo and phasing. His distant vocal sounds like its being broadcast over short-wave radio brings the point about loneliness and a lack of connection into sharp relief.
Listen: When the World is Running Down, You Make the Best of What Still Around
De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
For such a literary-minded songwriter, Sting takes his own medium to task on this song that was a massive worldwide hit for The Police. “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” expounds on the language of the heart being more meaningful than political rhetoric used to obscure truths. In addition to the pointed lyrical subject matter, The Police’s skills as instrumentalists were well on display with sophisticated chords, unique textures, and rhythmic complexity a-plenty that really stood out on the radio at the time.
The middle instrumental section alone feels like they could have taken the song in any direction between the three of them. Their advanced instrumental proficiency was rightly celebrated at this point rather than denigrated as it might have been only a few years before when they were playing at CBGB for a punk audience. Times had changed and eventually so would The Police, particularly as the expectations for hit after hit plus the rigours of global tours increased.
Listen: De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da
Invisible Sun
The pressures on the band would continue by the time they recorded 1981’s Ghost in the Machine. In the meantime, Sting had his eye on the headlines. “Invisible Sun” was his take on sectarian violence and military intervention in Northern Ireland at the time, those conditions making it difficult for people living there to see what the future would hold for them and for generations to come.
The Police sound morphed here thanks to a greater use of synthesizers and with a less pop-oriented, more post-punk feel. Sting uses a lower register to deliver his vocal in the verses, then double-tracked in the chorus to communicate a cry for hope in the bleakness of the times. “Invisible Sun” is tellingly far less oriented around the ensemble playing of the three members. That’s played out in various degrees on the whole record, made during a tense time when the ties were fraying between bandmates.
Listen: Invisible Sun
Spirits in the Material World
A big part of the change to The Police sound by Ghost in the Machine was a switch in the production team, with Nigel Gray replaced with Hugh Padgham. Another was Sting’s tendency to record solo demos rather than working out arrangements on the floor with the band. On this cut, that resulted in more synthesized sounds closer to his initial demos to accompany his amazingly bonkers dub-inspired bassline and almost frenzied double-tracked upper register vocals.
Reduced in his role in the arrangement on this cut, Andy Summers still makes his mark via his almost classical flourishes in the instrumental break and into the last verse. Stewart Copeland holds down a pulse anchored to his hi-hat as the song’s complex rhythm shifts in unexpected ways from off-beats in the verses to on-beats in the chorus to accompany the themes of failure and disconnection in human systems and the spiritual malaise that results.
Listen: Spirits in the Material World
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Sting wrote this song several years before The Police even formed, and certainly not with their sound in mind. For inclusion on Ghost in the Machine, he worked with keyboardist Jean Roussel who laid down the central piano riff around which this hit song was based. Summers and Copeland were not in favour of this outside element when it came to their material. Yet, the finished product was undeniable, even to them.
“Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” shines very brightly – a shimmering love song that sounded great on the radio at the time, and adds important colour to the album. Copeland’s drumming in particular is exceptional, adding the edge the song needs to keep it from being too soft, and still within the realm of The Police sound as listeners had come to know it.
Listen: Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
Secret Journey
In the middle of a whirlwind of becoming the biggest band in the world while the connections between bandmates were strained to their limits, Sting turned inward. “Secret Journey” is concerned with spiritual exploration, possibly to counteract the very worldly expectations set upon his shoulders and those of his band.
Andy Summers distinguishes himself on this cut, his Roland guitar synthesizer creating the expansive introduction and atmospheric touches throughout. This tune tonally anchors the whole record which is decidedly less brightly lit and certainly more world-weary than Zenyatta Mondatta. This was during a time on which Stewart Copeland reflected in his excellent 2006 documentary Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out that “it was getting lonely in this band”.
Listen: Secret Journey
Every Breath You Take
After a period apart and in pursuit of solo projects – acting, film composing, and an ambient guitar album – The Police came back strong with a new album which is arguably their best. Synchronicity stormed up the charts in 1983, with this song leading the pack. A seemingly straightforward love song on the surface, it reveals the dark theme of possession found on “Roxanne” on closer inspection, paired with yet another disturbing element – surveillance.
Andy Summers’ arpeggiated guitar lines that cut between major and minor chords set the mood and are iconic by now, while Stewart Copeland’s drums are uncharacteristically restrained – a big part of what makes this song so tense. As much as this song is well-travelled by now, it’s easy to forget that it contains some of Sting’s best singing, making great use of his full range.
Listen: Every Breath You Take
Synchronicity II
Inspired by Arthur Koestler’s Roots of Coincidence, Sting’s story about a put-upon middle-class family man told in contrast to images of a rising horror beneath the surface of a dark Scottish loch is a terrifying statement about the human psyche and its limits. This song is Sting at his most cinematic as the pressures build inside the central character and as the beast far away rises further to the surface as both a metaphor and a parallel for the man’s repressed rage.
Musically, “Synchronicity II” is the full realization of The Police sound on an epic scale. Copeland’s drums are fully unleashed, sounding like waves crashing against a shore. Summers’ roaring riff answers Sting’s authoritative vocal, also adding in atonal squeals and bestial wails to fill in the gaps. This is a towering rock song full of portent, which in the Cold War era certainly reflected the atmosphere of its times.
Listen: Synchronicity II
Wrapped Around Your Finger
The imbalanced power dynamics only hinted at in “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” come to their maturity here in this tune about mentorship, ambition, and betrayal. With lines that reflect a kind of sorcerer’s apprentice tale, “Wrapped Around Your Finger” captures the imagination with a sense of foreboding, feeling like a whole movie inside its five-minute running time.
This song is arguably the most detailed of all The Police’s hit singles when it comes to the arrangement. Stewart Copeland provides a whole orchestra of percussion behind the spare synth lines and Andy Summers’ portentous wash of treated guitar and echoey phrasing. Sting shows his maturity as a songwriter here in a cinematic tune about how quickly the tables can turn in a relationship, with parties often taking what they can from each other before moving on.
Listen: Wrapped Around Your Finger
Tea in the Sahara
The final track on the UK version of Synchronicity, the lyrics in “Tea in the Sahara” take on the quality of a myth, inspired by Paul Bowles’ novel The Sheltering Sky that contains this tale of an unfulfilled promise. It’s appropriately accompanied by Andy Summers’ guitar effects that evoke the unspoiled dunes of a moonlit African desert with Copeland’s interplay between hi-hat and kick drum accents supporting Sting’s heartbeat-like bassline.
Of all the songs on Synchronicity, this one reflects what the band’s sound might have been had they gathered in the studio to record a sixth record – warm, timeless, stylistically ambiguous, and wonderfully multilayered. In this expectation by 1984, we listeners were the sisters waiting in the desert for the promised prince who would never return – at least not with a follow-up album.
Listen: Tea in the Sahara
***
Runners up and bubbling under:
- Fall Out
- Truth Hits Everybody
- So Lonely
- Born in the 50s
- Bed’s Too Big Without You
- A Sermon
- No Time This Time
- Voices Inside My Head
- Canary in a Coalmine
- Man in a Suitcase
- Omegaman
- Demolition Man
- One World (Not Three)
- Darkness
- Shambelle
- I Burn for You
- Murder by Numbers
- King of Pain
- O My God
- Walking in Your Footsteps
***
When the Police gathered for their reunion tour in 2007, they knew that the material they’d created no longer belonged to them, and that there was nothing more for them to add other than by playing it together again. That realization took the pressure off them, allowing them to frame the material as the star of the show, with the three musicians who created it as merely the conduits. Given the strong personalities involved, that certainly shows the depth of value of their songs – many of them driven by conflict and dark impulses that resonated with a whole generation.
For the three musicians, the reunion seemed to do them as much good as it did for fans to hear them play these songs again. After decades of solo projects, they could view The Police in retrospect at a safe distance. It certainly underscored the point that their material stands on its own in any era whether the three play together again or not. That’s a significant achievement that goes beyond any other ambition, Shea Stadium included.
To learn more about The Police, investigate thepolice.com
You might also want to check out YouTube host, producer, and musician Rick Beato’s series of interviews with all three members of The Police in which each of them talk about the band and their own musical approaches while in it:
Stewart Copeland | Sting | Andy Summers
Check out Stewart Copeland’s YouTube channel on which, among other things, he hosts impromptu jams with a lot of musicians you’ve heard of. And for an added delightful bonus, here’s some footage of Stewart Copeland playing percussion on “Wrapped Around Your Finger” during the band’s 2007-08 reunion tour. It is something!
Andy Summers is active on Instagram. Check out his feed at @andysummers_official
And of course, Sting hasn’t exactly slacked off as a solo artist. His site is (perhaps predictably) sting.com.
EEE-OH-oh!
Enjoy!
#20GreatSongs #70sMusic #80sMusic #AndySummers #StewartCopeland #Sting #ThePolice
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Und gleich hinterher noch das #PunkCovers Blatt von heute: #ThePolice kennt man natürlich von vielen Songs. Der Kalender zeigt das 3. Album, bei dem viel Reggae durchklingt, das aber kein mir bekanntes Lied enthält. Interessanterweise sind einige der bekanntesten Songs aber bereits vom Debütalbum von 1978: „So lonely“ und „Roxanne“ und dem 2. Album: „Message in a bottle“. Es folgten dann nur noch 2 Alben, bevor sich die Band 1986 auflöste… Solo-Projekte folgten und eine Reunion Tour in den 90ern
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Und gleich hinterher noch das #PunkCovers Blatt von heute: #ThePolice kennt man natürlich von vielen Songs. Der Kalender zeigt das 3. Album, bei dem viel Reggae durchklingt, das aber kein mir bekanntes Lied enthält. Interessanterweise sind einige der bekanntesten Songs aber bereits vom Debütalbum von 1978: „So lonely“ und „Roxanne“ und dem 2. Album: „Message in a bottle“. Es folgten dann nur noch 2 Alben, bevor sich die Band 1986 auflöste… Solo-Projekte folgten und eine Reunion Tour in den 90ern
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#TuneTuesday #BetterCover
My contribution 11-15!Motorhead – God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa1wdUkeuvEConverge - Wolverine Blues (Entombed)
https://convergecult.bandcamp.com/track/wolverine-blues-w-kevin-baker-apmd-the-hope-conspiracy-etcJawbreaker - You Don’t Know (Joan Jett)
https://jawbreakerband.bandcamp.com/track/you-dont-knowJawbreaker - Pack It Up (The Pretenders)
https://jawbreakerband.bandcamp.com/track/pack-it-upLeatherface – Message in a Bottle (The Police)
https://leatherfacemusic.bandcamp.com/track/message-in-a-bottle-not-superstitious-7-3 -
#TuneTuesday #BetterCover
My contribution 11-15!Motorhead – God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa1wdUkeuvEConverge - Wolverine Blues (Entombed)
https://convergecult.bandcamp.com/track/wolverine-blues-w-kevin-baker-apmd-the-hope-conspiracy-etcJawbreaker - You Don’t Know (Joan Jett)
https://jawbreakerband.bandcamp.com/track/you-dont-knowJawbreaker - Pack It Up (The Pretenders)
https://jawbreakerband.bandcamp.com/track/pack-it-upLeatherface – Message in a Bottle (The Police)
https://leatherfacemusic.bandcamp.com/track/message-in-a-bottle-not-superstitious-7-3 -
#TuneTuesday #BetterCover
My contribution 11-15!Motorhead – God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa1wdUkeuvEConverge - Wolverine Blues (Entombed)
https://convergecult.bandcamp.com/track/wolverine-blues-w-kevin-baker-apmd-the-hope-conspiracy-etcJawbreaker - You Don’t Know (Joan Jett)
https://jawbreakerband.bandcamp.com/track/you-dont-knowJawbreaker - Pack It Up (The Pretenders)
https://jawbreakerband.bandcamp.com/track/pack-it-upLeatherface – Message in a Bottle (The Police)
https://leatherfacemusic.bandcamp.com/track/message-in-a-bottle-not-superstitious-7-3 -
#TuneTuesday #BetterCover
My contribution 11-15!Motorhead – God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa1wdUkeuvEConverge - Wolverine Blues (Entombed)
https://convergecult.bandcamp.com/track/wolverine-blues-w-kevin-baker-apmd-the-hope-conspiracy-etcJawbreaker - You Don’t Know (Joan Jett)
https://jawbreakerband.bandcamp.com/track/you-dont-knowJawbreaker - Pack It Up (The Pretenders)
https://jawbreakerband.bandcamp.com/track/pack-it-upLeatherface – Message in a Bottle (The Police)
https://leatherfacemusic.bandcamp.com/track/message-in-a-bottle-not-superstitious-7-3 -
#TuneTuesday #BetterCover
My contribution 11-15!Motorhead – God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa1wdUkeuvEConverge - Wolverine Blues (Entombed)
https://convergecult.bandcamp.com/track/wolverine-blues-w-kevin-baker-apmd-the-hope-conspiracy-etcJawbreaker - You Don’t Know (Joan Jett)
https://jawbreakerband.bandcamp.com/track/you-dont-knowJawbreaker - Pack It Up (The Pretenders)
https://jawbreakerband.bandcamp.com/track/pack-it-upLeatherface – Message in a Bottle (The Police)
https://leatherfacemusic.bandcamp.com/track/message-in-a-bottle-not-superstitious-7-3 -
Eindhoven (like many Dutch cities) seems to have better university than accommodation. This is great, but students still need to sleep somewhere. 😅
My son has been accepted at the TU/E but after many weeks searching he is struggling to get even an answer from someone advertising a room in a shared place. I'm trowing this message in a bottle to the Fediverse seeking any pointers or advice.
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Eindhoven (like many Dutch cities) seems to have better university than accommodation. This is great, but students still need to sleep somewhere. 😅
My son has been accepted at the TU/E but after many weeks searching he is struggling to get even an answer from someone advertising a room in a shared place. I'm trowing this message in a bottle to the Fediverse seeking any pointers or advice.
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For #hamRadio fans of #js8, it is #js8QsoParty time again!
https://js8call.groups.io/g/main/viewevent?repeatid=12902&eventid=1597224&calstart=2024-06-08
Problem encountered: After finally upgrading from Debian Bullseye to Debian Bookworm, the old #IC705 sound card string I had used became unreliable; I had to switch.
Highlight thus far was reading a message that some nice person in Florida, USA left for me on their system some time last November. This felt a bit like finding a message in a bottle on a beach specifically written for me!
More fun later today! 😄
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For #hamRadio fans of #js8, it is #js8QsoParty time again!
https://js8call.groups.io/g/main/viewevent?repeatid=12902&eventid=1597224&calstart=2024-06-08
Problem encountered: After finally upgrading from Debian Bullseye to Debian Bookworm, the old #IC705 sound card string I had used became unreliable; I had to switch.
Highlight thus far was reading a message that some nice person in Florida, USA left for me on their system some time last November. This felt a bit like finding a message in a bottle on a beach specifically written for me!
More fun later today! 😄
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For #hamRadio fans of #js8, it is #js8QsoParty time again!
https://js8call.groups.io/g/main/viewevent?repeatid=12902&eventid=1597224&calstart=2024-06-08
Problem encountered: After finally upgrading from Debian Bullseye to Debian Bookworm, the old #IC705 sound card string I had used became unreliable; I had to switch.
Highlight thus far was reading a message that some nice person in Florida, USA left for me on their system some time last November. This felt a bit like finding a message in a bottle on a beach specifically written for me!
More fun later today! 😄
-
For #hamRadio fans of #js8, it is #js8QsoParty time again!
https://js8call.groups.io/g/main/viewevent?repeatid=12902&eventid=1597224&calstart=2024-06-08
Problem encountered: After finally upgrading from Debian Bullseye to Debian Bookworm, the old #IC705 sound card string I had used became unreliable; I had to switch.
Highlight thus far was reading a message that some nice person in Florida, USA left for me on their system some time last November. This felt a bit like finding a message in a bottle on a beach specifically written for me!
More fun later today! 😄
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"After Assata"
Assata said, “I’m tired of bulletins. I want bullets.”
Assata said, “Tears fallen and bodies dropped, blood shed. Fuck the high road. When they go low, instead, knee ’em in the face, sprawl lower. Take their back, wrap the neck, fuck a tap out, listen for the snap. Put your ballot in the barrel of the gun, overnight express, direct action shipping. Paint the city streets with the bodies of little piggies, spelling, ‘I can’t breathe’ and say, ‘Look, see, told you stop resisting. Didn’t listen, your body’s glistening, lilac over your velvet blues, families, confused, thinking, ‘why him?’ like they’re better than you. Well, better them than you. Let a piggy disrespect, and I’ll gladly shoot. Fascist ain’t bulletproof. To protect and serve ’em up, like fried bacon, crispy.”
None for me, though, that swine’s haram.
Burnt piggies only entice me when I light a message in a bottle and make ’em catch it like a hollow, burning through like zombie tips.
Painting, blue pigs, orange and red, like the sweetest sunset, the best the man can get, close to what the Creator projects at dawn.
Back to where I begun.
Where it all came from.
I’m tired of running from bullets and later posting bulletins, like Assata said, “I want — “https://malikspeaks.noblogs.org/post/2025/10/05/after-assata/
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København: the thread about the mysterious disappearance of an enigmatic, Leith-built sailing ship
This beautiful ship is the København. She plied the world’s oceans training young men and boys to become sailors, moving cargoes from port to port until one day, some seven years after leaving her builders in Leith, she disappeared and was never seen or heard from ever again. Her fate remains a mystery to this day.
Final fitting out in dry dock at Leith, dated 1921. This was probably to give her bottom a final inspection and coat of paint before handing over to her owners, as described in the Edinburgh Evening News in September of that year. © Edinburgh City LibrariesDespite appearances, the København was a creation of the 20th century; a five-masted Danish sailing barque and one of the largest sailing vessels ever built. Her primary duty was the training of officer cadets for the merchant marine. There is a tradition in a number of European countries, continued to this day, of carrying out such maritime education on purpose-built sailing vessels. To help pay her running costs she also served as a general cargo ship, long after steam had displaced sail as the primary motive power at sea. The early history of this ship is slightly confusing. She was part of an order for the Leith yard of Ramage and Ferguson by A/S Det Ostasiatiske Kompagni (the East Asiatic Company) of Copenhagen in 1913 for three large sailing barques with auxiliary motor power. This particular København, yard number 242, was to have have four masts but war intervened before she could be completed. After lying incomplete for 2 years her hull was purchased by the British Admiralty in 1916 and quickly completed as an oil storage hulk, named Black Dragon and towed to Gibraltar. Sold in 1922 to the Shell oil company, she remained in service there until 1960.
The modelmakers loft at Ramage and Fergusons in 1906. The three vessels being worked on are all large steam yachts of the type the yard was renowned for. © Edinburgh City LibrariesAfter the war Det Ostasiatiske Kompagni ordered a replacement ship of the same name from Ramage and Ferguson. This new København – yard number 256 – would have not four but five masts, displaced 3,960 tons gross, was 130m long (426½ feet), 15m wide (49⅓ feet) and had a draught of 8.2m (27 feet). Those masts were nearly 58 metres tall (190 feet) and could spread 5,200 square metres (56,000 square feet) of American cotton sails. For times when the wind was lacking or for manoeuvring in harbour she had a 4-cylinder, 650hp diesel engine specially imported from Denmark which could propel her at 6 knots. She could carry 5,200 deadweight tons of cargo or 8,100 cubic metres (288,500 cubic feet) of grain. On account of her size and towering masts she gathered much local attention; taking a walk to observe progress became the done thing to do about the burgh. She was launched – mastless – on March 24th 1921, watched by a large crowd that had assembled to see her huge white hull slide into the dock basin.
The launch of the second København, contemporary newspaper photograph from the Daily RecordThe Great Dane, as the British press came to call her, was the largest sailing vessel ever built in the United Kingdom (excluding Brunel’s sail-assisted steamship Great Eastern. Two other Clyde-built ships were marginally longer, but København had a greater displacement.) She was the last of only seven 5-masted barques that have ever been built and ranks in the top 20 largest sailing ships – by length and displacement – ever built.
After launch and fitting out at Leith Docks, 1921. The masts are stepped but there remains much work to be done © Edinburgh City LibrariesShe was fitted with a generator to power electric lighting throughout and a wireless (radio) set with a 400 mile range. Her regular complement was 26 officers and men along with somewhere between 45 and 60 cadets, aged between 14 and 20. In addition to her master, her crew included 4 mates, a doctor, 2 engineers, 3 cooks, 2 boatswains, a carpenter, a sailmaker and a wireless operator. At the the rear – the “poop” – of the ship, was her main saloon, captain’s and officers quarters, staterooms, wireless room and infirmary. The rest of the crew and the cadets were accommodated in a deckhouse amidships. At her figurehead she had a sculpture of the 12th century Danish warrior bishop and founding father of the nation, Absalon.
Close-up detail of the proud figurehead of Absalon on the prowShe left Leith for her trials in the Firth of Forth on September 28th 1921 under the command of Commander Niels Juel-Brockdorff of the Royal Danish Navy. Again large crowds assembled to watch the spectacle; it took four tugs to tow her out from the shipyard stern first before turning her around so that she could begin to move under her own power.
The København was brought carefully down the harbour, and the spectators had an opportunity of seeing to great advantage the graceful lines of the ship, its fine figurehead, and other decorative effects. Flags were fluttering gaily from the mastheads, and altogether an exceedingly pretty picture was presented as it passed down between the piers, its size contrasting strikingly with that of the attendant tugs.
Report on the departure in The Scotsman, 29th September 1921After trials she headed straight to sea and on to a welcome in her home port of Copenhagen before embarking on a circumnavigation of the globe during which time she sailed 38,326 miles, not returning home until 7th November the following year. The ship was now gone from Edinburgh and Leith, but not forgotten. For the next few months one of the most popular shows at the Synod Hall on Castle Terrace starred the København as a feature in Poole’s Myriorama; a panoramic picture and special effect show.
Painting of the København at sea by Peder Christian Pedersen. CC-by-SA 4.0 HesekielIn October 1925 she came close to catastrophe when she caught fire in the English Channel en route for Melbourne from Danzig with a cargo of timber. The fire started in the cabins at the rear of the ship, destroying much of her fine wooden fittings, but she was able to to put safely into Plymouth. After repairs she was able to carry her load to Australia without further ado. In 1927, en route from Liverpool to Chile via the Panama Canal, she lost a propeller blade on the Pacific coast of South America and had to put into Calloa in Peru to repair.
København in dry dock in Australia, photo from the Edwardes Collection of the State Library of South AustraliaOn September 21st 1928, the ship departed the Danish port of Nørresundby under the command of Captain Hans Anderson carrying a shipload of chalk and cement for Argentina. It would prove to be her final departure from home. Arriving safely in Buenos Aires on November 17th 1928, she then waited in that port for 4 weeks for an onward cargo for Australia. None was forthcoming and so the captain decided to leave empty for Melbourne, where he could load with wheat, and departed on December 14th. Depending on the source there were either 60 or 70 souls aboard, including 45 cadets, on a trip that was expected to take around 45 days. Eight days later she passed the Norwegian steamer William Blumer some 900 miles to the west of the islands of Tristan da Cunha and the two ships exchanged signals, København indicated that all was well and the cadets were preparing to celebrate Christmas as they passed south of the Cape of Good Hope. This proved to be the last time she was ever seen or heard from ever again.
The last voyage of the København (approximate) showing the route east from the River Plate, across the South Atlantic and southern Indian Ocean to Australia.However there was no immediate cause for concern. Captain Anderson had a reputation for taking a “minimalist” approach to using his radio and sailing journeys could easily take far longer than scheduled if the winds were unfavourable. Thus when København did not arrive in Melbourne on schedule nobody raised any alarm. By February 1929, the East Asiatic Company was sufficiently concerned to begin making enquiries with Lloyd’s of London for any information concerning their now long overdue vessel, but it was not until early April 1929 that they finally raised the alarm. The British Admiralty were approached for assistance and the search and rescue operation which now followed has been called “the longest, farthest reaching and most costly in the history of maritime service“. The Admiralty spread the word amongst British shipping and arranged for the Liverpool firm of Alfred Holt and Company to diverted their steamer Deucalion from Cape Town to make a search of potential landfall in southern latitudes on which the missing Dane could either have become bound or wrecked upon. These were the remote Price Edward Islands, the Crozet Islands and Kerguellen. The Admiralty also lent an experienced navigator, a high-powered wireless set and two operators to man it. The East Asiatic Company dispatched their own motor vessel, Mexico, to make her own search.
København , photo from the Edwardes Collection of the State Library of South AustraliaIn May, news was received from the searching steamer Halesius out of Tristan da Cunha that an English preacher on that island, Philip Lindsay, claimed that he and others on the island had sighted, on January 21st, a five masted sailing ship with a white band round its hull approaching the islands. This apparition came from the south and her first two masts were seen to be broken. It then disappeared from their view towards a part of the island that was inaccessible. Objects were later found washed up on the shore but they could not conclusively be proved to have come from København. Lindsay told The Times:
The sea was rough for our boats and we could do nothing but watch her gradually crawl past and run inside the reefs to the west of the island. She was certainly in distress. She was using only one small jib [sail], and her stern was very low in the water. I estimated that she was within a quarter mile of the shore when we last saw her.
Philip Lindsay, eyewitnessThe Halesius made a search of the rocky and unpopulated Gough Island to the south of Tristan, but found nothing and so carried on her way. The master of Halesius put his ship into Montevideo on June 22nd and caused a minor sensation when he was quoted by the press as having found the ship’s wreckage. He had, however, made no such claim and it was a reporting error that had mixed up facts. On the same day it was announced that the Australian steamer Junee, in Sydney, and the Norwegian motor ship Lars Risdahl, in Cape Town, had both been chartered by the East Asiatic Company to carry on the search in the Southern Ocean. They were also diverting the Mexico to Tristan to make a thorough investigation of her own, just in case.
The Halesius in her former guise as the Lord Cromer in 1912, whose sensational attribution to have located the København was unfounded. © National Museums Liverpool MCR/39/17The intensive search continued for the next two and a half months. The Mexico returned to Cape Town in the middle of July and her master spoke to the London Daily News. He told the reporter that it was his belief that the ship had washed up on the lonely desert coast of southwestern Africa and that he was refuelling before heading off on that particular search course. Every coastline and grid square was combed before the company reluctantly called off the operation on September 9th 1929, some nine months after the København had last been seen. She was officially declared missing by Lloyd’s of London on January 1st 1930. But as hope dwindled, interest in the disappearance was if anything even more widespread with the passing of time and lack of evidence.
Various theories for her imagined loss were advanced. Had she collided with ice floes and been abandoned by her crew? But ice was unlikely to have been encountered if she had passed Tristan da Cunha, so had she become lost and icebound in the Southern Ocean? Some said that the observers on Tristan were mistaken; they had not seen the København at all. No, the much more rational explanation was that they had seen the renowned South Atlantic ghost ship, the Phanton Barque. Did the København capsize in a sudden squall under her immense spread of canvas due to the lack of a heavy cargo in her hold to provide a low centre-of-gravity? This would certainly have given no time for lifeboats to be launched. Others said the ship had simply been swallowed by the ocean, it was well known amongst mariners who had sailed in the Southern Seas just how the mountainous seas and roaring winds could do such a thing. Yet others thought she would still be afloat, drifting aimlessly in the oceans, “a plaything of wind and current, a toy of unmerciful Neptune“, just waiting to be discovered.
Public interest inevitably began to wane but in April 1934 a Captain Soderlund, of the Finnish-flagged grain ship Lawhill which had just arrived in Adelaide, told newspapers that he had sighted wreckage from the København floating in the Great Australian Bight but had failed to retrieve it. Then in September 1934 the New York Times reported that a message in a bottle that had been picked up by a whaling ship on the Bonvel Islands. The message reputed that the ship had been blown into the Antarctic and the crew and boys put ashore on the ice, to watch their ship be driven by the winds to her destruction. It quickly transpired that the “diary” entries found in the bottle were copied out of a Spanish novel by a Danish journalist who passed them off as genuine.
We know our boys are dead, but it is terrible not to know how and why and where the tragedy happened. Perhaps, too, there are some who cherish a faint hope against their better judgement that some day they will come back
A statement from the parents of the lost cadets, reported in the Daily Herald, October 4th 1934On 11th December 1934 the Belfast Telegraph reported that a Norwegian yacht, the Ho Ho, and her four man crew had arrived in Montevideo after a year long voyage across the Atlantic to search up and down the coast of South America for any signs of the København. Only three days earlier it had been announced that Ramage & Ferguson had gone into voluntary liquidation after years of financial suffering in first the post-war shipbuilding recession and then the Great Depression. One of the last ships completed by them had been the Mercator, a three-masted sail training ship for the Belgian government.
Denmark still has a national sailing training ship, the Georg Stage. Somewhat appropriately, this 1935-built ship visited Leith Docks in April 2022 and tied up alongside Ocean Terminal: a shopping centre built on the site of the Ramage & Ferguson yard.
Georg Stage arriving at Leith in April 2022, with the former royal yacht Britannia and Ocean Terminal in the background © SelfNote to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.
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What Was the First Meme?
Cause of Death: Replaced by Itself, But Faster.
Subject Introduction: A Very Small Joke With Very Big Ambitions.
Before memes were screenshots, reaction images, or oddly specific jokes about ‘that one friend who…’, they were… an idea.
Literally.
Richard Dawkins coined the word ‘meme’ in The Selfish Gene to describe how ideas spread—like ‘cultural genes’, hopping from brain to brain, mutating as they go.
Which means, technically, the first meme wasn’t even funny.
Much like about 87% of modern memes, if we’re being brutally honest.
Ahem.
A disappointing start, I know.
But if I’m performing a proper cultural autopsy, I have to ask a more important question: what was the first recognisable meme? The first thing humans collectively saw, copied, and thought, yes, this… but slightly worse when I do it?
Candidates include:
- Kilroy Was Here (a doodle man peeking over walls during WWII).
- Dancing Baby (a slightly cursed 90s CGI infant – seriously, don’t Google it, you’ll have nightmares).
- “All Your Base Are Belong To Us” (early internet chaos in sentence form).
Each one carries the same DNA: repetition, variation, and a quiet insistence on being seen again.
Cause of Death: The Internet Got Involved (Obviously).
The first meme didn’t die because it failed.
It died because it succeeded too well.
Once the internet arrived, memes stopped being rare cultural oddities and became… everything, really.
What was once:
- Slowly shared.
- Slightly altered.
- Passed between small groups.
…became:
- Instantly global.
- Aggressively remixed.
- Posted 47,000 times before brunch. ☕
Memes didn’t just evolve. They accelerated beyond survivability.
The lifecycle shrank dramatically:
- Birth (someone posts it).
- Peak (everyone posts it).
- Irony phase (people mock it).
- Death (people mock people who still use it).
- Resurrection (someone posts it again three years later, ironically).
Total lifespan: roughly the length of a lukewarm cup of tea.
The ‘first meme,’ whatever it was, couldn’t survive in this new ecosystem. Not because it wasn’t strong, but because modern memes reproduce at a rate that would concern scienticians, epidemiologists, and at least one exhausted moderator on Reddit…
Surviving Relatives: The Chaos Continues.
Though the original has long dissolved into the cultural bloodstream, its descendants are thriving.
Modern equivalents include:
- Reaction images (emotion, but outsourced).
- Absurdist memes (logic has left the chat).
- Hyper-specific memes (you either get it, or you don’t—and that’s the point).
There’s also a noticeable shift: memes are no longer just shared.
They’re layered.
A meme references another meme, which references a cultural moment, which somehow references an emotion you had in 2013 and never properly recovered from.
At this point, understanding a meme sometimes requires:
- Context.
- Research.
- A degree.
Which feels like a lot for something featuring a blurry cat. 🐈
And yet we persist.
Legacy: What the First Meme Says About Us.
The first meme, wherever it came from, revealed something quietly profound:
Humans like to repeat things.
Not just repeat them, but reshape them. Personalise them. Make them ours, then send them back out into the world slightly altered, like a message in a bottle that now includes a joke.
Richard Dawkins probably did not expect his academic concept to eventually produce Minions saying things like ‘Wine O’Clock.’ 😂
Memes are, at their core, a form of connection.
A way of saying:
“I saw this.”
“I felt this.”
“Did you also feel this?”
Even the most ridiculous meme carries that same underlying impulse.
Which means the first meme didn’t really die.
It just… multiplied.
Endlessly.
Mutating.
Slightly more unhinged each time.
Final Diagnosis.
The first meme:
- Status: Deceased (technically).
- Cause of death: Extreme reproduction and cultural overstimulation.
- Legacy: Alive in every slightly overused joke you’ve ever sent.
And perhaps the strangest conclusion of all:
We’re not just observing memes.
We are the transmission system.
Which raises an uncomfortable but important question:
If memes evolve through us, who, exactly, is in control here?
Which means humanity may have accidentally evolved into a giant emotional forwarding system.
It’s enough to make you want to dance…
What do you think of memes, reader? Terminally online art form or humanity’s final evolutionary stage? 👀
Ciao :)(:
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Having a hard time dealing with hard things doesn't mean you're weak. It means you're human. Be gentle with yourself.