Sting and The Police : walking in their footsteps

253 Pages·2015·1.68 MB·English

by  West

Sting and The Police
Tempo: A Rowman & Littlefield Music Series on Rock, Pop, and
Culture Series Editor: Scott Calhoun
Tempo: A Rowman & Littlefield Music Series on Rock, Pop, and
Culture offers titles that explore rock and popular music through
the lens of social and cultural history, revealing the dynamic
relationship between musicians, music, and their milieu. Like
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The Crosscurrents of Musical Influence, by Simon Philo Bruce
Springsteen: American Poet and Prophet, by Donald L. Deardorff
II The Clash: The Only Band That Mattered, by Sean Egan Kris
Kristofferson: Country Highwayman, by Mary G. Hurd Patti
Smith: America’s Punk Rock Rhapsodist, by Eric Wendell Paul
Simon: An American Tune, by Cornel Bonca Ska: The Rhythm of
Liberation, by Heather Augustyn Sting and The Police, by Aaron
J. West
Sting and The Police
Walking in Their Footsteps
Aaron J. West
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
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Copyright © 2015 by Aaron J. West
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
West, Aaron J.
Sting and The Police : walking in their footsteps / Aaron J. West.
pages cm. — (Tempo : a Rowman & Littlefield music series on rock, pop, and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8108-8490-8 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8108-8491-5 (ebook)
1. Police (Musical group) 2. Sting (Musician) 3. Rock music—1981-1990—History and
criticism. I. Title.
ML421.P67W47 2015
782.42166092'2—dc23
2015015451
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Foreword
Scott Calhoun, Series Editor
The following exploration of Sting and The Police as artists—
as jazz-, funk-, reggae-, and folk-pop artists, specifically—gets it
right about how a three-piece combo can turn alchemic. Stewart
Copeland, Andy Summers, and Gordon Matthew Sumner, or
Sting, brought their musical curiosities and complex
personalities together to form a new wave of astute, infectious
English song craft, while giving audiences years of thrilling
performances. Aaron J. West gets it right too, about the
chemistry of a complicated musical artist who trends toward the
restless, virtuosic type, as is true of Sting.
Seeming to enjoy the chase of craft as much as the
adulation of the crowd, The Police’s potency came from skillful
compounding of musical styles already marked by strong
grooves, inventive tempos, and playfulness. The music The
Police made, and that Sting continues to make, has satisfied the
literate and literary, as well the mainstream appetite for
something eminently fun to sing and dance to. But Sting’s thirst
for
a greater, more singular pursuit of craft and crowd sent him
on many more cultural quests after The Police, looking for the
pop hooks, world beats, activist heroics, and even stage roles
offered by film and theater, to satiate the artist.
Sometimes accused of appropriation by critics who lean
toward purists, The Police’s music has nevertheless endured. It
has inspired many post-1980s artists who had the good fortune
of composing their songs in times when borrowing, referencing,
and sampling was de rigueur. At times accused of affectation,
Sting, never the shy nor demure performer, has turned any such
complaints to his advantage, commanding our attention when
on
a new project by promising to tip the balance from
showmanship toward sophistication.
This study presents Sting and The Police by choosing a
This study presents Sting and The Police by choosing a
different path of presentation.
Pop legends they are, with storied lives and plenty of laurels
to show for it. But West’s perspective is drawn to seeing their
rise to acclaim and influence in popular music history as the
acts of artists choosing their colors, their brush strokes, and
their canvases, intentionally assembling the pieces to make
something brilliantly
new.
Timeline
World and Cultural Events Sting, Andy Summers, and Stewart
Copeland’s Lives and Careers
December 1942: In the midst December 1942: Andrew James
of World War II, over sixty U-boats Summers is born December 31 at the edge
are sunk. of the river Wyre in Lancashire (Poulton-le-
Fylde), near Blackpool, England.
January 1945: The Soviet Red
Army liberates the Birkenau and
Auschwitz concentration camps.
August 1945: The United
States bombs Hiroshima and
Nagasaki with atomic weapons.
World War II ends soon after.
July 1946: U.S. nuclear testing
begins at Bikini Atoll in Micronesia.
Sting protests these kinds of
experiments with “La Belle Dame
Sans Regrets” in 1996.
February 1947: Voice of
America begins transmitting into
the Soviet Union and its satellites.
These broadcasts will influence
generations of Eastern European
and Russian musicians.
March 1948: Arturo Toscanini,
during his television debut,
conducts the NBC Symphony,
performing the works of Richard
Wagner.
April 1950: The Group Areas
Acts passes in South Africa,
formally segregating the races. By
the 1980s, performers will play a
number of anti-apartheid shows.
October 1951: I Love Lucy October 1951: Gordon Matthew Thomas
debuts on CBS, and Winston Sumner (Sting) is born in Wallsend, Tyneside,
Churchill is re-elected prime Tyne and Wear, England. His childhood in
minister of the United Kingdom. Wallsend will be the inspiration for multiple
songs and even a Broadway show.
songs and even a Broadway show.
July 1952: Mickey Mantle hits July 1952: Stewart Armstrong Copeland
his first grand slam. is born in Alexandria, Virginia, on July 16.
April 1953: Frank Sinatra and 1953: The young Andy Summers is
Nelson Riddle begin their iconic listening to AFN radio, which plays American
recordings for Capitol Records. jazz.
May 1954: Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka bans racial
segregation in U.S. public schools.
September 1955: Gunsmoke, 1955: Andy Summers is given his first
television’s longest-running guitar by his uncle Jim. A lodger named
western, debuts on CBS. Sting will David Ellis helps him tune it.
cite this as one of his favorite
programs as a child.
February 1956: Elvis Presley November 1956: As Queen Elizabeth II
has his first hit with “Heartbreak rides by, Sting greets her by waving a Union
Hotel.” Jack. She waves back.
January 1957: The Cavern
Club opens in Liverpool; it will
become an early performance
venue for The Beatles.
August 1957: American
Bandstand premiers.
October 1957: The Soviet October 1957: Summers buys a Gibson
Union launches Sputnik 1 into orbit. ES-175 in London.
1958: Summers buys a Gibson ES-335.
Eventually, there will be an Andy Summers
signature model of this guitar.
July 1958: The U.S. Marines land in
Beirut, Lebanon, to protect the existing pro-
Western government. The Copeland family
will leave for London soon after.
April 1960: Ben-Hur wins a
number of Academy Awards,
including Best Picture. Stewart
Copeland will premiere a live-
performance score for an earlier
film version of Ben-Hur in 2014.
August 1961: Construction of
the Berlin Wall begins.
the Berlin Wall begins.
August 1962: President
Kennedy orders a blockade of Cuba
in order to prevent the
establishment of Soviet missile
bases.
1964: Andy Summers joins Zoot Money’s
Big Roll Band.
December 1965: Sting attends The
Beatles’ arrival at Newcastle City Hall.
March 1967: Sting attends a concert by
The Jimi Hendrix Experience at Club A’ Go Go
in Newcastle.
July 1967: Summers, along with
musicians from Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band,
creates Dantalian’s Chariot, a contemporary
psychedelic band.
August 1967: Brian Epstein, August 1967: Copeland attends a
manager for The Beatles, dies. concert by The Jimi Hendrix Experience at
the Saville Theatre in London.
May 1968: Summers joins the early
progressive rock group, Soft Machine.
July 1968: Summers is dismissed from
Soft Machine.
August 1968: Summers travels to
California and joins Eric Burdon and The
Animals.
October 1968: Summers jams with Jimi
Hendrix at TTG Studios in Hollywood,
California.
January 1969: The first Led
Zeppelin album is released; The
Beatles give their last public
performance.
July 1969: Neil Armstrong
becomes first man to walk on the
moon.
August 1969: Woodstock
Music Festival takes place.
Music Festival takes place.
December 1969: Tragic
Rolling Stones’ show at Altamont
Raceway takes place.
April 1970: The first Earth Day
is celebrated in the United States.
In the following decade, Sting will
become an advocate for
environmentalism.
September 1970: Jimi Hendrix
dies in London of drug-related
complications.
March 1971: Paul Simon’s
“Bridge over Troubled Water” wins
a Grammy Award for Song of the
Year. Sting will tour with Simon
forty-three years later.
March 1972: Northern Ireland 1972: Along with keyboardist Gerry
is occupied by Britain. The resulting Richardson, Sting joins Earthrise.
unrest will inspire “Invisible Sun.”
November 1972: Atari
introduces the arcade version of
Pong, the first video game. Stewart
Copeland will write the music for
the video game Spyro the Dragon in
1998.
January 1973: A ceasefire is 1973: Sting joins the Phoenix Jazzmen, a
signed in Vietnam. Ian Copeland, traditional jazz group from which he earns
Stewart Copeland’s brother, had his nickname.
fought in the war.
February 1973: The Harder
They Come, starring Jimmy Cliff,
increases the visibility of reggae in
the United States.
May 1973: Stewart Copeland is the tour
manager for Joan Armatrading’s UK tour.
November 1973: Andy Summers
returns to London.
May 1974: India becomes the 1974: Summers begins touring with
world’s sixth nuclear power. The actor and singer David Essex, Neil Sedaka,
Police will perform in India during and Kevin Coyne.