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May 25, 2007

Word Association: Truth Hits Everybody, the Police Were Overrated

For those fickle members of the MS audience that missed this feature's launch last week, the full rundown is here. Reader's Digest version: Every week, an MS contributor is given the task to find the best musical answer to the words assigned them. Some times these words will form an understandable query, sometimes not. Once answered, the previously on the spot will in turn challenge another. I started last week and ended with the challenge below, which was answered by Prof. David Klein as such... (JK)

To David: Overrated Band, Underrated Song

I was temporarily thrown for a loop by Jeff's two-edged challenge. I've heard a lot of people call bands overrated but it’s never been a big descriptor for me. I'm more the type to say, “I never really got them” or “I respect their work more than I listen to it.” The “O” word often gets tossed at rock’s sacred cows. If you really want to get a certain type of person’s goat, just say something like, “The Sex Pistols were overrated.” Or the Ramones. Or Joy Division. It’s easy to lob “overrated” at a band that achieves massive success (U2, Coldplay) because nobody could really deserve that level of universal acclaim (except maybe the Beatles). In other words, too fat a target. I guess the target I ultimately chose is fairly fat, in its way, but I think pronouncing this outfit overrated will give me the most joy, because the Police were overrated in many if not all of the most telling ways.

First, they were overrated by the rock press, who fawned all over these guys as if they really were the Beatles of the ‘80s. The critics were understandably enamored of the bands’ impeccable chops, but also with its international influences, and of course, its lead singer. Beyond that, and this is an absolutely critical point, the Police's records were overrated by a long shot. They were all extremely spotty affairs, with some good singles and a few stray tracks, and a lot, a lot, of filler. And what does a band really leave behind when all is said and done but their recorded output? The obligatory Andy Summers song always sent one scurrying for the fast-forward button, and the Stewart Copeland songs were never anything special. That left Sting, who was more than capable of writing good songs, but several of the LPs were rush jobs recorded while on tour and offered to a world clamoring for new product from the three blonde dudes. The bottom line is the Police never made a great album. Their swansong, Synchronicity, contained several excellent singles but was marred by middling tracks and that awful Andy Summers song, “Mother.” As the band got bigger and bigger, so did its pretensions, and inevitably Sting's throwaways got heavy on sloganeering (“One world is enough/for all of us”), mysticism and politics, all surefire ways to make well-played but average songs into something much worse. Let’s also not forget that as Sting grew into the trio’s unabashed leader, his ego was amping up for a solo career in which he would delve deeper into faux reggae, dream of blue turtles, wonder if the Russians loved their children too, and declare love to be “the seventh wave.” (I can’t believe I missed that one in my quest for the perfect “7” song!) But by 1982, the former Mr. Sumner was saying things like, “It would be false for me to be modest. I believe I’m a great singer and a great songwriter.” (That same year, John Cale had this to say, “Being a living legend is such a precarious livelihood. It’s like being a bar of soap in a shower which doesn’t have any water in it.”)

Still, before they were living legends, there was a time when the Police were one extremely talented band and an exciting live act. I remember hearing (and of course, taping) a radio concert of the band in the Regatta de Blanc era, and loving their speedy but extremely tight versions of songs that had already been smoothed out and slowed down on the record. (I also remember an overly familiar radio DJ referring to the band as “The Cops” which I thought was the height of idiocy. I mean, would you refer to the Monkees as the Chimps?) A case in point is “Truth Hits Everybody,” a song from the debut outing from the Police, 1978’s Outlandos D’Amour. The band played it a lot in concert, but since it is certainly no one’s idea of a major song in the Police canon, it would seem to qualify as underrated. It’s just a couple of sturdy riffs and a keening vocal line, but on the live version of the song, they just tear it up. Check out Copeland’s fills and the tight interplay in the breaks. This version, from the Message in a Box collection, sounds a lot like the one I thrilled to back in the day. Other versions I checked out from even a few years later lacked the fire and over-the-top energy captured here in a sizzling two-and-a-half minute burst.

the Police - "Truth Hits Everybody"(live)

To Koren: Would Have Made a Great Instrumental

Posted by Jeff Klingman at May 25, 2007 09:30 AM

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Comments

Posted by: Randall Monty at May 25, 2007 10:09 AM

Posted by: Jeff K at May 25, 2007 10:43 AM

Posted by: Kelli Douglas at May 25, 2007 11:09 AM

Posted by: Randall Monty at May 25, 2007 11:14 AM

Posted by: Keith at May 25, 2007 02:36 PM

Posted by: Randall Monty at May 25, 2007 03:13 PM

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