I'll Be Watching You
I'm in Houston today so that I can do my duty as an old man to see The Police. They won't be playing Austin, despite Austin's claim of being the live music capital of the world. This apparently also confuses Stewart Copeland because he misidentifies a view from his Houston hotel room as an Austin hotel room in his recent documentary, Everyone Stares. There are lots of hotel rooms in the movie, so it's understandable how he could be confused. I mean, there was a Texas flag and the only place in Texas where they listen to music is Austin. Despite this, it's a pretty good watch.
The first and only other time I saw The Police was at the Summit in 1984. UB40 opened--and yes they did have more songs than "Red Red Wine" (which, you'll note is a Neil Diamond song). Afterwards, my middle school friend and I hung around the loading dock with some of the UB40 members until we saw Sting limo past us. I'm fairly certain nothing like that will happen tonight.
One more thing I'd like point out this week is that 99.9% of FCC complaints were filed by one activist organization. One.
The first and only other time I saw The Police was at the Summit in 1984. UB40 opened--and yes they did have more songs than "Red Red Wine" (which, you'll note is a Neil Diamond song). Afterwards, my middle school friend and I hung around the loading dock with some of the UB40 members until we saw Sting limo past us. I'm fairly certain nothing like that will happen tonight.
One more thing I'd like point out this week is that 99.9% of FCC complaints were filed by one activist organization. One.
9 Comments:
That was a funny link old man.
Hope the show's good.
I just wanted to state that I felt no old man obligation to see the police...
none at all.
Finally watched URGH! A Music War all the way through last week. It was kind of cool to see firsthand evidence that the Police were good and legitimately cool once. UB40, on the other hand, struck me as neither good, cool, nor legitimate in any way.
Hey Joe about URGH...I have one word for you - Skafish. They may not be good but "Sign of the Cross" burns in your brain as much as the worst corporate jingle.
I remember working a UB40 show once. I didn't think it was possible but there you had it - a room full of high grade pot smoke and the bitchiest rastas ever to walk the earth. I just kept thinking. "Dudes you guys have high grade stuff, you need to chill."
As for the Police, yeah the first few albums still hold up but I'm not sure stuff like Synchonicity really has ages as well. The difference is that on the early albums they sound like a trio and Copeland's drums (which I love) are pretty prominent. One thing for sure that will never be in style - Sting the rock star.
PS $90 tickets? OUCH!!!
$90 was the low end, which is pretty much where I am. And yeah, Synchronicity was the low point of their career. Well no, that remake they did of "Don't Stand So Close to Me" was the low point, but that was just one song.
I don't remember how the Skafish tune went... I'm pretty sure I saw their name and made a mental note to immediately erase all memory of their performance as soon as it was over.
Can you hold the Puff Daddy reappropriation of "I'll Be Watching You" against all of the Police, or just Sting? He sang with him at the MTV movie awards, but surely the other guys must've signed off on the sample thing. Anyway, if yes, that's not only their low point but a possible nadir of 20th century popular song.
I don't think the others would have had to sign off on the sample. I'm certain the label owns the rights to the sound recordings and Sting has the writing credit, so it probably wasn't necessary to consult the other two, though that doesn't mean that they weren't consulted.
Copeland and Summers probably each got a muffin basket from Sting and A&M. Maybe one of those Herb Alpert musical thank you cards.
Tony Tribe did the superior version of "Red Red Wine" - UB40 ganked his shit and made it lame.
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