The 500 - #323 - Ghost In The Machine - The Police

 I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Once again, at the start of 2022, I offered the students in my class the opportunity to guest post on my 500 blog. To my delight, Austin took up the challenge and when we looked over the upcoming records he was quick to pick #323, Ghost In The Machine by The Police. I was happy with his choice. I have already written about the other three records by The Police on The 500, so I was fresh out of stories about my experiences with the band. So, it's nice to get a fresh perspective on this influential post-punk trio.

Album: # 323

Album Title: Ghost In The Machine

Artist: The Police

Genre: New Wave

Recorded: AIR, Montserrat, Le Studio, Quebec

Released: October, 1981

My age at release: Mr. Hodgkinson was 16, I wasn't born

How familiar was I with it before this week: Not at all

Is it on the 2020 list? No

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Invisible Sun

Here’s what Austin chose to write:

Hi, my name is Austin, I am twelve years old and I am in Mr. Hodgkinson's Grade 7 class at Sir Arthur Currie Public School in London, Ontario. 

Austin C. (Age 12)

The first time I heard the title Ghost in the Machine I instantly knew this was going to be a great album. Well, I also literally thought about a ghost inside of a machine. To be exact, I thought about an arcade machine like Pacman and the little ghosts that chase around our yellow hero. Anyway, no more jokes, the title really interested me.

Ghosts in a Pac Man Machine

At first, I thought the title meant a glitch in a system or a loophole in a program. I wasn’t entirely wrong. The title is based on a book of the same name by writer Arthur Koestler. He was trying to explain human violence in psychological terms.

The Ghost In The Machine - Arthur Koestler

I think the “Ghost in the Machine” is also when your brain is on autopilot. For example, when you are dreaming and something important creeps in, such as a date, a time, a place or anything that can actually help you with your future decisions and choices. Let me explain with an example. Two days before I was going to have surgery, I dreamed that everything went perfectly and my dad bought me a new Playstation 5 video game system. When I went to get the surgery, I wasn’t scared. I just knew that everything was going to be alright. I guess I was deciding to trust the Ghost in my Machine. Sadly, I didn’t get the Playstation 5, because it was not available at the time. I did get some money to buy games for my Playstation 4.

Playstation 4 gaming system

The song on the record that I was most drawn to was Invisible Sun. Invisible Sun is a work of art that, for me, is a mix of a simple happy melody (sort of like songs I love from The Beatles) with a dark grittiness. It is unlike any song I have ever heard. When I was researching it on Wikipedia, I saw this amazing quote from songwriter, singer and bassist Sting:

“I wanted to show some light at the end of the tunnel. I do think there has to be an 'invisible sun'. You can't always see it, but there has to be something radiating light into our lives."

— Revolver Magazine, 2000

Wow, that is one deep quote. But, I kind of understand what he is saying. Amazing people come into and leave your life and you need to cherish those good moments. The song's message is a sad and happy one. It was written about how war torn countries move on and try to rebuild, even as they’re getting bombed. 

Album cover for the single, Invisible Sun

They have to live with death and destruction, but there has to be an “Invisible Sun” to light their way. It is a metaphor for hope. I hope the people of Ukraine are finding an invisible sun to help them get through the war that is happening there.

Lyrics for the chorus of Invisible Sun

To conclude my post, I knew my dad saw The Police in concert when he was younger so I wanted to ask his thoughts on this album.

Are you a fan of The Police?

A: Yes, I was always a fan. But my best friend in school was an ardent fan and taught me a lot about the band.

Do you ever listen to this album?

A: Not always. I tend to listen to songs by The Police instead of the albums.

What’s your favorite song?

A: Definitely Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic. I saw The Police when I was 30 at Madison Square Garden. That song was the best part of the performance.

Do you like the song Invisible Sun?

It’s one of the best on the album. I think that it’s a thoughtful meditation on socio-political events at the time Sting was writing this. But sonically it is a bit too cumbersome and heavy.

In conclusion, this was a highly rated album among fans and it hit number one on the US Billboard 200 and was in the Top Ten Records that year (1981).  It has also been ranked #76 on the Greatest British Albums of all Time. I think it deserves these rankings and the fact that it is album #323 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time is an honour it deserves.

Thanks for reading,

Austin

The 500 - 372 - Reggatta de Blanc - The Police

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 372

Album Title: Reggatta de Blanc 
Artist: The Police

Genre: New Wave, Reggae Rock, White Reggae, Post Punk
Recorded: Surrey Sound, England
Released: October, 1979
My age at release: 14
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: The Bed's Too Big Without You

One year ago, in May, 2020, I wrote about the 1978 debut record by The Police, Outlandos D'Amour. Four months prior to that, in January, I shared a personal connection to their final release, Synchronicity. 

This record, 1979's Reggatta de Blanc, is the sophomore release by the English New Wave/Reggae Rock trio. Despite the demands of a busy tour schedule, it hit the market less than a year after Outlandos. Drummer Stewart Copeland credits the speed of its production to the absence of any pressure from the music industry. As he put it:

"We just went into the studio and said, 'Right, who's got the first song?' We hadn't even rehearsed them, before we went in."

The title loosely translates from French to "White Reggae" -- two words that, in combination, have increasingly become an anathema in contemporary society. There are many who might rebuke their sound as the "cultural appropriation" of Caribbean music. However, I reject that hypothesis. Indeed, it was The Police, The Clash and, to a lesser extent, Eric Clapton who were the bridge that led me to my love of reggae.

The Police (1979) Andy Summers, Sting & Stewart Copeland (l-r) 

The 2011 BBC documentary Reggae Britannia went a step further, suggesting that in the mid-70s: 

"Reggae was vital in mending the rift between black and white youth (in the UK) as it merged with punk rock and cross-pollinated the charts."

Promotional Photo for Reggae Britannia

Sting, bassist and vocalist of The Police, also dismisses these spurious assertions from "woke" critics, many of whom were not even alive when Reggatta de Blanc was released. In 2018, he shared the following:

"Cultural appropriation is such an ugly term. For me, reggae is something I respect and value, and take seriously, It is something I have learned from."

I prepared for this post by listening to Regatta de Blanc in its entirety, which led me down a Police rabbit hole and, this week, I listened through their entire catalogue. I was transported to a time when White Reggae regularly blared from the headphones strapped to my portable Sanyo cassette player.

Sanyo Cassette Player (similar to my 80s model)

The Police only released five studio records between 1978 and 1983, covering the time between my 13th and 18th birthdays. In the early 80s, that felt like a lifetime, and in relative terms I suppose it was. Five years is more than a quarter of your life at 18. It was a halcyon time -- I had security, few responsibilities and a pocketful of disposable income from my many part-time gigs. 

I selected the track The Bed's Too Big Without You for 500 Spotify Playlist. It has a special meaning because my wife says those words every time we are separated. 

Over the past few weeks of distance learning with my class, I have been working from our cottage because the WiFi signal is more reliable. Consequently, when we talk each evening, she often signs off with those words.

Thanks for reading. We'll make our final check-in with The Police at #323 on The 500 in about a year. The record is Ghost In The Machine (1981), but I plan on talking more about my favourite Police album, Zenyatta Mondatta, which I received for Christmas, 1980...from my mom.

 

The 500 - #428 - The Police - Outlandos D'Amour

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

Album # 428

Album Title: Outlandos D'Amour
Artist: The Police
Genre: Post Punk, New Wave, Reggae Rock
Recorded: January - June 1978
Released: November, 1978
My age at release: 13
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Roxanne
(Selected by my friend Oscar Macedo who also added insight as guest blogger)

My early teenage years were energized by three specific events that felt like seismic cultural shifts:

• The arrival of The Golden Age of Arcade Video Games. A time when aging pinball machines, pool or billiard tables were being rapidly replaced by arcade gaming consoles for Space Invaders, Asteroid, PacMan and Donkey Kong. 
• New Wave and Post Punk music began gaining mainstream acceptance. The commercial success of Blondie, The Cars and The Talking Heads resulted in the rebranding of 60s and 70s music as Classic Rock. 
• Music videos became wildly popular and became the format in which bands, particularly less established ones, promoted their material.

In Southwestern Ontario, access to music videos was spotty. In a time before MTV and MuchMusic, a weekly culture and news program out of Toronto called The New Music featuring hosts Jeanne Becker and J.D. Roberts. The program exposed me to a world of music different from the things I was hearing on Classic Rock radio from Detroit. I am almost certain that it was on an episode of The New Music that I first heard about The Police.

The New Music hosts JD Roberts & Jeanne Becker
photographed on Yonge Street, Toronto.

My adolescent hometown of Kingsville, Ontario, had a pool hall called, The Rak 'n Snak. Populated almost exclusively by pre-teens and teens, it had a jukebox, a half-dozen pool/billiard tables, pinball machines and two video games, Space Invaders and my personal favourite, Asteroids. If the the Asteroids machine cost Rak 'n Snak $500, I'm pretty sure I returned half their investment during the 78/79 school year... one quarter at a time. 

Asteroids Stand-up Console

The Rak 'n Snak also had a metal carousel beside the cash register with popular music for sale on cassette tape and I browsed it regularly. It was here that I saw my first copy of Outlandos D'Amour by The Police. 

Ironically, many of my views about The Police were captured by my friend Oscar, when he shared his thoughts about this album in a recent Facebook post. Oscar is my age and grew up in Sarnia. Consequently, we existed in a cultural ethos dominated by the same Detroit media. He agreed to have his views reposted here. 

Oscar "Porchee" Macedo
Plays Bass, Fishes Bass

This is what he said:
This band and this particular album was one that set that my young brain on fire. Is it rock? Is it punk? Is it reggae? I dunno...I love it...but, help!

To pigeon-hole it, I guess it was my first taste of New Wave. I was late, by all accounts, to this album. Local AM radio, dominated by the likes Melissa Manchester and Chicago, didn't have The Police on their rotation. Growing up in Sarnia, my proximity to Detroit FM radio only offered Foghat and Ted Nugent basically. The Police were too "punk" for rock radio. So, due to the limited available sources, I was a late bloomer to The Police.

Our "Internet" to music back then was The New Music television program. Again, I saw another band on there that intrigued me. It was The Police and it was Roxanne that grabbed my ear. What a song. Perhaps, arguably, Reggatta de Blanc was a better album but the impact of Outlandos stuck. As a young kid just learning bass, this was a biggie. Sting was a beast on the bass and an early inspiration to me. A singer AND bass player. Something I still have a tough time doing today. This album is most certainly very relevant still in my books.

Like Oscar, I "too" was a late-comer to Outlandos. It was be the third record by the band, Zenyatta Mondatta, that would be the first in my collection. There is an undeniable electricity this trio generates. Infact, I didn't need to listen to this record in order to write this post but, much like the game of Asteroids, I kept playing it over and over again.

The 500 - #448 - The Police - Synchronicity

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• One record per week (ish) & at least two complete listens.
• A blog post for each, highlighting the important details and, when possible, a background story that relates to the record.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation of diverse forms of music.
• Listen to Josh and his guest on The 500 podcast to gather additional information and insights.

It had to happen eventually: Writer's Block. Well, not so much writer's block as a sudden loss of motivation to write. 

Interestingly, I experienced a similar malaise at this time last year when, fortunately, I came across The 500 Podcast which got me back to the keyboard. 

Then, it struck me. I was still trying to process the passing of Rush drummer Neil Peart. I couldn't write about Synchronicity without writing about my favourite band of all time. Curiously, Rush didn't manage to get a record on the 500 list. So, I wrote about Neil, and now I'm ready to move on.

Album # 449
Album Title: Synchronicity
Artist: The Police
Released: June, 1983
My age at release: 17
How familiar was I with it before this week: Very familiar
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Tea in the Sahara
Great Lyric: (So many to choose from)
"Another industrial ugly morning
The factory belches filth into the sky.
He walks unhindered through the picket lines today,
He doesn't think to wonder why.
The secretaries pout and preen like cheap tarts in a red light street,
But all he ever thinks to do is watch.
And every single meeting with his so-called superior
Is a humiliating kick in the crotch.
Many miles away something crawls to the surface
Of a dark Scottish loch" (Synchronicity II)

The Police were one of the first bands that excited my interest for music in the late 70s. The band has four records on The 500 list but, surprisingly, my favourite, Zenyatta Mondatta, is not one of them. The band only had five studio releases in total. So, four out of five making this list is awfully impressive and not surprising. They are exceptional talents. 

With the release of Synchronicity in 1983, The Police were heralded by critics as "The Biggest Band in the World" and rightly so. They were headlining stadiums across the world, performing in front of 70,000 people at a time in some venues.

My friends and I were actually a little disgruntled by their commercial success. This was high school for us and the power of the clique was strong. We had loved The Police when they were an eclectic trio, playing a fusion of punk, reggae and jazz. We had been fans for five years (a lifetime when you are a teenager). 

Now, seemingly suddenly, they were popular with everyone, even the nauseating Preppie Crowd who would have looked down their noses at us for wearing an Outlandos d'Amour T-shirt from a Police Picnic show at the CNE grounds in Toronto.

I have regretted missing that show for years. However, many of my friends were in attendance, some seeing the band for a second or third time. Consequently, we collectively bristled at their new-found celebrity among the great unwashed. Now, it is me who bristles when I reflect on the narrow-minded sensibilities of youth. What can I say? It was high school.

The most salient memory I have about this record involves a time when I angrily "stormed out of my home" over some small injustice involving my parents. I was in Grade 12, in the autumn of 1983, and I was determined ...NEVER TO RETURN.

My friend Stan convinced his mother that my situation was dire and she agreed to let me stay. She was a single mother who was putting herself through university and lived in a small apartment with her three children. I was given a spot on the floor in Stan's room (which he shared with his brother). In retrospect, I suspect she was too exhausted to argue with Stan about bringing home a stray. 

Stan lived humbly and didn't have much of a music collection. Mine, mainly vinyl, was still at home...right beside a comfortable bed in which I should have been sleeping. However, Stan did have Synchronicity on cassette and I had brought my Walkman. I played on my headphones when I was falling asleep on the floor for nearly a week. 

Eventually, I returned home to my comfortable middle-class life and my copy of the record on vinyl. However, the experience left its mark and, whenever I hear it, my back gets a little sore and I swear I can still feel rough, industrial strength carpet on my back. 

Bonus Content

Stan also worked at a nearby Singles Bar called "Sweetwaters" as a busser. While the thirty-something crowd were romancing each other on the dance floor (or in their cars in the parking lot), Stan would "clean-up" packs of cigarettes and lighters from the temporarily abandoned cocktail tables. He didn't smoke, but I did and was elated. Eventually, we were so well stocked that we began selling half-packs on the smoking patios of our respective high schools for a discount price. Unfortunately, our get-rich-quick enterprise went up in smoke. Stan was caught (liberating a pack) by an eagle-eyed customer, who complained. The jig was up. Still, it was good while it lasted and certainly revealed Stan's entrepreneurial spirit that he would eventually leverage into his own successful business in his 20s.