The band reunited in January 2007 for a reunion tour that lasted until August 2008.
Biography
The Police formed in early 1977 in London by Stewart Copeland (drums), Gordon Sumner, better known as Sting (bass and lead vocals), and Henry Padovani (guitar). Andy Summers later joined the group, and after a very short stint as a quartet, Padovani left the band. The Police became one of the most popular bands in the late 70s and throughout the 80s.
The Police are notable as one of the first mainstream white pop groups to adopt reggae as a predominant musical form and to score major international hits with reggae-styled material. (The first all-white reggae band with permanent members and frequent recording in Europe was Peps Blodsband, lead by Peps Persson from south Sweden who changed from blues to reggae 1974/75). Although reggae was already very popular in the United Kingdom (due to the large number of Caribbean immigrants) and a number of Western European countries, reggae was little known in the United States and rejected by most black artists in U.S, and prior to the emergence of the Police only a handful of reggae songs had enjoyed any significant chart success. The Police, UB40, The Clash and Bob Marley (Jamaican, partly living in England after being shot in Jamaica, are considered with a number of new wave, rock and ska bands as one of the leaders of the Second British Invasion of the U.S.
The Police were strongly influenced by reggae (especially reggae drumming and base lines), jazz and, in the beginning, punk rock – something that came to be shifted more and more towards pop during the 80s. Their lyrics also changed from challenging, but yet somewhat politically restrained punk- and new wave lyrics, to after 1982 in some songs emphasize environmental awareness and human oneness. The biggest hits, however, had romantic or sexual themes. The Police met together with other "white" British bands which played reggae, as UB40, criticism from black English rastafarian reggae bands like Aswad (in a BBC documentary on TV) and Steel Pulse, for being accomplices in the music industry of "Babylon", stealing the Caribbean slave descendants' musical treasure. This criticism has later been withdrawn. Aswad has even made the covers of Police songs like "Roxanne".
Tension grew between the band members, because unlike most other bands, they did not share songwriting credits. They released their last album, Synchronicity, in 1983, selling over 8 million copies. Synchronicity is critically regarded as their best album, with hits such as Synchronicity II, King of Pain, and probably their best known song, Every Breath You Take. In 1984, after touring in support of Synchronicity, The Police went on hiatus while Sting pursued his acting and solo music careers. Two years later, The Police reformed and played a few concerts for Amnesty International. Soon after the band went into the studio. Sting wanted to re-record their old songs but Andy and Stewart wanted to leave the originals alone and only two songs were re-recorded during these studio sessions. Although the group is considered to have disbanded in 1984, 1986 was the last time The Police engaged in any musical activity.
In 1992 the band released "Message in a Box", their 4 CD box set, and performed at Sting's wedding to Trudie Styler. A live CD was released in June 1995. On March 10, 2003 The Police were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and performed Message in a Bottle, Roxanne and Every Breath You Take.
The Police reformed in 2007 and opened the Grammy award ceremony of that year with a performance of Roxanne. Towards the end of May the band began a world tour. In 2008 the tour ended at Madison Square Garden, New York on August 7, and The Police disbanded for good. Sting was quoted towards the end of the tour that he had achieved closure with the band and revealed that The Police would never tour or record again.
Sting has said that the material on the album Ghost in the Machine were inspired by the writings of Arthur Koestler, and that the Police's final studio album Synchronicity was influenced by the writings of Carl Jung. Sting also peppers his songs with literary allusions: the song "Don't Stand So Close to Me" mentions Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita; "Tea in the Sahara" alludes to the novel The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles; and "Wrapped Around Your Finger" refers both to the sea monsters Scylla and Charybdis, from Greek mythology, and to Mephistopheles, from the German legend of Faust .
Discography
* Outlandos d'Amour (1978)
* Reggatta de Blanc (1979)
* Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)
* Ghost in the Machine (1981)
* Synchronicity (1983)
Spirits In The Material World
The Police Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
To our troubled evolution
Have no faith in constitution
There is no bloody revolution
We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Our so-called leaders speak
With words they try to jail you
They subjugate the meek
But it's the rhetoric of failure
We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Where does the answer lie?
Living from day to day
If it's something we can't buy
There must be another way
We are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
Are spirits in the material world
The lyric "There is no political solution to our troubled evolution" appears to reject the idea of political or governmental solutions to the problems of society. Instead, the song suggests that our focus should be on living our lives as "spirits" rather than beings confined by the limitations of the physical world. The line "Have no faith in constitution / There is no bloody revolution" expresses doubt in the ability of laws or violent uprisings to solve society's issues.
The following lines critique the way in which leaders use language to manipulate and suppress the population. The words of leaders are presented as an attempt to "jail" or silence dissenters, and their policies are said to harm or control those who are less powerful.
Overall, the song carries a message of disillusionment with current political and societal structures, and suggests that there may be other paths to finding a better way of life. The emphasis on the "spiritual" rather than the physical emphasizes the need for individual and inner change rather than relying on external solutions.
Line by Line Meaning
There is no political solution
There is no solution to our problems that can be solved by politics
To our troubled evolution
To the problems we are experiencing as we continue to evolve
Have no faith in constitution
We cannot rely on the constitution to solve our problems
There is no bloody revolution
Even revolution cannot bring about the change we need
We are spirits in the material world
We are beings that exist in both the spiritual and physical worlds
Our so-called leaders speak
The people we call leaders talk about solutions
With words they try to jail you
But their words limit us and prevent us from making progress
They subjugate the meek
They control those who are weaker than them
But it's the rhetoric of failure
Their way of speaking will not bring about change or success
Where does the answer lie?
Where can we find the solution to our problems?
Living from day to day
We are just trying to get through each day
If it's something we can't buy
If the solution cannot be bought
There must be another way
Then we need to find a different solution
Are spirits in the material world
We exist in both the spiritual and physical worlds
Are spirits in the material world
We are both physical and spiritual beings
Are spirits in the material world
Our existence is not limited to the physical world
Are spirits in the material world
We are not simply physical beings, but also spiritual
Are spirits in the material world
We exist simultaneously in the physical and spiritual dimensions
Are spirits in the material world
Our human existence is made up of both the physical and spiritual
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Gordon Sumner
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Daniel
on Roxanne
Algum leitor sabe a letra de Saludos Caballeros ?
Até agora não conseguí !
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