It’s Turntable Tuesday…because life is too short not to listen to great music! Turn that TV off! Settle into a comfortable place and enjoy some tunes! Live music is best, analog is great, digital if you have to just crank up the speaker and make some noise!
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The year 1980 seems like a lifetime ago. Roughly forty years ago as I write this Mount St. Helens erupted, interest rates were over 21% as opposed to virtually zero today, and the Dow Jones average was 963 instead of over 30,000 today. I remember how bad the economic recession was in 1980 in the United States and I remember The Police dominating the airwaves of FM radio. In particular I remember the hit “Roxanne” from the first Police album and the string of hits from the first two Police albums that stayed on the radio dial as you moved from station to station.
This week on Turntable Tuesday the feature album is “Zenyatta Mondatta.” This album was the third studio album from The Police recorded during July and August of 1980 and released just two months later in October. The album was recorded in the Netherlands at Wisseloord Studios which was a break from tradition. The first two albums were recorded at Surrey Sound Studios. It seems The Police were having some tax issues in Britannia and had to relocate to avoid further problems.
Located in Hilversum, Holland Wisseloord is a very prolific creative studio with many great albums from many genres coming out of that location. Nigel Gray was hired to be a co-producer with the band as he had assisted with the first two albums and the band wanted the continued success of the previous two albums. Nigel was nominated for a Grammy award for this album in 1981 and won two Grammy awards for Producer of “Best Rock Performance” for “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” and Best Rock Instrumental for “Behind My Camel.” The band mostly disliked this “Camel” song and there are a couple of humorous stories about burying the tape as well as the question “What do you find behind the camel?” Shi_.
It is notable that later Nigel Godrich who produced Radiohead’s work loved Nigel Gray especially the album by The Police called Reggatta de Blanc.”
The band completed the album in barely four weeks having to rush to completion to travel to the first gig of a world tour which started in Belgium and finished in Australia. The last recording session finished at almost at daylight of the travel morning to start the tour. The band would later say this album was not one of their favorites and was rushed but it was also the album that helped make them famous.
The Police are a three piece band that sounds so much larger than they are on their recordings. Sting plays bass guitar on all but one track, backing vocals and synthesizers. Andy Summers plays guitar, backing vocals, piano, synthesizers, and bass on one track. Stewart Copeland plays drums and is on backing vocals. When you listen to this album you can hear the contribution of all of the band members adding to a very nice musical project. Here is an album sleeve insert below that is covered in both sides with photos of the band.
“Don’t Stand So Close to Me” is track one from the album and a number one single in the United Kingdom. It was also a top ten track in the United States as well as in many places around the world. One can wonder if Sting channeled the future connection of the song as he wrote it forty years ago as it applies to the 2020 term “social distancing?” All humor aside, Sting started his working career before launching into music as an English teacher. He has been quoted as saying this song is not autobiographical but when you watch the video and listen to the music one can only imagine what inspired him to write this hit.
Here is one interesting bit of trivia from this era and the song “Don’t Stand So Close to Me.” Sting was in Montserrat at the recording studio (before the volcano later destroyed it) while Mark Knopfler was recording “Money for Nothing” which as we all know was a huge hit on MTV and the radio. Mark asked Sting to sing background vocals on the song and during his performance he accidentally reused the lyric from “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” instead of the lyric “I want my MTV.” Once the Sting Lawyers heard this the later copies of the album “Brothers in Arms” from Dire Straits started listing Sting as a co-writer for the song. In fact the initial pressings of the album only list Mark Knopfler as the writer. I am sure this was not humorous for Mark as he is well known to have written most of his catalog and this is only one of three shared songwriting credits on any Dire Straits album. “What’s the Matter Baby?”was co-written by Mark Knopfler and his brother David. The other two are “Tunnel of Love” from the album “Making Movies” and “I Want My MTV.”
Don’t Stand So Close to Me from Sting
Young teacher, the subject
Of schoolgirl fantasy
She wants him so badly
Knows what she wants to be
Inside him, there’s longing
This girl’s an open page
Book marking, she’s so close now
This girl is half his age
Don’t stand, don’t stand so
Don’t stand so close to me
Don’t stand, don’t stand so
Don’t stand so close to me
Her friends are so jealous
You know how bad girls get
Sometimes it’s not so easy
To be the teacher’s pet
Temptation, frustration
So bad it makes him cry
Wet bus stop, she’s waiting
His car is warm and dry
Don’t stand, don’t stand so
Don’t stand so close to me
Don’t stand, don’t stand so
Don’t stand so close to me
Loose talk in the classroom
To hurt they try and try
Strong words in the staff room
The accusations fly
It’s no use, he sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabokov
Don’t stand, don’t stand so
Don’t stand so close to me
Don’t stand, don’t stand so
Don’t stand so close to me
That’s Turntable Tuesday for the blog…don’t forget to subscribe for free to my podcast and listen in for some other details about this album as well as some other music-related things.
Until next time I’ll see you, down the road.