DCV Top Bands of the 80's: #8

#8 The Police:

My favorite memory of the Police was when the Dolberries all loaded into the Volare sometime during the summer of 1983 to drop Dolberry! off at the Naval Academy for some summer program while the rest of the family vacationed at Ocean City. I do not remember why I went along w/ this idea. Anyway, I had a decent enough time in Annapolis. I got some good brooding in while listening to U2's amazing War album on my walkman while running around the Naval Academy's track from which you could see Chesapeake Bay. I also had some fun learning about coastal engineering w/ sand dunes and stuff in the USNA wave tank. Very cool. Anyway, I probably would have gone to the Naval Academy but for three reasons: 1) the call of the Billiken, 2) I was pretty sure that I'd never get the hang of that strange thing the cadets have to do w/ their shoes whenever they turn a corner, and 3) I think you needed a Congressional letter of recommendation & we were Larouchies at the time. Anyway, from what I've gathered over the years, the rest of the family had a miserable time at the beach w/o me, and vowed never to be away from me ever again. This summer were all going to the beach as a family and so far no one has signed me up for Camp Lejeune, though I'm going to grip the door handles tighter this time as we pass. As they say ... fool me once ...

What does this have to do w/ The Police? I'm getting to it.

If you've been a reader of the DCV since day one, you'll know I was once upon a time a great countdown buff. Now, I hardly ever count stuff down (at least not quickly). 1983 was the golden era of countdowns & somehow I was able to talk Mom & Pop into constantly scanning the radio to see which song would be played the most during our car ride. Looking back, I can't imagine how annoying this must have been ... to listen to 5-10 seconds of every song before searching for another one. It certainly appears to indicate some guilt on the part of the parental units in dropping their only son off at military school while they went to the beach. The most-played-song contest came down to two songs: the horrific Sergio Mendes ballad "Never Going to Let You Go" and (here comes your payoff) The Police's "Every Breath You Take". As we entered into Kentucky heading west/home on I-64, EBYT was trailing by two plays, but aided by better knowledge of which stations were likely to play the Police and staying away from Mendes-favoring stations, Dolberry was able to engineer a victory for Sting, Stuart, & Andy.

The Police had a lot of great songs. "Roxanne" is pretty good, but if you've never had the pleasure of listening to it w/ accompanying falsetto from Dolberry, you haven't experienced it in full. "Don't Stand So Close to Me" was always a Trinity cross-country favorite which was sung when someone would try to run too close to you in practice. I love the fact that the Police were able to work this guy into a song so seamlessly. "Synchronicity II" was a pretty amazing song as well ... as the lyrics to that one pretty much summed up how I felt every day fighting the traffic home in Chicago.

Another working day has ended
Only the rush hour hell to face
Packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes
Contestants in a suicidal race.

Sting's solo career was sort of a disappointment for those of us who enjoy rocking out on occasion. Guess he was doing was he wanted to be doing though, so bully to him. Hope their reunion tour goes well this summer. They're playing at Churchill Downs at some point. I guess Louisville has Giacomo to thank for that.

Best Songs: Every Breath, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, Don't Stand So Close to Me, Message in a Bottle, Synchronicity II, Roxanne

Worst Song: After a while I got tired of "King of Pain", but it was ok.