The Heart of Rock and Soul by Dave Marsh
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The Heart of Rock and Soul by Dave Marsh 71 EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE, The Police Produced by Hugh Padgham and the Police; written by Sting A&M 2542 1983 Billboard: #1 (8 weeks] "Every Breath You Take" belongs in that category of singles that announce themselves as classics from the first time you hear them. In my case, that was in heightened circumstances: driving home on a Sunday evening, listening to a black-oriented radio station. You didn't need to hear the singing long to know that this was no black group (the accent is too flattened, the phrasing too free of melisma), and not having a clue to who it might be, T took a guess. Jackson Browne, I decided, had finally come up with the grand psycho-political metaphor, an image that pointed the barrel at Reagan, Thatcher, Mondale, Botha, D'Aubisson, Pol Pot - every traitor of the day. Though I felt like an idiot a day later when I learned who was really singing, once you hear the political dimension of "Every Breath You Take," that part of its meaning is undeniable, no matter how frequently Sting speaks of its psychological and spiritual connotations. If he really believes in Jungian synchronicity. Sting must understand that he could never have composed such a song without the presence of such monstrous public figures at the very center of current events. This is the record that makes sense of Sting's work with Amnesty International (even if he doesn't know it). It's not simply as metaphor, of course, that "Every Breath You Take" establishes itself as a permanent fixture in the pop pantheon. The rolling bass line, Sting's cool, dry vocal, Andy Summers's precisely plucked guitar part, and the remorseless clap of Stewart Copeland's drums create an atmosphere in which that metaphor assumes a dimension just this side of terrifying, And the way the song pulls back, rejecting the heated rage that s u c h betrayal seemingly deserves and instead serving revenge as it's meant to be consumed - with a cold, cold heart - is the most frightening facet of all. Created: September 29, 2021 at 10.48 pm at http://www.lexjansen.com with FPDF 1.81 Page 1.