After putting decades of acrimony behind them for a reunion tour that kicked off last May, the Police just announced the details of their last concert ever, to take place in New York later this summer. But before we bid the cantankerous rock trio adieu for good, let’s look at the eclectic elements that helped keep the music made by frontman Sting, guitarist Andy Summers, and drummer Stewart Copeland on everyone’s minds for the past 30 years.
Bob Marley “No Woman No Cry”
With hits like “Roxanne” and “Walking on the Moon,” the Police became famous for mixing up their wiry rock sound with bouncy reggae rhythms and gentle island inflections. “We were total Bob Marley fans, and by osmosis, almost, I ended up singing that way,” Sting said. The song “So Lonely” even lifted its chord progression―C, G, A minor, F―from this classic Marley tune, with just a slight melodic twist.
Ben E. King “Stand By Me”
One of the Police’s biggest radio singles, “Every Breath You Take,” took inspiration from another classic rock staple, this signature Ben E. King tune. Sting seemed genuinely surprised people liked his version so much. “The chord sequence around ‘Every Breath You Take’ is generic,” he said. “And the lyrics aren’t particularly original either, they’re straight out of a f------ rhyming dictionary.”
Jaco Pastorious “A Portrait of Tracy”
Along with Jack Bruce, Paul McCartney, and Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, the biggest influence on Sting’s distinctive style of playing bass had to be Jaco Pastorious, who made the instrument usually relegated to the rhythm section the focal point of his music. “He also shifted the power away from the guitar toward the bass in a revolutionary, astounding way,” Sting said. "Who would have thought to play a chromatic Charlie Parker tune, ‘Donna Lee,’ on bass?”
Charles Mingus “Flowers for a Lady”
It seems like the one thing the three members of the Police could actually agree on was their love of jazz, namely Charles Mingus. Even though they were there right at the peak of England’s punk revolution, guitarist Andy Summer’s subtle style drew its inspiration from jazz phrasing. “I wanted to exploit the openness of the band’s arrangements, so I couldn’t play Steve Jones-style, punk power chords,” he said. “That would be like a piano player with all 10 fingers on the keyboard—it’s too much. I decided to create more space and air by stripping my chords down to fragments.”
Miles Davis “Footprints”
Another major jazz icon that influenced the Police’s unconventional arrangements, Miles Davis not only played a heavy role in shaping Summer’s playing style but Sting’s melodic sensibility. The cool frontman was thoroughly flustered when he got to meet Davis in 1985: “The first thing he said to me was ‘Do you speak French?’,” Sting told the Record Mirror. “I don’t but I said yes. He said, ‘I want you to come into the studio and speak French to me.’ He said, ‘I want you to translate the Miranda Rights into French and shout them at me.’ I said give me five minutes. I got onto the phone to Trudie who speaks fluent French. Five minutes later I had it written down. Miles starts the backing track and I start screaming at him, in French, the Miranda Rights. At the end he said, ‘Great to meet you Sting, see you around’.”