Linus Sings The Police!

The discography of The Police and Charles Schulz's fifty-year 'Peanuts' run are two things that I believe endure. Hence why this series of mash-up is so intriguing, as was the Bad Brains/Peanuts video seen HERE. This trilogy still makes heavy use of the familiar scenes from "A Charlie Brown Christmas" but also make very skillful use of other specials such as "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown".


"Peanuts"





"Every Little Thing She Does is Magic"





Synchronicity"

The Police: Bring on the Night (Paris, 1980)

1980 was still early enough for the band to play "Fallout" and late enough for them to play "When the World is Running Down...", which is a pretty sweet spot.

This one if for the fine folks over at the Follow the Leaders and their great Police fan-site.


Bring on the Night link is in the comments

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The Police: Live in Berkley (1979)

I unashamedly own all of The Police's albums but remain convinced that their first three years, 1978-1980, represent their finest attempt to take jazzy-prog rock and reggae-punk and make it into pure pop. It likely irritated fans of the genres that they pillaged but it is a mix unattempted before or since.

So here to show off a band on their way to the summit, is crisp bootleg of an FM broadcast from Berkley in 1979. Enjoy!


Live in Berkley link is in the comments

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The Police: Mont de Marsan Punk Festival 1977

If The Clash sued The Police for theft, this eleven-track bootleg of an appearance at The Mont de Marsan Punk Festival in May 1977, at which they both played, would be exhibit one for the prosecution. While The Clash were playing their epochal punk-reggae fusion, "White Man In Hammersmith Palais" The Police were still bashing out faux-punk like the incongruously-titled "Clouds in Venice".

(Note The bootleg's sound is much clearer than this 'footage'.)

So, while the early evidence might suggest a case of Police and Thieves, by 1978 The Police had surely laundered their share of any take and invested it in something altogether new.


Here's a little bit from The Police side and here's a some material from The Clash camp in regards to the Punk Festival in Mont de Marsan.



Mont de Marsan Punk Festival 1977 link is in the comments

Speaking of comments: Were The Police thieves?

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The Police: Lost BBC Studio Tapes 1978-1979

"Fuck The Police!"

It's annoying to still hear this sort of anti-Police talk coming straight from the underground. Being anti-Sting is one thing but hating his band is just wrong. I don't care if the Clash kicked Topper Headon off the bus for playing The Police (a.k.a. 'the enemy'). I don't care if Sting turned into a blow-dried weenie or that the band were all closet prog rockers. The near-indisputable fact is that for a time in the late seventies and early eighties The Police were the best pop band on the planet. These early songs are so frighteningly compact that every note seems utterly crucial and yet people are blinded by prejudice into charging them with 'fakery' - as if rock n' roll isn't built on lies.

This bootleg of all the band's early BBC session is an astounding document that proved virtuosity didn't have to be wankery (not at first, anyway). Here Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland prove their love of reggae, AM pop and, yes, prog rock (beware: improv within) and temper all that with a grasp of what punk was trying to do (without much interest in its ideological tenets). And since no post here should end with the words ideological tenets let me just say: The Police fuckin' rule.


Lost BBC Studio Tapes 1978-1979 link is in the comments.

Speaking of comments: Speak up and leave us your views, Police fans and Police bashers!

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