Somehow I’m a Police fan now
- Thread starter DrewJD82
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JiveTurkey
Goatlord
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I need to dig up that pic of Stewart with something angry about Sting spelled out on his drum kit heads?Control-Freaking Front Man versus In the Moment/Improvisational Wizard has to = Good Times!
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What I find a bit endearing now is how aware Copeland is of everything that went on back in the day and he’ll fully admit there were many times he should have just shut up and let Sting take the wheel, but if it weren’t for that same tenacity when he DIDN’T acknowledge it, we’d never have The Police.
Chocol8
Rock Star
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I will also add that earlier I stated the Police are great at jamming their material out. This is 100% true BUT my one caveat is that Stewart Copeland is like the George Lynch of drummers where he plays something completely awesome on record then wings something else completely live. Probably awesome as well but super frustrating if you are a person on the musical spectrum who needs to hear the fills and drum riffs done the way they are on the album!
That's funny, because the best way to disappoint me at a live show is to play the songs just like the album version. I can listen to that version at home whenever I want.
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I generally agree with you, but there are limits. Often improvising is the very essence of live performance, but sometimes elements of the composition captured in the studio become canon. A melody, even in a solo, can be so lyrical and identifiable that straying from it just sounds like a series of mistakes.
(And when you morph into Whitney Houston in the middle of the chorus of a Black Sabbath song, your primary accomplishment is spoiling the moment for everyone who'd been singing along LOL.)
JiveTurkey
Goatlord
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Yeah if I am going to jam band performance; yes. Most of the bands I love are all at sacred text level so they better bring something equally as emotive as that recorded material if they are going to improvise.
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The effects for the most part didn't exist yet, but this also brings Cream to mind.I have always sensed a lot of similarities between Rush and The Police. So different
and yet so similar. The space. A super complex drummer. A guitarist neck deep into
FX in order to bring more body to a Trio setting. A singing bassist.
I often compare and contrast The Police and The Fixx. Contemporaries in their heydays, though the heyday and staying power of the latter was much, much shorter.
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Yeah, if Andy Summers had melted my face with that Driven to Tears solo, I wouldn't have gotten this far into the discussion. In reality, it was kind of a stinker.
Chocol8
Rock Star
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I don't disagree. I bet even RJD's own mother would have preferred not to hear Whitney Houston impersonations during Sabath songs!
The improvisation and/or altered arrangements need to be done well AND fit!
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I’m trying to remember the last time I even saw a band improv onstage. Probably Primus last year at Sessanta but I’m really drawing a blank on any others. Dream Theater back in the late 90’s is probably it. Wolfgang might have had a jam section the first time I saw him.
I was lucky to catch some inspired shows from DT back then, the Home For the Holidays show being the best one because it was all covers and rarities so they just went nuts that night. All that said, Gilmour is always improv’ing his solos and after hearing pretty much every show from the ‘94 tour I realized that even legends have their off nights….sometimes for weeks in a row.
I was lucky to catch some inspired shows from DT back then, the Home For the Holidays show being the best one because it was all covers and rarities so they just went nuts that night. All that said, Gilmour is always improv’ing his solos and after hearing pretty much every show from the ‘94 tour I realized that even legends have their off nights….sometimes for weeks in a row.
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