Song of the Week

The Police were an influential band of the late 1970's and early 1980's. In their prime, they produced a ton of early influential New Wave/Rock music that was new, creative, and absolutely addictive to listen to. Sadly, Sting grew up, and began producing awful adult contemporary slop, and started hanging out with other aged former rockers who apparently lost all of their testosterone .... yeah, I'm talking about you Rod Stewart, Brian Adams, and Mrs. Elton John.

However, the one song I can never get out of my mind is So Lonely. Just a great take on Reggae/rock fusion. Brilliant drums as always, a strong base sound (important in any good Reggae song), and a deliciously redundant (not sure if that makes sense) chorus. Once this song is in your head, it's almost impossible to get out of your head.

Here's what Sting said about the song: "People thrashing out three chords didn't really interest us musically. Reggae was accepted in punk circles and musically more sophisticated, and we could play it, so we veered off in that direction. I mean let's be honest here, 'So Lonely' was unabashedly culled from 'No Woman No Cry' by Bob Marley. Same chorus. What we invented was this thing of going back and forth between thrash punk and reggae. That was the little niche we created for ourselves."

Just a very cool song all around. In my opinion, it's the best song they've ever done. Sadly, it isn't found on any of their greatest hits compilations (but, Spirits in the Material World is ... go figure).

I didn't realize they had a video for this - check it out (Youtube wouldn't let me Embed).