{"id":6226,"date":"2010-10-03T08:00:27","date_gmt":"2010-10-03T13:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=6226"},"modified":"2010-10-03T00:33:53","modified_gmt":"2010-10-03T05:33:53","slug":"zenyatta-mondatta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=6226","title":{"rendered":"Zenyatta Mondatta"},"content":{"rendered":"

Given the stupendous success The Police achieved by the mid-eighties, it’s hard to remember that they started out as a very fringe-y band.<\/p>\n

Outlandos D’Amour <\/em>in 1978 was a hoot – a demented lashup of punky reggae or reggae-y punk, infectious and madcap fun and impossible not to dance to.\u00a0 Reggatta De Blanc <\/em>was more of the same, but more confident and less elliptical.<\/p>\n

And so we – my music-geek pals in North Dakota, and music buffs in general – waited eagerly for The Police’s next effort, Zenyatta Mondatta.<\/a><\/p>\n

And thirty years ago today, it came out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And I reacted with a “huh?”<\/p>\n

I had loved the first two albums.<\/p>\n

And I would eventually like Ghost in the Machine<\/em>, and especially Synchronicity<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But Zenyatta Mondatta<\/em>, then as now, leaves me completely cold.<\/p>\n

I was one of few, of course; the album made them superstars.\u00a0 “De Doo Doo Doo De Daa Daa Daa” and “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” were their first top forty hits in the US.<\/p>\n

And it wasn’t because it didn’t showcase some really cool musicianship.\u00a0 Andy Summers was an amazing guitar player; Stewart Copeland was a tight, propulsive drummer.\u00a0 Sting was…<\/p>\n

…well, Sting was a decent singer and a capable bass player.\u00a0 But he bugged me.<\/p>\n

Now, the things that bugged me, the tics and voice and arrogance, would go on to make Synchronicity<\/em> a great, great album four years later.<\/p>\n

But on Zenyatta<\/em>?\u00a0 It just bugged me.<\/p>\n

And so I sat out the next year or two, Police-wise.<\/p>\n

This week was still a great one, by the way.\u00a0 Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given the stupendous success The Police achieved by the mid-eighties, it’s hard to remember that they started out as a very fringe-y band. Outlandos D’Amour in 1978 was a hoot – a demented lashup of punky reggae or reggae-y punk, infectious and madcap fun and impossible not to dance to.\u00a0 Reggatta De Blanc was more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-the-year-that-was"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6226"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13996,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6226\/revisions\/13996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}