Posted on 10/14/2023 10:41:18 AM PDT by nickcarraway
40 years after it was first released, it seems the Police guitarist still doesn’t feel he got his due for the iconic guitar part.
Andy Summers has hinted that he might take legal action against Sting over the songwriting credits for Every Breath You Take, 40 years after The Police’s classic track was first released.
When asked about the 1983 hit on the podcast The Jeremy White Show, the former guitarist for The Police (as transcribed by Ultimate Classic Rock) says, “It’s a very contentious [topic] that is very much alive at the moment. That song was going in the trash until I played on it, and that’s all there is to it. And I think that’s composition, absolutely.”
Summers doesn’t go into further detail about his efforts to get a songwriting credit on the track, which was solely credited to Sting on the original album notes for Synchronicity, but does imply legal action might be on the way, saying, “Watch the press. Let’s see what happens in the next year.”
While Every Breath You Take might be one of The Police’s biggest hits, it proved to be one of their most difficult songs to complete. Sting began work on it in 1982 after breaking up with his first wife and embarking on a relationship with her friend.
But, initially, the song didn’t have a guitar part, and the band disagreed on what to do with it. Summers reiterated that the song was “going in the trash,” explaining, “Stewart [Copeland, drummer] and Sting couldn’t agree on where the drums and bass were gonna sit with the song. And it wasn’t going to make it onto the album.”
The only reason the track wasn’t abandoned in the end was that the band hadn’t filled out the album yet. Summers expanded, “We needed the material, and the famous story is Sting just turned to me and said, ‘Well, go on. Go in there and make it your own.’
“And of course, I had all this sort of stuff under my fingers. I was the Police stock-artist guitarist, if you like. And I went in and I got that lick almost, it was like one take. Everyone stood up and cheered.”
Hmm. A 40 year grudge. Dude, just take credit and be done with it.
I presume he still got paid for all his gigs.
Oh, the stalker song.
Did someone do a big cover of it recently where only the song writer gets the royalties?
Sting made a fortune on the sample for I'll Be Missing You by Sean Combs/Puff Daddy, but the only musician you hear on the sample is Summers.
😂😂😂😂
🙏🇮🇱👍
The stalker song written to the tune of Stand By Me.
Yeah, P Diddy redid it and it was huge. The story is P. Diddy now pays Sting about $2000.00 a day in royalties from his version.
“Sting began work on it in 1982 after breaking up with his first wife and embarking on a relationship with her friend.”
That’s nice. /s
Great video. B&W, just the musicians, with the only non-musician being the very metaphorical and mysterious window washer.
I've never been on any songwriting credits, but I have been involved in some patents where names were added for people in the vicinity just to make sure they signed the paperwork saying that their pay plus the company patent bonus were full compensation to avoid later claims.
Yeah it is, it’s a tough one on the left hand. A real workout does not sound like it but it is. If summers isn’t getting royalties than he definitely has a point.
Yes, forgot about that!
Excerpt:
Revolver: Okay, we're back to Freud from Jung. We've finally come to the only cover song you ever did - that Puff Daddy hit 'Every Breath You Take'.
Copeland: In my humble opinion, this is Sting's best song with the worst arrangement. I think Sting could have had any other group do this song and it would have been better than our version - except for Andy's brilliant guitar part. Basically, there's an utter lack of groove. It's a totally wasted opportunity for our band. Even though we made gazillions off of it, and it's the biggest hit we ever had, when I listen to this recording, I think 'God, what a bunch of *** we were!'
Revolver: Stewart, who was responsible for the groove?
Copeland: I say all this knowing exactly who's responsible for the groove. And yet, with an absolutely straight face, I will blame my two scumbag colleagues for all of it.
Summers: Wait a minute! It's stunning in its simplicity. It does have a great guitar part. I'll take credit for that.
Copeland: Andy, since we're here, I'm going to back you up on this. You should stand up right now and say, 'I Andy want all the Puff Daddy money. Because that's not Sting's song he's using, that's my guitar riff.' Okay over to you Andy, Go for it...
Summers: [meekly] Ok, I want all of the Puff Daddy Money.
Copeland: There you go, you feel better now don't you?
Sting: Okay Andy here's all the money. [pours some change on the table] Unfortunately, I've spent the rest of it.
Summers: I'll tell you what, Stewart, I'll take your share, I know Stings' not going to let me have his.
Copeland: So Sting's making out like a bankrobber here, while Andy and I have gone unrewarded and unloved for our efforts and contributions.
Sting: Life... is... *******... tough. Here I am in Tuscany.
Copeland: And don't we know it! You're in Tuscany in your palace with wine being poured down your throat and grapes being peeled for you. Sting can you buy me a castle in Italy too? With the proceeds from the longest running hit single in the history of radio? Just a little chateau somewhere?
Sting: We don't have ******* chateaus in Italy, They're called palazzos. I'll lend you a room. [laughs]
Summers: Getting back to the song: This was a difficult one to get, because Sting wrote a very good song, but there was no guitar on it.
Sting: That's not what you ******' said when I brought it in!
Summers: Well, you had this Hammond organ thing that sounded like Billy Preston. It certainly didn't sound like the Police, with that big, rolling synthesiser part. Though I'll come out of the closet and admit that I secretly liked it.
Copeland: Well, thank God you didn't say that at the time, because you came up with a much better guitar part.
Summers: At that point we were in a really gnarly state as a trio. We had sort of reached the end of our rope.
Copeland: Our golden goose was cooked. We were at each other's throats.
Summers: We spent about six weeks recording just the snare drums and the bass. It was a simple, classic chord sequence, but we couldn't agree how to do it. I'd been making an album with Robert Fripp, and I was kind of experimenting with playing Bartok violin duets and had worked up a new riff. When Sting said 'go and make it your own', I went and stuck that lick on it, and immediately we knew we had something special.
Copeland: Yeah, Sting said make it your own - just keep your hands off my ******' royalties.
Summers: But we almost lost it. When we recorded it in Montserrat, the guitar sounded fantastic. We went to Canada to mix it, and the engineer took that big fat guitar riff and mixed it way down till it sounded terrible - really thin, with too much echo. I said we had to go back to the demo, and sure enough we remixed it and got it right. The rest is history.
Revolver: Sting, you wrote the song about loss, and you were surprised that everyone took it as a love song. But didn't it contain both those elements?
Sting: I think if it has any power at all, it's about that ambiguity. On one level it's a sinister song, on the other hand it's quite seductive.
Copeland: Did you say sinister stong?
Sting: Well, a song by Sting is... a 'stong' [laughs] I've had a bit of wine Stewart. So, it has this ambigoo-us [giggles], I think I mean ambiguous... Look, I make no claims about it an original song at all. It's a generic song, but somehow unique. I don't know.
Revolver: Did Andy's guitar part mirror that bittersweet quality?
Copeland: It wasn't bittersweet, it was just bitter. ****** up.
Summers: No, it wasn't. I found a brilliant way of articulating that ambivalent, bittersweet quality over a I-vi-II-V sequence by adding the modal 9th with a 3rd thrown in...
Copeland: There he goes again, there he goes again! 9ths and 12ths!
Sting: Look, the fact is we're just a ******' rock band.
Revolver: My point is, it is a song about complex emotions with music that mirrored those emotions, in a deceptively simple, yet sophisticated way. A Police trademark.
Copeland: It's a song about complex emotions with dumb music.
A lot of his songs across three albums were about his divorce. Same things with Phil Collins.
A grudge? Yeah. But also it’s a lot of money. Bad Boy records CEO P Ditty said in 2018 he pays Sting $2000 a day for having sampled it on hip hop tracks. He later said it was $5000 a day and then later said he was being sarcastic (probably resentment too at paying, because he didn’t secure a deal in advance he just sampled it and Sting went after him). But he’s paying some amount. If Summers gets credit, he’ll get some of that cash flow.
It’s not recent but Biggy Smalls sampled it and made a huge hip hop hit from it. Then he got shot.
Sting was the least talented member of The Police. By a lot. I mean he could write some catchy lyrics, but he’s not that great at anything else. All you’ve got to do is look at their post Police collaberations:
Andy Summers - Robert Fripp, John Etheridge, Fernanda Takai
Stewart Copeland - Adrian Belew, Vittorio Cosma, Peter Gabriel
Sting - Shaggy
So there you go. Sting should be giving Summers and Copeland thank you checks for making him famous and fooling people into thinking he has talent.
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