THE POLICE – "Walking On The Moon"

You could never take the jazzer out of Sting, as hard as he subsequently tried in his solo career to take the sting out of jazz. “Walking On The Moon” opens with a Coltrane citation – “Giant steps are what you take” – and few pop records have treated gravity with more defiance. The record does indeed convey the inner vision of giant spirits tap dancing across the skimming, shimmering surfaces of planets, or satellites, or humanity, with infinite grace. At this stage in pop, the Police were unparalleled in their deployment of vast acres of silence and space; yes, the dub templates and Sting’s accent are firmly in place, yet they are forever ungraspable, and “Walking On The Moon” sees them, and this particular strand of pop, at their/its finest.

The song depicts the giddiness, the floating on air, which arises from having newly fallen in mutual love; the words are minimal and haikuesque – statues of signifiers like “Walking back from your house,” “Feet don’t hardly touch the ground,” “I hope my legs don’t break.” Throughout the song, rhythm is primarily suggested at rather than pinned down, except in the recurring section (since there isn’t really a chorus) where Summers’ guitar glistens in ambient chordality as Sting considers the cons to match the pros (“Some may say/I’m wishing my days away”) but concludes that it’s more than worth it (“You stay/I may as well play”). Having taken the plunge, the song then dives into astonishing caverns of bottomless echo, its harmonies dissolving and diffusing into its constituent elements – here, Summers’ guitar again seems miraculously hand-free, and Copeland (concentrating mainly on his cymbals) frequently either appears to be playing no rhythm at all, or else continuing subdivisions, to a level so abstract the listener has to correct himself that it isn’t Tony Williams or Andrew Cyrille playing.

That latter segment folds in on itself throughout the lengthy closing mantra of “Keep it up” – after a final verse where Sting looks forward to and swoons at the prospects of “We could walk forever” and “We could live forever” – and despite being about the Moon, metaphorical or physical, the record is so wonderfully aqueous and time-free (rather than timeless) that it makes you instantly regret that the Police didn’t really continue down this path; for a snapshot of where they might have gone, listen to side one of AR Kane’s 69.

I’m with MC on this one (see also my post on the “MIAB” thread).

I even like Sting’s vocals a lot here. They are just too strange not to love. The emphases all seem to be on the wrong words: “Giant steps ARE what you take”, “I hope MAH legs won’t break”, etc.

And what is this “wuckin'” thing he claimed to be doing on the moon?

as our comments must have been sent fairly simultaneously I didn’t see DJPs response – but as usual his analysis is rich and rewarding – makes me want to track down the AR Kane album – I mostly know them from their contribution to a future number one.
I’m sure someone could create a fantastic compilation of tracks by UK bands infected by the dub virus. I always used to look out for Vivien Goldman’s recommendations in Sounds at this time as she was into all of that across a wide range of material

for me this has indelible associations with the end of xmas term assembly at my infants’ school where this was played as background to a sketch or dance or something. as a pop loving six year old i i knew the song from the charts, but i think at that time i’d only ever really heard music on little radios or the telly and so was awestruck to hear this cavernous sound blasting out at the kind of volume i’d never previously heard. i can’t help but try to project myself back to that first shock whenever i hear the song now, i can never quite manage it but it’s easy to see how the song would inspire it.

actually, there’s two more songs coming up (one mid eighties and one early nineties, and both also tangentially related to flight/space travel) where the experience of first hearing them loud in a public place (one on a fairground ride, the other a bad mobile disco) was similarly overwhelming and has coloured every subsequent hearing.

I think Tom and I must be of similar ages, as this too forms one of my first memories of a music video (because of the rocket. I was a young space nerd). The fact that it was obviously fimed in America, at a time when travel to America still retained an element of glamour, also impressed my younger self no-end. The other early video that struck me was the Emerson, Lake and Palmer one in the Canadian Olympic stadium.

Possibly as a result, I retain a great deal of affection for this.

Tom said at the beginning of 1979 that everybody would have something in the year that would be a 10 for them. Well, this is mine. I always liked The Police a lot and I still do, however unfashionable that may be. (On the other hand, I suspect I’m closer to their target audience than many Populistas.) This is my favourite Police single,

Being steeped in jazz by this time I got the Coltrane reference at the time. But it’s an odd thing to hit the top simply because it’s so jazz-centric; it was dubbed New Wave but this is perhaps the least pop single they ever released. The eerie, other-worldly, tone is captured perfectly – the dizziness of profound emotion linked to something that was fresh in the memory in 1979 but now seems an epoch away – the sight of people actually walking on the moon in their crazy, giant-stepping slow-mo way. I can understand how this might fall flat for those too young at the time, or indeed unborn, who never experienced that particular thrill.

Above all, this is Stewart Copeland’s track. A lot of things combine perfectly here, but it’s the delicacy of Copeland’s percussion that ties them all together. Max Roach would have been proud of the lad!

at some point in the next few months i got into a brief letter exchange with the rad-left cottage-industrialists at r3commended records over this single — i had sent off for some of their noisy avant-garde fare, which i was interested in at the time, and in a note along with my order registered my cheery dissent from their kneejerk chart-knocking (no idea now what they actually said) (tho it’s easily guessed); i said (not a quote) “b-but some numbers one are beautiful”; they said (not a quote) “plz to provide evidence! clearly this is impossible by the science of marxist* political economy”; and i said (this is a quote!) “walking on the moon”

i think they didn’t reply (which means i won!)

*they were not actual real marxists IMO but they certainly thought they were

Given the subject matter of the song I would have thought the “giant steps” line was more of a Neil Armstrong reference.

For all that was said about the time about how The Clash were the only white rockers who knew how to “do” Reggae properly Sting and the boys do manage the space and atmospherics of Dub very well on this. An, um, giant step forward from the primitive skank of ‘Roxanne’

Can’t believe this was a #1, certainly doesn’t seem like #1 material. Soundwise that is, not quality-wise. Although I don’t like the Police so I don’t find much here quality-wise either. It was their unstoppable popularity, however, that encouraged me to seek out the true Jamaican grooves. Once I found them, I never went back to The Police, or UB40, or any of that lot. So thanks to Gordy, Stewie & Andy for that.

Well, #13 expresses my issue with the Police at the time (too popular, too revered) – I liked this, but didn’t want to admit it. Now, with the benefit of being able to cast aside contemporary tribal prejudices, it stands out – along with Invisible Sun – as my favourite Police single.

I love dub and the Police never employed its techniques more thrillingly than here. As others have commented, the daring use of space is what makes this such a terrific record. That and the playing from all 3 of course. Sting’s bass line is simplicity itself, but is there anything more easily remembered than the opening 2 note riff?

Can anyone find the precise quotation where Bob Marley expresses his approval of The Police? I’ve often read it alluded to, but always second hand.

Mind you, if ‘Punky Reggae Party’ is to believed, The Damned and The Jam were great favourites at a Wailers get together…

i too would have never independently arrived at the conclusion that sting was trying to sound jamaican, not least because it’s difficult to see how he could sound any less jamaican if he tried.

OK, the average bad geordie impression strays into Jamaican or Pakistani..

But, I can at least confirm that he’s not singing in a geordie accent, as far as I can recognise.

I think when I was a little vicar, I thought this was some kind of cash-in on the moon landings, yet I am struck now by how far after the moon landings this came out. What’s that all about?

#19:

Thanking The Police? Whatever for? You know what NWA said! And I think you know exactly what I mean by “true Jamaican grooves”. Now why don’t you go ahead & propose to that gal of yours. Sting would’ve by now.

According to the Kutner and Leigh “1000 Number Ones” book, Sting got the idea for this song while recovering from a hangover after a night on the schnaps. He walked around the room to clear his head and started mumbling “Walking round the room … I hope my legs don’t break… walking round the room”. Which makes it a tad less glamorous than an ode to the Apollo space programme!

As others have said, a fine record in its use of space and again an outstanding contribution from Stewart Copeland (wonder if the fact that his dad was something in the CIA helped them get access to the moon rockets?) The sparseness of the sound make it a pretty brave follow-up to a first number one – maybe comparable to the Rolling Stones following up “It’s All Over Now” with the stripped-down blues of “Little Red Rooster”?

Marcello # 21 – The typos (with the associated comment about “joined-up writing”) I’ll give you: rather amusing, actually. Your signature accusations of “arrogance and racism”, which you have handed out like confetti to many of us I shall simply ignore. It had to be my turn sooner or later. As I have mentioned in another place, being “FLAMED BY MARCELLO” is rather like being given The George Cross. I shall treasure it always.

# 30 – I really DON’T know what you mean by “true Jamaican grooves”, unless you simply mean all grooves from Jamaica rather than just some of them. If you mean all of them, this would imply that you feel that all Jamaican music is the same, which it most certainly is not. You have to believe that I’m not mischief-making here.

As for “that gal of mine”, Sting, as far as I know has never proposed to her and she was always far more keen on Andy Summers anyway.

DJP – well no, how about if someone challenged you to demonstrate why the last paragraph of #19 is “ignorant racist crap”, ‘cos I’m struggling to see it?

And this place has the hypocrisy to bang on about Clapton and immigration, jesus fucking pimp.

You know nothing about what Jamaicans might or might not have been listening to, even less about the history of lovers’ rock (including cover versions of several Police songs), as usual with you it’s always either/or, no shades, what the fuck you do know about JA and reggae, fuck all by the looks of things, so stick to what you know about and don’t touch what you can’t afford right?

Don’t be giving me your ;)s, either.

It always comes down to the same thing here, viz. Our Perspective/Unsubstantiated Bias Is The Only Correct And Acceptable Viewpoint And Anyone Who Disagrees With It Or Attempts To Disprove It Is A Spoilsport/Party Pooper/Bully/Psychopath/General Weirdo/Insert Other Daily Mail-Friendly Zing Where Appropriate.

Or what it really comes down to is a disconnected mass of overachieving office workers who fundamentally can’t stand one another but spend time zinging back and forth out of boredom more than anything else 🙁

Really is there going to be any change when we get to that one? I predict 100 posts on Jane Asher and her sodding cakes… 🙁

Go from Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong to Jane Asher and her sodding cakes in four steps…

I have been trying & failing to remember when I first heard this song, or when I first heard anything by The Police (though it starts with “Roxanne” easily enough, I draw a blank after that – yes, 1979, but when I don’t recall). Like most here this is by far my favorite single by them, which at first I didn’t have much of a purchase on, ie I had no idea where The Police were ‘from’ (besides England) and I didn’t have a clue about dub, let alone reggae, soca, dancehall, etc. (In 1980 my father began to listen to a local radio show that was hosted by a DJ from Jamaica & I started to hear all these different beats & accents, but before that, nothing.) So to me it sounded like a jazz-pop song, a song that took its time to unfold and swung like crazy – the echoing bass seemingly underwater, the guitar notes carefully sitting next to you and then booming across a canyon, the drumming solid and yet light-as-air at the same time. Since the song didn’t get into the charts in the US at the time who knows how I first heard it (FM rather than AM radio most likely) but I’m very glad I did. I would give it a 9, easily.

The next song, on the other hand, was utterly different, and was MASSIVE on AM radio, which baffled me & pleased me in turn…

# 38 – Marcello, there should have been a question mark after “JA and reggae” and a comma between “afford” and “right” at the end of that rant. Looks like I fuck up on spelling and you on grammar. Perhaps we both ought to undertake a session of Speedlearn. Proceed to pass. Pass!

# 39 – Rosie. I’ve heard about primrose oil too but as Marcello would know, milk’s the thing for creating good temper.

Hey teachers! Leave Jane Asher alone!

Is there anyone else here interested in talking about “Walking On The Moon” by the Police?