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Sting/Police Mistake?

I don't understand why the "recording" is held in such high regard. The way a band plays can evolve, and what they capture on record is just the way they happened to be playing that particular week. It's like a snapshot.

It is, but in some cases, they worked for months on a tune - it is the best they can make it, disregarding things like it has to be playable live.
 
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I don't understand why the "recording" is held in such high regard. The way a band plays can evolve, and what they capture on record is just the way they happened to be playing that particular week. It's like a snapshot.

Hard disagree. This isn't jazz. When it comes to "pop" music, the recording is what everyone is going to hear thousands of times. The majority of those people will never hear the song played live. So obviously, great emphasis is placed in the recording.
 
No mistake there but…definitely one here at about 2:48 where he plays the 6 instead of 5. You can hear him slide off immediately and probably a curse or 2 went along with it! It’s a mistake I chose not to play back in the day. What I find interesting is the official video (2nd link) edited it out but I would wager only to cut time rather than spare any embarrassment.
I don’t know it to be true but heard they recorded the whole album in a day or 2 so I think it turned out ok!



 
I don't understand why the "recording" is held in such high regard. The way a band plays can evolve, and what they capture on record is just the way they happened to be playing that particular week. It's like a snapshot.
agree, and I believe Sting would agree with you. When he performs his own stuff he often rearranges them to suit whatever frame of mind he's in at the time. A great example is the Message In A Bottle YT vid someone posted above ... song is clearly recognizable, but it is performed quite differently from the "recording"
 
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It is, but in some cases, they worked for months on a tune - it is the best they can make it, disregarding things like it has to be playable live.
I see recording as an opportunity to paint with sound. I don’t hold to the ‘make it sound like when we play live’ concept. That’s ok if you want to do that but the studio is a mother lode of access to creative expression. There is a means in the studio to manifest an expression that couldn’t necessarily be reproduced on stage - a sonic event if you like that is a statement in itself.
Film makers do it all the time. Music is theatre. There are examples of plays written for the stage that are turned into films successfully but the vast majority of films would not work on a stage and we’re comfortable with watching them as discrete creative events. Music can also be produced this way. Abandon your ideological constraints. Music doesn’t have to be anything that fits our preconceptions especially music produced in a studio.
 
Ugh. Sting and The Police were some of my biggest influences in my teenage years. I always wanted a ‘54 Precision in part due to Sting. I convinced myself not to waste money on one of the newer AVRI IIs, but this thread is making feel like I should just go ahead and do it.
 
Ugh. Sting and The Police were some of my biggest influences in my teenage years. I always wanted a ‘54 Precision in part due to Sting. I convinced myself not to waste money on one of the newer AVRI IIs, but this thread is making feel like I should just go ahead and do it.


I got one, they sound great, I modded it a little bit, put a Fender deluxe bridge on it (exact fit including string through), put Roto Swing 66's on it and may change the pickup, it sounds great but hard to set it up so all 4 strings are equal volume, I have it pretty close now though.
 
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at the beginning of the second verse sting plays a little slide down from C# then stops playing. Time 1.00 in this vid
Think this was intentional or they just left it in?


Do you mean where he hits a note and then lays out instead of just laying out? I think it could go either way. Would it have sounded empty without an initial note, who knows. Whatever the case, the Police were hotter than a witches t!t at this point in their career and they cranked this album out in 4 weeks in the middle of a world tour. Whatever the case, I don't think it hurts the song any.
 
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That ‘rest’ is repeated in those sections, it kinda sounds and “feels” like it was pulled in post but who knows, it was a little strange when I first started playing it, that being said I do play it with the rest, I think it sounds kinda cool when it comes back in, simple bass always fun…
 
No mistake there but…definitely one here at about 2:48 where he plays the 6 instead of 5. You can hear him slide off immediately and probably a curse or 2 went along with it! It’s a mistake I chose not to play back in the day. What I find interesting is the official video (2nd link) edited it out but I would wager only to cut time rather than spare any embarrassment.
I don’t know it to be true but heard they recorded the whole album in a day or 2 so I think it turned out ok!




I was about to post this. The first time I heard "So Lonely" (probably about 1980 or so), I noticed it immediately. It was great that they decided to leave it in. How punk of them! :D
 
No mistake there but…definitely one here at about 2:48 where he plays the 6 instead of 5. You can hear him slide off immediately and probably a curse or 2 went along with it!

Here is an interesting thing.
Yes, Sting slides from the 6th but...
He ends up not on the 6th but on b6.
Why? Some fretless(?) - I don't know.
Next.
(From your linked video.)
At 1:58, Sting doesn't play the root (including the pickup note) on Beat 1 but on Beat 2.
At 3:09, Sting plays Bb(?) on Beat 1.
At 3:58, Sting unintentionally changes his rhythmic pulse.