Was Sting Primarily A Bass Player...?

[Space Pickle]

IMO some of his best writing was his solo stuff. Dramatic , deep, and engaging . The Police were first and foremost a pop band that understood how to make minimalism work . Brilliant musicians all. Overrated? Hardly but I'll agree with your last sentence .

Agreed. I love The Police, but also the solo Sting stuff. Ten Summoner's Tales is one of my all-time favourite albums in any style of music.

 

[gazzatriumph]

Stings bass lines with the Police were simple but effective I loved em

 

[Spectrum]

I love Andy Summers' approach to guitar in The Police. Apparently so did Alex Lifeson; you can hear it big time in Vital Signs and all over the Signals and Grace Under Pressure albums.

As for Sting being "primarily" a bassist? Sting is a musician with lots of skills who can do a lot of things very well. Among other things are song-writing, singing, and playing bass.

 

[jamro217]

I saw him interviewed on the Stephen Colbert show about a week ago and he said his strongest motivations for doing what he's done musically were for the "fame and the girls". He also played a song from his new release. I forget the song title but I thought it was very derivative of his Police era work. ( 'derivative' as used here can be interpreted to mean both "sounds like" and "not as good" ) It wasn't awful and the backup band were good players but I think the most impressive thing to me about it was the fact that he's pushing on and continuing to write and tour at age 65.

Best thing to me from that live performance was drummer Vinnie Colaiuta!

I'm pretty sure this is the same bass Sting played on the recent Stephen Colbert performance. Is that a totally thrashed Fender Telecaster bass? The picture is actually from his most recent performances with that same band on the Later With Jools Holland show.

I think it's a '55 or '56 P bass.

 

[hrodbert696]

I guess to answer the OP, I would focus on the word "primarily." I've read his autobiography and Andy Summers', and came away with the distinct impression that his bass playing was secondary to his singing and songwriting. He was a singer who happened to also play bass, not a bassist who also sang.

According to the interview posted on the first page, Sting was The Songwriter. But even if that's the case and he wrote 98% of the songs, I doubt he decided which chords Summers would play. Summers playing & tone were a huge element that made the band what it was. He wasn't just a standard rock guitarist.

And of course there's Copeland's drumming. He's one of those drummers even non-drummers love. That's how recognizable his talent is. And his drums always sound freaking awesome. Just a cool dude.

Yes, Sting was chief songwriter ("The one who wrote the hits") and a multi-instrumentalist. Many of the early Police songs he wrote on guitar, and they were probably much simpler in their original form. Andy Summers had something of a jazz background and often wanted to improve upon the basic chord progression by adding sustains, extensions, etc. to the more basic chords Sting was using. That's why you hear that big atmospheric sound and the tension/resolution in the chord progressions on a lot of that material. And Summers is kind of an effects guy too, adding to the aura.

Smart of Sting to see the value in what Summers was doing. A Police song wasn't complete until it got the Summers treatment. It helped make The Police more unique and was an important factor in pushing them over the top. Summers very much admired Sting's pop sensibilities and jarring tenor and felt this was his opportunity at commercial success, but it may not have happened without his guitar influence. The same can be said of Copeland's drumming.

Andy Summers' autobiography is a great read BTW. Humorous and informative.

Sting did most of the songwriting. He actually had more of a jazz background than Summers did, but Summers had much more of a fascination with more complex chords. Copeland was, at the time, fascinated with the rise of punk and it was his influence early on to go for the frenetic pace and furious drumming behind everything. Sting wrote that they had a hard time getting a full set in the early days because none of their songs lasted more than 45 seconds, they blasted through them so fast. According to Summers' autobiography, a lot of the time Sting would come in with demos of his songs that were brilliant but overdone and "smothered in keyboards, like Yes on a bad day" (as a big Yes fan, that line stuck in my memory). Summers and Copeland would take them, strip them down and "policify" them to give them that distinct sparse Police sound.

 

[Herrick]

Sting did most of the songwriting. He actually had more of a jazz background than Summers did, but Summers had much more of a fascination with more complex chords. Copeland was, at the time, fascinated with the rise of punk and it was his influence early on to go for the frenetic pace and furious drumming behind everything. Sting wrote that they had a hard time getting a full set in the early days because none of their songs lasted more than 45 seconds, they blasted through them so fast. According to Summers' autobiography, a lot of the time Sting would come in with demos of his songs that were brilliant but overdone and "smothered in keyboards, like Yes on a bad day" (as a big Yes fan, that line stuck in my memory). Summers and Copeland would take them, strip them down and "policify" them to give them that distinct sparse Police sound.

That's some great info. Thanks for sharing!

And when I said "primarily" I meant if bass was his main instrument. But it looks like he was a guitar player who became a bass player.

 

[NortyFiner]

Phil Collins is an awesome drummer, but he rarely plays.

Phil stopped playing drums regularly long ago, and I recall an interview a few years ago where he stated that he has stopped playing entirely due to health reasons. Said it was painful and he just couldn't do it anymore.

 

[NortyFiner]

As for Sting's bass, it was a '53 Precision. Fender made a limited edition sig model based (bassed!) on it.

Fender Sting Signature Precision Bass

 

[bassstrangler]

Phil stopped playing drums regularly long ago, and I recall an interview a few years ago where he stated that he has stopped playing entirely due to health reasons. Said it was painful and he just couldn't do it anymore.

That's a shame, we'll probably never see that Genesis reunion with Peter Gabriel.

 

[Deleted member 165050]

Sting to me is primarily a vocalist and songwriter, but I have to say he plays great bass lines and is a good upright and fretless player as well. An accomplished musician in many ways, and he was ok in Dune as well as Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels.

 

[Jason Sypher]

Sting was an upright bass player in a trad jazz band in Newcastle when Stewart Copeland discovered him

 

[Space Pickle]

Sting in Dune is completely hilarious.

I say this as someone who likes both Sting and Dune.

 

[winterburn69]

Andy Summers mentioned in his autobiography that Gordon would write songs on his own with a guitar.
Andy's book is a good read!

Apparently Gordon still does use the guitar often, he's even carrying one on his latest album cover.

BTW, he got his nickname from a bee-striped sweater he used to wear.
no joke

I would put money that his main Fender P is in that gig bag, not a guitar.

And I believe he still prefers to be referred to as Sting, not Gordon.

It's a 1952 or 1953 (I believe) Precision. The Precision headstock was shaped this way until about 1957.

It's a '57.

I think it's a '55 or '56 P bass.

Close, it's a '57.

As for Sting's bass, it was a '53 Precision. Fender made a limited edition sig model based (bassed!) on it.

Fender Sting Signature Precision Bass

Fender made an error on that one, his main bass is a 1957 Fender P (April, IIRC). But then again Fender made a lot of mistakes when it came to that signature bass. The Fender site also says the Pino Palladino P was based on his 1962 Fender P (which is incorrect)

Confirmed here by Danny Q:
Interview with Sting, the Singing Bassist | Singing Bassist

 

[Killed_by_Death]

I would put money that his main Fender P is in that gig bag, not a guitar.

It's too short to be a bass.

I believe he still prefers to be referred to as Sting, not Gordon.

I'll bet he'd rather we called him Sir Gordon. Didn't he get knighted?

 

[winterburn69]

It's too short to be a bass.

Giving it another look, I think you're correct. A quick Google search will tell you Sting is 5'11, and a 34" bass would go past his head based on where it starts I'm the picture.

I'll bet he'd rather we called him Sir Gordon. Didn't he get knighted?

No, he *just* has a CBE (commander of the British Empire), which is close, but he hasn't actually been knighted, like Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Tom Jones or Sir Mick Jagger.

 

[jamro217]

I would put money that his main Fender P is in that gig bag, not a guitar.

And I believe he still prefers to be referred to as Sting, not Gordon.



It's a '57.



Close, it's a '57.



Fender made an error on that one, his main bass is a 1957 Fender P (April, IIRC). But then again Fender made a lot of mistakes when it came to that signature bass. The Fender site also says the Pino Palladino P was based on his 1962 Fender P (which is incorrect)

Confirmed here by Danny Q:
Interview with Sting, the Singing Bassist | Singing Bassist

I was thinking it was one of the last single coil, original style P basses before the change over to the new (and still current style with the split humbucker which was introduced in 1957) due to the rounded body edges. That would have been late '55 or '56. I didn't realize both models were available in '57 (depending on what time of year the transition took place), so his was the last of the last, I guess. Thanks for the info. You learn something new every day.

 

[ubernator]

I love Andy Summers' approach to guitar in The Police. Apparently so did Alex Lifeson; you can hear it big time in Vital Signs and all over the Signals and Grace Under Pressure albums.

As for Sting being "primarily" a bassist? Sting is a musician with lots of skills who can do a lot of things very well. Among other things are song-writing, singing, and playing bass.

The police hugely influenced rush during the writing of permanent waves. That is why rush is so awesome, they never did the ac/Dc or stones model of stick to one thing and do it over and over.

In fact it was Neil who blurted out "the police" as one of many "new wave" bands that they were talking about in the interview. You can hear it in all three of them on that album and in parts even after grace under pressure. And hold your fire is almost in the same vein as sting solo, but rush was much quicker to recover the rock rather than stay in the adult contemporary pop jazz thing for too long.

This week we officially work on adding synchronicity II and distant early warning to the set in the "originals" band. Gotta have a handful of covers. The 2 songs have been closely intertwined for me since I was 9 years old in 1984 when they were in radio rotation, but synchronicity II was the one that really locked me into the police, that video too!

 

[Broke]

Hoping I can clear some things up. Stings main bass (beat up looking) is a 1957 P bass. It's not a tele bass as has been stated here. He plays the 57 whenever he can. If for some reason something happens to the 57, Danny hands him a 1955 that he uses with the white pick guard on it.

Here is the 1955:

This is his 1957 that is his favorite:

 

[winterburn69]

Hoping I can clear some things up. Stings main bass (beat up looking) is a 1957 P bass. It's not a tele bass as has been stated here. He plays the 57 whenever he can. If for some reason something happens to the 57, Danny hands him a 1955 that he uses with the white pick guard on it.

Here is the 1955:

This is his 1957 that is his favorite:

I'm pretty sure those are the same bass. The wear patterns look the same except for the lower part that has more sunburst in the first picture, and has been worn away by the time the second picture was taken.

The picture with the pickguard is quite old, Sting is clearly much much younger, while the second one is clearly a much newer picture.

And neither the 1957 or the 1955 have a pickguard anymore.

Interview with Sting, the Singing Bassist | Singing Bassist

 

[jsbarber]

I saw Sting perform at the San Diego hall where the orchestra performed back in 1999. It was a pre-tour performance when Brand New Day came out. Excellent concert. I enjoyed the traditional tunes as well as the new material. Manu Katche on drums.

I read that Sting got the early P when he was in NYC. There was going to be a photo shoot and they/he wanted a cooler looking bass than whatever he was using so someone went out and bought the P. Guess he liked it.