The one Police song Sting called “grossly misunderstood”
Within songwriting, the true meaning of the work can occasionally be lost, much to the frustration of the artist who created the track. When hearing a song on the radio, it’s natural for listeners to take the piece of music at face value rather than digging deeper into the message, something Sting discovered with one track by The Police.
It’s easy for musicians to dive into the world of complex origins for their songs. It is part of their make-up that musicians want to appear mysterious and unreadable. Without such airs and graces, they may as well give up on being icons. But it does sometimes feel like a stretch, and Sting does his own bit of yoga here.
The song in question is the band’s 1981 single ‘De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da’ which appeared on their third album Zenyatta Mondatta. Although the track performed well in the charts and with the general public, Sting felt that too much attention was given to the nonsensical chorus rather than the verses, which explained why the hook was in place.
‘De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da’ is a track which deals with the power of words and how those in high positions deliberately misuse language to manipulate the masses. Sting even believes this spreads into the music business, with artists writing songs devoid of meaning but providing a senseless distraction that fans routinely lap up.
Therefore, on the surface, while it may seem ‘De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da’ is another song from the category mentioned above, it was intended to ridicule, but many didn’t realise this fact, which only further demonstrated Sting’s point.
During an interview in 1981 with NME, he explained: “Certainly what we’re producing is not elitist High Art: But; equally; I think entertainment’s an art. I think my songs are fairly literate – they’re not rubbish. ‘De Do Do Do’, for example, was grossly misunderstood: the lyrics are about banality, about the abuse of words.”
Sting continued: “Almost everyone who reviewed it said, ‘Oh, this is baby talk.’ They were just listening to the chorus alone, obviously. But they’re the same people who would probably never get through the first paragraph of Finnegan’s Wake because that’s ‘baby talk’ too.”
Although he addressed the true meaning of the song, Sting still failed to get his point across, and people still assumed it was another pop song which failed to say anything of note about the complexities of the world.
Speaking to Rolling Stone in 1988, he reaffirmed his point, stating: “I was trying to make an intellectual point about how the simple can be so powerful. Why are our favourite songs ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ and ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’? In the song, I tried to address that issue. But everyone said, ‘This is bullshit, child’s play.’ No one listened to the lyrics. Listen to the lyrics. I’m going to remake it again and put more emphasis on what I was talking about.”
With pop songs, unless the artist is straightforward with their messaging, they can easily be misunderstood, largely down to the method of communication. However, if Sting had been frank with his lyrics and didn’t leave any room for ambiguity, ‘De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da’ would have lost all of its beauty.
