‘Strange Days’: The record Stewart Copeland considered the musical equivalent of drugs
Fittingly enough for a band named The Police, there wasn’t a whole lot that was massively counter-culture about Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summer’s band of post-punk romantics.
Which makes sense, they became the biggest band in the world fairly quickly after bursting onto the scene in the late 1970s and even in the heyday of the Sex Pistols and Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, you didn’t become that big of a deal by rocking the boat that much.
They were just enough of a rock band to ride the mainstream success of punk, but still accessible enough to appeal to people who wouldn’t know a Clash or Blondie record if they gave them a wedgie. They had the melodies to get them on the radio, the look to get them on teenagers’ bedroom walls and the instrumental chops to rock any venue they came across, from a pub backroom to literal Shea Stadium. However, that isn’t to say there wasn’t a level of depth to The Police.
After all, they may have been as punk rock as the chewing gum brand they dyed their hair bottle blonde to secure an appearance in a commercial for. However, The Police were deeply involved in local, grassroots scene. One that was the furthest thing away from punk rock you can imagine, though. Each member of The Police were dyed-in-the-wool jazz players who cut their teeth playing legitimately out-there forms of jazz fusion. They may have got famous playing pop music that sounded delectable on the radio, but their record collections were as legit as anyone else’s.
Which record did Stewart Copeland of The Police say was most out there?
For proof of this, look no further than an interview Stewart Copeland gave to Goldmine Magazine, where he talked about the records that changed his life. One thing you learn from even a cursory scan through the names on his list is that we’re in serious muso territory here. One that makes it very clear that this was a man who would have several fistfights over appearing lame. Especially with a man as committed to mainstream appeal as Sting was. It’s kind of a miracle that a man like Stewart Copeland ever agreed to appear on a record called ‘De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da’.
We’re talking records by Buddy Rich, Igor Stravinsky, Dave Brubeck and Mahavishnu Orchestra. Stuff that he swears blind he was listening to when he was still in Grade school which, for any other artist, would seem like a blatant lie for street cred. Yet with Stewart Copeland, he talks with such effusive worship for these records that it does seem legit. Then you get to the rock records on there, and even then, you get albums that were boundary pushing for their time.
The most normal is The Beatles’ Help, yet there’s also Are You Experienced? by The Jimi Hendrix Experience showing up Copeland’s alternative cred. The biggest praise is reserved for Strange Days by The Doors, an album he got into at a very young, very impressionable age. “For a 14-year-old in Beirut this album was creepy and scary but magnetic.” He says, before going on to say “It was mind expanding even without any concept of drugs.”
High praise indeed from a man infamously hard to impress. After all, ‘Every Breath You Take’ wasn’t enough for him at first so any record that lands in his good books must be a winner.
