The Police song that Stewart Copeland called “throwaway”
Most artists tend not to spot a hit even when it’s right in front of their noses. Since these people have to listen to music all day long and often have to come up with parts on the spot that suit whatever track they’re working on, sometimes a song that’s made for radio flies under the radar without them even knowing it. While The Police already had a master songwriter in Sting, Stewart Copeland admitted that he thought their first hit ‘Roxanne’ was a throwaway when he first heard it.
As the band started putting together their first handful of demos, they were already one of the strangest-sounding bands to come out of England. Compared to the punk bands that were slowly exiting the cultural conversation, the rise of new wave was fertile ground for Sting to showcase his songs, making his first stab with the punky single, ‘Fall Out’.
While the band eventually had to go through a few minor shakeups before getting Andy Summers behind the fretboard, Copeland was already a master percussionist. As opposed to the drummers who knew how to keep time at a decent pace, Copeland was practically a virtuoso whenever he stepped behind the kit, eventually inspiring artists like Neil Peart to change their direction.
By the time the band got their sound together to go into the studio, Outlandos D’Amour would become one of the best debut albums of the time. Perfectly toeing the line between punk, pop, reggae, and avant-garde weirdness, Sting found a home for every brilliant melody he could think of, as well as a few many would rather forget, like ‘Be My Girl’.
Outside of the nervy energy of songs like ‘Next To You’ or everyone’s favourite song about suicidal heartache, ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’, ‘Roxanne’ was a bit of an outlier when the band got started, being nothing but a simple tune about a woman who walked the streets. Despite having the makings of an excellent single, Copeland never saw the merit in what they created.
When mixing it in the studio, Copeland emphasised wanting to put a bit of a punk flair to liven everything up, saying, “We’ve got to be punk. And they’re saying, ‘Can’t we just play? I gave it a drum beat that was kind of bass-ackwards and made it into a Police song. It wasn’t punk-o-rama, but it was still a rock song, even though it was kind of a lament. It was a throwaway song”.
After the band finished production on the album, Copeland’s brother Miles suggested that the band release it as a single, thinking that it would be perfect for pop radio. Even though it went against the band’s ideas, the song would introduce the world to everything The Police stood for, featuring Sting’s trademark high voice and Copeland’s insistent groove.
That’s not to say that they didn’t leave a few mistakes in as well, with the opening laugh at the beginning coming from Sting in the control room after he accidentally sat down on a piano while the song played. ‘Roxanne’ may still sound a bit ramshackle compared to the band’s later work, but they were just getting started on their quest to take over the pop charts and the eclectic side of rock.
