When the Police went to the moon

In the second part of the seventies he exploded the punk era with his ‘do it yourself’ spirit. Many groups or artists did not have a mastery of the tools such as to be defined by virtuous, but in that period everything seemed possible.

One of these bands, however, was formed rather capable musicians. They were called Police: Sting (bass and voice), Andy Summers (guitar) e Stewart Copeland (drums). In 1979, the group was already affirmed, the first album, “Outlandos d’amour”published the previous year he had had a fair success, but, as he had the opportunity to declare Sting It was their second album, “Regatta de Blanc” (Read the review here), the one “in which everything worked”.

The disc reached the summit of the British rankings having the two singles of great strength: “Message in a bottle” (Read here the story) And “Walking on the Moon”. To the American public the two songs did not have the same effect “Message in a bottle” stopped at 74th position, while “Walking on the Moon” He even did not even enter the ranking. In the United States, success came with the third album, “Zenyatta Mondatta”in 1980.

The basis of “Walking on the Moon” He was born after a long drink in Munich, in Germany, as mentioned by Sting in ‘The Historia Bandido’book on the band published in 1981: “I was drunk in a hotel room in Munich, collapsed on the bed with the vortex of the abyss when this riff came to mind. I got up and started walking around the room, singing ‘Walking Round the Room, Ya, Ya, Walking Round The Room’. This was all. In the fresh light of the morning I remembered what had happened and I had happened. “Walking Round The Room” was a stupid title, so I thought of something even more stupid: “Walking on the Moon” “.

The song is set in space, but it is an allegory of how it felt Sting When he was traveling, confined to hotel rooms and stages while the world continued to travel. The video of the song was shot at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 23 October 1979. Stewart Copeland He took the opportunity to play the battery on a Saturn V rocket that served as a background. The direction was entrusted to Derek Burbidgewho made all their first videos.

In an interview with Songfacts Copeland added further details on “Walking on the Moon”: “Every repetition is not a repetition of the immediately preceding note, but a repetition of the previous note still, which gives this interesting swaying rhythmic effect.