Zenyatta Mondatta is the third album by The Police, released in 1980.
History
Written during the band's second tour and recorded in just four weeks (minus several days for concerts in the U.K.-Milton Keynes festival- and Ireland). The band members have often expressed disappointment over it, going so far as to re-record two songs during a brief, unsuccessful reunion. Drummer Stewart Copeland, who contributed the songs "Bombs Away" and "The Other Way of Stopping", said about the time pressures:
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We had bitten off more than we could chew. We finished the album at 4 a.m. on the day we were starting our next world tour... It was cutting it very fine. |
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Nevertheless, Zenyatta Mondatta went to #5 in the U.S.[1] and #1 in the UK and Australia, spurred by the success of the Sting-penned singles "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da". It would later receive glowing reviews from re-assessments in Rolling Stone and Q Magazine, among others, in spite of the fact that this is the least well-received of the five albums by The Police - so much so, it was the only one of their five albums not to obtain a spot on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
As mentioned by Copeland, the Police embarked on a tour of the world the day of the album's completion, beginning in Belgium and reaching places such as India and Egypt.
The album itself is the last of the Police's early era, influenced by reggae and punk and featuring few musical elements on top of the core guitar, bass, and drums. Perhaps due to the lack of time for writing lyrics, the record has two instrumentals, "The Other Way of Stopping", and the Grammy-winning "Behind My Camel" (a third song, "Voices Inside My Head", is mostly an instrumental except for the words "Voices inside my head/ Echoes of things that you said", which are repeated a couple of times in the middle of the song). "Behind My Camel" was guitarist Andy Summers' first entirely self-penned composition, and it was not popular with the other members of the band. According to Sting, "I hated that song so much that, one day when I was in the studio, I found the tape lying on the table. So I took it around the back of the studio and actually buried it in the garden." Allegedly, Sting was so uninterested in the piece that he refused to play it. Andy Summers managed to coax Stewart Copeland into recording the bit as a duo, and then overdubbed the bass line himself.[citation needed]
Zenyatta Mondatta is also notable for containing the band's first lyrics ever referring to political events, with Sting's "Driven To Tears" commenting on poverty and Copeland's "Bombs Away" referring to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. These themes would become more prevalent in the Police's next album, Ghost in the Machine.
Six years later the band re-recorded "Don't Stand So Close To Me" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da". The first song was released on Every Breath You Take: The Singles, while the other remains unreleased.
Jerry Moss, the "M" in A&M Records, named a very successful filly race horse Zenyatta (b. 2004) in honor of this album.[2]
The meaning of the album's title is unknown.
Track listing
All songs written by Sting except as noted.[3]
- "Don't Stand So Close to Me" – 4:04
- "Driven to Tears" – 3:20
- "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around" – 3:38
- "Canary in a Coalmine" – 2:26
- "Voices Inside My Head" – 3:53
- "Bombs Away" (Stewart Copeland) – 3:09
- "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" – 4:09
- "Behind My Camel" (Andy Summers) – 2:54
- "Man in a Suitcase" – 2:19
- "Shadows in the Rain" – 5:02
- "The Other Way of Stopping" (Copeland) – 3:22
Track listing note: On the original LP album release, side one comprised tracks 1-6, side two tracks 7-11.[3]
Two other songs were recorded as the B-sides to "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da".
- "Friends" (Summers) – 3:36
- "A Sermon" (Copeland) – 2:33
Personnel
- Sting - bass, lead vocals, synthesizers, backing vocals.
- Stewart Copeland - drums, backing vocals, synthesizers, guitar on "A Sermon"
- Andy Summers - guitar, guitar-synths, bass on "Behind My Camel", lead vocals on "Friends", backing vocals
Charts
Album
Singles
Certifications
| Organization |
Level |
Date |
| BPI – UK |
Gold |
October 3, 1980 |
| BPI – UK |
Platinum |
October 3, 1980 |
| RIAA – U.S. |
Gold |
December 12, 1980 |
| RIAA – U.S. |
Platinum |
February 27, 1981 |
| RIAA – U.S. |
2x Platinum |
December 17, 2001 |
Awards
Grammy Awards
Covers and remixes
- The track "When the World Is Running Down" was remixed in 2000 and released as a single under the moniker "Different Gear Vs The Police". It reached number 28 in the UK Singles Chart, but it does not feature on any of The Police albums.
- The song "Man In a Suitcase" was covered by AFI as a bonus track on Answer That and Stay Fashionable.
- Sting would later perform his own version of "Shadows in the Rain" on his debut solo album The Dream of the Blue Turtles.
References
