30th Anniversary Interview for The Police Reggatta de Blanc

October 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of the 1979 release of The Police’s second studio album Reggatta de Blanc. This milestone begs for both celebration and reflection on this musical masterpiece resulting in the breakthrough success of The Police. In honor of the occasion, In The Studio with DJ and radio producer Redbeard has released a 23-minute composite of interviews with the band discussing their beginnings and music over the years, including Sting and Andy Summers together on the actual Reggatta de Blanc tour from early winter 1980, Sting in 1991 and 2006, Stewart Copeland twice in the late 1990’s, and Andy Summers in 2006. Go to www.IntheStudio.net and click on “Listen To In The Studio Now” in the upper right-hand corner to hear the full interview.

Thirty years later, I recognize the monumental impact Reggatta de Blanc had on my own life. It was the first music I ever heard from The Police, and upon first listening to this “White Reggae” dubbed album as an impressionable teenager, I was at once summoned to a higher musical journey and transformed to the appreciative, hero worshipping Police fan and Sting fan that I remain to this very day. While I’ll admit I was easily led to the commercially successful and popular songs “Message in a Bottle”, “Walking on the Moon” and “The Bed’s Too Big Without You” like a horse to water and also impressed by the Grammy win for best rock instrumental performance for the title track “Reggatta de Blanc”, two other songs grabbed my attention and admiration more and still remain a couple of my favorite Police songs of all time.

I adored the oddly humorous and fun “On Any Other Day”, the only song written and sung by Stewart Copeland on the whole album, and I played this amusing ditty about the worst birthday ever repeatedly and extremely loudly to the chagrin of my entire family. But the pièce de résistance that solidified my absolute adulation and lifelong devotion to The Police was “Bring On The Night”. It might have been due to the gorgeous guitar intro or poetic and hypnotic lyrics referencing “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot, but more likely it was Sting’s distinctive voice and plaintive wail for the cover of darkness that bewitched me with the spell known as The Police.

I’m still under their spell thirty years later, and Reggatta de Blanc will always be my favorite Police album. Unlike their diamond-in-the-rough first album Outlandos D’Amour, Reggatta de Blanc is more polished and produced, showcasing their unquestionable songwriting skills and finely-tuned musicianship, while still retaining just enough of that punk energy to make the album extraordinary. My original vinyl pressing of Reggatta de Blanc has earned a special place of honor in my aging record collection, and holding that vinyl record still fills me with the sentimental thrill of my musical discovery thirty years later.

That emotional response extends gratefully to my personal life as well, because the young man who first put Reggatta de Blanc on his turntable, unknowingly but fatefully introducing me to the music of The Police, also became my wisely chosen husband eight years later. I was impressed for many reasons the first time I heard Reggatta de Blanc, and this one special album provided the fork in the road that determined the path I would travel into my own future.