The PBA and The Police

Today we studied one of my all-time favorite bands in music appreciation. Although I have no memory of The Police until 1983 when Synchronicity hit the scene, they actually got together in 1977, so I got to go ahead and discuss them in this month.

Asn an aside, that makes that album 31 years old, which is a whole other stroke waiting for me to have. I'm not even sure how that is possible.

But I digress...

You know…this is the month in which we are supposedly covering bands from the 70’s but I have dipped back in to the 1960’s twice already.

Give me a break. December was super-short (in terms of school time) and we didn’t cover much at all.

In fact, I may dip back one more time (at least) because we didn’t cover The Beatles.

How is that possible?

I kind of had a little stroke when I realized it.

Anywho…today I REALLY wanted to play Synchronicity…but I refrained because it was from 1983 and being such a purist, I held back.

I appreciate your accolades, but it wasn’t such a big deal. It was a touch self-serving, actually; it just means we get to talk about The Police again next month.

During our discussion, I did discover (much to my delight) that my 10yo remembered (from past discussions while listening to music in the car) that Sting was their lead singer.

But he didn’t remember his real name was/is Gordon Sumner.

That was disappointing to me. One two levels really.

Both that this was/is Sting’s given name (because it is absolutely horrible…no offense to his parents or anyone names Gordon…because I’m certain that both demographics will read this).

And I was also disappointed that my 10yo didn’t remember this interesting tidbit of trivia. 

He’s a veritable fount of useless trivia.

He can watch a movie or video once and have it all memorized.

He can read a book on the Packers and tell you every random fact you would never want to know about the Pack.

And, just because I am working on really smooth transitions, case in point: he played Rock Band maybe twice. 

Three years ago. 

And they played the song “Roxanne”.

And today I discovered that he knows all the words.

ALL of them.

If he would stop resisting my efforts to get him into acting or something with which we could channel his gift of memorization…I could be riding the gravy train.

I mean, HE could…

If only he would use his gift for good instead of evil.

I don’t know how that applies, but it is, in fact, what runs through my head every time I hear him recite something he’s memorized.

Every time.

I know I’m getting off track here but I’ll bring it back around momentarily. Have I ever let you down in this area before?

I mean when it mattered?

Last year, he memorized “Paul Revere’s Ride.”

Any idea how long that it? It’s long. Here it is if you want to take a look.

Now, I am not disparaging the 12yo in anyway…he too has his gifts for memory but it’s not rote memory work like the 10yo.

Just because I want to give equal bragging rights to both boys, I must tell you that the 12yo can tell you virtually any country’s location, the general shape of the country and what countries surround it.

Both are astounding and amazing in their own ways. I am much more like the 10yo in that skill. Geography doesn’t really appeal to me.

I am geographically challenged, many would say.

Most of all Mr. Always Random would say it. Good thing he was a geography major in college. It was one of his marketable attributes when I met him.

Ok, not really. In fact, I wondered what he would do with such a degree. The answer, my friend, is blowin in the wind.

(Anyone get that?)

The answer is actually that he can tell me multiple ways to drive to certain places outside of the 5 mile radius in which I have confined myself.

OK, so now I come back to my point regarding The Police and PBA Music Appreciation.

So…because I was such a good girl and limited myself to only playing Police songs from the 1970’s, I could only play songs from Outlandos d'Amour (1978) and Reggatta de Blanc (1979).

And no, I didn’t not know all this info beforehand. I learn as they do sometimes.

So…all this rambling to say, included in the two-album playlist was “So Lonely.”  (And I watched the video.) It looks so early and a little punky and low-tech and it is just glorious.

But enough of the description…let me just include it for you so you can revel in its greatness for yourselves. 

I’m a full-service blogger.

As we were listening to the song together, my 12yo asked a question about the lyrics.

Something which had NEVER occurred to me before.

And with that, I challenge you to listen to the song without thinking:

Well, someone told me yesterday
That when you throw your love away
You act as if you just don't care
You look as if you're going somewhere
But I just can't convince myself
I couldn't live with no one else
And I can only play that part
And sit and nurse my broken heart,
Cannoli, Cannoli, Cannoli

Cannoli, Cannoli, Cannoli

Cannoli, Cannoli, Cannoli,

Cannoli, Cannoli

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