Music of the Day, 30 August 2024

keep it up

Today brought further evidence that the radio station in my mind is at best very loosely under my control. Yesterday evening, a Pink Floyd album I’m quite fond of came to mind. For a period, it was in regular rotation, and some of its songs would make a good follow-up to yesterday’s MotD, “Harden My Heart.”

As I was caffeinating myself, I started thinking about them again, and planned to revisit the entire album this evening. However, the radio station in my mind had other ideas. A refrain from another British band¹ started up and ultimately overpowered my reasoned thoughts regarding today’s MotD.

That seems especially appropriate, since today’s song can be interpreted as presenting both emotional and logical elements² of human interactions. And while the context is pretty clearly romantic, I’ve never thought of this great song as applicable only there.

I don’t remember the first time I heard “Walking on the Moon,” but I remember clearly the first time I really attended to it. My brother and I were waiting for traffic to clear after the Pink Floyd concert at Ohio State’s football stadium, and this song started up. It could have been from our car, or someone else’s—that I don’t recall. It was loud enough that I could hear Stewart Copeland’s subtle, masterful drumming for the first time.

The combination of music and lyrics captivated me. I felt the bouncy, lighthearted melody and the serious and clever lyrics as an integrated whole.³ I think that combination is why “Walking on the Moon” came up today: I’m finally at a point professionally where I’m feeling confident and good about my prospects and am working hard and without unreasonably high expectations toward my goal.

Being a longtime ride-or-die Rush fan, I’m well aware of the comparisons between Rush and the Police. But I don’t think I really grokked until now how similar yet so different they are. I think of both bands as progressive, but in different ways. All band members are extraordinarily talented and together, they create a unique sound in their synthesis. I think Alex Lifeson was doing his thing of creating interesting guitar layers in part by striking chords and letting them ring first; but Andy Summers does it as effectively in his style.

But all that is based on a limited sample of the Police’s discography. The only studio album I have is Synchronicity, along with the 1986 compilation Every Breath You Take: The Singles. The only other song I’ve heard from Reggatta de Blanc is its first single, “Message in a Bottle.”

I see that in my only previous MotD featuring the Police, I stated that I “much preferred” their later work. I retract that as hastily offered without sufficient evidence to support it. I’ll try to remember to report my updated findings once I’ve gathered the data. What a fun research project!

1. well, two-thirds British

2. don’t you dare call it “left brain and right brain,” because that ish ain’t never been an accurate way of describing hemispheric lateralization

3. no, I hadn’t partaken of any mind-altering substances, not even secondhand. It was just the right song at the right time for me.