Ghost in the Machine--Album Quiz #4

Answer: True

The title of Koestler's work is taken from British philosopher Gilbert Ryle's negative description of René Descartes' mind-body dualism. In Sting's 2007 book "Lyrics," Sting explains that to him Arthur Koestler's book is "about the human mind and our seeming appetite for self-destruction." He then explains, "The book talks about how the modern brain of Homo sapiens is grafted onto older and more-primitive prototypes and how in certain situations these reptilian modes of thinking can rise up and overcome our higher modes of logic and reason." He later writes, "The album was densely layered with multitracked vocals, synthesized keyboards, and horn riffs played by yours truly. I wanted to create the impression of something struggling to the surface, something hidden in the recesses of the mind, something from our dark subconscious wanting to be seen."

Answer: Red LED images similar to dashes on a digital alarm clock

In Sting's 2007 book "Lyrics," Sting explains this strange cover: "The album cover showed our three faces [the faces of Andy, Sting, and Stewart] transposed into digital images, red LED lights on a black background. We were the ghosts in the machine, and while some of the songs are a plea for sanity, others are an expression of that malevolent darkness that haunts us all." According to Wikipedia, the album cover is ranked at number 45 on VH1's 50 Greatest Album Covers.

Answer: 1981

In June of 1981, The Police began recording "Ghost in the Machine" at Montserrat, an island in the Caribbean, to make use of AIR Studios, created by George Martin, producer for The Beatles. It would become the first Police album to rely heavily on other instrumentation beyond the guitars, bass, and drums The Police had traditionally used; there is significant use of synthesizers, keyboards, saxophones, and effects pedals. Andy Summers has said conflicting things about the album.

In Ray Nikart's "Sting and The Police," Summers is quoted as saying, "I think it [the album] is very strong.

It has a supple quality I really like, and a very positive vibe I feel was lacking on the last album." However, on Wikipedia, he is quoted as saying in retrospect, "I have to say I was getting disappointed with the musical direction around the time of 'Ghost in the Machine.' With the horns and synth coming in, the fantastic raw-trio feel-all the really creative and dynamic stuff-was being lost. We were ending up backing a singer doing his pop songs." Nevertheless, the album reached number one on the United Kingdom charts and number 2 on the American charts. Also according to Wikipedia, "Ghost in the Machine" ranked number 76 in "Q" magazine's 100 Greatest British Albums Ever, number 322 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and number 86 in Pitchfork Media's 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s.

Answer: Spirits in the Material World

"Spirits in the Material World" reached number twelve in the UK and number eleven in the US. The song represents The Police's pseudo-departure from their traditional sound; in addition to guitar, bass, and drums, the song also included saxophone and synthesizer, which somewhat disguised the song's reggae influence, a style that had been so much a part of The Police sound prior to "Ghost in the Machine." In his book "Lyrics," Sting made the following commentary: "I thought that while political progress is clearly important in resolving conflict around the world, there are spiritual (as opposed to religious) aspects of our recovery that also need to be addressed. I suppose by 'spiritual' I mean the ability to see the bigger picture, to be able to step outside the narrow box of our conditioning and access those higher modes of thinking that Koestler talked about [in his literary piece "The Ghost in the Machine"]. Without this, politics is just 'the rhetoric of failure.'"

Answer: Darkness

"Darkness" was composed by Stewart Copeland and represented some of his best lyrics with lines like "I can dream up schemes when I'm sitting in my seat / I don't see any flaws till I get to my feet" and "But darkness makes me fumble / For a key / To a door / That's wide open." Sting played saxophone on more than half of the songs on the album.

In Ray Nikart's "Sting and The Police," Sting says, "I used to play saxophone as a teenager, . . . although not very seriously. The fingering has always stayed with me, and I can read music, so getting back into it was fairly simple. I'm no Charlie Parker, but it's very satisfying getting a simple riff together . . . ."

Answer: Secret Journey

As a single, "Secret Journey" was released only in the United States, where it reached number forty-six on the charts. In his 2007 book "Lyrics," Sting explains the influence behind this song: "I was intrigued by G. I. Gurdjieff's 'Meetings with Remarkable Men,' his account of the travels and discoveries of an intrepid group of spiritual adventurers. I was looking for some spiritual guidance for my own life and, after a few false leads, finally began to listen to the discrete language of my own heart." Thus, he would write in the chorus of the song: "You will see light in the darkness / You will make some sense of this / And when you've made your secret journey / You will find this love you miss."

Answer: Invisible Sun

"Invisible Sun" was not released in America, but it was a successful single released in Britain, where it climbed to number two on the UK charts. As Wikipedia notes, "The song is a departure from Police songs before it; 'Invisible Sun' contains a dark, looping synthesizer beat, and powerful, haunting lyrics. Among other things, the lyrics refer to the ArmaLite rifle used by paramilitary organizations, but mainly by the Provisional Irish Republican Army." Furthermore, the video released for television audiences contained scenes of the conflict in Northern Ireland; thus it became the victim of censorship from the BBC. Of further interest is that Bono of U2 would often join Sting on stage to sing the song when The Police and U2 performed at the same concerts in the early 80s.

Answer: Too Much Information

Some of the other lyrics include "Too much information running through my brain / Too much information driving me insane" and "I've seen the whole world six times over / Sea of Japan to the Cliffs of Dover." The song is trying to convey the jumbled mass of ideas, images, and words we are drowning in every day.

Answer: Omegaman

"Omegaman" was influenced by the 1971 film "The Omega Man" starring Charlton Heston. The movie is about a doctor (played by Heston) who is the lone survivor of an apocalyptic war involving biological weaponry, which created a plague. There are a few hundred deformed remnants of human beings left who psychotically desire to destroy any remainder of the old world, including the doctor, because they blame its science and technology for their current condition.

Some of the song's lyrics include "The night came down, jungle sounds were in my ears / City screams are all I've heard in twenty years / The razor's edge of night, it cuts into my sleep / I sit upon the edge now, shall I make that leap?" The song is one of Summers' best compositions lyrically and musically and seems to possess somewhat of a "single" quality to it; however, as Summers claims in his 2006 book "One Train Later," Sting resisted its release after A&M Records wanted to issue the song as the album's first single.

Answer: One World (Not Three)

This highly reggae-infused song was also highly political as one can tell from the lyrics in the question. In his 2007 book "Lyrics," Sting comments about the song: "I'd always thought that the term 'third world' was little more than a semantic trick, treating our poorest neighbors as if they existed on another planet. We are responsible for one another ethically, morally, socially, financially, and in every other sense." Thus, Sting sings at the end of the song, "Remember this before you vote / We can all sink or we all float / 'Cause we're all in the same big boat."

Answer: Rehumanize Yourself

Sting wrote the lyrics, and Stewart wrote the music. The song is a plea for mutual understanding of one another and begins with these words: "He goes out at night with his big boots on / None of his friends know right from wrong / They kick a boy to death 'cause he don't belong / You've got to humanize yourself." In his book "Lyrics," Sting explains, "A young man was kicked to death by a gang of skinheads near my home.

It was around the time my first son was born. When you become a father for the first time, peace and nonviolence become even more of an imperative."

Answer: Hungry for You

"Hungry for You," also known as "J'aurais Toujours Faim de Toi," is sung entirely in French by Sting until the end of the song when Sting sings, "No matter what I do / I'm still hungry for you." In his book "Lyrics," Sting credits his wife Trudie Styler: "Trudie helped me with the French and a lot of the passion." While the song is certainly filled with passion, Sting suggests that it fits on the "Ghost in the Machine" album because the driving lust (or hunger) felt by the singer of the song represents the more primitive part of our psyche buried beneath the centuries of civilized developments of logic and reason.

Answer: Demolition Man

"Demolition Man" has an interesting history. It was written by Sting for Grace Jones, who included her discoesque recording of the song on her 1981 album "Nightclubbing." The Police then released their hard rock/jazz version on their own album "Ghost in the Machine," also in 1981, where it would become their longest track recorded on a studio album at five minutes and fifty-seven seconds.

In 1982, Manfred Mann's Earth Band re-interpreted the song for their "Somewhere in Afrika" album. Eventually, it would become a hit for Sting in 1993 after his solo version was recorded for part of the "Demolition Man" soundtrack. Sting wrote the song while staying at Peter O'Toole's Irish mansion.

He had this to say about the song in his book "Lyrics": "A 'three-line whip' is a parliamentary expression indicating matters of utmost seriousness.

When I wrote this song, I quite fancied myself as a national emergency. I, too, at times have occasionally indulged in violent revenge fantasies for unspecified slights to my ego, my masculine pride, my patriotism."

Answer: Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

In his 2006 book "One Train Later," Andy Summers states that he feels Jean Roussel "bamboozled Sting into flying him down from Canada" to record with The Police during the Montserrat sessions. Andy says he and Stewart tried to talk Sting out of it, but Roussel ended up making a stronger case for his dismissal than Andy and Stewart could make. Apparently, Roussel "smother[ed] everything" with "dense keyboard parts so we end[ed] up sounding like Yes on a bad day." Furthermore, he kept "leaning over his synthesizer every few minutes and playing us one of his riffs and exclaiming, 'Listen to that--boy, if I heard that, I'd love to have it on my album." Sting sent him away after three days. Andy also wrote that he never really thought of this song as a "Police song." Nevertheless, the song would climb to number one in the UK and number three in the US. According to Wikipedia, Sting wrote the song away back in 1976, and an acoustic version of it is played by Sting on a 1977 Strontium 90 album (Strontium 90 was a Mike Howlett Band that included Sting and Summers with guest appearances by Copeland before The Police formed).

In "Lyrics," Sting writes that 1976 "was the year of The Sex Pistols, punk rock, aggressive loud music, violent lyrics, and 'Anarchy in the UK.' And I wrote this song, which tells you how in touch with the times I was."

Answer: Hugh Padgham

The Police and Miles Copeland, Stewart's brother and the band's manager, had had a falling out with Nigel Gray, apparently because of money and because of the band's dissatisfaction with the sound of "Zenyatta Mondatta," their third and previous album. According to the booklet published with The Police's "Message in a Box" collection, Hugh Padgham was "a young, but experienced engineer whose first co-production credit had just appeared on Phil Collins's 'Face Value.'" Padgham would go on to co-produce "Synchronicity," The Police's fifth and final studio album as well as four of Sting's solo albums.

He also has picked up four Grammys of his own.