"Zenyatta Mondatta"--Album Quiz #3

Answer: True

This title was dreamed up by Miles Copeland, Stewart's brother and the band's manager, just as he had created the titles of the band's previous two albums. According to Ray Nikart's "Sting and The Police," Miles Copeland told "Source" radio that the title "resulted from his playing around with different words to describe world domination." Miles had with great genius, foresight, and daring schemed to force The Police on the music world by booking two separate tours that would span the globe (Japan, India, Egypt, Argentina, etc.) before The Police were even well known.

This marketing strategy worked, and The Police would go on to become one of the most influential bands in rock 'n' roll history. These two world tours occurred before and after the production of "Zenyatta Mondatta." Also according to Nikart, another source claims that the title is a combination of the word "Zen," the name of African leader Jomo Kenyatta, and "monde" (the French word for "world").

However, in "Creem" magazine in 1981, Andy Summers stated that the album's title "doesn't mean anything!"

Answer: a triangle

Inside the blue triangle, Sting's and Andy's heads rest at the foundation of the triangle while Stewart's head appears above and between the heads of the other two. Across the top of the apex of the triangle, "The Police" is written in gray letters with criss-crossing lines inside the letters. The background is a horizontal spectrum of colors--yellow, orange, red, and violet.

Answer: 1980

"Zenyatta Mondatta" reached number one on the UK charts and number five on the US charts; thus, it was The Police's most successful album at that time. According to many sources, however, the band members were never really happy with the album's sound. According to Wikipedia, Stewart Copeland said, "We had bitten off more than we could chew. We finished the album at 4 am on the day we were starting our next world tour. . . .

It was cutting it very fine." In Ray Nikart's book "Sting and The Police," Andy Summers said, concerning the rushed recording of the album, "The last night we were putting the tracks in order until four in the morning and we had to leave at eight . . . to go to Belgium to play a gig. We literally had to rush out of the studio, without getting a chance to really think about what we had done or see the tapes through and make sure it was right."

Answer: Don't Stand so Close to Me

Some have for a couple of decades now believed that this song--"Don't Stand so Close to Me"--is about a crush Sting and a student shared while he taught at an all-girl school. However, as Sting says in his 2007 book "Lyrics," "Yes, I was a schoolteacher. No, the song is not autobiographical." In his 2003 book "Broken Music," he explains that in 1974 a headmistress and nun at a school in Cramlington, a mining village north of Newcastle, had seen Sting's name (Gordon Sumner) on a list of those who had qualified to teach that year.

She knew and had taught Sting's very studious and intelligent sister, so she gave him a call. After interviewing for a teaching position, he began work that fall teaching thirty or more eight-year-old boys and girls.

He did not work at an all-girl school, and, it goes without saying, fantasizing about a romance with an eight-year-old child would have been disgusting. On another note, in "Lyrics," Sting explained that he worked "backwards" to write this song, meaning that he came up with the title first and then worked "out a story that it could apply to." Furthermore, he explained, "I'm interested in obsession, and Vladimir Nabokov's 'Lolita' is a fascinating study in dangerous obsession. I transposed this idea to a relationship between a teacher and his pupil." This explains the rhyme of the following lines: "It's no use, he sees her / He starts to shake and cough / Just like the old man in / That book by Nabokov." "Don't Stand so Close to Me" reached number one in the UK and number ten in the US.

By the end of 1980, it was top selling single in the United Kingdom. In 1982, it won the Grammy Award for "Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal."

Answer: Behind My Camel

"Behind My Camel" won this Grammy Award in 1982. The song was completely composed by Andy Summers and was the first of his to appear on a studio album by The Police. According to Wikipedia, both Stewart and Sting never liked the song. Sting reportedly commented, "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." He refused to participate in any part of the recording of the song, so Andy had to play guitar and bass. Stewart remarked that he played on the song only "because there wasn't anyone else to play drums." Nigel Gray, the producer and engineer for this album and The Police's previous two, claimed the title of the song was supposed to be a joke; he explained, "I'm 98% sure the reason is this: what would you find behind a camel? A monumental pile of [censored]."

Answer: The Other Way of Stopping

This song was completely composed by Stewart Copeland. It was usually placed at the end of the album--an appropriate position because of the song's title.

Answer: Driven to Tears

In the booklet that came with The Police's "Message in a Box" collection, Sting said the following about "Driven to Tears": "That was probably the only song I've ever written on the road. I did it very quickly after seeing news of some atrocity on the TV--on the second American tour, I think.

There's a very good Andy solo in there, though it's very short because we only ever let him have eight bars." Stewart added, "The good thing about short guitar solos is that Andy would always compose something of far greater beauty than could be achieved over 32 bars of studio improvisation. On stage, Andy could wail inspiringly for hours." In Sting's 2007 book "Lyrics," Sting further comments concerning this song: "I wonder if we are making any progress at all, or are we now totally immune to the images of horror that appear daily, everywhere we turn?"

Answer: When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around

In Sting's 2007 book "Lyrics" Sting writes, "I swear I had my tongue firmly in my cheek when I composed this misanthropic, postapocalyptic vision. . . . How many of us have these Robinson Crusoe fantasies of surviving some sort of holocaust? Whereas our survival can only be a collective effort." In Ray Nikart's book "Sting and The Police," Stewart Copeland responded, "Well, it is running down . . . .

It feels that in the future we're gonna have to do without things we take for granted. The Third World is a reality.

They can see us now that they all have televisions. They can see how we're living off the fat of what's underneath their earth. They know we're exploiting them; they want to know why haven't they got some of that good stuff. And they're gonna have to get theirs, just like we're gonna have to accommodate them."

Answer: Voices Inside My Head

Concerning this song, Sting wrote in his book "Lyrics" that one time a man approached him in Heathrow Airport, quoted the two lines of the song, and then asked Sting, "Who is 'you'?" referring to the "you" at the end of the second line of the song. Sting didn't know how to answer the man and stood and stared at him.

His plane was called, and as Sting walked away and down the concourse, the man continued to yell, "Who is 'you,' brother? Who is 'you'?" Sting wrote, "I smiled weakly at my curious fellow travelers, the challenging koan ringing in my ears, and resolved that I'd have to be less vague in whatever I wrote in the future. Somebody somewhere might be taking me seriously."

Answer: Canary in a Coalmine

"Firenze" is the Italian city in the Tuscany region that English speakers refer to as "Florence." Sting incorporated the name into "Canary in a Coalmine" to make one of the most interesting rhymes: "You say you want to spend the winter in Firenze / You're so afraid to catch a dose of influenza." On the "Around the World" film of The Police's two multi-country tours, one can listen to Sting playing the bass part to this song with no other musical or vocal accompaniment; it's rather melodious and catchy actually.

Answer: Shadows in the Rain

Sting composed this song and would later re-interpret it, giving it a jazzier sound, to place it on his first solo album "Dream of the Blue Turtles." It is the only Police song that he has recorded on one of his studio solo albums.

Answer: Bombs Away

In addition to the instrumental piece "The Other Way of Stopping," Stewart Copeland also composed this song--"Bombs Away"--and got Sting to sing it for the recording on the album. Some of the lyrics are, "The President looks in the mirror and speaks / His shirts are clean but his country reeks / Unpaid bills / In Afghanistan hills." This song and Sting's "Driven to Tears" are really the first songs The Police recorded that included current political issues.

Answer: Man in a Suitcase

In his 2007 "Lyrics," Sting claims that this song is autobiographical. He relates, "I've spent the last thirty years living in hotels. I can't even unpack when I get home. My suitcase just sits there in the corner of the room, sullen and accusatory . . . " A live recording of The Police performing this song can be found on some 1983 releases of the "Every Breath You Take" single.

Answer: De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da

"De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" was The Police's first American hit since "Roxanne"; it reached number ten on the US charts. The song fared better in Britain, where it reached a height of number five. In "Lyrics," Sting explains, "I was trying to write an articulate song about being inarticulate. I had always been intrigued by songs like 'Da Doo Ron Ron,' 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy,' 'Be Bop a Lula,' and 'Tutti Frutti.' There was an innocence about them.

They weren't trying to be coherent. The lyrics were just pure sound." Many critics, however, misunderstood the song, and its serious and philosophical message was lost on them. Ray Nikart in "Sting and The Police" quotes Andy Summers on this matter: "I think that's one of the best lyrics Sting's ever written. . . .

A lot of people confuse that, which is very annoying--like, 'he's written this baby chorus,' and they've totally taken it out of context. This is what is said in the verse; the chorus makes absolute sense."

Answer: Don't Stand So Close to Me

Sting was at the recording studio of Montserrat when Dire Straits was recording "Money for Nothing" and was invited to provide backing vocals during the chorus. He also added the "I want my / I want my / I want my MTV" lines at the beginning and end of the song, which of course were sung to the chorus melody from "Don't Stand So Close to Me." He never expected any credit or acknowledgment and was extremely embarrassed when A&M, Sting's recording company, demanded Sting be given co-authorship credit for the song and thus royalties. On another note, "Don't Stand So Close to Me" was re-recorded for inclusion on the 1986 "Every Breath You Take: The Singles." This version of the song reached number twenty-four in the UK and number forty-six in the US.

In the booklet published with The Police's compilation "Message in a Box," Andy Summers states that he prefers the original to the '86 version.