h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Really good and comprehensive article. I was looking out for a mention of 'Bring On The Night' though (the song, not the Sting live album) which has, quite possibly, the finest guitar solo ever. Yeah, I know. OK, the finest guitar solo expectation ever then... it just builds up as feedback and then breaks into a few distorted chops. Subtle. Lovely.

Hi there! Thanks for the compliment, on behalf of Catwoman. She'll probably pop in later on to thank you herself.

Whoami?

Thanks, Dan - I'm glad you enjoyed the entry.

I agree with you entirely about Bring on the Night being a fine song, although being a drummer I'm not terribly aware of things like guitar solos - I'll take your word for it being great. The only reason it didn't get mentioned specifically is that there are too many other great songs on Reggatta de Blanc. Mind you, it doesn't come close to The Bed's Too Big Without You in my book.

Hi there, !

What Dan said. And I can't believe I have now seen someone state that "Mother" was a highlight of 'Synchronicity.' Although, I like it, most people I know hate that song.

There's one tiny thing incorrect in the end bit about Stewart, though: "Released an LP entitled Oysterhead in 2001 with the guitarist from Phish and the bass player from Primus."

The Oysterhead album is actually called 'The Grand Pecking Order.' Nitpicky, yes, but I happen to rather like that album (and the tour happened to be my first, and probably only opportunity to see Stewart Copeland perform live).

Anyway, well done!

Hello J.,

It's always going to be one of those things about entries (particularly those about bands) - they are to a greater or lesser degree subjective. 'Mother' was one of the songs that introduced me to music that didn't have to follow the usual pattern - nice guitar riff, lyrics that were pleasantly sung, standard lyrical theme, played in 4/4 time. I completely understand why some people, especially Police fans would hate the song (I'm pretty sure I did back in 1983) but I now think that was just because I wasn't broad-minded enough to accept anything so out of the ordinary (I'm not necessarily accusing 'Mother'-haters of being narrow-minded - this is my experience).

I wanted to include a reference to it for those people who only know the band for their singles - to my mind it demonstrates a superb 'other side' to The Police.

Thanks for pointing out the error about the Stewart Copeland LP - I was given that bit of info while the entry was in Peer Review but didn't check out the authenticity (tut! tut!) I'll do my best to get the error fixed. Is the LP any good? What sort of stuff is it? I've got precious little stuff by Copeland outside of The Police and would be interested in hearing it. Go on - persuade me to buy it, I challenge you!

I love that [i]Rumble Fish[/i] soundtrack, and [i]The Rhythmatist[/i] sounds great even now. I was working in a warehouse in the King's Road when that came out, and Stewart Copeland came in to pick some purchases up. I helped him out to his car and asked him if [i]The Rhythmatist[/i] video was going to be released and he was very polite and said he hoped it would be out soon. Never heard any more of it. I think it was a safari video or something? All seems a long time ago now.

I like the Oysterhead album a lot and I liked the live show even more. The band is an odd mix of all three of the bands its members are in while not really sounding a lot like any of them. The biggest downside is that the band is a "supergroup" and hadn't really been playing together for very long before the album was recorded. So, the album was made when the band was just starting to gel a bit. I saw them 2/3 of the way through the tour and things had really come together and a lot of the songs had grown beyond their incarnations on the album. That said, the songwriting is good and the playing is solid on the album. I enjoy it a lot and it has spent a good amount of time in my disc player in the last 2 months. Just don't expect it to sound like the Police (or Phish).