In my life, “The Police” have been one of my most favorite bands. I’ve got every album they produced – including the really early punk stuff. But until recently, I really didn’t count Andy Summers as one of my guitar heroes. Sure, he was solid, he created some lasting licks (think: Message in a Bottle), but I never thought of him as someone whom I’d look to as a “Guitar God.” All that changed when I saw The Police in concert this past Wednesday, June 13, 2007.
When the announcement was made that The Police were coming to SF Bay Area a few months ago I was ecstatic! I immediately called my best friend Dave (another big Police fan) to see if he’d like to go to the concert. No way would our wives accompany us – it would be a guys’ night out; two guys who had missed the chance to see them over 20 years ago, and we were going, come hell or high water!
I anxiously waited for the day when the tickets were put on sale, and once they were, I snagged a couple of incredible seats though while a bit distant from the stage, were situated dead-center of the stage. On top of that, there would be a walkway in front of us, so we’d have a perfect, unimpeded view of the band. In fact, our seats were level with the stage! As I said, perfect, save for the distance. But in today’s multimedia world, we didn’t miss much with the big screens projecting constant, live video from the stage.
All right… I’ve talked about the seats. Let’s move on to the gist of this entry, shall we?
Never having seen Andy Summers perform, I had no idea just how incredible of a guitarist he is! As the night wore on, I became increasingly transfixed by his technique and utter mastery of the guitar. It’s really hard to describe, but the best description I can give of his guitar playing is that it’s a perfect economy in notes and timing. He plays nothing more or less than what is EXACTLY needed for a particular phrase. If he needs to play fill in with a lot of notes, he does it. If the phrase calls for long, bended notes, he does it, and his execution is PERFECT!
There’s no trickery, no flashiness in Andy Summers’ playing. Most of the time he stands on stage with a dour expression on his face – but as a musician myself, I know that he’s completely immersed in the music he plays. He doesn’t need to shred (though he demonstrated that he has the chops to do so), nor he does he feel a pressing need to jump around on stage. He just does his thing and he’s a complete wizard with his Strat. He makes that friggin’ thing sing!
Add to the fact that all three members of the band are dynamically comping against each other, and what you’ve got is an incredible sound. Some three-piece bands sound just like three-piece bands. The Police sound like there are a lot more instruments than a three-piece band, and Andy Summers is hugely responsible for that.
As I have about an hour to commute into work, still on a high from the concert, I set my iPod to play my Police collection this morning. The thing that really hit me as I listened, is that the recordings really didn’t do justice to how good of a guitar player Andy Summers is. Granted, he’s really tight in the studio, but after seeing him finally play live, I now know what kind of sound he’s capable of producing. And that’s the gist of this whole entry: Because he just quietly goes about doing his own thing, I think he’s totally overlooked as a master of the guitar. This author now believes he’s experienced true greatness.
Props to you, Andy Summers! You’ll always be on my list of “Guitar Gods!”
Guitar Gear 
Absolutely man, Andy rocks. I was like you, not really aware of him during The Police years. But, I actually got into him when I heard lots of his jazz playing, and he’s a total master craftsman. I can’t believe you went to see one of their reunion shows, that’s awesome, I’m super jealous! I’ve been hearing lots about the reunion tour, and there was a lot of hoopla after their second show, when they totally messed up their intro. I think the drummer even wrote something about it on his blog. They just kinda laughed it away…
IG
This is what the drummer Stewart Copeland said about the gig I mentioned above. It’s at his website (http://www.stewartcopeland.net/), but there’s no direct link to the forum:
“Whenever you’re ready Mr. Copeland” says Charlie, the production manager, as two crew members hold aside the giant gong, creating just enough space for me to slither onto my percussion stage, which is still down in its pit. I leap on board but my foot catches something and I sprawl into the arena in a jumble as the little stage starts to rise into view. Never mind. The audience is screaming with anticipation as I collect myself in the dark and start to warm, up the gong with a few gentle taps. But I’m overdoing it. It’s resonating and reaching it’s crescendo before the stage has fully reached its position. Sort of like a premature ejaculation. There’s nothing for it so I take a big swing for the big hit. Problem is, I’m just fractionally too far away and the beater misses the sweet spot and the big pompous opening to the show is a damp squib. Never mind.
I stride manfully to my drums. Andy has started the opening guitar riff to MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE and the crowd is going nuts. Problem is, I missed hearing him start. Is he on the first time around or the second? I look over at Sting and he’s not much help, his cue is me – and I’m lost. Never mind. “Crack!” on the snare and I’m in, so Sting starts singing. Problem is, he heard my crack as two in the bar, but it was actually four – so we are half a bar out of sync with each other. Andy is in Idaho.
Well we are professionals so we soon get sorted, but the groove is eluding us. We crash through MESSAGE and then go strait into SYNCHRONICITY. But there is just something wrong. We just can’t get on the good foot. We shamble through the song and hit the big ending. Last night Sting did a big leap for the cut-off hit, and he makes the same move tonight, but he gets the footwork just a little bit wrong and doesn’t quite achieve lift-off. The mighty Sting momentarily looks like a petulant pansy instead of the god of rock. Never Mind. Next song is going to be great…
But it isn’t. We get to the end of the first verse and I snap into the chorus groove – and Sting doesn’t. He’s still in the verse. We’ll have to listen to the tapes tomorrow to see who screwed up, but we are so off kilter that Sting counts us in to begin the song again. This is ubeLIEVably lame. We are the mighty Police and we are totally at sea.
And so it goes, for song after song. All I can think about is how Dietmar is going to string us up. In rehearsal this afternoon we changed the keys of EVERY LITTLE THING and DON’T STAND SO CLOSE so needless to say Andy and Sting are now on-stage in front of twenty thousand fans playing avant-garde twelve-tone hodgepodges of both tunes. Lost, lost, lost. I also changed my part for DON’T STAND and it’s actually working quite well but there is a dissonant noise coming from my two colleagues. In WALKING/FOOTSTEPS, I worked out a cool rhythm change for the rock-a-billy guitar solo, but now I make a complete hash of it – by playing it in the wrong part of the song. It’s not sounding so cool.
It usually takes about four or five shows in a tour before you get to the disaster gig. But we’re The Police so we are a little ahead of schedule. It’s only the second show (not counting the fan gig – 4,000 people doesn’t count as a gig in the Police scale of things).
When we meet up back-stage for the first time after the set and before the encores, we fall into each other’s arms laughing hysterically. Above our heads, the crowd is making so much noise that we can’t talk. We just shake our heads ruefully and head back up the stairs to the stage. Funny thing is, we are enjoying ourselves anyway. Screw it, it’s only music. What are you gonna do? But maybe it’s time to get out of Vancouver…
HAHAHAHAHA!!! Reminds of that “Bad Guitar Day” blog entry of yours!
GoofyDawg
You’re right! That is totally bad guitar day for Da Poohleez…
IG
Loved reading your article and I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion. Andy deserves to be named among the best, especially considering his style and technique and working his strat .
Regards from another huge fan residing in the Netherlands, Europe..
– Henry
Thanks for the support! I was actually considering closing the blog a couple of months ago, but it just has taken on a life of its own!