Stewart Copeland recently joined The Bob Lefsetz Podcast for a conversation about one of The Police’s biggest hits, ‘Roxanne.’ During the interview, the drummer recalled his first impression of the song and admitted it wasn’t a positive one. Copeland explained:
“I was the one cracking the punk whip. No, we’ve got to be punk. We’ve got to be punk. And they’re saying, ‘Can’t we just play? I gave it a drum beat that was kind of bass-ackwards and made it into a Police song. It wasn’t punk-o-rama, but it was still a rock song, even though it was kind of a lament. It was a throwaway song.”
Fortunately, Copeland’s brother Miles joined the discussion about ‘Roxanne’ and assured him that the song would be enjoyed by their fans. He recalled his brothers’ comments and added:
“It was my brother Miles who put his finger on it. That’s what he does. He provides dumbass. Which is, forget musicality, sophistication. He hears it, ‘Folks are going to love this. And I don’t care if it’s any good or not, but I do know folks are going to love this.’”
Stewart Copeland Hates Another Police Hit
‘Roxanne’ wasn’t the only Police song Copeland had an issue with. In a 2020 interview with Ultimate Classic Rock Nights, the drummer talked about why he hated Police’s ‘Message In A Bottle’ from the 1979 album ‘Reggatta de Blanc.’ According to Stewart, the song had too many drum overdubs. He stated:
“If I’m driving along in my car and a tune comes on the radio, I’ll listen to it. There are some things I would have done a little differently now. At the end of ‘Message in a Bottle,’ there are too many drum overdubs. It’s such a great song, and then it comes to the end, and I switch over to another station because I screwed up.”
The Police drummer also mentioned he wished Andy Summer would have interfered with his drum parts as he usually did. Stewart said:
“Where was Andy at that moment? He was a really good filter for all that, because we all overdid it; and then usually Andy would say, ‘No, too much. too much Less is more.’ And he was right, usually. Where was he when I needed him at the end of ‘Message in a Bottle’?”
Even though ‘Roxanne’ didn’t become a big success when it was first released in 1978, it later became one of The Police’s most popular songs of all time.
You can listen to The Police’s ‘Roxanne’ on YouTube below.
