Added: 3 years ago
From: 101stairbourne
Views: 233,728
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:

All Comments (312)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • What the hell does "eciloP ehT - dlroW lairetaM eht ni stiripS" mean?

  • dear god, I'm so glad I was raised listening to the Police

  • We are definitely what this song's title proclaims. Someday (very soon, I pray/hope) it will be completely different.

  • Try and play this bass line and sing the melody at the same time. Pretty damn tough. Even Sting himself changed the verse bass part live to something easier and less notey.

  • @hopelessdrugaddict From one troll to another, happy new year!!!

  • classic song

  • Comment removed

  • sheeeeeeeeeeeeee it you live your hell i'll live mine....sting has it right

  • Lol at the comments blow. What about Puff Daddy's Version of "Every Breath You (I) Take". His fellow Gangter rapper Big E Whateveritwas mean so much to him that he couldn't even write his own lyrics. Instead he had to rip off a song about a stalker. Very big lol.Chill out dude.

  • Song really comes into it's on at 1:40. #RideTheBeat

  • Adoro!

  • @Peopleitsbad While I agree with you, I think they're referring to the heavy synth-driven sound, which took over in the late 1980s. This was in 1981.

  • @hopelessdrugaddict I think the music is for everyone yes? What better way to broaden one's tastes than to explore new genres?

  • I love Stink.

  • Ok For everyone who thinks they know music. Sting as performed on several hip hop songs. Evidently the writer producer of the Police catalog can appreciate hip hop. Just because you don't like a certain genre of music, is no reason to trash it or call it junk.

  • @AEMoreira81 I actually thought it was at least three or four years older than it was myself. For 1981, it was definitely ahead of its time.

  • only a couple views and the last view was about 6 days ago! eek!

  • Still a bit hard to believe that this song is from 1981---it sounds ahead of its time. Before I knew who The Police were, I thought it was from the late 1980s.

  • 5 people must not believe in Spirits in the Material World.

  • temon de the police porfa pongan un en vivo !!!!

  • the bass line is awesome

  • May I recommend the book 'A Concise Guide To Eighties Music' by Karl Vorderman. The author is a big fan of this track.

  • New Wave baby! New Wave ;-)

  • Comment removed

  • Comment removed

  • i was number 186,000..dont i get a prize or somethin?

  • One of their best songs. It still sounds powerful and fresh.

  • When did Jay Z make music?

  • I want the liryc's!!

  • Our so-called leaders speak

    with words they try to jail you

    they subjugate the meek

    but it's the rhetoric of failure

  • the police are from another world....sooooo smoooth

  • you gotta love stewart copeland...

  • They are right, Jay-Z is an artist, he's just a pretty poor one.

  • who can compose such exceptional music? except poilce !!

  • @shnrl Pink Floyd, Tool, Opeth, to name a few...

  • Lyrics matter.

  • jay z is awful please do not compare art to crap

  • @joey523006 i once saw a scupture made of shit, best use of Ke$ha albums by far.

  • @joey523006 99 Problems Instrumental is very good actually.

  • @joey523006 - Thank you for sayin that

  • Comment removed

  • @joey523006 YES

  • love that bass....

  • Comment removed

  • me too

  • Sting's bass playing on this is outstanding. There is no defined downbeat or backbeat, really free form stuff. Kind of a floating line. Gives the song a mystical quality.

  • I've been looking for this song for nigh-on 5 years now.

  • I'm learning how to play bass because of sting....love the way it sounds

  • Sting was having one hell of a tantric orgasm when he wrote this one!

  • stewart Copeland is my idol

  • @Zeppelinfan25 Best Drummer!

  • This song is for all the died people in Oslo.Everybody is living alone but we need to life together.

  • This song is for all the died people in Oslo.

  • This song melody, chorus play, lyrics really rock and will do forever. Minimalistically SIMPLE YET BEAUTIFUL.

  • first time I see a video with SMART "best voted" posts

    see any other music video of an old famous band, they're filled with ignorants who think they listen to "REAL MUSIC", i laugh my ass off when i hear or see that term

  • this song is STUCK IN MAH HEAD ARGGGG

  • Wow this is what the US is going through... I always loved this song but now its more true than EVER!!

  • Some of these comments are why YouTube should not have comments. They make no sense. The Police are, well, The Police. How can you argue with that? Sting is, well, Sting. They are amazingly creative musicians.

  • spirits in a material world===ghosts in the machine!!!

  • Man, following the beat is a bitch - I never catch it right until the third verse. 

  • I read somewhere this was Dennis Wilson's favorite new wave group . He died the year this came out in 1983

  • @ericp22

    This song came out in 1981.

  • The Police are the best. Right up there with Hall and Oates, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, and The Doobie Brothers.

  • I used to listen to this while playing Doom. For some reason, they fit really well together...

  • One of the best bass lines ever...

  • Ooo ow split ends in my material!

  • to mminer58 all art appears legit to you, but not those that have discriminating taste, you have to ackowledge that discrimination has other meanings than the politically correct notion, it used to mean quality over quantity, a masterpiece, etc. But people have let the words become debased and have forgotten the multiple meanings existant, I would say if one were comparing Jay_z to this one might as well compare a toyota to a ferrari, it serves no purpose to even try that, life's short.

  • @econogate Point well taken. I will say this: In order for a movie, or an actor, or a short story, or a poem, or a piece of music, to be considered legit, it has to be good first. The newest this or that doesn't automatically qualify it as legit. But when an artist - like, say, Jay Z - can fill Madison Square Garden, wouldn't you agree that his art is reaching out and touching people, stirring their emotions? Isn't that what art is supposed to do? I like jazz music too. I feel I have good taste

  • Nobody was playing guitar like this, you have to consider how inventive this was back then, everyone was still doing pop songs with simple chords and instead of just doing the same thing Summers was actually trying to incorporate something different instead, so they still stand out, whereas with modern music most artists country or rap are just toying around with established forms, this music was different it incorporated into pop something mostly absent, jazz chording as well as reggae time.

  • this is SKA roots! BIG uP for the police!

  • oh wow

  • This is first-class music!

  • is a gread song

  • during my teenage years i used to listen to the police intensively and i remember listening songs over and over and paying attention to the different sound layers: bass, keyboards, guitar, voice, drums... and all seemed so well constructed and in place... truly one of the finest bands ever.

  • ah yes. the Ghost in the Machine tapes. the group at it's best.

  • you subjucate the meaning ....... but its the rhetoric of failure .....

    And the fact is - we actually ARE spirits in the material world....

    But apparently no-one listens to the lyrics...

    which gives it a gilt edge don't you think?

  • sneaky bass, haunting keyboards, copeland's schizo drumming; great song through and through.

  • @ChachaChapati

    What about Summers? He's got excellent chops and his input as well as Copeland's (though he's not shy about correcting the truth) has been underrated. I remember reading that Sumner would bring a embryonic piece that was essentially a folk-song; Summers and Copeland would have their way with the song and it becomes 'The Police'.

  • @Charybdys

    Summers is great; can't hear his guitar too well on this song (though you can hear it). He and Copeland brought a lot to the band, no question. I'm just analyzing his contribution in this song.

  • very very very very gooddddddddddddddddddddddddddd­dddddddddddddddddddd

  • The Police - what a great, great group. Absolutely adored this song. Everything they did was EXCELLENT. Talk about "material" - now they HAD MATERIAL and knew how to work it as well!!!!! Thank you so much for this post.

  • R U Kidding?

    this beat!!!!

  • This song is referenced in the book "6 Newly Discovered and Never Before Published Secrets to Eternal Youth and Immortality" published by Eternal Youth Empire.

    A very special thank you to Martin Gore of Depeche Mode for promoting this on his IMDB page :)

  • ahh bassline kicks caus it moves around the downbeat

  • did you notice this is a 3D picture!!

  • I LOVE THIS BASS LINE! REALLY GOOD SHIT ! How can anyone listen to this and not want to get up & dance?

  • Let's not cut down rap or compare to Jay-Z. All art is legit. Let us celebrate the genius of The Police. Groups like this only come around once a decade. They were special, their music was special. Much love to The Police, to hip hop, mellow, hard rock, and all the rest. The Police were brilliant!

  • @mminer58 Word! How did a debate on Rap/Hip Hop start on this post any way?!!

  • Comment removed

  • @mminer58 Good words!

  • @mminer58 Well said. Rap and hip hop have been very creative and progressive in all genres of music and all over the world. Rap and hip hop are very universal in their core elements. Even The Police appropriated the very creative and progressive style of reggae in this and their other works.

  • @mminer58 Well said...

  • @mminer58 If by "legit" you mean all art is good, then I disagree. I wouldn't even say all art is original or unique. However, all art that is original is worth giving a chance. And I certainly do agree in the "to each their own" philosophy. I have nothing to say against groups that simply don't fit my personal style of music: talent is talent, no matter where it is; is this what you mean? Either way, I agree that bands like this show up only once in a rare while. :)

  • @mminer58 sorry but i'm still gonna cut down rap it's garbage. I'm glad you realize the decade when real talent was present. RAP IS RIPPOFFS NO TALENT GARBAGE!!!!

  • @buhoglive HA Ha ha, I said the same thing about the Police back in the day for ripping off the reggae sound, but I came to really dig them as a band, and hip hop is an valid art form, It is the dominant musical force all over the world, you can hear it in various forms in China, Israel, France,Britain,South America, Through out the whole continent of Africa as well as in Arabic and non Arabic Muslim countries, and Hundreds of millions of people can't all be wrong!!!!

  • @mminer58 more like once in a generation.

  • @mminer58 I'd say groups like this only come around once in a generation.

  • @starlingdavidhunter3 I was thinking the same thing; once a generation. Once a decade? Nope...

  • I remember my friend 30 years ago finding a cassette of Ghosts in a schoolyard and giving it to me as he knew The Police were my favourite group :)

  • Basically, Rap is not bad. It's just that every other type of music is a couple miles or hundred miles ahead of Rap.

  • @unbelivableLP I agree. Not all rap is bad. When Hip-Hop first came on the scene, from that point on, up until about the early 90's, rappers were actually talented and their lyrics actually had a deep cause/message or point they were trying to get across to the audience. Now todays rappers have taken the art of lyric writing and made it all about making money, exploiting women, promoting violence and putting together cheap beats and lyrics and then charging people to listen to it.

  • @CxHxRxIxSxTxIxAxN Im talking about rap that we hear these days and yes I know that earlier rap was alot better.

  • brilliant hypnotic protest song..i agree..i dont like politics either ..i'm a wolfspirit..in the material world lol

  • I read on another posting of this song that some people think that Sting isn't a good bass player. Even Sting was questioning his basslines when he asked Darryl Jones that question.

    IMO sting had some GREAT bass lines. Listen to this one, Walking On The Moon, King of Pain, Roxanne etc...

    Sting plays the bass like a composer. He gives the song exactly what it needs.

    No need to be a Jaco or a Stanley. Playing that way only impresses bass players anyways.

    Bravo Sting!

  • @ocean4315 besides he's an great singer too, what people forget sometimes...

  • @ocean4315 Sting played bass in a medium where virtuoso playing was not part of the game. IDK why nowadays people judge a musician by how many notes they can hit in a minute. Music is about the attention given to those notes, and Sting has always been about that. We need to quit rating musicians. First off if you aren't one you are an idiot to speak of something you have never done. Second if you are one you should probably practice more and speak less.

  • @ocean4315 Just noticed the @ may make people think that I was criticizing something ocean4315 was saying, the opposite,I only used reply bc I couldn't find the comment he was criticizing. Rock on.

  • so much hate here is sad,music is music,is positive,why so much energy wasted complaining,??read the lyric my friends,,,PEACE in 2011,robert o'rourke

  • MAN THIS SONG IS STILL FUNKY.A REAL UNIQUE BEAT.STILL JAMMIN MAN.

  • WHAT A BEAT THIS SONG STILL HAS.GREAT SONG.

  • @MrTrackfreek Isnt this for real!!!!!!! The Police away of time in Music!!!!

  • quite an erra when it came to bands like the police,the who, and countless others we can still rock out to this day.....

  • Great song by one of the greatest bands ever. I remember when the Ghost In The Machine album was released in 1981 and this was the 1st single of the album. Such great memories.

  • binka wants to eat ass

  • Man, I'm 16 and i love this song, but no one at my school knows The Police.

    Someone can rap about peanut butter and sex these days and get a grammy, and I'm like WTF

  • @keyfreeman yaa i know Lol

  • The title sums up our existence perfectly.

  • gr8 song..one of their best

  • @binka21 ur last comment made absolutely no sense.

  • @101stairbourne If you read my comment backwards it says "!!!enruob.s ,secah nóveug sam oiratnemoc euQ" En fin, Bacana la canción!!!!!!

  • god I love the bass in this song!!!!!

  • 2 dislikes?

    Really, how????

  • @DontGetMeStarte76 -Obviously, they have 0 taste in music!

  • EXELLENT SONG...!!!

  • Can anyone say SNARE?

  • One of the first police albums I bought. I worked my way backwards from there.

  • Was never a huge Police fan BUT this song has a HARD DRIVING AWESOME BEAT that sends chills up your spine

  • We are Spirits, in the Material World

  • You can't compare rap/hip-hop or other genre that's totally different from the police no matter the period of time. Music is music for what it is......hip-hop was the best around the 1980s and way into the mid 90s. Let's just enjoy the music and appreciate it no matter the genre or the colour of skin of the singer. I'm certain The Police don't give a crap so I don't think why we, the general public should care as well.

  • is the synth from a guitar synthesizer?

  • @boibad12 A Seqencial Circuits Prophet 10 synthesizer

  • Classic. Nuff sed.

  • The beat...the lyrics....such a classic. Timeless...

  • Bit of Ska

  • One of my all time faves.....

  • "There is no political solution"...

  • this an inmortal song motherfuckers!!!

  • s**t yes is this the

  • yes this is the shit

  • i heard this on the radio and i thought it was bob marley 4 a sec

  • @badbrain8032 hmm

  • @badbrain8032 i heard this on the radio and i thought it was bob marley 4 a sec

    Bad ears, too.

  • i prefer the other version with string and pato banton it's more melo

  • im 17 im love this music, i laugh at everyone in school who thinks there cool for liking the most generic and annoying radio rap music

  • @ComeOriginal123 thats right!!!

  • @ComeOriginal123 im tur nin 17 next sunday and i feel you me brother!

  • one of the best bands ever!

  • nice nice nice material world nice

  • This still beats todays gay-ass raps songs, fuck off drake and Jay-z. I heard this on the radio I was like :D Ohh yeahhhh

  • @Jambander481 AMEN!!!! (C)RAP SUCKS!!!

  • @Jambander481 fuck you raps good also asshole

  • @tec1314 : Thank you... different art is still art.  This is good shit. So is Jay-Z. So is Mozart. So is Picasso. Show some respect, even if you don't like it.

  • @ricnlayla stick your jay z up your j azz punk!

    the police made music not ass wipe shit crap!!!!

  • @ThunderBeaner : LMAO!!!  Okay, dude. :)

  • @ricnlayla Jay-Z who the hell is Jay-Z. I only know of Jay and silent Bob

  • @ricnlayla Well said. Just because one person doesn't like a music artist, entertainer, painter or composer doesn't mean they're worthless, kaput. That's like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Even a song that's as awful as Rebecca Black's "Friday" has at least one thing going for it: It IS catchy, in my opinion, and I can see why some people like it. I can disagree and even argue over it, but I won't keep someone who likes it from liking it, nor will I resort to petty personal attacks.

  • @ricnlayla Time and place, time and place my friend.

  • @SuperiorSwagon1 : Right on. Think I'll just listen to the song again. :)

  • Comment removed

  • @ricnlayla Please do not refer to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's music with the same qualitative term you refer to Jay-Z's with, they aren't on the same playing field, at all.

  • @ricnlayla . I dig !

  • @ricnlayla Regardless, not all so-called "art" is good. And just because it's labeled "art", that doesn't mean it is "art". And should Rap that glorifies gangs, illiegal activity, etc. be labeled "art"?

  • @ricnlayla Wrong Jay-Z sucks shit his lyrics are boneheaded crap, his voice sucks, and the music is made by machines. Don't even try and put that shit in the same category as real music. He only made it big because a bunch of stupid wiggers thought it would make them hard to listen to a Jay Z album.

  • @damonstube keyboards, basses, and guitars are technically machine, but the difference is they take skill and intelligence to use, but mminer58 is right, even his music is shitty we should talk shit because some people like it and we're not going to stop them from listeing by being assholes.

  • @hitopsful you can talk shit about it, that isn't going to stop people from listening to it. I mean really your post sounds like the intolerance will not be tolerated episode of south park lol...lets not be so politically correct, its ok to have opinions

  • @MattThermer oops i meant shouldn't talk shit LOL

  • @Jambander481-  technically rap cannot be called music because it isn't follow the classifications of music. It's more like poetry set to a drum beat. My friend actually told me what rap stands for. R.A.P.= Retards Attempt at Poetry