According to the latest ranking by ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine, Andrew James Summers (Blackpool, England, 31 December 1942) He was ranked 85th among the best guitarists in history. Rockbut as everyone knows, no 84 most influential guitarists more than Andy Summers in rock history. This blond, petite man with the Harpo Marx vibe blows out the candles on the last day of the year, and this time it’s hard to believe, autumn of the 80sa happy reason to celebrate the six-string (and technological accessories) musician He created the sound of The Policeone of the most important, characteristic and popular bands of its time and to this day.
Born in the middle of World War II to an RAF father and a mother who worked in a bomb factory, Summers was the eldest brother of the trio despite conquering sales and charts. I don’t like getting full marks from criticism.. Of course, they were crooks who took advantage of the punk rebellion and the ensuing ‘new wave’ to dye their hair platinum blonde, squeezing a few songs into under two minutes and hitting the top.
Conflict with Padovani
They lacked the specific pedigree the time required: you had to be authentic and play bad, this last situation that did not occur in any of the three members of the group. Sting (bass, vocals) came from jazz, Stewart Copeland (drums) had a musical education and a history of giving up in hippie bands, and stray Summers (ten years older than the other two) had studied classical guitar and ultimate excommunication. He played five-minute solos with Eric Burdon’s Animals.
At a time when a hundred groups a week in London and it’s hard to break, The job of the police was not easy.: concerts in front of four cats in stinking clubs where spit reigns and, of course, zero record sales. If a hair is missing in this soup of misery and doubt, the lead guitarist was another, Henri Padovani, a Corsican who had gone too far as a punk. Well, he had a lot of attitude but he played so badAnd so they were not going anywhere. Sting precious compositions full of potential that need skilled hands, enriching notes, prominent sparks. Hi Andy.
To be precise, Summers was responsible for Padovani’s departure, but as she rhetorically asks in her memoirs (“The Train I Didn’t Miss”, Global Rhythm editorial, 2006), where exactly did the Corsican have to go? from a group that is absolutely nothing? “Sting and Stewart are on the battlefield with a man whose sword isn’t as sharp as it should be.It’s summers. Everyone saw the weak side of this project, and over the years everyone agreed that with that guitar player the Police would stick to one of the slogans of that era: “There is no future”.
capo chords
Standing shoulder to shoulder with Eric Clapton and even Jimi Hendrix, with whom he had a few guitar hits at a studio meeting, Summers got the job because was a musician with a direct idea It married like a glove to what Sting was after. “The typical barre chords used in pop or rock – he says in his book – seem dead to me devoid of the slightest trace of ambiguity: a barre chord is the sound of a room with all its doors and windows closed”.
There is controversy over the use of capo, but the truth is that Sting went with the solid body of the movies ‘Roxanne’, ‘So Lonely’, ‘Message in a Bottle’ or ‘Walking on the Moon’ and Summers gave them a bounty. that you turn them into winning numbers. He developed them in a style that was later profusely imitated. It created a sound – and herein lies the key to its historical validity. And something that arouses suspicion in both the band and the punk whirlwind, who at first saw him as an overamphetamine-fueled hooligan blast that musically separated him by an abyss: “i come from another time And I still cling to bourgeois values like stupidly wanting to master my instrument.
Of course, he was talented, from the guitar where he got the first calluses on his fingers, to the Spanish guitar his uncle gave him when he was 10, to the guitar that blessed him with The Police, an old 1961 Fender. No modified Telecaster was created with a Gibson dual coil pickup, which is decisive in the resulting sound. He bought it for $200 in Los Angeles from a financially distressed kid who was also permanently technically bankrupt and barely making a living teaching at such an hour. “I would say it’s worth a million dollars today, but it would be like giving my soul. That guitar changed my life”. No less capital was the inclusion of an Echoplex pedal that provided the echoes and echoes that ended the ‘police seal’ and later hung a red Stratocaster to end their days on the road.
A staggering amount of records sold and hundreds of concerts in places where rock hadn’t come close at the time (Egypt, India, Hong Kong), plus victory at Shea Stadium in New York with a huge crowd not seen since the Beatles, He “millions of kilometers and three marriages.” “It’s owned. It was then that almost everyone laughed, thanking themSo much so that the song “Behind my camel”, which Summers unbelievably managed to sneak into the album “Zenyatta Mondatta”, won a Grammy award for best rock instrumental piece.
The source of ‘every breath you take’
But magma was conducive to jealousy and quarrels Not only is he married, but in a threesome, Sting is a little ahead every day. They ended their breakup in 1984 after five amazing albums and countless hits, especially after the indescribable ‘Every Breath You Take’, which we know as we know with the inspiration of Summers despite the singer’s signature. Sting had recorded the demo with a Hammond organ that had little to do with the band’s record label. They thought a lot in the studio, not without it heated debate, because they were going through a high peak of cross grudgesuntil Summers grabbed the bull by the horns and recorded the song that would make the song hit by the beast.
In 2007, their resentment faded. The Police returned with a 150-concert world tour that fueled nostalgia and earned them a million dollars a night. “But a million for each,” Summers said occasionally. The Olympic stadium in Barcelona was the only Spanish stop on that ‘tour’.
After the adventure of his life, Summers turned to recordings, alone or with old friends such as Robert Fripp, as well as photography, where he has published several books and mounted exhibitions. He remarried Kate, the woman he had successfully divorced, and is living in California, albeit a bit at home, given his active social networks that have permanently positioned him here and there. Passed by Cáceres a few weeks ago and borrowed a street musician’s guitar for a few bars and now mingled with some Italians named 40 Fingers to record a version of ‘Bring on the night’. Still going 80, always in tune. until the last note.