I played in a Police cover band and spent years dissecting his: tone, effects, chords and playing style, He is a great influence & inspiration to me as a musician. Andy is a phenomenal guitar player.
I still feel badly The Police didn't find their way back to each other more permanently. I never cared about solo Sting for some reason. That was a special band.
To be fair they did try in 2007 to write new music during the reunion phase, according to John Mayer. Word is they couldn't get along well enough to make it happen. There is some evidence for that as Andy Summers wrote a bunch of songs that were meant for a new Police album that ended up on his Circa Zero record.
bloody sick of all these songs being overplayed. All three of them are dealing with Stingo's betrayal trauma upon them. Stewart and Andy were injured deeply emotionally and its a pity that Stings plain won't crash.
I don’t think many people realize that Andy Summers came up with the arpeggio for the most played song in radio history “Every Breath You Take”. Yes, Sting wrote the generic chord progression and incredible lyrics. And Sting is one of the greatest songwriters in history (I’m a daft fan) but Andy’s (and Stewart’s) contributions seem under appreciated. Outstanding documentary!!
I've long said that too, that he's one of the most talented guitarists and yet somehow under-rated. His book is great; he's one of the few UK brit guitarists of his generation that wasn't interested in ripping off standard blues. He's the much needed antidote to Clapton; rather than playing long blues leads, he re-fingered chords to make them full, gorgeous, layered and (before the internet) impossible to duplicate. No one knew how to play Police songs exactly like Andy! Thanks for this!
MATE! This doc is incredible. I have been a fan of The Police since 1980. Since then, they have been my favorite band of all time. I started playing bass because of Sting. And when I got my first electric guitar, there were two songs I wanted to learn how to play first. First is my favorite song of all time, Every Breath You Take and second, Messege in a Bottle. You discussed things here that I didn't even know. Thank you so much for putting this together and sharing it!
Oh man, you said it so well! Nobody seems to be influenced by Andy, but we all know he's a genius, especially on rhythm guitar and when we got older we all at some point look at his work. And dabble in it and then you really realise how, clever the man is. The chorus sound he got from that Telecaster, in the POLICE is uniquely identifiable as Andy.
Excellent video about the legend and great job on playing those classic Police Songs, especially Every Breath You Take! That opening guitar riff always haunts and grows the back hairs in me He is definitely in my top 10 guitarists of all time, he’s the reason I still use a Telecaster and used to use a Roland Jazz Chorus
Thank you for all of this incredible content Ramon!, you truly have such a diverse and unique sound and style when you play!...I’ve learned so much from you and your channel over the years, and the time, care, and energy you put into each and every video you post is remarkable and greatly appreciated by so many!, God Bless You Ramon! Best regards my friend!
That "American Lady" was Robin Lane (Robin Lane & The Chartbusters) who introduced Andy to her friend after their divorce who Andy married. The Police were my first listening and later I found a couple RL&TC vinyl albums (Imitation Life & 5 Live) that I listened to a lot. I had no idea of the connection between the two until years later. RL&TC aren't everyone's cup of tea per sé but they were one of the first bands that had their video (When Things Go Wrong) played on MTV. The band was tight and sounded really good as a unit. I just found it really odd that during the 80s, with The Police at their height, I stumbled across two albums in the discount bins from a band I never heard of with a connection to Andy Summers, listening to both bands at the same time. I'd say both bands had an influence on my guitar playing. I still find myself playing "For You" (RL&TC) from time to time. Great video as usual. I always come here every few months to see what's new and it's almost always about someone I like and/or love. Stephen
Thanks for the history. I’ll have to get out my old synchronicity album and give it a listen. Don’t know why I looked past Andy. He is one of the masters.
Throughly enjoyed this Ramon as all your documentary videos are so wonderfully put together:) Be cool to see Mike Oldfield in the 80s guitar heros series as there's not enough in the guitar tuition world on his and great documentarys like this :-)
Message in a bottle, the guitar is awesome, and the lyrics made the hairs on the back of my neck as an eleven-year-old child stand up on end with a shiver running up and down my spine when I first heard it in the late seventies. The twist in the lyrics was that the person in the song was not the only person alone in the world, many more people were also very alone in this world✌...deep.
Found this video searching for Zoot Money, who is in the first part of the book; 'One Train Later' by AndySummers. Love this book, so many stories... Cool that there is now a video telling this story about before the Kevin Coyne period and of course the Police. . Thumbs up :-)
I love The Police. Andy Summers provided a beautiful array of sounds and his beautiful arrangement of chords is heard on 'Every Breath You Take', which remains as one of the most memorable one! Listen & see the 'Police around the World' video, it's such a lovely one!
Keep in mind the piece of gear that to me is absolutely iconic to Andy’s sound on “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” and much of Ghost in the Machine and Synchronicity that pretty much NO ONE mentions: his trusty Roland G-303 guitar and Roland GR-300 guitar synthesizer (blue pedal board on the floor pictured above @ 15:34 to the left). It’s THE sound on the “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” solo as well as on “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”, “Omegaman”, “Synchronicity 1”, and “Walking In Your Footsteps” among others. It’s also THE guitar sound on the intro to “Secret Journey”. I really wish there were more videos or discussion concerning Andy’s use of the GR-300, both in the Police and his and Robert Fripp’s use on the Bewitched album. Also heard on King Crimson’s Discipline album as well as some of Daryl Stuermer’s work with Phil Collins, it’s a somewhat piercing, shrill 80’s guitar sound that you may have heard without recognizing it, and that, again, I truly wish were discussed more often!
Andy was the reason I picked up guitar to begin with, but there were *three* big names who drove those sounds, although one of them is only really being recognized now. They were Andy Summers, the Edge and Alex Lifeson. Those guys drove the effected, shimmering delayed sounds everyone else copied.
Not many people know about the Clapton, Gibson Les Paul connection. That story alone was responsible for changing the sound of rock guitar. I'd like to know what inspired Andy to aquire his Les Paul in 1965. It wasn't a popular guitar at the time.
Great Stuff ! Grew up in the 80's listening to the police and other bands at that time. Never got to see them live unfortunately.. Thanks for this !! 👍
Andy is two years younger than my Mom and I'm near my mid 60's.. No idea until recently that he was 9 or 10 years older than Sting and Stewart. Freaked me out that knew Clapton and Hendrix really well.
I am actually trying to recreate Andy's sound on my Line 6 Pod Go and this was extremely helpful thank you. I could find all the effects and amp models mentioned in this video in said Pod Go. Now for the actual tweaking! This is going to be fun.
Thanks for your upload I enjoyed this, I've always said that he really is so underated as a guitarist, he is a true one off and a seriously great musician
Andy is such a true artist; injecting such art and musicality into pop hits. The Police were also a killer live band. Ramon; did you get your name from Paul Ramon? 😉. Great video!! Thank you!!
When I was a youngster during The Police era, I used to think, in my innocence, that their trade-mark guitar sounds came from Andy's guitar skills, and not electronic boxes of tricks. Just saying..
Cool video, however there are a couple of things that aren't quite correct: 1.) Andy's always been saying his Tele had already had all the modifications when he bought it; However, there's pre-Police footage on youtube where it still has the original 3-saddle bridge on it. 2.) It wasn't the humbucker but the bridge single-coil that eventually got replaced; Andy described in his bio 'One Train Later' how he and Sting had leaned their guitars against some kind of electrical device in their dressing room before a gig, which resulted in the bridge pick-up being dead when the time came for them to hit the stage.
I would have wished there would have been more coverage of his solo work which is just astonishing. Knowing most of his body of work, the police was important no doubt, but there was so much more. He worked with legends of Jazz and Rock in his solo career. For me, from a musical point of view his body of work was even more important than with the police and showed his genius and artistry of music.
This is cool, but how do you navigate around the rights to use all of these photos? Is this considered "fair use" or are you just posting it and hoping that the copyrightholders won't really care?
Glad Andy Summers is getting some attention-no one better to do this than you mate. The Police were so sleek and modern sounding by the time of Regatta de Blanc they made all of the 70s bands sound old fashioned and stodgy. They created the sound of the 80s, crisp metronomic drumming and clever minimalist guitar parts using 9ths and Sus chords with stereo chorus and tap tempo delays. In fact Andy may have been the first guitarist to properly exploit the notion of a 'Stereo' signal that Holdsworth, Metheny and Landau took further. His Monk and Mingus tribute albums are well worth checking out.
I think Andy thinks his Flanger was a chorus, or doesn’t really see the distinction. At least that’s the impression I’ve gotten from interviews. He did use the Flanger like a chorus
I think Andy came up with the riffs on Message in a bottle and Every Breath, those 9th chords were not Stings idea - thats what I watched in an Andy interview - whether Sting argues about that I don't know.
@@TheGuitarShow I watched an interview with Andy some years ago and he said towards the end with albums GITM and Sychronicity, that Sting brought the music to the studio. He gave it to Andy and Stewart and siad you play that part and you play that part!.. They had no say!.....True???
Yes I think this is somewhat true - Sting also brought a keyboardist to the montserrat recording studio and Andy and Stuart sent him packing after a few days @@jm252
One of the greatest guitarist ever is a bit like for stretch for Andy Summers. Underrated yes, greatest no shot. Sorry Goose I think this is a bit of a nostalgic pick for you
