Few pop debuts are as memorable as Sting’s plaintive call, “Rox-anne! You don’t have to put on the red light!” – a plea from a man who fell in love with a prostitute. The song remains perhaps the most popular in The Police’s canon, even if a host of other songs charted significantly higher for the British band.
Nevertheless, Roxanne, which appeared on the band’s first album ‘Outlandos d’Amour’ in 1978, was the tip of the iceberg for the energetic trio, who burst on the New Wave scene with a fresh mix of rock, punk, and reggae.
That first album also produced the singles “Can’t Stand Losing You” and my favourite Police song, “So Lonely” (video below) – a tough call amidst other classics like the aforementioned “Roxanne,” “Message in a Bottle,” and “Walking on the Moon.”
By the time the band was de-do-do-do-de-da-da-da-ing and releasing its fifth and last album in 1983, featuring their only No. 1 hit, “Every Breath You Take,” Rolling Stone was calling The Police the biggest band in the world – status that would ultimately see them called to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.
The band had a brief reunion in 2007 for a tour that started in Vancouver, and Sting hit new heights as a solo act, but it’s for the energy and vitality of The Police’s too- short early career that we yet yearn.
Lyrics
Well, someone told me yesterday
That when you throw your love away
You act as if you just don’t care
You look as if you’re going somewhere
But I just can’t convince myself
I couldn’t live with no one else
And I can only play that part
And sit and nurse my broken heart
So lonely, so lonely, so lonely, so lonely
So lonely, so lonely, so lonely
So lonely, so lonely, so lonely
So lonely, so lonely
Now, no one’s knocked upon my door
For a thousand years or more
All made up and nowhere to go
Welcome to this one-man show
Just take a seat, they’re always free
No surprise, no mystery
In this theatre that I call my soul
I always play the starring role
So lonely, so lonely, so lonely, so lonely
So lonely, so lonely, so lonely
So lonely, so lonely, so lonely
So lonely, so lonely
So lonely, so lonely, so lonely, so lonely
So lonely, so lonely, so lonely
I feel lonely, oh so lonely
I feel so alone
I feel low
I feel so, feel so low
I feel low, low
I feel low, low, low…
Low, I feel low
I feel low
I feel low
I feel so lonely
I feel so lonely
I feel so lonely, lonely, lonely, lone
Lonely, lone
I feel so alone, yeah
So lonely, so lonely, so lonely