Guest
This one was popular in the late fall of 1979, when New Wave was flooding the clubs and the Police rode that alternative genre in style with “Message In A Bottle“, the first single from their second album “Reggatta De Blanc“. It spent seven weeks on the Hot100 and peaked at #74 on the last chart for the 70's. The following week, January 5, 1980 saw the song plunge to 100. It was quite a different story in the UK where the LP and single both hit #1 UK. The LP peaked at a respectable #24 in the US with the title track winning the 1980 Grammy for best rock instrumental performance. The song relates the story of man stranded alone who tosses the message in a bottle into the ocean and despairs when he does not get any response within a year. The next thing he knows “ a hundred billion bottles washed up on the shore“ each with its own messager. The song is an allegory about loneliness and how alienating it is not having someone to relate as being on your own island. He finds out that there are others like him who feel isolated and that he is not alone. The band was creatively cohesive, working hard to perfect the production of their music. But the label pressured them to release a third album in three years and promptly sent them out on tour right as “Regatta“ was being released. This situation is what causes the pressure cooker effect, the unmissable deadlines and unwillingness to allow the creativity of the band to properly resolve itself by limiting the time to finish it is what killed this band. It's a normal reaction to begin sniping at each other when put under the intense pressure to make music this way. I woke up with this on my mind and started my day with it and a coffee. Stopped a few times for chores and then just completed the edits this love it. Not one that you hear too often, but it stands up to repeated listening. I'm very happy I had the chance to remix this classic song from the Police.
