It's been 9 months since I last covered a Police song - and doing this one has reminded me why!! Trying to copy any of Mr. Copeland's wonderful drum parts is just horrific, even on something that some might consider to be relatively 'straightforward', like King Of Pain!
I have to admit that I am now moving into difficult territory for me: so far the Police covers I have done are songs I have been copying for years. 'King Of Pain' is brand new for me, 'cos I have never really ever bothered to try and learn it 'properly'. And it is darn awkward to play! If you are like me, then you will find the basic pattern in the verses tough - for me it is like a kind of 'back to front' beat, and the bass drum is always pushing the beat, with the hi hat sort of following behind, randomly accenting and things. It is a very good song to practice four limb co-ordination on! Go buy it, and try!
Hope you like the little djembe opening. I figured it kind of fitted better then if i just hit my little 8" tom (which I have actually removed for this cover). Notice the (subtle?) change in pitch half way through :-)
The very first proper drum note that Copeland plays is of course, HORRENDOUS to catch, and get in time. I love what he does here. He tricks you into thinking the beat is going to be one thing, and then the next moment, you find it is the exact opposite. It is like the drums have 'tripped over' or something. Starting the snare on the 'and' of '2' is just WILD, and with the bass drum at the same time, and then carrying on with 'ands' and the snare landing on 2 and 4 as usual, with the hi hat quarter notes, the groove is awesome.
I found it hard to memorise the various changing hi hat accents - if you look carefully you can see a piece of paper with notes on my 13" tom that I keep looking at!
How do you like my new LP Percussion blocks! I got them for my band, but to my delight noticed this song called for two differently pitched blocks at 1'40!
In the chorus', Copeland hits some weird crash accents, landing sometimes only on the 'and' of '2'. I found it really hard to do this, with the bass drum having to do the 'and 2' - you find you want to hit the crash twice too!
The pause into the second verse is hell to keep tight. Plus you got to gently open the hi hat as you wallop the snare, and get it closed, gently (!) in time for the first stick quarter note, which of course requires a slightly open hat.....aaaarrrggggghhhh!
From about 3'17, things become really odd. Playing that groove without the bass drum, opening the hi hat a bit on quarter notes, a couple of 'ands' on the hi hat thrown in - I mean, was Mr Copleand having a laugh?!!! And then to get out of this section and bring the bass drum back in (around 3'31), you got to hit a flam, and then a tom, and then a few 16th notes on snare and wham! straight back to quarter notes on hi hat (with the first one being 'loose', naturally). Only Stewart Copeland can play like this, and even THINK to play like this - real genius and beautiful stuff.
The outro is awkward again, because of the way he moves crash accents around. Really hard to memorise. I don't get it right, I assure you.
My wry smile at the end sums this up - I really was not sure it was good enough! Anyway, the take after was worse, so I am going with this one. You get the gist of what Stewart was doing at least!
Hope you enjoy!!
