Behind My Camel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| “Behind My Camel” | |||||
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| Song by The Police | |||||
| Album | Zenyattà Mondatta | ||||
| Released | October 2, 1980 | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 2:54 | ||||
| Label | A&M Records | ||||
| Composer | Andy Summers | ||||
| Producer | The Police | ||||
| Zenyattà Mondatta track listing | |||||
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"Behind My Camel" is the eighth track from the 1980 album, Zenyattà Mondatta, by the British rock band, The Police. The song was composed by guitarist Andy Summers and was the first one to be composed solely by him during his career in The Police. It won the Grammy Award of 1982 (awarded in 1982, but for accomplishments in late 1980 or 1981) for the Best Rock Instrumental Performance.[1]
The song features a simplistic yet eerie guitar melody, which is quasi-Arabic in style. Apart from this, there is a repetitive slap bass riff played by Summers himself[2], drums played by Stewart Copeland and atmospheric keyboards rather deep in the mix.
[edit] Response of other band members
The song was not popular with the two other band members, especially Sting. His dislike of the song is clear from the following statement :
"I hated that song so much that, one day when I was in the studio, I found the tape lying on the table. So I took it around the back of the studio and actually buried it in the garden."
—Sting, Revolver 4/2000[2]
Stewart Copeland was not in favour of the song either:
"As hard done by as I ever felt in this band, I could always take comfort in the fact that Andy got shafted even worse than I did on that little instrumental. Sting didn't even bother to play on it. Andy played all the bass and guitars, and I only played on the song because there wasn't anyone else to play drums."
—Stewart Copeland, Revolver 4/2000[2]
Thus, as a part of The Police, Sting received a Grammy for a song he neither composed, nor played on.
[edit] Cover version
The song was covered by the funk metal band Primus, for their 1998 EP of cover songs, Rhinoplasty.
In an interview, Primus bassist and vocalist Les Claypool commented on covering the song:
" I've always wanted to cover a Police song. We've jammed on several of their tunes but Sting's vocal parts are, to say the least, a bit too challenging for me. An instrumental seemed the logical option to choose. Brain plays exceptionally well on this tune."
—[3]
[edit] References
- ^ 1981 Grammy Awards. Infoplease. Retrieved on 2007-10-09.
- ^ a b c Sting.com: Song details for Behind My Camel: Artist comments
- ^ Rhinoplasty - A Word From Les Claypool
