Synchronicity II
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| “Synchronicity II” | |||||
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| Single by The Police from the album Synchronicity |
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| B-side | "Once Upon a Daydream" | ||||
| Released | October 1983 | ||||
| Format | vinyl record (7") | ||||
| Recorded | 1983 | ||||
| Genre | Rock | ||||
| Length | 5:02 | ||||
| Label | A&M - AM 153 | ||||
| Writer(s) | Sting | ||||
| Producer | Stewart Copeland, Sting, Andy Summers |
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| The Police singles chronology | |||||
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"Synchronicity II" is a song by The Police that has been described as aggressive and steely.[1] It was recorded in 1983 and was included on their hit album Synchronicity. It was released as a single in the UK by A&M Records. The third UK single from the album, it reached #17 in the charts in October 1983. It featured non-album track "Once Upon A Daydream" on the b-side.
The song, which refers to Carl Jung's theory of Synchronicity, nominally tells the story of an emasculated husband and harried father whose home, work life, and environment are terrible and depressing. In an early stretch of lyrics we find "Grandmother screaming at the wall" (family trouble/mental illness), as well as "mother chants her litany of boredom and frustration, but we know all her suicides are fake" (nagging, unhappy spouse). Later, we hear about the man humiliated by his boss, all the while he "knows that something somewhere has to break". Meanwhile something monstrous is emerging from a "dark Scottish lake/loch", a reference to the Loch Ness Monster — perhaps a parallel to the industrial and suburban angst, or to the father's own inner anguish. In "Synchronicity II" lead guitarist Andy Summers "forgoes the pretty clean sounds for post-apocalyptic squeals and crashing power chords," writes Matt Blackett in Guitar Player magazine.[2]
Interpretations of the lyrical content vary widely [3][4]. Writing in Entertainment Weekly about a 1996 Sting tour, Chris Willman said:
"The late-inning number that really gets [the crowd] galvanized is the edgy old Police staple that has the most old-fashioned unresolved rock tension in it, "Synchronicity II" —which, after all, is a song about a domestic crisis so anxiety producing that it wakes up the Loch Ness monster."[5]
Sting explained the theme of the song to Time magazine:
"Jung believed there was a large pattern to life, that it wasn't just chaos. Our song Synchronicity II is about two parallel events that aren't connected logically or causally, but symbolically."[6]
"Synchronicity II" also appears to have taken some inspiration from the poem "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats. The theme of "The Second Coming" is similar to that of "Synchronicity II"—a civilization beginning to collapse, and the rise of something new, something perhaps savage, to take its place. "Synchronicity I," on the same album, also alludes to The Second Coming. Its lyrics include a term from "The Second Coming", "Spiritus Mundi" (literally "spirit of the world"), which Yeats used to refer to the collective unconscious, another of Jung's theories.
Throughout the song, the musical tone follows the lyrics closely. The description of the man's working day is first underlaid with confident-sounding but chordless guitar notes, which in each verse segue through rising tension into a menacing scene of the creature. The final verse carries an image and tone worthy of a horror movie: "There's a shadow on the door / Of a cottage on the shore / Of a dark Scottish lake / Many miles away." A longer than usual melodic line[1] makes the transition between the urban and creature horror.
"Synchronicity II" won the 1983 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group With Vocal.[7] The memorable music video for the song was directed by Godley & Creme.
"Synchronicity II" is covered and appears as a playable track on the PlayStation 2 game Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s. The master track of the song also appears as downloadable content in a 3-song pack for the music video game Rock Band, along with "Roxanne" and "Can't Stand Losing You".
[edit] Credits
- Sting - bass, lead vocals
- Andy Summers - guitar, backing vocals
- Stewart Copeland - drums
[edit] References
- ^ a b "Synchronicity." People Weekly v20.(July 25, 1983): pp14(1).
- ^ "The 50 greatest tones of all time."(Critical Essay). Matt Blackett. Guitar Player 38.10 (Oct 2004): p44(17).
- ^ Interpretations of the content of "Synchronicity II" on www.songfacts.com
- ^ Interpretations of the content of "Synchronicity II" on www.songmeanings.net
- ^ "King of painlessness" (rock star Sting). Chris Willman. Entertainment Weekly n339 (August 9, 1996 n339): pp30(4).
- ^ "Official Police business" (music group Police). Jay Cocks. Time v122.(August 15, 1983): pp50(1).
- ^ 1983 Grammy Winners. Grammy.com. The Recording Academy. Retrieved on 2007-05-26.
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