Synchronicity II
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Synchronicity II" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Single by The Police | ||
| from the album Synchronicity | ||
| Released | 1983 | |
| Format | vinyl record (7") | |
| Recorded | 1983 | |
| Genre | New Wave | |
| Length | 5:02 | |
| Label | A&M Records | |
| Writer(s) | Sting | |
| Producer(s) | Stewart Copeland, Sting, Andy Summers |
|
| The Police singles chronology | ||
| "Wrapped Around Your Finger" (1983) |
"Synchronicity II" (1983) |
"King of Pain" (1984) |
"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. The song, which refers to Carl Jung's theory of Synchronicity, nominally tells the story of an emasculated father whose home, work life, and environment are terrible and depressing. Grandmother screams, his wife complains and fakes suicides, his bosses humiliate him, all the while he "knows that something somewhere has to break". Meanwhile something monstrous is emerging from a "dark Scottish lake/loch"— 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. 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."[3]
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."[4]
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 another of Jung's theories, the collective unconscious.
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.
A memorable music video for the song was directed by Godley & Creme.[1]
In 1983, Synchronicity II also won a Grammy for "Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal."[5]
[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).
- ^ "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).
- ^ Grammy.com
