Demolition Man (song)

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This article is about the Grace Jones/Police song. For the Def Leppard song, see Euphoria (Def Leppard album).
"Demolition Man"
Single by Grace Jones
from the album Nightclubbing
B-side"Warm Leatherette", "Bullshit"
ReleasedFebruary 6, 1981[1]
Genre
Length4:04
LabelIsland
Songwriter(s)Sting
Producer(s)
Grace Jones singles chronology
"Breakdown"
(1980) 		"Demolition Man"
(1981) 		"I've Seen That Face Before (Libertango)"
(1981)
Music video
"Demolition Man" on
YouTube

"Demolition Man" is a song written by

Ghost in the Machine
. The lyrics to Demolition Man are featured in the art book RadioEYES: Great Rock Lyrics Set to Art. The song was illustrated by John Taylor Dismukes.

Background

The song was written by

Connemara, Ireland. It was written for potential use on The Police’s Zenyatta Mondatta, but they never got around to recording it.[2][3] A demo was sent to Grace Jones when she requested a song from Sting.[3]

The lyric "I'm a three-line whip" is an allusion to the

British Constitution would "bear fruit in a rock and roll lyric."[3]

Grace Jones version

"Demolition Man" was released as the lead single from Grace Jones's 1981 album Nightclubbing. She performed the song on her A One Man Show tour, featuring marching "Joneses" (stand-ins wearing Grace Jones masks), and it was included in the documentary film of the tour. A still picture from the video was later used for the cover of her 1982 singles "Nipple to the Bottle" and "The Apple Stretching".

Track listing

  • 7" single
A. "Demolition Man" – 3:31
B. "Warm Leatherette" – 4:25
  • 12" single
A. "Demolition Man" – 4:56
B. "Bullshit" – 5:18

The Police version

"Demolition Man"
Song by The Police
from the album Ghost in the Machine
Released2 October 1981 (1981-10-02)
RecordedJune 1981
Genre
Length5:57
YouTube

Soon after Jones released her version as a single,

Ghost in the Machine. Guitarist Andy Summers
recalls:

"He [Sting] did have Demolition Man previously, mind you - he’d already given that to Grace Jones to put on her Nightclubbing album. In fact, that was the song we recorded first. You have to break the ice with something, and that was an easy one to do. It’s a very simple song. We all listened to the Grace Jones version and thought 'Shit, we can do it much better than that.' It was a one-take job. To me, our version is more ballsy, which is what you’d expect from Grace Jones."[5]

The Police recorded the song in a jazzy hard rock style, featuring a guitar solo by Andy Summers. Sting's roadie Danny Quatrochi played the bass. [6]

Personnel

  • Sting – vocals, saxophone
  • Andy Summers – guitars
  • Stewart Copeland – drums
  • Danny Quatrochi - bass (uncredited)

Use in popular culture and other media

References

  1. ^ "New Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 7 February 1981. p. 26. Retrieved 23 May 2021.
  2. ^ "Police". Pop Tops. November 1981. p. 11.
  3. ^ a b c Sting (2019). My Songs (Media notes).
  4. ^ Vic Garbarini. "Article "I think if we came back..."". www.scarlet.nl. Archived from the original on 2018-08-30. Retrieved 2011-08-19.
  5. ^ Salewicz, Chris (April 1982). "Demolition Men In The Machine: The Police". Creem. pp. 26–31, 57–58.
  6. ^ Hugh Padgham: "Danny was Sting's roadie and sometimes at the and of the day when Sting had gone home Danny would come in and I'd punch in (...), on "Demolition Man" on "Ghost in the Machine" Danny plays the whole track."
  7. ^ "Beavis and Butt-Head: Butt-Head from "Beavis and Butt-head" show". beavis-and-butthead-episodes.blogspot.com. Archived from the original on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 2012-02-03.
  8. ^ "Manfred Mann Earth Band website".
  9. ^ "Manfred Mann Earth Band website".
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