Synchronicity II

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"Synchronicity II"
File:Synchronicity II singlecover.jpg
Single by The Police
from the album Synchronicity
B-side "Once Upon a Daydream"
Released October 1983 (1983-10)
Format vinyl record (7")
Recorded Late 1982 at AIR Montserrat for basic tracks, then January 1983 at Le Studio in Quebec for overdubs and mixing[1]
Genre
Label A&M – AM 153
Writer(s) Sting
Producer(s)
The Police singles chronology
"Wrapped Around Your Finger"
(UK, 1983)
---
"King of Pain"
(US, 1983)		 "Synchronicity II"
(1983)		 "King of Pain"
(UK, 1984)
---
"Wrapped Around Your Finger"
(US, 1984)
Alternative cover
Brazil 7-inch single cover
Brazil 7-inch single cover

"Synchronicity II" is a song by The Police, and the third single from their album Synchronicity. Written by lead singer and bassist Sting, it was released as a single in the UK and the US by A&M Records, it reached number 17 in the UK Singles Chart[3] and number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 1983.[4] It featured the non-album track "Once Upon a Daydream" on the b-side. The song was described by People Weekly as "aggressive" and "steely."[5]

Background

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 dispiriting 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 humiliation by his boss ("and every single meeting with his so-called superior/is a humiliating kick in the crotch"), 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—a parallel to the father's own inner anguish.

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There's a domestic situation where there's a man who's on the edge of paranoia, and as his paranoia increases a monster takes shape in a Scottish lake, the monster being a symbol of the man's anxiety. That's a synchronistic situation.

— Sting, 'A Visual Documentary', 1984[6]

Interpretations of the lyrical content vary widely.[7][8] Writing in Entertainment Weekly about a 1996 Sting tour, Chris Willman said:

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"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."[9]

Sting explained the theme of the song to Time magazine: <templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" />

"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."[10]

"Synchronicity II" also may have taken inspiration from the poem "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats.[11] The theme of "The Second Coming" is similar to that of "Synchronicity II"—a civilisation beginning to collapse, and the rise of something new, something perhaps savage, to take its place.

In "Synchronicity II" guitarist Andy Summers "forgoes the pretty clean sounds for post-apocalyptic squeals and crashing power chords", writes Matt Blackett in Guitar Player magazine.[12] Summers claims that the feedback apparent on the track was a mistake, saying, "I blasted and wailed for six minutes, the tape was rolling, but I couldn't hear anything through the cans. I was messing about, doing all this shit and waiting for them to start."

The flip side, Once Upon A Daydream, was a composition by Andy Summers and Sting. As Sting remembers, "It's a set of chords Andy came up with and I wrote some lyrics to them by the swimming pool in Monserrat. It's very dark but that was The Ghost period. Very intense".[13]

Music video

The music video for the song was directed by Godley & Creme, filmed at a sound stage on the outskirts of London. In it the band are seen performing on top of giant piles of guitars, drums, junk, car parts, wires, with debris and papers flying about, punctuated by footage of Loch Ness for each chorus. The band members stood apart from each other on separate towers made of scaffolding, wearing dystopian outfits. A misty and stormy appearance was created with air blowers and lots of dry ice. During the filming Copeland's tower caught fire and the crew started to leave the building. Creme told the director of photography to keep the cameras rolling despite the danger.[14]

Track listing

12" UK Single AMX 153
No. Title Length
1. "Synchronicity II"   5:04
2. "Once Upon A Daydream"   3:28

Charts

Chart (1983) Peak
position
Irish Singles Chart 12
UK Singles Chart 17
US Billboard Hot 100 16
Canadian Singles Chart 21

Video games

"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 for the music video game series Rock Band and Rocksmith.

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ The Police in the UK Charts, The Official Charts.
  4. ↑ "Synchronicity II" in the Billboard Charts, Billboard.com.
  5. ↑ "Synchronicity." People Weekly v20.(25 July 1983): pp14(1).
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Interpretations of the content of "Synchronicity II" on www.songfacts.com
  8. ↑ Interpretations of the content of "Synchronicity II" on www.songmeanings.net
  9. ↑ "King of painlessness" (rock star Sting). Chris Willman. Entertainment Weekly n339 (August 9, 1996 n339): pp30(4).
  10. ↑ "Official Police business" (music group Police). Jay Cocks. Time v122.(August 15, 1983): pp50(1).
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ "The 50 greatest tones of all time." (Critical Essay). Matt Blackett. Guitar Player 38.10 (Oct 2004): p44(17).
  13. ↑ Message in a Box: The Complete Police Recordings, booklet, A&M, 1993
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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