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/ News

A Big Enough Umbrella: 'Ghost in the Machine' Picture Disc Details a "Lost" Police Release

October 17, 2022 By Mike Duquette 6 Comments

Police Ghost picture disc

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For most fans of The Police, the story of their penultimate album, 1981's Ghost in the Machine, is pretty cut and dried. But a forthcoming picture disc release hints at a road not taken for the beloved LP.

On November 4, UMC will reissue the record with its "original" expanded track list that was apparently shortened at the last minute. In addition to the inclusion of three non-album tracks - the haunting tracks "I Burn for You" and "Once Upon a Daydream" (released on the soundtrack to Brimstone & Treacle and the B-side of 1983's "Synchronicity II," respectively) and the instrumental jam "Shambelle" - four of the album tracks will include a brief archival treat in the form of drummer Stewart Copeland's count-ins before tracking began. (If you'd like a laugh - or an argument starter - I was thrilled to rank every Police track for Ultimate Classic Rock earlier this year.)

It's an odd and unexpected but not entirely unwelcome reappraisal of what was the band's biggest commercial effort at the time. The fractious trio decamped to George Martin's AIR Studio on the Caribbean island of Montserrat, augmenting their "white reggae" style with more elements of ska and New Wave, from blaring horns to cascading keyboards. As ever, frontman/bassist Sting wrote the bulk of the material, including the buoyant ballad "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" (a No. 1 U.K. hit and a No. 2 U.S. single), the brooding "Invisible Sun" (inspired by hunger strikes in northern Ireland, and accompanied by a video of footage from conflicts in the country that was promptly banned by the BBC), and the raucous "Demolition Man" (first recorded by Grace Jones on her smash hit Nightclubbing just months before). But Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers got some moments in the sun in the form of Stewart's closing number "Darkness" and Summers' rocker "Ωmegaman" (inspired by the post-apocalyptic horror film of the same name, based on a Richard Matheson novel and later remade under the book's title, I Am Legend, in 2007).

With its striking SISD-inspired portraiture of the band on the front cover - reportedly, no one could agree on an actual photo - Ghost in the Machine became another chart-topping album in England and reached No. 2 in America, priming the pump for the group's biggest (and ultimately final) recordings just two years later. You can revisit this expanded Ghost story at the links below, and check out the track list that could have been.

Ghost in the Machine (Expanded Picture Disc) (originally released as A&M AMLK 63730 (U.K.)/SP-3730 (U.S.), 1981 - reissued as A&M/UMC, 2022) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

Side A

  1. Invisible Sun
  2. Demolition Man
  3. Secret Journey
  4. Darkness
  5. Spirits in the Material World *
  6. Too Much Information
  7. Ωmegaman

Side B

  1. One World (Not Three) *
  2. Rehumanize Yourself *
  3. I Burn for You **
  4. Hungry for You (j'aurais toujours faim de toi) *
  5. Every Little Thing She Does is Magic
  6. Once Upon a Daydream **
  7. Shambelle **

* features unheard studio count-ins
** not on original album. Side 2, Track 3 released on Brimstone & Treacle (Original Soundtrack Album) - A&M AMLH 64915 (U.K.)/SP-4915 (U.S.), 1982. Side 2, Track 6 released on "Synchronicity II" single - A&M AM 153 (U.K.)/AM 2571 (U.S.), 1983. Side 2, Track 7 released on "Invisible Sun" single - A&M AMS 8164 (U.K.), 1981

Categories: News Formats: Vinyl Genre: Classic Rock, Pop, Rock Tags: Andy Summers, Stewart Copeland, Sting, The Police

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Mike Duquette

Michael Duquette (Founder) was fascinated with catalog music ever since he discovered there was more than one version of John Williams' soundtrack to E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. A 2009 graduate of Seton Hall University with a B.A. in journalism, Mike paired his profession with his passion through The Second Disc, one of the first sites to focus on all reissue labels great and small. His passion for reissues turned into a career, with bylines on catalog at Discogs, City Pages and Ultimate Prince and credits on titles including the Grammy-winning 'Squeeze Box: The Complete Works of "Weird Al" Yankovic.' Born and raised in New Jersey, Mike lives in Astoria, Queens with an ever-expanding collection of music.

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Comments

  1. wardo says

    October 17, 2022 at 3:08 pm

    They probably shortened it because the album would have topped 53 minutes -- not an ideal length for vinyl, much less a picture disc.

    Reply
  2. Alan Haber says

    October 17, 2022 at 3:36 pm

    But why no CD? A picture disc, while nice to look at, certainly delivers less-than-optimal sound quality. Pass for me.

    Reply
  3. Bob Romano says

    October 17, 2022 at 3:41 pm

    If this was regular vinyl maybe... not spending $40 USD on a picture disc that will sound like crap

    Reply
  4. Bruce Padgett says

    October 17, 2022 at 4:55 pm

    Better yet, how about a single-CD version for around $15?

    (Properly mastered, of course.)

    Reply
  5. TheRockSnob says

    October 18, 2022 at 8:35 am

    Was it REALLY necessary to radically shuffle the tune stack tp accomodate the additions? I will always want to hear "Darkness" as a closing statement.

    I'll wait for the CD (which you know is coming...)

    Reply
  6. Marcelo Baltar says

    November 26, 2022 at 7:39 pm

    I just biught it and it sounds pretty good. In this video there's a description of this released comparado with the original 1981 version. I'm sorry it's in spanish, I'm from Argentina.
    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gYB-sQKstto

    Reply

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