Song of the Day 6/1: The Police, “Wrapped Around Your Finger”

Remember those Danish documentarians who followed Roger Stone just before and after the 2020 election? They’ve released their film, “A Storm Foretold,” in Denmark, and it’s got some bombshell moments — including one where Stone explains how he’s been manipulating Trump for decades.

“He resents any implication that he is handled or managed or directed. You have to say, ‘Remember that night when we were in Buffalo. And you gave that speech, and God, it had to be 10,000 people, the biggest crowd they’d ever seen. And you said XYZ, and the place went crazy, remember that? I don’t know where you came up with that line, but it’s one of the best things.’”

Stone, playing the part of Trump, then said, “ ‘Yeah, I’m going to use that one again.’ Doesn’t fucking matter that he never said it — doesn’t matter,” Stone said. “It’s time-consuming, but it works. I did it for 30 years.”

The filmmakers juxtapose this with Stone’s fawning characterization of Trump at a rally: “Someone who is not handled. Not managed. Not controlled.”

From 1983’s “Synchronicity,” the last album by the Police, “Wrapped Around Your Finger” was the album’s fourth single in the U.S., where it reached No. 8. Sting was in his “I am well-read” stage, so what he concedes is a “spiteful” song contains references to Faust and Greek mythology. At least he doesn’t resort to rhyming anything with “that book by Nabokov.”

The video, shot by Kevin Godley, was filmed at high speed so Sting’s lip-synching would match the music when played back in slow motion. Filming, Godley said, “was insane, because they were rushing around and hitting drums and playing guitars and singing at double speed. You were listening to Mickey Mouse singing ‘Wrapped Around Your Finger.'”