Song of the Day 1/28: Grace Jones, “Demolition Man”
It’s easier to wreck things than build them. It requires very little brain – three-year-olds are good at it, which lines right up with Trump being good at it. When a powerful man with the mind of a three-year-old throws a tantrum, the clean-up is going to take a lot more time.
Sting wrote this song for Zenyatta Mondatta but didn’t record a band version. When towering dance diva Grace Jones asked him for a song for her LP “Nightclubbing,” the closest thing to a crossover album in her career, he sent her the demo of “Demolition Man.” She turned it into a techno-dance number that fit her androgynous persona. The arrangement owes a lot to the Eno-produced, krautrock-influenced work David Bowie was doing at the time. It’s still part of her live set.
The lyrics seem over the top, but these days they read as prescient.
I’m a walking nightmare, an arsenal of doom
I kill conversation as I walk into the room
I’m a three line whip*, I’m the sort of thing they ban
I’m a walking disaster, I’m a demolition man
You come to me like a moth to the flame
It’s love you need but I don’t play that game
‘Cause you could be my greatest fan
But I’m nobody’s friend, I’m a demolition man
When the members of the Police heard Jones’ version, guitarist Andy Summers said, “We all listened to the Grace Jones version and thought ‘Shit, we can do it much better than that.'” They recorded it in one take in the studio. Sting plays saxophone on the track, with his roadie, Danny Quatrochi, handling the bass.
“Demolition Man” made the playlist at many of Sting’s solo concerts, and he re-recorded it for his career-retrospective LP “My Songs,” released in 2019.
*A three-line whip is a term used in the UK Parliament, indicating an especially urgent situation.
