When was message in a bottle number one

I think the Germans call that Schadenfreude - enjoying the misery of others. We had also just learned the trick of playing a song two or three times in a row to let the energy build, then we'd come straight in for another take with the tape still rolling.

I think it's a quite cleverly put together metaphor, it develops and it has an artistic shape to it. I'm very proud of that song. I've never thought of it being subversive Just verse, chorus, middle eight - playing the different segments of the song in random order for twenty minutes and kind of build up a momentum. That way You don't think 'This is the take. It's cheating, but then we're making records. On stage we can't do that and that's when we have to show we can actually play.

We perform the songs, mime to them badly - generally we just dance to them in a particular environment. We made 'Message In A Bottle' in a dressing room in the Lyceum in London - what we got was an image of three guys enjoying themselves That can move me. I like the idea that while it's about loneliness and alienation it's also about finding solace and other people going through the same thing. The guy's on a desert island and throws a bottle out to sea saying he's alone and all these millions of bottles come back saying, So what So am I!

I like the fact that the whole deal is clinched by the third verse. It makes a journey. He'd been fiddling about with it during our first American tour.

Finally, he rearranged the riff slightly and came up with the song. It had all the trademarks. There was something joyous about it.

The song's B-side, "Landlord," was written by Sting lyrics and Copeland music. Sting said of its inspiration, "I wrote that after Frances and I were thrown out of the house we were renting in London.

I hated the idea of somebody fucking my life up like that. Stewart [Copeland] wrote the music. In addition to saying it was his favourite song in an interview with Jools Holland of the BBC, Sting described it as a "good song," and also said that he was "very proud" of it. The Police performed at Live Earth, a charity concert to raise awareness of global warming and other environmental hazards, and performed "Message in a Bottle" as the US finale, with John Mayer playing guitar with Andy Summers and Kanye West performing a rap verse over the chorus of the song.

Check out the lyrics here, and then read the discussion afterward for further analysis and thoughts on the meaning of the song. Just a castaway, an island lost at sea Another lonely day with no one here but me More loneliness than any man could bear Rescue me before I fall into despair. A year has passed since I wrote my note But I should have known this right from the start Only hope can keep me together Love can mend your life But love can break your heart.

Hopefully, none of us has ever been an actual castaway—I mean, a survivor of a shipwreck washed up on a desolate shore. But we all understand feelings of loneliness, isolation. And, many of us, when we feel lonely, look for ways to reach out, to connect with some one, any one. So we never really ran out of material. Never to be repeated. But according to Summers, he and Copeland helped shape the final track. It was very collaborative.