Buried Treasure: The Police, One World (Not Three)

I have about 20,000 songs in iTunes. My basic, everyday playlist consists of everything I have rated 3, 4 or 5 stars. That turns out to be about ten percent of the total, or about 2,000 songs. That's about a full week's worth of songs.

Still, sometimes it seems like I hear the same few songs over and over again. For instance, it seems like I hear Get The Balance Right by Depeche Mode about once every ten minutes. That's why it's nice to hear something pop up out of the blue from time to time, something I'd more or less forgotten about. Sometimes, it can be like hearing it with fresh ears.

A good example of this happened today, when I heard One World (Not Three) by the Police, who, coincidentally enough, are playing at the local MegaStadium tonight. (I'm not going.)

This was one of the throwaway tracks buried on the second, crappier side of Ghost In The Machine. It's full of Sting's politically correct pontificating, and is pretty light on recommending what should actually be done beyond a sort of vague notion of Think Globally, Act Locally.

The interesting thing about it is, hearing it now, I realize that the little horn thingy that's repeated over and over again isn't just some random bleating to flesh out the tune, but some sort of African-derived call and response theme. I confess ignorance as to whether it's closer to the traditions of South African township music or West African Highlife. When pasted on top of the Police's typical ersatz-reggae beat, it does indeed conjure an image of One World (Not Three). So, credit to Sting.