Every time this Sting vs. The Police and what came first the chicken or the egg issue comes up...I always think of what Sting said when he first embarked on his solo career. He mentioned how he really wasn't going *solo* since he wasn't playing all the instruments and doing everything himself, etc. He was just writing the songs. I think this holds true for The Police and it's members perfectly. Sting may have wrote the songs and sang them, but he didn't play two bases and the drums himself. He didn't create the famous guitar riff for EBYT (unless I'm mistaken) himself, that was Andy. The drumming style was Stewart. My question is always why does anyone want to dismiss the importance of Andy and Stewart? Also, why is it so difficult to just accept that The Police were an entity upon themselves. Accept them for what they were and are on record. Other than there, on video and in the memories of those who saw them live, that's where The Police exists. Sting was a large part of them. However, now he is (and has been for years) apart from The Police. He sings Police songs, but they are his musicians and arrangements. They are essentially hybrid cover/remixes performed live. There is no difference between Sting singing Police songs solo--from any other singer who wrote the songs for a band and is singing them with a different group of musicians. What did come first, the chicken or the egg? I'll tell you. The soft-shelled embrio of an egg came first, then what would become the chicken, then it's hard-shelled egg. Used as metaphor for this: embrio as The Police raw faux punk stage, the chicken as The Police at peak, and the well formed egg as Sting (the by-product of the chicken). Happy Halloween all. It's apparently much too late for me. ;) Teri ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! Only $14.95/ month - visit www.juno.com to sign up today!