More often than not, album liner notes are most interesting to fellow working musicians and engineers. But every so often, a track credit is so odd that even a casual listener would take note: take, for example, the credit of “butt piano” on the Police’s classic track, “Roxanne.” Frontman and bassist Sting was the lucky holder of this instrumental feature in the first few seconds of the song.
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Tucked into the mix, the brief musical moment is one of those natural blemishes that give records of that time their character. But sometimes in music, it’s better to make a big mistake than a timid one, which is why the Police had no problem keeping the gaff.
The Story Behind The “Butt Piano” On The Police’s “Roxanne”
When the Police first went into the studio in the late 1970s to record their debut album Outlandos d’Amour, they had the benefit of being tight from playing live together so often. The band opted to keep this on-stage feel by live tracking the entire album together, meaning everyone was mic’d up and recording their parts in real-time. Because they were recording to tape, there was no ability to go in and separate bad takes from good ones. The tape captures every note, right or wrong, in one fell swoop. Sometimes, that results in bloopers that, in the Police’s case, turn into butt chords.
“The recording of the backing track came very quickly because we had been playing it on stage,” drummer Stewart Copeland recalled of tracking “Roxanne.” “The vocal has that moment where Sting does a vocal overdub, and in the introduction, he’s waiting for the song to begin, and they say, ‘Hang on, we’re going to run the tape back.’ The tape was running. So, he sits back on the piano right behind him, forgetting that the lid was open. He sits down and plays a butt chord. I think B flat minor.
While it’s certainly not the hottest instrument in the mix, one can easily catch the moment Sting sat down on the piano, followed by the vocalist-slash-bassist laughing over the blooper. In the case of vocal overdubs, the Police did, technically, have the freedom to start Sting’s mic track over and record over the butt chord. And no matter how silly the phrase “butt piano” sounds, the fact that the Police didn’t erase it spoke volumes to their ethos and attitude as a band.
Keeping A Blooper In A Debut Album Was A Bold Move
A band’s debut album is their first chance to make a big splash in the industry and establish themselves as a commercially viable act. First impressions hold a lot of weight in the ever-changing music industry, so the fact that the Police were willing to keep their “butt piano” in the track credits for “Roxanne” was a pretty bold move. Some bands might have been afraid of sounding too loose or unprofessional, especially on a track that was to be their lead single from their first record. But the Police had a different perspective.
“It had a vibe,” Stewart Copeland later said. “It had nothing to do with the song. Completely out of keeping with the sentiment of the lyric, but kind of had a vibe.” The track’s enduring quality and impressive debut chart performance would have to agree: the butt piano is a vibe.
Photo by Randy Miramontez/Shutterstock
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