The Police Song Sting Says He “Hated So Much” and Refused to Play

The Police are famous for their arguments and fistfights.

Hostility stemmed from how each band member viewed music. Stewart Copeland told The Guardian Sting sees music as a “painkiller.” For Copeland, it’s a celebration, a way to have fun.

The conflict grew over five extraordinarily successful albums but by 1984, it was too much. The Police split up without releasing an official announcement—a quiet ending to an explosive band.

Yet there’s a song that offers a revealing glimpse of the fissures leading to the group’s breakup. One Police song that Sting refused to play.

Sting Buried the Tape

The Police wrote and recorded Zenyatta Mondatta in four weeks. They worked quickly between tour dates and Copeland said the time pressure and rushed recording schedule ultimately left the band dissatisfied with the album.

They worked with producer Nigel Gray, who had co-produced Reggatta de Blanc. On the follow-up, guitarist Andy Summers contributed his first fully written composition, an instrumental called “Behind My Camel.” Sting hated it.

Sting refused to play on the track so Summers recorded the bass part instead. Sting said, “I hated that song so much that, one day when I was in the studio, I found the tape lying on the table. So I took it around the back of the studio and actually buried it in the garden.”

Copeland told Revolver he only played on the song because “there wasn’t anyone else to play drums.”

However, Summers was vindicated when he received a Grammy Award in 1982 for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for “Behind My Camel.”

What Does the Title Mean?

Gray interpreted the song’s title as a joke by Summers. In Chris Campion’s band biography Walking on the Moon, Gray said, “He [Summers] didn’t tell me this himself but I’m 98% sure the reason is this: what would you find behind a camel? A monumental pile of s–t.”

For Sting, any side of the camel gave the same result.

Nevertheless, Zenyatta Mondatta continued the band’s successful run. It topped the UK charts and reached No. 5 in the U.S. The album’s two singles—written by Sting—“Don’t Stand So Close to Me” and “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da” are two of the group’s most popular.

A Primus Cover

Primus covered “Behind My Camel” on their 1998 covers EP Rhinoplasty. Bassist and singer Les Claypool said his band had always wanted to cover The Police but Sting’s vocals were too challenging for him to sing.

Claypool said the instrumental “seemed a logical option to choose.” Rhinoplasty also features songs by XTC, Peter Gabriel, Jerry Reed, and Metallica.

The Other Way of Stopping

The Eastern melodies on “Behind My Camel” are ominous. And Summers’s stabbing bass line doesn’t budge—rigid, like the bandmates themselves.

Within a decade, and before self-destructing, The Police became one of the world’s best-selling rock bands. Finally, for The Police to reach a consensus, everyone agreed to quit.

Don’t stand so close to me.

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