The Police left us wanting more. Their final album, Synchronicity (1983), won them universal critical acclaim and also attained new levels of commercial success for the band. “Wrapped Around Your Finger” was one of the smash singles from that album. It featured intelligent lyrics and complex music while still delivering the surface pleasures that even a casual listener could spot.
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Did you know this song almost never happened? In large part because the album that contained it almost went down in a heap of acrimony before the band could make it? And do you know the meaning behind “Wrapped Around Your Finger,” with its mysterious names and candle-busting video? Let’s answer all questions about the meaning behind “Wrapped Around Your Finger” by The Police.
He Warned You Not to Stand So Close to Him…
Few bands in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s combined ambitious music with pop smarts as well as The Police. Their varied sonic palette allowed them to be embraced by fans of many different genres. The band quickly rose from cult favorites to smash hitmakers without ever compromising their musical identity.
The music part always seemed to come easy for the trio of bassist/singer Sting, guitarist Andy Summers, and drummer Stewart Copeland. It was the getting along part that tripped them up. These were not guys who grew up together playing at school dances and sweaty clubs like so many rock bands. Sting met Copeland in 1976, and they met Summers in ’77. They made their debut album in 1978.
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Whatever musical chemistry they discovered, it also quickly became clear these were three guys with very different personalities. This led almost immediately to clashes. It didn’t help that Sting, as the singer and chief songwriter, quickly gained more exposure than the other two. This especially rankled Copeland, who viewed The Police to some extent as his band.
Kings of Pain, and Pop
As they settled in to record their fifth album at the end of 1982, The Police were nothing short of rock royalty. But they were also tearing at the seams. So much so that the album, which would be ironically named Synchronicity, almost was scuttled. Hugh Padgham, who produced the record in conjunction with the band, explained the severity of the situation in an interview for this author’s book Playing Back the ‘80s: A Decade of Unstoppable Hits:
“When we went out to Montserrat to record this album, we were there for two weeks before we had anything on the tape that we could call a song. It was that bad. And Miles Copeland flew over, even though he hated coming to Montserrat because it was in the middle of nowhere. He came over and I distinctly remember the band and him, while I was privy but on the periphery, having a meeting about whether we were going to carry on recording this album or give it up there and then. The consensus was that we would carry on.”
Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed. Because Sting had written several songs with hit potential. One of them was a mysterious little ditty about control and revenge entitled “Wrapped Around Your Finger.”
What Is “Wrapped Around Your Finger” About?
“Wrapped Around Your Finger” was festooned with restrained yet hypnotic music from the trio. It contains a bunch of words and phrases that sent many a fan racing for dictionaries and encyclopedias. For the record: Alabaster is an extra-pale skin color; the Scylla and Charybdis were mythological creatures who pestered sailors; and Devil and the deep blue sea references an idiom about being stuck in the middle of two bad outcomes.
All of that is merely window dressing for the intense tale within the song. The narrator is an apprentice who has long been accepting of the demands and restrictions placed on him by his master. Yet he subtly warns throughout the song that there will be a comeuppance at some point: I will listen hard to your tuition / You will see it come to its fruition.
As the music builds into the final verse, the narrator explains to his quasi-captor that once’s he’s clear of his current perils, the master won’t know what hit them: Devil and the deep blue sea behind me / Vanish in the air, you’ll never find me. And finally, the closing touch: I will turn your face to alabaster / When you find your servant is your master. When the chorus comes around one last time, Sting has changed the perspective in a telling way: You’ll be wrapped around my finger.
The tension among the members of The Police did indeed cause them to fracture after the making of Synchronicity. But with “Wrapped Around Your Finger” and the other magnificent songs from that record, they reminded us that their inter-band scuffles could never outweigh the brilliance they produced when they came together.
Photo by Jason Kempin/FilmMagic
