Zenyatta Mondatta


Zenyatta Mondatta is the third studio album by the English rock band The Police, released on 3 October 1980 by A&M Records. It was co-produced with Nigel Gray. It features the two hit singles: "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da". It reached number one on the UK Albums Chart.
The album won the Police two Grammy Awards including Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and the Police's second consecutive win for Best Rock Instrumental Performance for "Behind My Camel".

History

The album was written during the band's second tour and recorded in four weeks. The band members have often expressed disappointment over it, going so far as to re-record two songs during a brief, unsuccessful reunion in 1986. Drummer Stewart Copeland said about the time pressures: "We had bitten off more than we could chew. ... we finished the album at 4 a.m. on the day we were starting our next world tour. We went to bed for a few hours and then traveled down to Belgium for the first gig. It was cutting it very fine."
The band had wanted to record the album at Surrey Sound, the recording site of their first two albums, but could not record at any British studio for tax reasons. They were, however, able to retain Nigel Gray as their co-producer, bringing him with them to Wisseloord Studios in the Netherlands. Feeling that he'd played a significant part in the Police's first two albums, Gray negotiated for a £25,000 fee, which brought the album's total budget to £35,000.
As mentioned by Copeland, the Police embarked on a tour of the world the day of the album's completion, beginning in Belgium and finishing in Australia.
The album is the last of the Police's early era, influenced by reggae and punk and featuring few musical elements on top of the core guitar, bass, and drums. The record has two instrumentals, "The Other Way of Stopping" and the Grammy-winning "Behind My Camel". "Behind My Camel" was guitarist Andy Summers' first entirely self-penned composition. As Sting refused to play on it, Summers recorded the bass line himself, overdubbing the guitar parts. According to Sting, "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." Nigel Gray believed that the title was an in-joke by Summers: "He 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 shit." The song went on to win the 1982 Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. "Bombs Away" was recorded on a tape that Nigel Gray had just used with Siouxsie and the Banshees. Copeland said: "when he first set up his home studio he got hold of a load of second hand tape which included some stuff by Siouxsie and the Banshees. 'Bombs Away' was written on a Siouxsie and the Banshees backing track. I changed the speed and did things to the EQ to change the drum pattern. So with the desk I can get my song playing, then press a switch and there's Siouxsie singing away."
Zenyatta Mondatta also saw the band's lyrics turning towards political events, with Sting's "Driven to Tears" commenting on poverty and Copeland's "Bombs Away" referring to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. These themes became more prevalent in the Police's next album, Ghost in the Machine.
Six years later the band re-recorded "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da". The former was released on , while the latter was released on the DTS version of Every Breath You Take: The Classics.
A&M Records first remastered the album for release in the United States in 1990, as CD #CD-3720. Frank DeLuna and Marv Bornstein mastered the original 1980 vinyl LP, but it's unclear if they also remastered the compact disc.

Title

Copeland said that the group arrived at the album's title after deciding it should roll off the tongue. Zenyatta Mondatta are invented words, hinting at Zen, at Jomo Kenyatta, at the French word for the world and at Reggatta, from the previous album's name, Reggatta de Blanc. As Stewart Copeland explained:
"It means everything. It's the same explanation that applies to the last two. It doesn't have a specific meaning like 'Police Brutality' or 'Police Arrest', or anything predictable like that. Being vague it says a lot more. You can interpret it in a lot of different ways. It's not an attempt to be mysterious, just syllables that sound good together, like the sound of a melody that has no words at all has a meaning. Miles came up with "Trimondo Blondomina". Very subtle. Geddit? Like three blondes and the world. Then somebody thought of "Caprido Von Renislam". That rolls off the tongue. It was the address of the studio."

Jerry Moss, co-founder of A&M Records, named the champion racehorse Zenyatta after this album.

Covers and remixes

Zenyatta Mondatta reached #1 in both Australia and the U.K. In the U.S., the album spent almost three years on the charts and peaked at #5.
In a contemporary review of the album, David Fricke of Rolling Stone favorably described its offering of "near-perfect pop by a band that bends all the rules and sometimes makes musical mountains out of molehill-size ideas" and complimented the band's "elastic" interplay. It would later receive glowing reviews from re-assessments in Rolling Stone and Q, among others. Despite this, it is the only Police album not to obtain a spot on Rolling Stones list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Track listing

Personnel

The Police
;Reissue

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Australian Albums Chart11
Canadian Albums Chart16
Dutch Albums Chart84
US Billboard Pop Albums9

Singles

Certifications and sales

Accolades