Cover it: Bring On The Night

A couple of months ago I ripped my Police box set Message in a Box and put it all on my ipod. If your a Police fan this box set is where it's at. It contains every studio recording they ever did along with several live versions. It also has the last song they played together from their last show Don't Stand So Close To Me. Needless to say they have been popping up on the ipod quite a bit. The Police have a lot of great songs, many of them you won't find on their greatest hits cd. One of my favorite songs is Bring on the Night from Regatta da blanc. I think that Bring on the Night is an excellent tune that some of today's musicians should cover. The song is amazing. It kicks off with a little grooving entry before a lifting guitar pattern and stings still high voice come in. The fun is really in the reggaeish chorus with a bouncy bassline under it, one of those sections that should go one and on. You also get a bit of guitar wankery that wanders around Sting's vocals at the end. Now it's a tall order for a cover. The Police had a very distinct style and of course this is an early police song so Sting still has that amazingly strong high pitch. It would be hard to find a singer today who could hit those notes, I'm certain that sting himself couldn't do it today, so I'm proposing a complete reinterpretation of the song ala Sun Kil Moon. Here are some of my suggestions.
Mark Kozelek would be ideal, he's done it before with AC/DC and most recently Modest Mouse.
Iron&Wine has done some stunning covers and honestly I just want to here his take on it.
Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah have the energy and possibly the voice to do a version close to the original.
Bishop Allen would have a great take on the track and having a female voice in the mix could be really cool. (I'm still kicking myself for missing their Boston gig last week.)
Ok I have half a dozen more I could throw out but what do you think?

Download: Bring On the Night
Download: Don't Stand So Close to Me (the final performance)
Download: So Lonely

I've got to add that B Main, one of the greatest guys alive, bought me the box set for my high school graduation. Not only that but The Monkees box set also, imagine that, the man has diverse tastes.