"It accumulates over the years and I've led so many bands of my own now and forced myself into new situations... You would hope that you play better and better - until you just get too feeble to do it anymore"
About this Quote
A musician talking about mastery usually gets framed as destiny or genius. Andy Summers makes it sound more like compound interest with a ticking clock. "It accumulates over the years" is a quietly anti-myth line: skill isn’t a lightning bolt, it’s residue left by repetition, failure, and the kind of long attention span pop culture rarely rewards. He’s not romanticizing the grind, either. He’s describing a practical reality that only becomes obvious after decades in the room.
The revealing phrase is "forced myself into new situations". That’s intent, not nostalgia. Summers is pointing to reinvention as a discipline, a self-imposed discomfort that keeps craft from turning into muscle-memory autopilot. For someone forever associated with The Police, the subtext is almost combative: don’t confuse the story the audience tells about you with the work you’re still doing. Growth requires new contexts, not just more reps inside the old ones.
Then he lands the punch with "until you just get too feeble to do it anymore". It’s blunt, unsentimental, and human. The line strips away the fantasy of endless creative ascent and replaces it with a musician’s real horizon: the body is part of the instrument, and time collects its debt. The emotional power comes from that balance of optimism and constraint - the hope of getting better, paired with the clear-eyed knowledge that the window closes. It’s not fear-mongering; it’s a reason to stay curious now.
The revealing phrase is "forced myself into new situations". That’s intent, not nostalgia. Summers is pointing to reinvention as a discipline, a self-imposed discomfort that keeps craft from turning into muscle-memory autopilot. For someone forever associated with The Police, the subtext is almost combative: don’t confuse the story the audience tells about you with the work you’re still doing. Growth requires new contexts, not just more reps inside the old ones.
Then he lands the punch with "until you just get too feeble to do it anymore". It’s blunt, unsentimental, and human. The line strips away the fantasy of endless creative ascent and replaces it with a musician’s real horizon: the body is part of the instrument, and time collects its debt. The emotional power comes from that balance of optimism and constraint - the hope of getting better, paired with the clear-eyed knowledge that the window closes. It’s not fear-mongering; it’s a reason to stay curious now.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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