Fields of POLL: The Best of Sting

fortress around your heart. after that, it's all bloodless, clumsy, and horrible.

I'm very fond of at least two songs here: "All This Time" (in which he attempts Paul Simon style talk-singing with some success), and "Why Should I Cry For You," the best vehicle for his smugness.

"Fragile" isn't bad either (Neil Tennant loves it). But, egad, I heard "We'll Be Together" at a BBQ today -- one of the few times a songwriter makes you feel his contempt for writing hit singles.

Songs like that and "Be Still My Beating Heart" remind me of a certain groping towards elegant melancholy that I wanted to learn more about, fitfully. It makes me think of Bryan Ferry's "Is Your Love Strong Enough," Pet Shop Boys' "Rent," songs from my high school years that suggested something other, something else.

xpost And I wrote that before Alfred noted Tennant enjoyed "Fragile!"

Good call, Ned: "Be Still My Beating Heart" is real good adult contemporary.

Speaking of Bryan Ferry, I wonder if he and Sting shared a target audience in the late eighties. I own the first three Sting releases, and one of the weird quirks about Billboard's "modern rock" chart is allowing "All This Time" to chart in '91, which makes sense: college students listened to El Stingo through '94 at least.

Speaking of Bryan Ferry, I wonder if he and Sting shared a target audience in the late eighties.

Oh god, completely. Adult Album Alternative avec le lettre, essentially.

lol, El Stingo.

Not so lol if you think about this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nada_Como_el_Sol

He busted out the Spanish "Fragile" at the show I saw him at back in 1988.

El Stingo Lameo.

El Stingo LMAO

Arriba.

Besides, the passion:

We'd only stopped for a few burritos
But they told us of the trouble with los banditos
A poor little town in need of aid
My brothers and me had never been afraid
The age of chivalry is not dead
Lonesome nights in a cowboy bed
There’d be a bride for every man
Who chased away the evil gang
Love is stronger than justice
Love is thicker than blood
Love, love, love is stronger than justice
Love is a big fat river in flood

I think a cogent argument could be made for the entirety of Ten Summoner's Tales being the worst lyrics by anyone, anywhere.

Consider:

Turned on the weather man just after the news
I needed sweet rain to wash away my blues
He looked at the chart but he look in vain
Heavy cloud but no rain

Back in time with Louis XVI
At the court of the people he was number one
He'd be the bluest blood they'd ever seen
When the king said hi to the guillotine
The royal astrologer was run out of breath
He thought that maybe the rain would postpone his death
He look in sky but he look in vain
Heavy cloud but no rain

Well the land was cracking and the river was dry
All the crops were dying when they ought to be high
So to save his farm from the banker's draft
The farmer took out a book on some old witchcraft
He made a spell and a potion on a midsummer's night
He killed a brindled calf in the pale moonlight
He prayed to the sky but he prayed in vain
Heavy cloud but no rain

The operating theory here seems to be that Sting noticed that David Bowie said he liked the Pixies and then wondered if he himself could do something like that but have it be not so weird.

wait, those are real lyrics? from sting?

o_O

Also. . . lololololololololol

Pick and choose! It's a fiesta of mierda!

http://www.allthelyrics.com/lyrics/sting/ten_summoners_tales/

Would she prefer it if I washed myself more often than I do
Would she prefer it if I took her to an opera or two

I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant's faithful, one hundred percent.

dr. seuss is a better lyricist than sting.

There's one song in which he thinks he's being so clever by attacking rock critics, when really it sounds like your kid brother wearing a penciled mustache in a school play.

my heart says fields of gold my head says fragile

i like englishman in new york more than it deserves i think

if you like it at all, you like it more than it deserves

I don't drink coffee I take tea my dear.

I like my toast done on one side.

I think I'm camper than old Quentin was

I only wish he hadn't died

Gentleness, sobriety are rare in this society

If you love these songs set them free.

Wait, wait! What key is it in!

If you guys want I could reproduce the liner notes to ...Nothing Like the Sun, in which he compiles anecdotes on the composition of each song.

On "Be Still My Beating Heart": "Why does tradition locate our emotion center at the heart and not somewhere in the brain? Why is the common image in popular music the broken heart? I don't know..."

Your cruel mockery has driven Sting to emote via the bass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCNp5rtreUU

2010 marks ten years since El Stingo taught us to love keening Third Worlders pimping cars.

totally want the liner notes! hope they are in iambic pentameter.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45182000/jpg/_45182049_bf5ceb9d-5cdd-4893-be05-785da4c84e64.jpg

i am a bard. mock me not.

Sting can put together some nice chord progressions and melody, but the guy took all of the balls out of the rhythm section during his solo career (maybe the first album excepted). Being a kid that loved the Police, it was weird being a fan that slowly became repulsed. I suppose people that dug the Faces and the Jeff Beck Group probably had a similar feeling with Rod Stewart (but at least the change was blatent and he was fun).

Ok Soto, now you're taking this love of the well-made 1980s studio pop-rock song waaay too far. Next poll: Best Sounding Espresso Machine.

Also, is this true?:

college students listened to El Stingo through '94 at least

I think there was some bleed over from the Adult Contemporary chart. Or Adult Album Alternative. Which is what he was from the solo git, no?

"They Dance Alone". His best ever solo moment.

Englishman In New York is pretty much the only solo Sting I like.

Ok Soto, now you're taking this love of the well-made 1980s studio pop-rock song waaay too far.

I don't love it -- I wanted to poll El Stingo.

I suppose people that dug the Faces and the Jeff Beck Group probably had a similar feeling with Rod Stewart (but at least the change was blatent and he was fun).

OTM

I guess "All This Time", though I remember being surprised by how much play it got on my local "alt rock" station at the time. But I shouldn't have been: they heavily promoted Peter Gabriel's Us at the time, and Sarah McLaughlin, both in a similar adult-y neighborhood I think.

Being a kid that loved the Police, it was weird being a fan that slowly became repulsed.

otm.

i was kinda glad when he did the three amigos thing with bryan adams and rod stewart, because i felt like i'd been contractually released from ever paying attention to him again.

^^^^^
truest thing ever spoken on ILX

oh c'mon -- they did it all for love.

i was kinda glad when he did the three amigos thing with bryan adams and rod stewart, because i felt like i'd been contractually released from ever paying attention to him again.

i'd ask what "thing" you're referring to, but i think i'm happier and more content not knowing about it.

happier, more productive,
comfortable,
not drinking too much,
* * * *
getting on better with your associate employee contemporaries ,
at ease,
* * * *
(no bad dreams)

somewhere post-Dream of the Blue Turtles (ie, high school) I realized what horrible music this guy makes and I just can't abide him. So much so that my wife has to listen to her Police box set when I'm not home.

Let's make it aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall for one and all for loooooooooove

my wife has to listen to her Police box set when I'm not home

yeah, i have that box-set. i like a lot of the songs, but i can't bring myself to listen to it.

Yech, from the I Burn For You vid posted above:

00:39: [Sting sings while dry humping the air] "You and I are lovers!"
00:41: [Stings smirks lasciviously at audience]

Cut to

00:42: [Underage girl smiles back shyly]

Hey, blame it on Apted. Maybe he originally planned to follow the next 42 years of that girl's life?

Want to say the only one I don't like is "Russians," and even that one I think is just a bad idea, badly written, but not really bad to listen to, as long as you barely listen to it.

And how!!

I disagree about 'Synchronicity I' and 'Mother', and 'Saint Augustine in Hell' has that funny segment where he disses music critics.

"fragile" or "be still my beaten heart" both solid jams

how in the world did Englishman in NY win this? what a dumb song.

I dunno, The Soul Cages is a good album.

i still ride for Ten Summoner's Tales, though "feel her body rise/when you kiss her mouth" is one of the great all time terrible lyrics.

That's a good line!

I might be officially getting old and lame because I just heard Fragile and Fields of Gold after years of not hearing any Sting music and I'm finding them sort of brilliant. They also sound tacky as hell with those 'sensuous' Spanish guitars and the overall new age seriousness so a part of me is still resisting its charm.

ok 'desert rose' sounds like something off some cirque du soleil soundtrack so that one is definitely still going to the dump.

“Fragile” and “Be Still My Beating Heart” are pretty great

Damn there’s a lot of trash on this CD

Always had a soft spot for ‘We’ll Be Together’...’Nothing Like The Sun’ sounds awfully quaint now in a good way

It sounds like he wrote the damn thing in less time than it plays, but "Fields of Gold" is a gorgeous song. "If I Ever Lose My Faith" is also one of those songs that has stuck with me

I love Nothing Like the Sun. Peak adult contemporary Sting, with some really interesting musical and stylistic choices. In some ways like. So if Peter Gabriel weren't weird.

I think ...Nothing Like The Sun and Soul Cages are better than any Police album, but not many of his singles touch his best work with The Police - 'Fortress Around Your Heart' is just about the only one that sounds like a viable Police hit.

The flip is that a song like "Fragile" could never be a Police song, and essentially codifies solo Sting.

I would watch a Sting pornography if, in it, he had intercourse with younger guys who looked sort of like him, like Neil Patrick Harris and Christopher Masterson.

Doogie Does Stingus

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/45182000/jpg/_45182049_bf5ceb9d-5cdd-4893-be05-785da4c84e64.jpg

i am a bard. mock me not.

― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, March 14, 2010 10:14 PM (thirteen years ago)

LMAO

I was surprised to find out that Ten Summoner's Tales was Down Beat's album of the year - don't know if that was typical of them back then, but I gave them the benefit of the doubt and gave it a good listen as I only knew the two hit singles. As jazz or pop, it couldn't have been a more ludicrous pick. The only unfamiliar tracks that had some appeal were "Seven Days" (I can see this being a fun song for a jazz singer to cover - rhythmically it's pretty engaging) and "Shape of My Heart" (appropriately shapely acoustic guitar part - that may have been his guitarist/co-writer's doing). The rest was like getting through a visit to the dentist.

My dentist plays Bad Bunny and Sheryl Crow, as I learned last week, so we may have to retire that trope.

"Shape of My Heart" has been a staple of hip-hop producers looking for a pretty sample.

LOL - mine actually plays a lot of '50s and '60s jazz (big Miles Davis fan). Whenever I go, he does a thorough job of cleaning, which means cleaning below every bit of my gumline and setting off every nerve - so if you can picture what that's like, sitting there and gripping the armrest, waiting for the process to run its course and be over, that's what I had in mind.

"Shape of My Heart" has been a staple of hip-hop producers looking for a pretty sample.

Still digging for these, but here's the opening track on Nas's second album (I should probably give that another try):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3CGu0ezd68

Also the Roots's "Break You Off" - sounds like they re-recorded it as a keyboard part, but I guess it could be buried in there as a guide.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPcwUu_gcqo

A blog post from 2018 with more:

https://hypebeast.com/2018/6/sting-shape-of-my-heart-sad-rap-20-years-nas-the-message-juice-wrld-lucid-dreams

It Was Written? Most of it is marvelous.

"Seven Days" is indeed very intrguiging, I just hate the lyrics so much I can't listen to it. the chorus is fine at least.

I think I posted this in another thread but one really nice deep cut is "The Lazarus Heart" from Nothing like the Sun. I guess it's not a deep cut when it's the first track on the album, but still it's not a tune I've ever really heard anyone talk about. Sounds like something people would be crazy for...if it was done by Peter Gabriel

That whole album is great, peak adult contemporary. Yes, even the song Soto hates.

"Seven Days" is indeed very intrguiging, I just hate the lyrics so much I can't listen to it. the chorus is fine at least.

Has Sting ever written great lyrics? I want to say no, even with the Police, and I love their singles (as well as a good portion of their catalog - Zenyatta Mondatta especially). I kind of wish he was paired with a gifted lyricist because whenever he does anything with the written word, whether it's lyrics or liner notes, it can be pretty awful. I probably pay far less attention to the words of his songs than the actual music for that reason. Jon Pareles argued that "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" is a terrible song on the basis of its lyrics: "a postgrammatical, T-shirt sentiment and a denunciation of possessiveness that would be a lot more convincing issued by someone other than a millionaire." Maybe, but musically it's pretty engaging and would have sounded right at home with the Police.

I think he's written some great lines

to me the thing he's most guilty of is using a lot of dumb filler words and nonsense phrases which makes his lyrics come off like shitty childrens books. "so they danced for his pleasure/with a joy you could not measure". like what does that even mean? congrats on making the rhyme though

a denunciation of possessiveness that would be a lot more convincing issued by someone other than a millionaire

It’s about “possessiveness” in a relationship (not in a material sense), right? Not sure why a millionaire can’t express that sentiment…

xp LOL

One exception (at least for me): I know "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" got trashed in the Police thread, but lyrically it's kind of the perfect Police song for me. On some level, it's acknowledging his deficiencies as a lyricist and having a laugh on him.

Re. Ten Summoners Tales, I think the fact that it was a warm, unpretentious record (for Sting anyway) with two very big singles led a lot of people to overrate it at the time and overlook that a lot of the writing was pretty lightweight (tho I’d argue “It’s Probably Me” is a cut above a lot of the material here). Jazzers really loved the playing, particularly Vinnie Colaiuta’s. So the combo explains why Downbeat rated it so highly.

I hear ya, but you'd think there was a better consensus pick in the jazz world. Joshua Redman's debut came out the same year - maybe they didn't want to pile on the hype for someone who just got established as a big name star, but I think it would've held up as a much better mainstream pick.

(same month actually - just a few weeks later)

Listening to ...Nothing Like The Sun this morning. This and Bowie's Tonight both have this particular '87 pre-crash NYC VH-1 gloss that might sound better the more they become artifacts of a specific era.

NLTS, ye gods, is a better album. No?

Definitely. I'd play "Loving The Alien" and "Don't Look Down" (the latter more for this particular sound) and stop there.

Watching *Radio On*. I'd forgotten Sting pops up and steals the thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqZwjxZuOFc

Apropos of nothing this came on my feed the other day, joyous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPqOHay8fM

Upon reading through the comments above, I just want to point out that pop-synth-punk genius Atom and His Package recorded an instrumental track in 1997 called “Sting Cannot Possibly Be the Same Guy Who Was In the Police“ https://genius.com/Atom-and-his-package-sting-cannot-possibly-be-the-same-guy-who-was-in-the-police-lyrics"> https://genius.com/Atom-and-his-package-sting-cannot-possibly-be-the-same-guy-who-was-in-the-police-lyrics

https://theonion.com/you-know-i-used-to-be-kind-of-cool-once-1819583601/

I built an elaborate defense perimeter around your heart

Really enjoying Andy's book, One Train Later.

People forget how old Andy is - 81! - and that book does a great job placing him in the context of all those post-war ground zero British guitarist peers.

Turns out he's playing this live for the first time in about 35 years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NGeWLcS-14

sorry "Sting 3.0" what

They updated his firmware

(The embarrassing part was seeing that he and Billy Joel played a 70K-capacity football stadium in Indianapolis this week and then had to see what the setlists were.)

What a boring drummer he has now, who is this Zach Jones dude?

They updated his firmware