Sting

Sting

A little something about Sting
It's become increasingly easy, and even fashionable, to make fun of Sting. Maybe it's the serious scowl he wears 24-7. Maybe it's his music, which has been gradually steering farther and farther from his pop days and toward the "adult oriented radio" end of the spectrum, frustrating some fans while winning others. Maybe it's that terrible car commercial, in which we're supposed to believe that Sting loves his car very much, though he's too important a person to actually drive it himself. Or maybe it's just hard to take seriously a 50 year old guy named Sting. Whatever you think of him now, he was undeniably an important figure in 80s music. After the overwhelming success of their Syncronicity album, Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland decided to focus on the solo careers that each had begun molding while making music as the Police. For each of the three, a solo career meant something different: for Copeland it was television and film scores, for Summers it was inventive guitar work, and for Sting it was the life of a major recording and film star. Sting's first solo album, 1985's Dream of the Blue Turtles, was a huge critical and commercial success, and is arguably his most accessible work. Culled from the LP were a number of international hits, including "Fortress Around Your Heart," "Russians," "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free," and "Englishman In New York," which was remixed and became a hit in 1990. The album - and the accompanying tour and documentary film - featured an impressive cast of musicians, including Branford Marsalis, dubbed the Blue Turtles. The Police had occasionally pulled literary connections into their music, and demonstrated a clear carribean element in much of their new wave music. On Dream of the Blue Turtles Sting really shows how strong a song writer he is capable of being. The lyrics became more personal, and the music explored Sting's interest in jazz with impressive results. And in case he wasn't being eclectic enough, on the track "Russians" he successfully wove in a theme from Sergei's Prokoviev's Lieutenant Kijé suite. In 1987 Sting was back with Nothing Like the Sun, which featured the talents of Marsalis, Ruben Blades, Eric Clapton, and Mark Knopfler. He has continued to record sell lots of albums, though his work seems to appeal to an increasingly smaller audience as time passes... that's not to say it's getting progressively worse, but that like many recording artists who've been around for a while he's making music more for himself than for legions of pop fans.

Lyrics shown below : "Russians", "Englishman in New York" , "Fortress around your heart"

Russians

In Europe and America, there's a growing feeling of hysteriaConditioned to respond to all the threatsIn the rhetorical speeches of the SovietsMr. Krushchev said we will bury youI don't subscribe to this point of viewIt would be such an ignorant thing to doIf the Russains love their children tooHow can I save my little boy from Oppenheimer's deadly toyThere is no monopoly of common senseOn either side of the political fenceWe share the same biologyRegardless of ideologyBelieve me when I say to youI hope the Russians love their children tooThere is no historical precedentTo put words in the mouth of the presidentThere's no such thing as a winnable warIt's a lie we don't believe anymoreMr. Reagan says we will protect youI don't subscribe to this point of viewBelieve me when I say to youI hope the Russians love their children tooWe share the same biologyRegardless of ideologyWhat might save us me and youIs that the Russians love their children too



Englishman in New York

I don't drink coffee, I take tea my dear
I like my toast done on the side
And you can hear it in my accent when I talk
I'm an Englishman in New York

See me walking down Fifth Avenue
A walking cane here at my side
I take it everywhere I walk
I'm an Englishman in New York

I'm an alien   I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York
I'm an alien   I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York

If "manners maketh man" as someone said
Then he's the hero of the day
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say

I'm an alien   I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York
I'm an alien   I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York

Modesty, propriety can lead to notoriety
You could end up as the only one
Gentleness, sobriety are rare in this society
At night a candle's brighter than the sun

Takes more than combat gear to make a man
Takes more than license for a gun
Confront your enemies, avoid them when you can
A gentleman will walk but never run

If "manners maketh man" as someone said
Then he's the hero of the day
It takes a man to suffer ignorance and smile
Be yourself no matter what they say

I'm an alien   I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York
I'm an alien   I'm a legal alien
I'm an Englishman in New York



Fortress around your heart

Under the ruins of a walled city
Crumbling towers in beams of yellow light
No flags of truce, no cries of pity
The siege guns had been pounding all through the night
It took a day to build the city
We walked through the streets in the afternoon
As I returned across the fields I'd known 
I recognized the walls that I once made
I had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid 

And if I have built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge
For I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire 

Then I went off to fight some battle
That I'd invented inside my head
Away so long for years and years
You probably thought or even wished that I was dead
While the armies all are sleeping
Beneath the tattered flag we'd made
I had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid 

And if I have built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge
For I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire 

The prison has now become your home
A sentence you seem prepared to pay
It took a day to build the city
We walked through the streets in the afternoon
As I returned across the fields I'd known 
I recognized the fields where I'd once played
I had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid 

And if I have built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge
For I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire