About the Music and the Lyrics of
S T I N G
I don�t think that there is any other musician in our days
who quotes her- or himself in music and/or lyrics
as often as Gordon Matthew Sumner, also known as Sting, does. Don�t misunderstand
me. I like both his music and his lyrics - otherwise I would have probably not been
able to discover all the following facts !
Let�s start
with the very popular words
Every breath you take,
every move you make
every bond you break...
...and so forth, taken from the song "Every breath you take"
(from "Synchronicity", The Police, 1983). Only two years later,
at the very end of the song "Love is the seventh wave" ("The dream of the
blue turtles", Sting solo, 1985), you�ll find Sting singing
Every breath you take,
every move you make
every cake you bake...(!!!)
It is worth mentioning that on Led Zeppelin�s
"D�yer mak�er" (=Jamaika !; from "Houses of the holy", 1972), Robert Plant sings
oh oh oh oh oh o-oh
every breath I take
oh oh oh o-oh
oh every move I make...
�
The next example is taken from the song "Every little thing she does is
magic" ("Ghost in the machine", The Police, 1981):
Do I have to tell the story
of a thousand rainy days since we first met ?
it�s a big enough umbrella
but it�s always me that ends up getting wet
To date, Sting has "recycled" these words twice: firstly (again, only two years
later) for "Oh my god" ("Synchronicity") and secondly for "Seven days"
("Ten summoner�s tales, Sting, 1993).
�The fact that the words
That night, he dreamed of the ship in the world
(He dreamed of the ship on the sea)
it would carry his father and he
to a place they could never be found
to a place far away from this town.
A Newcastle ship without coals.
They would sail to the island of souls
appear in the songs "Island of souls" and "The soul cages" (both from "The soul cages",
Sting, 1991) indicates that the boy named Billy in "Island of souls" is either the child or the fisherman (can�t figure
out who) in "The soul cages".
�
At the beginning of "Don�t stand so close to me �86" ("Every breath you take - the Singles", The Police, 1986),
which is a re-recording of the song which originally is to be found on the "Zenyatta Mondatta" album (1980), you hear Sting singing
...those days are over...
which of course refers to the lyrics of "Roxanne" ("Outlandos d�amour", The Police, 1978). By the
way, do you know what exactly is meant by "the old man in that famous book by Nabokov" ? The book Sting mentions in
"Don�t stand so close to me" is "Lolita", and the old man who falls in love with the young girl of that
name is Humbert Humbert; the book was written by Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977). Finally: did you ever realize that the melody that Sting is singing at the very beginning of Dire Straits� "Money for nothing" ("Brothers in arms, 1985) - "I want my... I want my MTV" - is exactly the same as the refrain of "Don�t stand so close to me" ?
�
They say the meek shall inherit
the earth
These words appear in the following songs: "Visions of the night" (B-Side
of the single "Walking on the moon", The Police, 1979), in the refrain of "Walking
in your footsteps" ("Synchronicity") and, slightly variated
("blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the earth") in "All this time" ("The soul cages").
�
If you need somebody, call my name
if you want someone, you can do the same
if you want to keep something precious
you got to lock it up and throw away the key...
...from "If you love somebody set them free"
("The dream of the blue turtles"). At the very end of "We�ll
be together" ("...Nothing like the sun", Sting, 1987 - once more only two years later !), while everybody is singing
"we�ll be together tonight", you�ll hear Sting singing
...if you need somebody...
...if you want to keep something precious...
...love somebody...
...if you love somebody...
...if you love somebody...
�
For
"The dream of the blue turtles", Sting covered one of his own compositions for the first time. The track
I am talking about is "Shadows in the rain",
which originally appeared on The Police�s album "Zenyatta Mondatta".
�
Occasionally Sting "recycles" his own basslines. For instance the bassline at the end of "When we dance"
("Fields of gold - The best of Sting 1984-1994") is also the bassline at he beginning of
"All four seasons"("Mercury Falling", Sting, 1996). As far as I know, even the speed is the
same, subsequently, with a little bit of skill you should be able to "link" these two songs
together...
�The bassline of the song "Be still my beating heart" ("...Nothing like
the sun") reappears twice:
1. during the piano solo in the live-version of "It�s probably me" as
featured on "Demolition Man" (Sting, 1993), a CD containing not only the titletrack to the motion picture
of the same name (again Sting covering a Sting song) but also five tracks recorded live in Italy,
including the Beatles� "A day in the life", and
2. during the French rap,
the piano solo and the refrain in "Perfect Love...gone wrong" ("Brand new day", Sting, 1999);
the groove is slightly different, though.
