In Defense of The Police

There's been news recently that The Police, with Sting at the helm, is about to reunite. I don't really care about that either way. But there is something that I couldn't help but notice -- in the wake of this announcement there has been NOTHING but complete ridicule. Whether it's in the paper or on the radio everbody has had a wisecrack to throw at the Police.

Call me a fool, but I LIKE the Police... and Sting too. And now I discover that I may be the only remaining fan. What happened? Why the change?

Ok, I'll be the first to admit they have collectively put out a lot of crap. I think we all cringe at Sting's trio with Bryan Adams and some other guy I don't even remember for the Robin Hood: Prince of Theives soundtrack. That was bad. Bad. Bad. BAAAAAD. And I don't like Sting's dabbling in jazz or his duets with Winton Marsalis. I don't even like most of his albums.

But damn, for me that doesn't dim for one moment the good songs.

Hidden in the crap there are some true gems. I mean songs that have stayed in my heart for years and have never tired me out.

Here's my plea in their defense: In their best moments Sting (and the Police) tell the most vivid, riveting stories I've ever found in music -- beautiful tales full of imagery and a command of the english language rarely found in pop music.

Even today, when I'd much rather be listening to European dance music or Caribbean dub or Brazillian samba or 70s funk, I still never tire of these songs. When they turn up on the radio I'm always happy to hear them, like old friends.

As proof I offer you a selection of six of the best. I'm including some of my favorite lines too, but keep in mind that lyrics are have so much more life in music than in print:

An obvious one: Message in a Bottle: I don't have too much to say about this one. It's not the most brilliant song but I always love it. The imagery of throwing a message in a bottle in to the sea always fascinated me. (And I actually did it once - from the coast of Australia when I was sixteen - and I got a reply! but that's another story....) The metaphorical feeling of being an island in a sea of people is so true and universal sometimes. But most of all I just love to belt out this song in the car when I am driving. I've always loved that and I always will...

King of Pain: This song offers a list of the trivial and overlooked moments of tragedy and injustice that occur every minute of every day in the world around us. It is dark and sad. But it uses a poignant beauty to examine the doubts that inevitably have about our existence in this world.

My favorite lines:

There's a king on a throne with his eyes torn out
There's a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt
There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed
There's a skeleton choking on a crust of bread


Don't Stand So Close to Me: This song is about a high school teacher trapped in desire for one of his students. She comes near, he resists, but he can't resist, the teachers talk, his ruin is near, she's SO near. In one song it spans so many conflicting emotions. It's a mesmerizing steamy song. I remember the moment too when I realized he makes a clever literary reference to the novel Lolita by Nabokov. It took me years to pick that up!

Favorite lines:

Temptation, frustration
So bad it makes him cry
Wet bus stop, she's waiting
His car is warm and dry

Wrapped Around Your Finger For a long time I ignored this song because musically it's only mediocre. But over the years one line or another would hit me at the right moment and illuminate a thought like a flash of lightning. It's a story of a young man in love (or lust) with a woman who holds the high position in their relationship. Is she older? His superior? She's definitely married. She believes, erroneously, that he means nothing to her. In the end of the song the tables turn and she is wrapped around HIS finger. It is a seductive song that slips out from the shadows of the conscious mind. I find it elegent, mysterious. Also very literary, with it's allusions to the monsters of Scylla and Charibdis from Greek mythology.

Favorite lines:

You consider me the young apprentice
Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis
Hypnotized by you if I should linger
Staring at the ring around your finger

I have only come here seeking knowledge
Things they would not teach me of in college
I can see the destiny you sold
Turned into a shining band of gold


Tea in the Sahara: Even more mysterious is this song. In it, three sisters deep in the Sahara desert plead with a stranded pilot from a faraway land to come drink tea with at the same time each year. He agrees and they dance for him, in a scene that evokes the beguiling ways of the veiled Berber women of Tunisia and Algeria. But he never returns, and the sisters sit waiting to eternity, their teacups full of sand.

Favorite Lines:

The young man agreed
He would satisfy their need
So they danced for this pleasure
With a joy you could not measure

They would wait for him here
The same place every year
Beneath the sheltering sky
Across the desert he would fly

Finally I have two songs from my favorite album by Sting - The Soul Cages. Most of Sting's solo albums are mediocre, but this one is full of masterpieces. It is a theme album - all the songs revolve around his raw memories his deceased father, a sailor and a gritty working man who built ships in the Industrial town of Newcastle. The imagery of the album evokes a sort of medieval magical realism, not so different from the great author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, where where villagers and ghosts and sailors and priests mix in a surreal coastal landscape. It is achingly beautiful. It's words are like paintings.

The Island of Souls: This song opens the album and tells the story of a boy growing up in a gritty industrial English town as the son of a ship welder. The boy watches his father work endlessly in his dangerous job in this sad desolate town. He dreams of a magical land they can escape to far beyond the sea.

Favorite lines:

One day he dreamed of the ship in the world
It would carry his father and he
To a place they would never be found
To a place far away from this town.
A Newcastle ship without coals,
That would sail to the Island of Souls

Trapped in the cage of the skeleton ship
All the workmen suspended like flies
Caught in the flare of acetylene light
A working man works till the industry dies


Finally The Soul Cages: This song comes much later in the album, but picks up and re-mixes the theme of the first song in a much more magical way. Here a young boy makes a bold and defiant bet with the devil to gain his freedom and to save the soul of a sailor. The devil in this song is an old fisherman, and he keeps the boy locked in his yard and he keeps the souls of sailors locked in lobster cages in the sea. They wager, and the boy wins. Lyrically, this is probably one of my all-time favorite songs. The saddest thing is that it is buried in a cheesy 80s-style guitar ballad. I've always thought this is one of the songs most deserving of a remake by another band to give it the life it deserves. It's a great song.

Favorite lines:

'I have a wager' the brave child spoke
The fisherman laughed, though disturbed at the joke
'You will drink what I drink but you must equal me
And if the drink leaves me standing, a soul shall go free''

"I have here a cask of most magical wine
A vintage that blessed every ship in the line
It's wrung from the blood of the sailors who died
Young white bodies adrift in the tide''

And what's in it for me my pretty young thing?
Why should I whistle, when the caged bird sings?
If you lose a wager with the king of the sea
You'll spend the rest of forever in the cage with me'...


So all I ask is don't doubt Sting and the Police. Behind the crap there is brilliance. You just have to dig to find it. If you want to listen to any of these songs, click here http://marcosabrina.multiply.com/music/item/10.