Gordon Sumner, aka Sting

Sting, born Gordon Sumner on October 2, 1951, is a singer-songwriter and musician who first became famous as the lead vocalist and chief songwriter for the Police. Prior to joining the Police, he had played in a number of bands in his native Newcastle, most notably Last Exit. Sting was the group’s bassist and singer (the same roles he later had in the Police) and the other key figure was keyboard player Gerry Richardson, who wrote "Whispering Voices" and "Evensong", the songs on the only single the band released. Many of the other songs the band played live were tracks that Sting later reused with the Police or as a solo artist, such as “I Burn for You”, "Oh My God", “Truth Kills” (an early version of “Truth Hits Everybody”), and “Savage Beast” (an early version of “We Work the Black Seam”). It’s interesting to note how these jazz-influenced arrangements are not unlike much of Sting’s post-Police solo work. For those who want to know more about this part of Sting’s career and his life up until the time the Police began to make it big, his excellent autobiography, Broken Music, is well worth checking out.

As he makes clear in his autobiography, one of Sting’s main motivations for teaming up with drummer Stewart Copeland to form the Police is that as he saw it as a vehicle to break into the music business. While Copeland conceived the group as a punk band (though Sting implies that Copeland – who had previously been the drummer in the progressive band Curved Air, which was likewise far removed from punk – also may have been exploiting musical trends), Sting liked neither the name nor the kind of music they played at first, and tried to steer the group in a more romantic direction at first opportunity. That he eventually succeeded can be seen from their later material, much of which bore no resemblance whatsoever to punk.

While Sting very quickly took over from Copeland as the main songwriter in the Police, both Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers, who replaced original guitarist Henri Padovani before the group’s first major label recordings, played important roles, particularly in the arranging. They resisted Sting’s inclinations towards more jazzy numbers, and Copeland in particular made the songs much more up-tempo than they would have been if it had been entirely up to Sting. Nevertheless, as the writer of the songs, Sting deserves the greatest share of the credit for the group’s success. Songs like “Message in a Bottle”, “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”, “King of Pain” and “Every Breath You Take” are brilliant regardless of the arrangement, and even those such as the excellent “Synchronicity II” where it’s hard to imagine them without the propulsive arrangement the Police gave them, much of their virtue comes from Sting’s lyrics and melody.

After Sting went solo, he no longer felt constrained to keep things simple lyrically and musically, so he incorporated more jazz and classical influences into his music and his lyrics became if possible even more literary (though it is hard to top rhymes using Nabokov and Charybdis, both of which appear in Police songs). This has resulted in charges of pretentiousness from critics, but I see no reason why pop music can’t be intelligent and literary; for that matter, the way some of the same critics dismiss many popular, established artists out of hand in favor of underground music or the next new trend is just pretentious in its way. While Sting’s solo work generally doesn’t have the immediate, visceral appeal of his hits with the Police, it is on the whole just as good. Of course, that doesn’t mean every song he has released either with the Police or as a solo artist is great, but even the least appealing songs are listenable, and the best are classics.

While all of the albums Sting has released are worth listening to, the best of the five Police albums in my view are Zenyatta Mondatta (1980) and Synchronicity (1983), with Ghost in the Machine (1981) not far behind. The best Sting solo album to date is Ten Summoner’s Tales (1993), followed by The Dream of the Blue Turtles (1985) and Brand New Day (1999). …Nothing Like the Sun (1987) and The Soul Cages (1991), though not quite as consistently enjoyable as the above three, have two of the very best songs he ever wrote, “Fragile” and “All This Time” respectively, as well some other good material, particularly in the case of The Soul Cages ("Mad About You" and "Why Should I Cry For You" are also excellent, so I might sometimes put this album in my top three, depending on my mood). For that matter, Mercury Falling (1996) and Sacred Love (2003) are both solid, if not quite equal to his other albums. Sting’s last three albums have not been albums of new material: Songs from the Labyrinth (2006) was an album of the songs Elizabethan composer John Dowland, If on a Winter’s Night… (2009) was an album of winter-themed songs (mostly traditional, though a few of Sting’s own songs were included), and Symphonicities (2010) was an album of reinterpretations of previous Sting songs as classical symphony pieces. While I don’t have If on a Winter’s Night…, the other two are quite interesting, even if it would also be nice to hear an album of new songs. Sting has also released close to two albums’ worth of tracks on movie soundtracks or as B-sides of singles, including both original songs and covers. Of his more obscure B-sides, a favorite of mine is “Conversation with a Dog”, which is as good as anything except “Fragile” on Nothing Like the Sun, the album it’s an outtake from. I also quite like "Beneath a Desert Moon".

Sting's songwriting is generally pretty consistent in terms of both lyrics and melodies. On some songs the melody seems to take a back seat to the lyrics, but on his best songs the match is excellent. Aside from being a very good singer, he is a talented bassist and guitarist (his playing on "Fragile" is a good example of the latter), and he also plays a bit of keyboard and numerous other instruments. No doubt in part due to his ability to play multiple instruments, he's also a great arranger, though fans of the Police may miss the contributions of Summers and Copeland in this regard. In addition to his musical skills, Sting has also contributed to many worthy causes such as human rights (he has performed for Amnesty International) and the environment. Admittedly, his record is not perfect; he did a commercial for Jaguar, which doesn't quite accord with his environmentalism, and he did a concert in Uzbekistan paid for by their authoritarian president. However, the good he has done outweighs these (admittedly rather glaring) misdeeds.

I have listed thirty of Sting’s best songs with the Police and as a solo artist. As usual, there are other songs that I like more or less as well as some of those that I included, and if I were to redo the list without referring to this one, it would no doubt come out differently.

The Best of Sting
(All songs written by Sting except where otherwise noted; tracks 1-14 originally performed by the Police)

Roxanne
Can’t Stand Losing You
Message in a Bottle
Walking on the Moon
Don’t Stand So Close to Me
De Do Do Do De Da Da Da
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Spirits in the Material World
Invisible Sun
Every Breath You Take
Synchronicity II
King of Pain
Wrapped Around Your Finger
I Burn for You
If You Love Somebody Set Them Free
Fortress around Your Heart
Russians (Music: Sting, Sergei Prokofiev)
Moon Over Bourbon Street
Fragile
Conversation with a Dog
All This Time
Mad About You
Fields of Gold
Seven Days
Saint Augustine in Hell
Epilogue (Nothing ‘Bout Me)
The Hounds of Winter
Desert Rose
Brand New Day
Send Your Love

Honorable Mentions: Driven to Tears, Canary in a Coalmine, When the World Is Running Down You Make the Best of What's Still Around, One World (Not Three), Tea in the Sahara, Children’s Crusade, Be Still My Beating Heart, Englishman in New York, Why Should I Cry for You, Saint Agnes and the Burning Train, If I Ever Lose My Faith in You, She's Too Good for Me, Shape of My Heart (Music: Dominic Miller), Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot, All Four Seasons, I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying, Beneath a Desert Moon, After the Rain Has Fallen, A Thousand Years (Kipper/Sting), Ghost Story, Inside, Whenever I Say Your Name