The Police/Sting

Okay, so my last post covered catchy pop hits of the 80s. While I was searching for songs I wanted to post, I thought of The Police, but knew that I couldn't just pick one song of theirs. I am a HUGE Police fan, and even more than that, a huge Sting fan. My mom and her sister played his music all the time when I was little, so it's one of those things I just picked up because I was around it so often. That and Sheryl Crow.

My very first concert was a Sting concert. I was five and am very proud of the fact that I 1)have seen Sting in concert and 2)started going to concerts as early as age five. True, I only really went to see him sing "Englishman in New York" because that was the one I really liked and I thought the lyrics were "I'm and alien, I'm an evil alien" instead of "legal alien," but I still listen to him to this day. His music still makes me happy and calm. AND as I got older, I realized how literary his music is (he used to be an English teacher before he hit it big). As an English major, I really appreciate that aspect of the lyrics.

So here's my post devoted to Sting and The Police:

"Roxanne"

I think we all know this one. Or at least, most of us still do. Super popular. Super catchy. Oh, and they did an excellent remake of it for Moulin Rouge.

"Don't Stand So Close to Me"

Creepy, but, in typical Sting fashion, it makes a political/social statement about the boundaries between students and teachers and, more generally, children and adults.

"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"

Still remember dancing to this when I was little. This one, more than any other Police song, caught my attention at an early age. The music just sounds so fun and uplifting. Happy song, happy subject about love and the special feelings one person has for another.

"Sister Moon"

The title of this album (... Nothing Like the Sun) is also a line used in this song. It's from Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 which I highly recommend. It's one of my favorites. I really like how jazzy and slow and calm this song is, but the instrumentation will totally get stuck in your head, despite the chillness of the song. Really beautiful lyrics and instrumentation.

"Enlishman In New York"

This was the one I was in love with when I was five, and it's off of the same album as above. Today, the lyrics really make me laugh. It's basically just this really quirky song about what it's like for him to be a British person living in a huge American city and odd little comparisons he notices between cultures. Every once in awhile, though, he uses some sort of interlude where he sprinkles in some very profound words, the most heavily emphasized of which is, "be yourself no matter what they say."

"Mad About You"

This is one of my all-time faves. But it was actually a recent re-discovery. Every once in awhile, I'll hear some random 90s song that I had forgotten I knew, but I will immediately recognize the melody and have this weird "I know I know this song, but I have absolutely no memory of it" moment. It's one of the weirdest feelings. I recently uploaded almost all of Sting's albums to my iPod and was just flipping through them to see what I had. After listening to the lyrics, coupled with the beautiful instrumentation, I was in love. And I still am.