October 1985, Hollywood Sportatorium, Hollywood, Fla.
There is no musician who has taught me more than Sting. I was not aware of Nabokov, or what the term muckraking was, or anything about Synchronicity or Carl Jung before he sang about it. There is no better song about the plight of starvation in Africa than “Driven to Tears”. Sting was a teacher as much as he was a lyricist, and he made me want to learn.
I’ll get to the Police later in this series because they were one of the most important bands of my life, and Sting (one of our great Renaissance men) was a huge reason why the band meant so much. When The Police broke up, I didn’t take it well, but I look back now and see the five perfect albums the band created and understand why it had to split. You always want to leave the world wanting more, and you never do the same gag twice. Can you imagine the pressure of trying to follow Synchronicity? No album would ever measure up. Sting knew this, he was always smart like that.
So when he announced he was going solo, playing with jazz musicians who would challenge him like never before, it was intriguing and different. I was on board, because up to that point (much like Jack White in recent years), the man had done nothing wrong musically.
The Dream of the Blue Turtles was somewhat of a departure from The Police, it employed more instruments and did have a jazzier feel than most of Sting’s earlier work. But it still had pop sensibility and smart lyrics — it was an album you could sit and digest — and while it wasn’t another Police album, it was close enough to win my heart (and it did cover “Shadows in the Rain,” but at a much different tempo). It would produce some hit singles — “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free,” “Fortress Around Your Heart,” “Love Is the Seventh Wave” and “Russians” — the latter a political song which captured the Cold War feeling of the time perfectly. “Fortress” is an amazing song that I took to right away, and “Moon over Bourbon Street” has always been a favorite. It tells the story of a vampire on the prowl in New Orleans, and I’m rather sure I heard it was inspired by the vampire chronicle of Anne Rice. Because of that song I read Anne Rice’s stories about Lestat.
Sting still got me reading.
When word came out he was on tour, I was there, because there was no doubt part of the setlist was to include Police songs. I believe I went with my friend Rich, who was also a big Police fan, and off we went to the large airplane hangar in the middle of nowhere to see a musical hero.
We sat up in the balcony off on the right-hand side, and were close enough to get a great view of the stage. Sting came out with his mighty band of musicians — Kenny Kirkland (keys), Darryl Jones (bass), Omar Hakim (drums) and Branford Marsalis (sax, percussion) — and CRUSHED it. They opened with a pair of Police songs — “Shadows in the Rain” and “Driven to Tears” — before moving into “Consider Me Gone,” which Sting prefaced by saying it’s the words he wants engraved on his tombstone.
He would play several Police songs on this night, and it gave me an insight into the songs that meant most to him — all of which prefaced this new solo act he was part of. “One World (Not Three),” “When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What’s Still Around,” “Demolition Man” and the amazing, AMAZING “Bring on the Night” all point to Sting’s desire to say something while challenging the listener with complicated music. He always said his most popular song “Every Breath You Take” (which he played during the second of three encores) was a finger exercise, and while he knows he has to play it because of its popularity, musically it doesn’t do anything for him. Of course he probably enjoys that so many people miss the song’s true meaning.
The band was amazing. It’s not easy to find a drummer with the chops of Stewart Copeland, but damn if Omar Hakim was not up to the challenge. And any band who has Branford Marsalis in a supporting role has to have serious ability, and this one did. Sting said he was just trying to keep up with the talent around him — you could see why.
“Moon Over Bourbon Street” was a highlight, Sting in the spotlight with Branford playing in the shadows, just stunning. He ended the set with “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free,” then added encore No. 1 of “Roxanne” and a J.B. Lenoir cover of “I’ve Been Down So Long,” and encore No 2 of “Every Breath You Take,” “Demolition Man,” “The Dream of the Blue Turtles” and Little Willie John’s “Need Your Love So Bad”. Sounds like the end? No. He came out, guitar in hand, and did an acoustic version of “Message in a Bottle,” which was about as good as it gets. To this day, one of the best shows I’ve seen. It was musical perfection with smart balance, led by one of great musicians of our time.
