board77

Just an idea for a thread. Have you ever left a particular artist or movie aside for a long time simply because you're busy with newer material and then for some reason you revisit the work and fall in love all over again?

I got tickets to The Police concert in October simply because I used to listen to tham a lot in my teens and I really wanted to see them live. However, for the last 20 years I'v hardly ever listened to the Police, except when they occasionally hit the radio. I listen to a lot of Sting, yes, but its very different music from a mature musician whose leanings are to Jazz-Rock fusion, as opposed to the Police's angry mix of punk and reggae.

God its fantastic. There's just so much great material packed into those 5 short albums. From the rawness of Outlandos D'amour and Regatta de Blanc, through the slightly more pop oriented Zenyata Mondatta, into the edgier Ghost in the Machine and finally the farewell album Synchronicity where we see the genesis of Sting as a solo tour de force.

So has anyone else rediscovered a lost love lately?

I just wanted to say that I love The Police much more than I ever liked Sting (except his first album).

A few years ago I started playing all my old Duran Duran albums and discovered that I still remember all the lyrics, and that although some songs are rubbish, some of them are brilliant pop gems. I danced to The Reflex at my wedding and it was great!

I posted this on HoF also.

Athrabeth wrote:

Sting does have a distinctive sound that is easily discerned in Police recordings. I faithfully followed his solo career for a number of years, but after a while, he just got too darn mellow. I liked it when he was edgier. 8)

I actually prefer a lot of Stings newer stuff to his early solo material. Granted, there were hits like "Englishman in New York" but there were also some fairly sentimental pieces like "Russians". I love his treatment of Hendrix' "Little Wing" and I think the albums "Brand New Day" and "Ten Summoners Tales" are his finest work to date. "Mercury Falling" was also excellent. I'm particularly impressed with his eclectic tastes and his blending of arabaic music into his own jazz-rock arena in songs like "Desert Rose".

For a truly powerful experience, get a copy of "All this Time" on DVD. Sting was under pressure to produce a live album, but he felt the stadium approach didn't suit the intimacy of his current work, so he invited some top session musicians to his villa in France and rehearsed a concert to be performed to an invited audience of fans and friends at his home, using a portable sound system.

The DVD documents the rehearsal process right through the arrival of the musicials up to and including the performance, which was scheduled for the evening of September 11, 2001. As the news came in that morning from the US, the musicians were all gathered round the TV in Stings kitchen. They made the decision to go ahead with the concert, not out of lack of respect, but in a spirit of solidarity. Sting opened the concert in a very sombre mood, with a new arrangement of "Fragile". There was no change in the lyrics, but they had a new power.



If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one
Drying in the colour of the evening sun
Tomorrows rain will wash the stains away
But something in our minds will always stay
Perhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetimes argument
That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could
For all those born beneath an angry star
Lest we forget how fragile we are

On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are

On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are how fragile we are
How fragile we are how fragile we are


Here's a youtube vid of the moment.

Fragile

I thought that it was interesting that it took using "Desert Rose" in a car commercial to get it any airplay. It is a shame because it is such a beautiful, unusual song, and probably the only one that I really like from Sting.