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Sting. The Stingmeister. Sting-a-ling-a-ding-dong! Stiiiiing.

 

Okay, enough Rob Schneidery. Sing/songwriter Sting (or, Gordon, as his mama calls him) has been on many a music blogger’s lips of late, thanks to a little Australian earworm called Gotye. Ever since the latter’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” took radio stations and our hearts hostage, comparison’s have been running rampant between 31-year-old indie rocker and his much older predecessor. Are the comparisons merited? I’ll let you be the judge. For the record, I can definitely see the resemblance.

 

Sting has been making music for the last 40 years or so, and no one can ever accuse him of being boring or one-note. He first broke onto the scene in the ‘70s with his band The Police, and together released five platinum studio albums, their 1983 record Synchronicity hitting #1 in the U.S. Sting broke out on his own shortly after, putting out his first solo effort in 1985 and never looking back, cranking out 9 more album. His most recent, released in 2010, is entitled Synchronicities. How’s that for, well, synchroncity?

 

But that’s Sting for you. Always a little bit ahead of everyone else, as if working directly with and through the Universe…  like he’s privy to certain things the rest of the world could only hope to understand. Enigmatic fella, that Sting.

 

I first noticed Sting in the late-‘80s when he released his single and corresponding music video for “We’ll Be Together”. Great song, very catchy with a distinct jazzy feel to it – if you thought that Sting doesn’t make music you can shake your moneymaker too, this song dispels that but good. And the music video is pure delicious absurdity, featuring Sting pulling double-duty as a dorky artist type with a fondness for ugly sweaters, and an alcoholic-about-town who lacks in manners but makes up for it in the most brilliant Drunk Man Dance ever caught on film. Drunk Sting’s slightly bored girlfriend, whom Dork Sting has eyes for through the entire video, is played by none other than Trudie Styler, Sting’s wife of 20 years (they were already living together by the time this video was shot). Classic stuff.

 

As much as I would like to say that this song strayed from Sting’s norm, the truth is, none of his music can be so easily compartmentalized. Sting is adept at playing within different genres, creating a body of work that is truly diverse. Of late, he seems to have found his niche in a more New Agey sound, but on the whole, Sting has an unmatched ability to pull influences from here and from there and adapt them to his own sensibilities. Like I said earlier, never a dull moment with Sting.

 

Enjoy below some classic Sting/The Police music vids, starting with the aforementioned “We’ll Be Together”:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

- Katie Marzullo, YH Staff Editor

katie@younghollywood.com