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Again, the band seemed invigorated by the constant touring, and in 1981 the album Ghost in the Machine -- featuring the hit single "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" -- became their biggest hit to date, rising all the way to number two on Yank charts.
Finally, the band took a break in 1982. Sting tried his hand at acting (Brimstone and Treacle), Copeland scored Francis Ford Coppola's film Rumble Fish, and Summers began recording with progmeister Robert Fripp.
In the summer of 1983, the band released what would be its swan song, the remarkable Jungian-inspired pop vision known as Synchronicity. The record spent 17 weeks at number one in the States, thanks to the omnipresent single, "Every Breath You Take" which spent eight weeks at the top of the charts. Follow-up singles "King of Pain" and "Wrapped Around Your Finger" duly climbed the charts as well, and the band's resultant tours and award nominations set a success standard that has rarely been approached by a rock band since.
And then, as soon as it began, it was over...but not before Sting left us a little hint. As the keynote song "Synchronicity II" begins, Sting relates the story of a workaday man who, on the outside, appears to have it made. Alternating Ulysses-depictions of the man's day with the ominous, synchronous image of a monster rising from the "the slime at the bottom of a dark Scottish loch," Sting sings with all the conviction he can muster. As the man's wife complains of boredom at the breakfast table, the protagonist "stares into the distance / There's only so much more that he can take." Later, as the man's secretaries "pout and preen" like whores and his superior gives him a metaphorical, humiliating "kick in the crotch," the monster has risen to the surface. By the last verse, the workday has ended, and the man faces rush hour traffic -- everyone "packed like lemmings into shiny metal boxes" -- knowing that "something somewhere has to break." "Many miles away," however,
There's a shadow on the door
Of a cottage on the shore
Of a dark Scottish lake
Sting, in keeping with the theme of the album's title, has melded the breaking down of the man to the rising of the monster. By the end of the song, both stand on the doorstep...to what, we don't know. Tired of the world's weary blueprints, the man/monster has decided to act, and the Police leave it up to the listener to decide which is ultimately more dangerous and scary -- the natural or unnatural.
For Sting, however, the song seems like foreshadowing. That shadow on the door? It was his own.
Following the dissolution of The Police, Sting, tired of the pressures and interband tension, released The Dream of the Blue Turtles in 1985. The album became an international hit, and the rest of his Police force were handed their walking papers. Now free of the boundaries of group musicianship, he incorporated heavy elements of jazz and world beat into his music, and began writing lyrics that, while not promising the world, at least promised to explain it to you. Stardom seemed to suit something in him, and he began giving revealing -- some would say pompous -- interviews to media outlets the world over, dropping little skeleton-key hints to the Sumner oeuvre. Still, the songs had drive. "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free," "Love Is the Seventh Wave" and "Fortress Around Your Heart" became American Top-10 hits.
Sting began working on his second jazz-inflected release, Nothing Like the Sun, in 1987, after the death of his mother. Following its release, Sting began actively stumping for Amnesty International and the environment, and went on to establish the Rainforest Foundation, which was designed to raise awareness about preserving the Brazilian rainforest.
The Soul Cages, from 1991, saw his sales begin to decline, even as the music still contained enough darkness (Sting's father had passed away) and danger to remain relevant. 1993's Ten Summoner's Tales, while critically panned, reinvigorated his sales. A light, pop-oriented record, it hinted at the Road More Taken path his career was to soon follow. By the end of the year, he -- along with Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart -- released "All for Love," a song for The Three Musketeers soundtrack. The hair, once spiky, became a Caesar cut. The clothes, once tight-cut tees, sweaters and suits, became more contemporary and flowy in design. The bass became an afterthought. The home became a castle.
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Queen City R&B Festival & Day Party @ Blush CLT
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Half & Half! @ CATCh
- Sun., Aug. 31, 7-8:30 p.m.
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Cirque du Soleil: OVO @ Bojangles' Coliseum- Sun., Aug. 31, 1 p.m.
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