Classic or Dud: Sting's "Fields of Gold"

His best solo numbers remain "Russians", "Moon Over Bourbon Street" and "They Dance Alone" though.

Sheer, unfettered hilarity everytime.

-- Chuckling at the Tomkat's Marquee (fiestasandsiestas[nospam...), November 19th, 2004.

but he very much is! for better and for worse. i don't find this song offensive at all. neither do i find it very interesting. that country song he wrote in a weird time signature is a little bit better.

So, classic. Who now can turn back the tide?

If I can find a way to rip an mp3 of it, I'll send it to you. Tremendous fun.

Alex, I have no idea what kind of server access you have. But I'll gladly host that mp3 for research purposes if you want to upload it.

Selfishly, Acme,

this song is definitely better than "this is why im hot"

I think it's pretty good for a Sting song.

I'm surprised I haven't said that before.

I think it's pretty good for a Sting song.

Set the bar higher. DUD DUD DUD

hating sting is a default british thing. how could anyone like sting?

I like some Police songs. But Sting solo is -- mostly for the cringeworthy lyrics and treacly vibe -- completely insufferable.

i hate sting and the police both, but this song is better than any police song. that's saying so little it's barely worth saying.

I'm sure some of my fondness for Police songs stems from nostalgia. I was growing up when they were hitting their stride. They seemed, at the time, alive and vibrant. And now, sometimes hearing them makes me feel young, or at least brings to mind faded memories of youth.

I also remember hearing Sting's solo debut and, aside from a few songs (Fortress Around Your Heart, mostly), I thought he really jumped the shark, e.g., the awful Russians.

Is this before or after his "lute" phase?

Worst pornography backing music ever.

I heard this today for the first time in ages, fine tune.

such a classic

i've had this song in my head for over a month now, because I had to learn it on guitar to play as wedding processional music. i think i was learning the eva cassidy version. it is kind of a good song!

I saw Sting open for the Dead sometime in 1993 and he somehow seemed to temporarily re-style himself as a hippie. He played covers of Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix tunes, and I'm pretty sure he wore overalls (with no shirt on underneath), and he played a version of "Fields of Gold" that, in my memory at least, was sort of folkier and kind of pretty. I just remember his songs sounding subtly altered to seem more palatable to that particular audience, and he got a small singalong going for the one that says "Love is stronger than justice / Love is a big fat river in flood."

heyyy, i saw sting and the dead too! in las vegas. he was good -- i remember a beach ball being tossed onstage at some point and sting headed it back into the crowd without missing a beat.

Been listening to "Ten Summoners Tales" a lot lately. It's actually a pretty good album, better than Peter Gabriel's "So" (which is a good point of comparison). I think that "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" is probably his best solo tune. It's the perfect AOR pop hit that he always hinted at but never really wrote until then. "Seven Days" is also really good. As far as "Fields", it's also a classic. Like it or not.

It's actually a pretty good album, better than Peter Gabriel's "So"

Madness. "She's Too Good For Me"? "Heavy Cloud But No Rain"? The arrangements define "spongey."

Defend the album, call it pretty good if you must, but So and TST are not remotely comparable.

Not saying the album is perfect. I don't even really like about half the songs but they're pleasant enough that I won't skip them. I always felt like PG and Sting had similar careers and that So and TST were both their big commercial "coming out" albums. Why do you feel they're not comparable?

I don't care about "innovation" as a virtue very much, but Gabriel's interest in machines, keyboards, and cool sounds strengthens and often surpasses his compositional prowess. Sting doesn't care about sonics.

and not even "The Barry Williams Show" makes me wanna punch PG in the face as much as Sting's "Epilogue (Nothing 'Bout Me)," startign with that apostrophe.

and isn't there a song where Sting plays the devil, mentions MUSIC CRITICS with a sneer you can see from Oklahoma, and then laughs evilly?

So is kind of unimpeachable as an album

Also, Sting's big commercial "coming out" album was Dream of the Blue Turtles, which (like So) went to #2 on the US charts

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/59541_1625534278741_1248042654_31699840_1061650_n.jpg
this is me shredding on "fields of gold" last year. i took it to the limit fyi.

uh Synchronicity went to #1

xp

the difference between Sting and Peter Gabriel is that Sting is an intellectual dwarf/idiot, and Gabriel is... not.

Synchronicity was a solo Sting album?

(also Alfred OTM re: sonics - Gabriel is primarily preoccupied with sounds and the technological processes that produce them, and Sting is... not)

xxxxxxp - yeah, that's "Saint Augustine in Hell".

DJP - I didn't really count Sting's debut. TST and So are both kinda "late career albums" so thats why they're linked in my mind. I don't think So is unimpeachable at all, haven't heard it in a while but it's not really one of his best is it?

Synchronicity was a solo Sting album?

well no but it was his biggest commercial success. I don't see why the solo distinction is useful/important?

I know it's from the album before but I do think "Why Should I Cry For You?" is at least the equal of "In Your Eyes"

obviously Synchronicity was the big turkey and it's kinda like a solo album for him but he was already super famous at that time. IIRC before TST's release, Sting was kind of a floundering star that needed a big commercial album to become big again. Dream of the Blue Turtles obviously was big but most of that was buzz from the Police wasn't it? I don't hear anything from that on the radio anymore sans maybe "Fortress Around Your Heart".

I dunno if going from a number 1 album to a #3 album can really be considered "floundering"

he wasn't exactly floundering: ...Nothing Like the Sun and The Soul Cages each scored a few hits and sold well, but they were rather somber (TSC is my favorite solo Sting actually); the problem is Sting's idea of "relaxed" and "buoyant" means smirking while wearing a cowboy hat.

DOTBT #2 in the US, with Love is the Seventh Wave and If You Love Somebody Set Them Free both getting pretty big exposure iirc

All of Sting's albums up until 2006's Songs From The Labyrinth were top 10 albums.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sting_discography#Studio_albums

lol "Russians":

The song was a hit in France, where it peaked at #2 for three weeks and remained on the top 50 for 19 weeks. It is currently the 636th best-selling single of all time in France

that's really "lol France"

I remember passively enjoying that song until I really listened to the lyrics, at which point I realized exactly how stupid Sting was

man my parents were WAY into that song

Besides that, in the liner notes, he gives credit to whoever he borrowed the chorus melody from by saying "I borrowed this - " and then actually prints a little piece of the sheet music. I hated that so much. "Russians" in itself was really just a good example of Sting "going for it" without realizing how his lyrics could be misheard.

note the way he yells KHRUSCHEV in our ears to remind us that he knows about such things

omigod stab him in the balls for saying OPPEN-HEI-MAH'S DEEEEEADLY TOY.

DOTBT #2 in the US, with Love is the Seventh Wave and If You Love Somebody Set Them Free both getting pretty big exposure iirc

Neither of those songs are really played on classic rock radio anymore though are they?

"There is no historical precedent / To put the words in the mouth of the President"; can imagine Sting looking prett-ay satisfied comin up with that one

It's worth noting that, "All This Time" aside, Sting's attempts to write poppy first singles are crass and cynical ("We'll Be Together," "If You Love Someone..," "If I Ever Lost My Faith in You"), as if he can't be bothered to write such puerile things.

Neither of those songs are really played on classic rock radio anymore though are they?

well no, because they are now relegated to soft rock stations (along with most of the rest of Sting's solo material)

xp I know that "We'll be Together" definitely was a piss-take, as the record company assumed Nothing Like the Sun was too downtempo and sad and wanted a single. "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" sounds pretty legit to me.

the 636th best-selling single of all time in France

not exactly a criticism-silencing statistic but w/e

juuuuust beating out Michel Polnareff's "Lettre A France"

what an accomplishment

/The Soul Cages/ is my favorite solo Sting

I'm very, very fond of "Why Should I Cry For You," a song whose bleakness is earned.

no kidding. that may be my favorite Sting solo track. I dunno if it's a blind squirrel type thing but it definitely achieves the grand atmosphere that so much of his stuff goes for.

I guess it's supposed to be about his father but to me it's better than U2's "One" as a pseudo love song.

UPON THE FIELDS OF BARLEYYYYY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JAKiZ6ytLQ

you really haven't heard this song until you've heard it on the lute while matthew perry banters

It's worth noting that, "All This Time" aside, Sting's attempts to write poppy first singles are crass and cynical ("We'll Be Together," "If You Love Someone..," "If I Ever Lost My Faith in You"), as if he can't be bothered to write such puerile things.

So OTM here. Sting THINKS he's a heck of a lot smarter, more insightful, and more artistic than he actually is, which is a heinous, heinous way to be.

not disagreeing with that but how are "If You Love Someone Set Them Free" or "If I Ever Lose My Faith In You" crass or cynical?

the rhymes are written by a man who's had a frontal lobotomy? I give "If You Love..." a slight edge because Sting does the Paul Simon talk-sing thing okay, but those organ and horn fills are groooooooosssssss.

Yeah, it's hard to articulate exactly how they're cynical, they just come across that way; as Sotosyn says, YUCK. Like that hackneyed old definition of porn, you know it when you encounter it. Mind you, I listen to solo Don Henley from time to time, so it's not like my threshold for this sort of thing is remarkably low, but Sting is just beyond the fucking pale.

"We'll Be Together" just sounds tacky and vile; he doesn't disguise the fact that he held his nose when bowing to record company pressures for a single. And who told him that quoting your earlier hits over the outro was "post-modern" or something?

Hahaha, see, he's just the sort of bunghole who would read a few paragraphs of something postmodern and then feel the need to immediately "incorporate it into his art"... When I hear and think of Sting, I'm reminded of those old Simon Reynolds pieces; let me find a good quote... OK: "Health! The vocal dexterity, vigour and power of the soul man amount to... passion as workout!" Not that Sting is a soul singer or that his lyrics suggest these things, but that's just the way his voice FEELS to me. Even his "sad" and "dark" songs (even from the Police era) feel like they were written by someone who has never actually hit rock bottom but has read about it in his high school literature classes.

This is a man who mentions "borrowing a theme from" Prokofiev or Copland or whatever to impress us with his learnin'.

well I don't disagree about "We'll Be Together", it's a dumb song that came about in a dumb circumstance

I dunno, just think "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" deserves more credit. I don't really see anything tacky about it. Some of the lyrics are even slightly clever. It's one of his best songs IMO

In another world this could be a great Blue Nile track

Don't think Sting has any interest in conjuring a mood like that, sombre as he may get

"We'll Be Together" just sounds tacky and vile; he doesn't disguise the fact that he held his nose when bowing to record company pressures for a single. And who told him that quoting your earlier hits over the outro was "post-modern" or something?

He had done that once already -- remember how "Love is the Seventh Wave" had him going "Every breath you take, every cake you bake" etc.

kinda thought he was making fun of himself there

before “Fields of Gold,” Sting explained that he came up with the song after buying a “house,” then stopped the tale to add a clarifying humblebrag: “It was a castle, really.” (He also confessed that life on the estate has caused him to grow less opposed to the sport of the gentry in his native U.K.: fox hunting.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/click-track/post/in-concert-sting-at-constitution-hall/2011/10/31/gIQAsJCKZM_blog.html

I remember Lee and Herring on a Radio 1 Halloween Special in the mid-90s, playing this song backwards to reveal that it says "I shave arseholes and there sucks evil".

Yes, but "C is for Cookie" is one of the greatest songs of all time.
― Nemo (JND), Friday, 19 November 2004 22:13 (6 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well, it's good enough for me!

"There is no historical precedent / To put the words in the mouth of the President"; can imagine Sting looking prett-ay satisfied comin up with that one

lol all over again

feel her body rise/when you kiss her mouth

uncanny valley eroticism

bahlee