Home » Music » Sting » The Power of Sting

The Power of Sting

© Melanie Gold

I first heard The Police's music as an angst-ridden teen. My parents' marriage was in trouble. Whenever the tension, fighting, and abuse became unbearable my mother would leave, only to return in a week or two.

It was in this environment that I succumbed to and relied on the power of music. Within the sanctity of my bedroom, I listened to Police albums, particularly Zenyatta Mondatta and Regatta de Blanc.

Just a castaway / An island lost at sea / Another lonely day / With no one here but me / More loneliness / Than any man could bear / Rescue me before I fall into despair

Somewhere in The Police's music I found solace, and it was through that music and especially the lyrics that I tapped into my inner strength, garnered the courage to leave home, and discovered a personality that had been stifled for so long. In many ways, I credit Sting and The Police for activating my personal renaissance.

You will see light in the darkness / You will make some sense of this / And when you've made your secret journey / You will find the love you miss

It's amazing I hadn't busted all those Police albums after my parents sent me to a kids' Christian retreat that focused on backward masking and other evils of the recording industry. But The Police weren't mentioned by name at the retreat, so I kept their albums. When my parents saw the Ghost in the Machine cover, with its black and red design (the Devil's favorite colors!), they weren't thrilled. My mother called it "Ghosts and Goblins of John." Where John came from I still don't know. But anyway, whenever I was a behavior problem (i.e., talked back), my parents would threaten to take my records away. So when I left home in the middle of a December night in 1982, I didn't take many clothes, but I took all my records. I was 14 and I had my priorities.

I never did get to see The Police in concert, and for that I will always feel regret. But I saw both Sting and Andy Summers in separate solo concerts. During The Dream of the Blue Turtles tour, I attended a Sting show and later, I took in an Andy Summers concert at the City Hall venue in midtown Manhattan. But there was nothing in the world like sitting front and center at the Beacon Theatre in New York City as Sting geared up for his mammoth Soul Cages tour. Instead of straining to see him through binoculars from a quarter mile away, I could see him sweat while he performed in a small venue with great acoustics. It's still the highlight of my varied concert adventures.

The copyright of the article The Power of Sting in Sting is owned by . Permission to republish The Power of Sting in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.