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The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same - Page 6

© Greg Camden

When Sting finally did begin to deal with his emotions in relation to his father's death, the words and music came fast and furious: the entirety of The Soul Cages was written in only three or four weeks. "I think I regret not being there when my father died," Sting admitted at the time. "I didn't cry. I didn't mourn. Unless you mourn you're made to suffer. So this record is an attempt at mourning. Or at least meditating." The album was dedicated to his father (along with two other friends who had died within the previous two years), and its songs were clearly of a piece, making it his only truly thematic album. It was also his darkest work since Ghost in the Machine, but this didn't hurt its sales at all, as it entered the UK charts at #1 and eventually got to #2 in the US. (Strangely, again the album's biggest single, "All This Time," did better in the US (#5) than in the UK (#22).) Additionally, the title track—which hadn't cracked the top 40—won a Grammy for Best Rock Song.

From this point on Sting's career as a musician took on a more even and steady keel. In 1991, Sting celebrated his 40th birthday with a light-hearted show at the Hollywood Bowl. Less than a year and a half later saw the release of Ten Summoner's Tales, the title being a play on both his own surname and Chaucer's famous work. Despite being his first album which failed to spawn any top-10 singles ("If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" charted the highest, reaching #14 in the UK—although it was later cited as the most-played song on American radio in 1993 and earned Sting a Grammy for Pop Male Vocalist of the Year.), the album reached #2 on both charts, pleasing both fans and critics alike for its sense of lightness (especially when compared with the previous album). This album had been recorded at Lake House, Sting's home since the early '90s, as would be his subsequent one, 1996's Mercury Falling, which again enjoyed top-5 success without a top-10 single. Sandwiched between the two albums was a 1994 greatest hits collection, from which a new song, "When We Dance," made it into the top 10 in the UK.

When Sting wasn't releasing successful albums, he was conducting successful tours, his draw as a solo artist long established. And with nothing left to prove, Sting jumped at the opportunity to perform as an opening act (for the first time since the earliest days of The Police) for the Grateful Dead. When asked why he would do such a thing, his answer was straightforward: "I've never opened for anybody in my [solo] career, but I thought, 'Well, wait a minute, the Dead have this huge home-grown audience, this phenomenon that follows them around; and most of them, I don't think, know who the hell I am. So what have I got to lose ?'" By now he had pared down his band to a quartet (though often augmented by Branford Marsalis on sax: "I don't wanna have saxophone [. . .] unless it's Branford, y'know? I'm kind of biased that way! [. . .] Branford is family."), Sting himself back on bass; and by recording his albums in his home, he had more autonomy—and professional happiness—than ever. As he himself put it: "God, I'm so happy in this place, I never want to leave."

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