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Sting - I Hung My Head

Sting - I Hung My Head Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Mercury Falling
Released: 1996

I Hung My Head Lyrics

Early one morning with time to kill
I borrowed Jeb's rifle and sat on the hill
I saw a lone rider crossing the plain
I drew a bread on him to practice my aim
My brother's rifle went off in my hand
A shot rang out across the land
The horse he kept running the rider was dead
I Hung My Head, I hung my head
I hung my head, I hung my head

I set off running to wake from the dream
My brother's rifle went into the stream
I kept on running into the salt lands
And that's where they found me, my head in my hands
The sheriff he asked me "Why had I run"
Then it came to me just what I had done
And all for no reason, just one piece of lead
I hung my head, I hung my head
I hung my head, I hung my head

Here in the courthouse, the whole town is there
I see the judge high up in his chair
"Explain to the courtroom what went through your mind
And we'll ask the jury what verdict they find"
I said "I felt the power of death over life
I orphaned his children I widowed his wife
I beg their forgiveness I wish I was dead"
I hung my head, I hung my head
I hung my head, I hung my head

Early one morning with time to kill
I see the gallows up on the hill
And out in the distance a trick of the brain
I see a lone rider crossing the plain
He's come to fetch me to see what they done
We'll ride together 'til Kingdom come
I pray for God's mercy for soon I'll be dead
I hung my head, I hung my head
I hung my head, I hung my head

Writer/s: GORDON SUMNER
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

I Hung My Head

In this song, a man grabs his brother's rifle to practice his aim. The gun accidentally goes off and kills a lone rider, and the shooter panics, runs off and throws the rifle into a stream. The song goes on to explain the verdict and how bad he felt and his plea for forgiveness. In the end, it is time for his own death, while the lone rider and him ride together to "kingdom come." It has much more of a Country/Bluegrass sound than most of Sting's songs.

Johnny Cash recorded this on his 2002 album American IV, The Man Comes Around. Careful listeners will notice Cash sings the lyric "My brother's rifle went into the stream" as "My brother's rifle went into the sheen," and the next line changes "salt lands" to "south lands." Sting assumes this came from a misprint but was nevertheless "so proud to hear my words and music interpreted by 'the master,'" he wrote in Lyrics By Sting.

"I wrote my version of the song in 9/8," Sting noted in Lyrics By Sting. "The guitar riff just occurred to me that way and reminded me of the gait of a galloping horse dragging a corpse. The story of a terrible accident, guilt, and redemption materialized out of the title and out of the haunting image of a riderless horse."

Johnny Cash's version was prominently featured in the sixth season premiere of The Shield and in the 2011 movie The Green Hornet.

Sting - The Last Ship

Sting - The Last Ship Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Last Ship
Released: 2013

The Last Ship Lyrics

Aye, the footmen are frantic in their indignation,
You see, "The Queen's took a taxi herself to the station!"
Where the porters, surprised by her lack of Royal baggage,
Bustle her and three corgis to the rear of the carriage,
For the train it is crammed with all Europe's nobility,
And there's none of them famous for their compatibility.
There's a fight over seats, "I beg pardon Your Grace,
But you'll find that one's mine, so get back in yer place!"

"Aye, but where are they going?" All the porters debate,
"Why they're going to Newcastle and they daresn't be late,
For they're launching a boat on the Tyne at high tide,
And they've come from all over, from far and from wide."
There's the old Dalai Lama, aye and the Pontiff of Rome,
Every palace in Europe, and there's nay bugger home.
There's the Duchess of Cornwall and the loyal Prince of Wales,
Looking crushed and uncomfortable in his top hat and tails.
"Why, they haven't got tickets," "Come now, it's just a detail,
There was no time to purchase and one simply has to prevail,
For we'll get to the shipyards or we'll end up in jail!"
When The Last Ship sails.

Oh the roar of the chains and the cracking of timbers,
The noise at the end of the world in your ears,
As a mountain of steel makes its way to the sea,
And the last ship sails.

And whatever you'd promised, whatever you've done,
And whatever the station in life you've become.
In the name of the Father, in the name of the Son,
And no matter the weave of this life that you've spun,
On the Earth or in Heaven or under the Sun,
When the last ship sails.

Oh the roar of the chains and the cracking of timbers,
The noise at the end of the world in your ears,
As a mountain of steel makes its way to the sea,
And the last ship sails.

Writer/s: SUMNER, GORDON
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Last Ship

This folk waltz is the title track of Sting's eleventh studio album, his first full-length LP of original material since 2003's Sacred Love. The record grew out of a musical of the same name that Sting had been working on, which is set in a shipyard in Wallsend, England, the town where the real-life Gordon Sumner grew up. The show's storyline tackles the declining local shipbuilding industry, the passage of time and the importance of family and community.

Sting - Jock The Singing Welder

Sting - Jock The Singing Welder Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Last Ship
Released: 2013

Jock The Singing Welder Lyrics

Jock The Singing Welder

Sting explained to The Sun the inspiration behind this hilarious song, which is a bonus track on the Super Deluxe version of The Last Ship album: "Billy Connolly sat down with me one day and talked about welders. He said, 'Yeah, they're all crazy because of the fumes and they all sing. If you put the helmet down, you have an echo chamber and they all think they're Elvis Presley.' So I wrote this song about a guy who thinks he's the king of rock 'n' roll. It's such a rich landscape of themes."

Sting - It's Probably Me

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Sting - It's Probably Me Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Ten Summoner's Tales
Released: 1993

It's Probably Me Lyrics

It's Probably Me

Though the Ten Summoner's Tales version does not include it, the Sting music video collection does: Eric Clapton performing the song. He's actually a co-writer of the song, along with Sting and Michael Kamen. David Sanborn plays on the track as well. (thanks, Jeff - Kendall Park, NJ)

Sting and Frank Zappa got along quite well. Not only did they share a drummer (Vinnie Colaiuta, who came to Sting from Zappa's pack), but Sting made a guest appearance at one of Zappa's live shows. This is immortalized on Zappa's Broadway The Hard Way album, where Sting performs his hit "Murder By Numbers" in protest of the religious right's controversy around the song at the time.
Speaking of Sting drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, you'll never guess where he got his break - his first tour was with Al Kooper during Kooper's 1976 tour to kick off his solo album Act Like Nothing's Wrong - the title of which, by the way, he got from the T-shirts worn by Stevie Wonder's road crew.

This song was written for the action flick Lethal Weapon 3, starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. Michael Kamen and Eric Clapton had already written the instrumental but needed lyrics. Although not a fan of the genre, Sting said in Lyrics By Sting, "I was intrigued by the 'brief' that the producers wanted a 'buddy' song, and nothing too sappy."

He continued: "I came up with the phrase 'It's probably me' and began to work backward from the title to create a song where two men can express their love for each other while retaining their macho credentials through the veiled reticence of the title phrase. We men are strangely contradictory creatures: 'Too proud to beg, too dumb to steal.'"

Sting - Fortress Around Your Heart

Sting - Fortress Around Your Heart Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Dream Of The Blue Turtles
Released: 1985

Fortress Around Your Heart Lyrics

Under the ruins of a walled city
Crumbling towers in beams of yellow light.
No flags of truce, no cries of pity;
The siege guns had been pounding through the night.
It took a day to build the city.
We walked through its streets in the afternoon.
As I returned across the fields I'd known,
I recognized the walls that I once made.
Had to stop in my tracks for fear of walking on the mines I'd laid.

And if I've built this Fortress Around Your Heart,
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire,
Then let me build a bridge, for I cannot fill the chasm,
And let me set the battlements on fire.

Then I went off the fight some battle that I'd invented inside my head.
Away so long for years and years,
You probably thought or even wished that I was dead.
While the armies are all sleeping beneath the tattered flag we'd made.
I had to stop in my tracks for fear of walking on the mines I'd laid.

And if I've built this fortress around your heart,
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire,
Then let me build a bridge, for I cannot fill the chasm,
And let me set the battlements on fire.

This prison has now become your home,
A sentence you seem prepared to pay.
It took a day to build the city.
We walked through its streets in the afternoon.
As I returned across the fields I'd known,
I recognized the walls that I once made.
Had to stop in my tracks for fear of walking on the mines I'd laid.

And if I've built this fortress around your heart,
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire,
Then let me build a bridge, for I cannot fill the chasm,
And let me set the battlements on fire.

Writer/s: Sumner, Gordon Matthew
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Fortress Around Your Heart Song Chart

Sting calls this a "song of reconciliation." It uses an abandoned fortress within a walled city as a metaphor for a relationship that has been through a figurative war, with Sting now ready to put the battles behind him and build a new alliance based on what they had - he sings of building a bridge and setting the battlements on fire. It won't be easy, since he has to cross the field where he once planted mines.

Inspiration came from Sting's divorce from his first wife, Frances Tomelty (the couple were married from 1976-1984). The pain he felt when he couldn't make this marriage work led him to write some of his biggest hits, including "Every Breath You Take" and "King Of Pain."

The Dream Of The Blue Turtles album was recorded in Barbados at a studio owned by the musician Eddy Grant. It was Sting's first solo album, and quite a departure from his work with The Police. He hired some of America's best young jazz musicians to play on it and join him for the tour: Omar Hakim on drums, Kenny Kirkland on keyboards, Darryl Jones on bass and Branford Marsalis on saxophone.

On this track, however, Sting played the bass himself; he worked up the arrangement in the studio and when he put down the bass part as a demo for Jones, he realized what he had done was perfect.

"Fortress Around Your Heart" was closer to the Police sound than most of the other, more jazz-inflected tracks on the album, and was released as the second single, following "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free." American program directors were happy to add the song to their playlists, as Sting was on fire: his last album with The Police, Synchronicity, produced four Top 20 hits, and he could heard on the current Dire Straits #1 "Money For Nothing."

Sting hired the director Michael Apted to document the first stretch of the Dream Of The Blue Turtles tour, resulting in the concert film Bring On The Night. By documenting his first tour, Sting flipped the convention of filming a band's farewell concert - he liked the idea of recording the beginning of his solo career.

Apted masterminded a practical joke during one of Sting's Paris concerts he was filming: he commissioned a two-foot fortress with an aluminum foil heart inside that was to descend to the stage when Sting performed this song. The bit was inspired by a scene in the 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap where the band gets a miniature version of Stonehenge because of a measurement error, and uses it as a stage prop. The band and crew had been watching the movie when they recorded the album in Barbados, and were keen on pulling off the gag.

Fortunately, Sting never looked up to see the mini-fortress, and when it was lowered to the stage during the second chorus, it took him by surprise. Sting, however, showed no reaction, remaining earnest and focused on his performance. Without a suitable reaction shot from the star, the footage was deemed unsuitable for the film.

The music video was directed by Mick Haggerty, whose credits include the Go-Go's videos for "Vacation" and "Our Lips Are Sealed." The clip did well on VH1, which launched on January 1, 1985.

Sting was inspired by this song's "strange, modal" chords. He said on All This Time: "They sounded kind of medieval actually and so I got into a whole line of thinking about medieval sieges, castle walls, siege guns, armies sleeping under tattered flags and thought it was a nice metaphor for love gone wrong. Armies fighting each other, relationships having collapsed and gone from bad to worse, and what starts as love ends in war."

Sting says this song is connected to "Wrapped Around Your Finger," from The Police's Synchronicity album. He told Musician in 1985: "It is linked to 'Wrapped'. 'Wrapped' was a spiteful song about turning the tables on someone who had been in charge. 'Fortress,' on the other hand, is about appeasement, about trying to bridge the gaps between individuals."

This song doesn't have a bridge but, Sting says, "I suppose that's symbolic itself, saying there is no bridge between these relationships."

Sting - Fields of Gold

Sting - Fields of Gold Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Ten Summoner's Tales
Released: 1993

Fields of Gold Lyrics

Somebody screaming on Jim Jeffries' dreams
Explode into a black fist
He falls to the floor
He stares up at the sky
And he may wish he knew why
But you can't go back there no more

The future sounds so crazy
We all heard that song before
Tomorrow's a name that changed from yesterday to blame
When a train just don't stop here anymore
I got starry eyed
On a coaster ride
Andy said, "Man, I need a break from the world outside"

And these days my life just careens
Through a pinball machine
I could do so much better
But I can't get off the tilt
And there's a photograph on a TV, black and white
And Andy says something to you
Jack Johnson straddling Reno, Nevada like
She says I could get myself sometimes, too

But out past the doorways
Where we are sleeping
Well, the white queen's creeping
The time cat's beeping

Now I'm not breaking
The train's just shaking
I never made it here before
And there's a wide mouth spinning the girls around
Till they can't take it any more
I used to dream in the dark, in Palisades Park
Up over the cliffs and down among the spark
It's a long life
Been a long night
But it's not what I was waiting for
Everybody's seen the horses diving down the shore
It's a miracle they don't make them anymore

So make up ladies
Wake up baby
You walked into the bar like some Saturday star
Studs straight on spiked heels and needles and nerves
And you're a downtown pride, fully amplified Clyde
Gin-tied and Asian, but well preserved
Remember Annie outside your bedroom window
Saying, "Come on, let's drive across to the Palisades"
Keep going till we hit Reno, Nevada
I don't see it all that much these days

Still there are pages in back of the action stacks
Where the white queen's creeping
The time cat's beeping

The train's not breaking
The track's just shaking
I never made it here before
And there's a sky rocket turning the world around
Still I can't take it any more
And you can carry that spark from Palisades Park
Down over the cliffs and out into the dark
It's a long life
For a long night
But it's not what I was looking for
Everybody dreams of horses flying 'round the shore
It's a bad dream we're not having anymore

Man, have you seen Andy?
Hey man, hey man
Have you seen him around?
Hey man, have you seen my Andy?
Hey man, have you seen him have you seen her have you seen him have you seen her
Have you seen Andy around?

Dressed up in a pirate vest
All leathers and feathers and pearls
Andy said, "Look at me, man, I'm cooking
These hands are gonna figure out this whole world"
He said, "Come outside
Climb out your bedroom window
Shimmy down the fire escape
And say goodbye
Come outside"
Andy says, "I'm dressed up just like Edie
Changing all the time
My leopard spots to polka dots
Say goodbye
Come outside
Where maybe we can move to California
Just meet me at the subway
And say goodbye
Come outside
The cops all think we're crazy
If you steal, just get married
To a girl who'll never know you
And then say goodbye"

Hey man, have you seen Andy?
I lost her in the cirque
I was high as a kite
On a lovely and white
Man, you can lose anyone
Hey hey man, have you seen Andy?
I don't know where she's gone
Real love outlives teenage lust
We could get wet and it keeps us warm
Love is like angel dust
Lovely sometimes changes us

Sometimes we're not
Have you been aching with trust or just
Have you been waking yourself with lust
Have you been making us up or just
Taking us home

It's a long wait
And a long life
Cars frozen in flight
All the traffic stops to stare
At a crosswalk in Reno, Nevada
Where nothing but air
And a pair of gray paper wings
Andy thinks, "I have got nothing to wear"
We got nothing to wear
We got nothing to wear
We got nothing to wear
We got nothing to wear

Writer/s: Adam Duritz
Publisher: EMI Music Publishing
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Fields of Gold Song Chart

This epic tune clocks in at over eight minutes and was started by Adam Duritz in the early 2010s before being completed in a single sitting. He told us the story of the song in a 2013 interview: "I started writing it about two or three years ago. It was a piece of music that I was thinking about using for the play, which is why it was named 'Palisades Park' for no particular reason. Because it had to do with the play, a setting in the play. There were no words to it, but I had about five minutes of me playing and singing kind of nonsense words, going through all the different changes."

"I pulled it out and I really loved it. I finally sat down and really worked at writing the whole thing. It took me a while - it took me a week and a half, and the guys were here. I really love it. It's my best piece of music I've written - it's beautiful."

"It's really long. It's more like a 'Round Here' kind of song. It's a long song with different sections to it. It reminds me of the sort of stuff we do live, but on a record."

Somewhere Under Wonderland producer Brian Deck played the glockenspiel on the track. Deck is based at Engine Studios in Chicago and has worked with such bands as Modest Mouse, Iron & Wine, Fruit Bats and Gomez.

Duritz explained the song's meaning to Teamrock.com : "I was 27 the first time anyone from a record company even looked at a band I was in, and 28 when I got signed," he recalled. "The ten years before that that were really terrifying. But I was also having rich experience in my twenties, and Palisades Park celebrates that – being on the fringes, wanting to try on the wrong sex's clothing, and wanting to try PCP, which is a bad idea. But it's about that experimentation."

Sting - If You Love Somebody Set Them Free

Sting - If You Love Somebody Set Them Free Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Dream of the Blue Turtles
Released: 1985

If You Love Somebody Set Them Free Lyrics

Free, free, set them free.
Free, free, set them free.
Free, free, set them free.

Free, free, set them free.
If you need somebody, call my name.
If you want someone, you can do the same.
If you want to keep something precious,
Got to lock it up and throw away the key.
You want to hold on to your possessions, don't even think about me.

If you love somebody, if you love someone,
If you love somebody, if you love someone set them free.
(Free, free, set them free.)
Set them free.
(Free, free, set them free.)
Set them fee.
(Free, free, set them free.)
Set them free.
(Free, free, set them free.)

If it's a mirror you want just look into my eyes,
Or a whipping boy, someone to despise.
Or a pris'ner in the dark tied up in chains you just can't see
or a beast in a gilded cage; that's all some people ever want to be.

If you love somebody, if you love someone,
If you love somebody, if you love someone set them free.
(Free, free, set them free.)
Set them free.
(Free, free, set them free.)
Set them fee.
(Free, free, set them free.)
Set them free.
(Free, free, set them free.)

You can't control an independent heart,
(Can't love what you can't keep)
Can't tear the one you love apart.
(Can't love what you can't keep)
Forever conditioned to believe that we can't live,
We can't live here and be happy with less.
With so many riches, so many souls,
With ev'rything we see that we want to possess.

If you need somebody, call my name.
If you want someone, you can do the same.
If you want to keep something precious,
Got to lock it up and throw away the key.
You want to hold on to your possessions, don't even think about me.

If you love somebody, if you love someone,
If you love somebody, if you love someone set them free.
(Free, free, set them free.)
Set them free.
(Free, free, set them free.)
Set them fee.
(Free, free, set them free.)
Set them free.
(Free, free, set them free.)

(Free, free, set them free.)
Set them free.
(Free, free, set them free.)
Set them fee.
(Free, free, set them free.)
Set them free.
(Free, free, set them free.)

Writer/s: STING /
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

If You Love Somebody Set Them Free Song Chart

Written by Sting, this was the first single released from his solo debut album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles.

Sting wrote this in response to "Every Breath You Take," his monumental hit with The Police. He explained in Lyrics By Sting: "This song was as much a hymn to my newfound freedom as it was an antidote to the brooding issues of control and surveillance that haunted "Every Breath You Take." Perhaps the highest compliment you can pay to a partner is 'I don't own you - you're free.' If you were to try to possess them in the obvious way, you could never appreciate them in the way that really counts. There are too many prisons in the world already."

Sting assembled a group of jazz musicians, including bass player Darryl Jones (who went on to join The Rolling Stones in 1993), sax player Branford Marsalis, keyboardist Kenny Kirkland and drummer Omar Hakim, and headed to Barbados to record this album at Eddy Grant's studio.

The album's title was inspired by an odd dream Sting had when he first arrived in Barbados. He remembered in Lyrics By Sting: "I dreamed I was sitting in the walled garden behind my house in Hampstead, under a lilac tree on a well-manicured lawn, surrounded by beautiful rosebushes. Suddenly the bricks from the wall exploded into the garden and I turned to see the head of an enormous turtle emerging from the darkness, followed by four or five others. They were not only the size of a man, they were also blue and had an air of being immensely cool, like hepcats, insouciant and fearless. They didn't harm me but with an almost casual violence commenced to destroy my genteel English garden, digging up the lawn with their claws, chomping at the rosebushes, bulldozing the lilac tree. Total mayhem: I woke up to the sound of Branford in the room upstairs, riffing wildly on the tenor sax, followed by his unmistakable laughter."

The music video, directed by Godley and Creme, was shot on a soundstage in Paris.

This song reflected Sting's fear of commitment. He told Musician in 1985: "In relationships I feel very susceptible to entrapment. I see the bars go up and I try and escape, usually in the most violent and vicious way. I've destroyed one person totally; I've left people in a bloody pulp as I've felt the bars go up. If anything, 'Set Them Free' is a kind of warning. I'm not really into the idea of permanent relationships. I find that phoney, shallow and unrealistic in many ways. That's not to say the relationships I have are in any way inferior. I think they're more intense because of that belief."

Sting told Rolling Stone in 1985: "I've been through periods of wanting to be possessed, by my parents, my girlfriends. I don't want to be owned anymore."

This is one of several Sting songs to feature the word "love" in the title. Others include "Love is the Seventh Wave," "Sacred Love," and "Send Your Love."

In Daniel Rachel's book The Art of Noise: Conversations with Great Songwriters, Sting spoke about the power of the word: "It's an easy word to say, love. It's shorthand for something that's very complex. There's a huge spectrum of meaning within the word love. What is love, from lust to devotion to worship? It's not something I'm very conscious of. I wasn't aware that I used the word love a lot."

Sting - The Soul Cages

Sting - The Soul Cages Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Soul Cages
Released: 1991

The Soul Cages Lyrics

The boy child is locked in the fisherman's yard
There's a bloodless moon where the oceans die
A shoal of nightstars hang fire in the nets
And the chaos of cages where the crayfish lie

Where is the fisherman where is the goat?
Where is the keeper in his carrion coat?
Eclipse on the moon when the dark bird flies
Where is the child with his father's eyes?

These are The Soul Cages
These are the soul cages

He's the king of the ninth world
The twisted son of the fog bells toll
In each and every lobster cage
A tortured human soul

These are the souls of the broken factories
The subject slaves of the broken crown
The dead accounting of old guilty promises
These are the souls of the broken town

These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages

'I have a wager' the brave child spoke
The fisherman laughed, though disturbed at the joke.
'You will drink what I drink but you must equal me
And if the drink leaves me standing,
A soul shall go free'

'I have here a cask of most magical wine
A vintage that blessed every ship in the line
It's wrung from the blood of the sailors who died
Young white body adrift in the tide'

'And what's in it for me my pretty young thing?
Why should I whistle, when the caged bird sings?
If you lose a wager with the king of the sea
You'll spend the rest of forever in the cage with me'

These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages

A body lies open in the fisherman's yard
Like the side of a ship where the iceberg rips
One less soul in the soul cages
One last curse on the fisherman's lips

These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages
These are the soul cages

Swim to the light
Swim to the light

He dreamed of the ship on the sea
It would carry his father and he
To a place they could never be found
To a place far away from this town
A Newcastle ship without coals
They would sail to the island of souls

Writer/s: Sumner, Gordon
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

The Soul Cages Song Chart

This was the third single from the Soul Cages album. Although it didn't chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, it did peak at #7 on the Mainstream Rock chart and #9 on the Modern Rock chart.

The roots of this song are buried in British folklore. Sting explained in Lyrics By Sting: "There is an old British folktale about the souls of the dead being kept under the sea in the lobster cages of a creature who is half man, half fish. Anyone who dares try to free the souls of the dead must go under the sea himself and drink with the creature. If he drinks him under the table, the souls will go free. If, on the other hand, the creature prevails, the challenger will be imprisoned forever in the cages at the bottom of the sea. You need a strong stomach to treat with this creature."

This won the first Grammy Award in the inaugural Best Rock Song category in 1992, beating Metallica's "Enter Sandman," Jane's Addiction's "Been Caught Stealing," Bryan Adams' "Can't Stop This Thing We Started," Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "Learning To Fly," and Queensryche's "Silent Lucidity."

Sting - My Funny Friend and Me

Sting - My Funny Friend and Me Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Emperor's New Groove Soundtrack
Released: 2000

My Funny Friend and Me Lyrics

In the quiet time of evening
When the stars assume their patterns
And the day has made his journey
And we wondered just what happened

To the life we knew before the world changed
When not a thing I held was true
But you were kind to me and you reminded me

That the world is not my playground
There are other things that matter
And when a simple needs protecting
My illusions all would shatter

But you stayed in my corner
The only world I knew was upside down
And now the world and me, I know you carry me

You see the patterns in the big sky
Those constellations look like you and I
Just like the patterns in the big sky
We could be lost, we could refuse to try

But we made it through in the dark night
Would those lucky guys turn out to be
But that unusual blend of my funny friend and me

I'm not as clever as I thought I was
I'm not the boy I used to be because
You showed me something different
You showed me something pure
I always seemed so certain but I was really never sure

But you stayed and you called my name
When others would have walked out on a lousy game
And you could've made it through
But your funny friend and you.

You see the patterns in the big sky
Those constellations look like you and I
That tiny planet in a bigger guy
I don't know whether I should laugh or cry

Just like the patterns in the big sky
We'll be together ?til the end this time
Don't know the answer or the reason why
We'll stick together till the day we die

If I had to do this all a second time
I won't complain or make a fuss
When the angels sing that that unlikely blend
Are those two funny friends, that's us
Writer/s: STING, / HARTLEY, DAVID
Publisher: Walt Disney Music Company
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

My Funny Friend and Me Song Chart

Sting wrote this with pianist Dave Hartley for what would eventually become Disney's animated film The Emperor's New Groove, a project that began as Kingdom of the Sun. The production was plagued with issues that extended to the music when the studio found demographic research that suggested modern children tuned out during sequences with characters singing. They told Sting, who had written eight songs for the film, that they were eliminating song numbers for characters in favor of background music. In fact, they were scrapping the whole original story, so most of the songs wouldn't even make sense if they did use them.

"I was disappointed to say the least, pointing out that my favorite Disney movie, The Jungle Book, would never have been completed if such research was correct," he wrote in Lyrics By Sting.

Luckily, the rejected songs were still included on the film's soundtrack. The nightmarish production was also captured on the documentary The Sweatbox, produced and directed by Sting's wife, Trudie Styler.

This peaked at #24 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary Singles chart.

This was nominated for Best Original Song at the 2001 Academy Awards ceremony. It lost to Bob Dylan's "Things Have Changed" from the comedy Wonder Boys.

Sting - Send Your Love

Sting - Send Your Love Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Sacred Love
Released: 2003

Send Your Love Lyrics

Finding the world in the smallness of a grain of sand
And holding infinities in the palm of your hand
And Heaven's realms in the seedlings of this tiny flower
And eternities in the space of a single hour

Send Your Love into the future
Send your love into the distant dawn

Inside your mind is a relay station
A mission probe into the unknowing
We send a seed to a distant future
Then we can watch the galaxies growing

This ain't no time for doubting your power
This ain't no time for hiding your care
You're climbing down from an ivory tower
You've got a stake in the world we ought to share

You see the stars are moving so slowly
But still the earth is moving so fast
Can't you see the moon is so lonely
She's still trapped in the pain of the past

This is the time of the worlds colliding
This is the time of kingdoms falling
This is the time of the worlds dividing
Time to heed your call

Send your love into the future
Send your precious love into some distant time
And fix that wounded planet with the love of your healing
Send your love
Send your love

There's no religion but sex and music
There's no religion but sound and dancing
There's no religion but line and color
There's no religion but sacred trance

There's no religion but the endless ocean
There's no religion but the moon and stars
There's no religion but time and motion
There's no religion, just tribal scars

Throw a pebble in and watch the ocean
See the ripples vanish in the distance
It's just the same with all the emotions
It's just the same in every instance

There's no religion but the joys of rhythm
There's no religion but the rites of Spring
There's no religion in the path of hate
No prayer but the one I sing

Send your love into the future
Send your precious love into some distant time
And fix that wounded planet with the love of your healing
Send your love
Send your love

There's no religion but sex and music
There's no religion that's right or winning
There's no religion in the path of hatred
Ain't no prayer but the one I'm singing

Send your love
Send your love

Writer/s: STING /
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Send Your Love Song Chart

This was the first of three singles released from Sting's seventh solo album.

For this song, Sting was inspired by William Blake, a Romantic poet who was devoutly religious but critical of the Church of England. In Lyrics By Sting, the singer wrote: "The 'certainties' of the major faiths on the planet are becoming increasingly contradictory, illogical, and dangerous. If there is one thing they agree on, it is that the world is heading for annihilation. So if we are to have a future, we must find it beyond scripture and, like Blake, create a personal mythology, looking for spiritual meaning in the daily fabric of our lives."

Vicente Amigo plays the flamenco guitar on this.

"It was written during the post-9/11 confusion," Sting told Parade in 2003. "I've found what's truly sacred in life's small things. My religion is simple things, like love for my family. Hopefully, the world can be changed through acts of kindness, acts of affection and love - the idea of doing normal, everyday things that actually have an effect down the line. Plant a tree, have a baby. Be kind. Because the opposite works as well. You can send your hatred to the future. And we all know the end result."

Sting - Sacred Love

Sting - Sacred Love Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Sacred Love
Released: 2003

Sacred Love Lyrics

Take off those working clothes
Put on these high heeled shoes
Don't want no preacher on the TV baby
Don't want to hear the news

Shut out the world behind us
Put on your long black dress
No one's ever gonna find us here
Just leave your hair in a mess
I've been searching long enough
I begged the moon and the stars above
For sacred love

I've been up, I've been down
I've been lonesome, in this godless town
You're my religion, you're my church
You're the holy grail at the end of my search
Have I been down on my knees for long enough?
I've been searching the planet to find
Sacred love

The spirit moves on the water
She takes the shape of this heavenly daughter
She's rising up like a river in flood
The word got made into flesh and blood
The sky grew dark, and the earth she shook
Just like a prophecy in the Holy Book
Thou shalt not covet, thou shalt not steal
Thou shalt not doubt that this love is real
So I got down on my knees and I prayed to the skies
When I looked up could I trust my eyes?
All the saints and angels and the stars up above
They all bowed down to the flower of creation
Every man every woman
Every race every nation
It all comes down to this
Sacred love

Don't need no doctor, don't need no pills
I got a cure for the country's ills
Here she comes like a river in flood
The word got made into flesh and blood
Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not kill
But if you don't love her your best friend will

All the saints up in heaven and the stars up above
It all comes down, it all comes down
It all comes down to love,

Take off your working clothes
Put on your long black dress
And your high heeled shoes
Just leave your hair in a mess

I've been thinking 'bout religion
I've been thinking 'bout the things that we believe
I've been thinking 'bout the Bible
I've been thinking 'bout Adam and Eve
I've been thinking 'bout the garden
I've been thinking 'bout the tree of knowledge, and the tree of life
I've been thinking 'bout forbidden fruit
I've been thinking 'bout a man and his wife

I been thinking 'bout, thinking 'bout
Sacred love, sacred loveâ?¦

Writer/s: SUMNER, GORDON(STING)
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Sacred Love Song Chart

This is the title track from Sting's seventh solo studio album. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the singer wanted to create an album focused on love. He explained to The Daily Telegraph: "It's a post-September 11 record. I think it really was a watershed. An event like that makes you redefine your craft and question what function you serve in society. If the world's going to hell in a hand basket then, you know, how can you either help that along or stop it I'm 51 and I'm not going to write about dancing particularly, or girlfriends, or cars. There is a place for trivia in pop music. I'm responsible for some of it. But sometimes you've got to get serious. My intention is to create something beautiful and unique and pleasing to people and at the same time tell the truth about how I feel in the world."

"I famously made an off-the-cuff comment about tantric sex one day that sped around the world like a digital virus and continues to reverberate even now, seventeen year later," Sting wrote of this song in Lyrics By Sting. "The interpretation that tantra has to do with 'staying power' is of course fatuous, but the idea that sex could be considered a sacred act seemed too much for a world media attuned to the minutiae of trivia. Sex is either scandalous - when, for example, politicians are caught in flagrante delicto - or it's used to sell cars and aftershave. In both cases, eroticism, the most powerful force in our human nature, is devalued to the point of worthlessness."

As for that famous quote, Sting once claimed he and wife Trudie Styler had seven-hour tantric sex sessions. Years later he joked on Inside the Actors Studio that "seven hours includes movie and dinner."

Sting - All This Time

Sting - All This Time Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: The Soul Cages
Released: 1991

All This Time Lyrics

I looked out across the river today.
Saw a city in the fog and an old church town where the seagulls play.
Saw the sad shire horses walking home in the sodium light,
Two priests on the ferry.
October geese on a cold winter's night.
All This Time the river flowed endlessly to the sea.

Two priests came 'round our house tonight,
One young, one old, to offer prayers for the dying to serve the final rite.
One to learn, one to teach which way the cold wind blows.
And fussing and flapping in priestly black like a murder of crows.
All this time the river flowed endlessly to the sea.

If I had my way, take a boat from the river and I'd bury the old man.
I'd bury him at sea.

Blessed are the poor, for they shall inherit the earth.
Better to be poor than a fat man in the eye of the needle.
As these words were spoken I swear I hear the old man laughing.
What good is a used up world and how could it be worth having?
All this time the river flowed endlessly like a silent tear.

All this time the river flowed.
Father, if Jesus exists then how come he never lives here?
Yeah yeah. Yeah yeah. Yeah yeah.

Teachers told the Romans built this place.
They built a wall and a temple and an edge of the empire garrison town.
They lived and they died.
They prayed to their gods, but the stone gods did not make a sound.
And their empire crumbles 'till all that was left
Were the stones the workmen found.
All this time the river flowed in the falling light of a Northern sun.
If I had my way, take a boat from the river.
Men go crazy in the congregations, they only get better one by one.
One by one. One by one by one. One by one.

(I looked out across)
Sad shire horses walking home in the sodium light.
(the river today)

Writer/s: STING
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

All This Time Song Chart

This song is about a boy who wants to bury his father at sea over the objections of two priests. It's a satire of rituals - the priests think the man should be buried according to their practices.

Sting's father died shortly before he wrote this song, and The Soul Cages album was a result of his grief. Sting wrote in Lyrics By Sting: "We'd had a difficult relationship, and his death hit me harder than I'd imagined possible. I felt emotionally and creatively paralyzed, isolated, and unable to mourn. I just felt numb and empty, as if the joy had been leached out of my life."

He added: "I became obsessed with my hometown and its history, images of boats and the sea, and my childhood in the shadow of the shipyards."

The music is based on a Cello suite from Bach.

Sting used the river to represent continuity. Civilizations and structures can come to an end, but rivers are always there. He explained in an acceptance speech when he was honored by his hometown of Newcastle:

"I was born with in sight of that river [The River Tyne]. It runs through my veins, as surely as it runs through the landscape of my dreams. It is a constant recurring theme in many of my songs: 'All this time the river flowed endlessly to the sea.' I wrote that song about the time of the death of my father, gaining some solace in the idea that one human life may come to an end, but the river carries on, just as those of us who are left must carry on."

Most of the images, including the priests, shire horses and ferry, are based on things Sting encountered when he was growing up.

Sting became interested in the burial at sea theme after reading about cultures that bury their dead in boats, which are supposed to take them to the afterlife.

Melanie Griffith is in the video along with Sting's wife, Trudie Styler. They play French maids.

Sting used this to open most of the shows on his Soul Cages tour.

Sting used this as the title to his 2001 concert album. The show was recorded in Italy on Sept 11, the day of the terrorist attacks on America. The planned webcast was pulled after one song, but the concert continued with a somber tone.

Sting wrote this in Normandy while staying in the room novelist Marcel Proust used to occupy. He told The Independent: "OK, I'm in Proust's room, Remembrance of Things Past and all that, right, sat down and looked at the sea. Wrote a few images down, a bit of free association, and then after a while you get some idea of a structure. Songwriting has always been a miraculous process which is incredibly satisfying, and I don't necessarily understand how it's done. And, for me, it happens with less and less frequency, actually. Which is scary, I suppose."

Along with "Island of Souls" and "When We Dance," this was one of three previously released songs that Sting included in his 2014 musical The Last Ship, which was inspired by his childhood growing up in a shipbuilding community. Sting, who wrote all the music for the play, joined the cast of the Broadway production a few months after it opened.

Sting - Moon over Bourbon Street

Sting - Moon over Bourbon Street Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Dream Of The Blue Turtles
Released: 1985

Moon over Bourbon Street Lyrics

There's a Moon over Bourbon Street tonight
I see faces as they pass beneath the pale lamplight
I've no choice but to follow that call
The bright lights the people and the moon and all
I pray everyday to be strong
For I know what I do must be wrong
Oh you'll never see my shade or hear the sound of my feet
While there's a moon over bourbon street

It was many years ago that I became what I am
I was trapped in this life like an innocent lamb
Now I can never show my face at noon
And you'll only see me walking by the light of the moon
The brim of my hat hides the eye of a beast
I've the face of a sinner but the hands of a priest
Oh you'll never see my shade or hear the sound of my feet
While there's a moon over bourbon street

She walks everyday through the streets of New Orleans
She's innocent and young from a family of means
I have stood many times outside her window at night
To struggle with my instinct in the pale moonlight
How could I be this way when I pray to god above
I must love what I destroy and destroy the thing I love
Oh you'll never see my shade or hear the sound of my feet
While there's a moon over bourbon street

Writer/s: SUMNER, GORDON
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Moon over Bourbon Street Song Chart

This was inspired by the Anne Rice novel Interview With The Vampire . Police guitarist Andy Summers gave Sting the book, which he read late into the night. Sting recalled in Lyrics By Sting: "Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire was the direct inspiration for this song, but there was one moonlit night in the French Quarter of New Orleans where I had the distinct impression that I was being followed."

Bourbon Street is a reference to the main drag in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. As might be expected for a street that shares its name with an alcohol, it's party-central whenever Mardi Gras is in session. While it's also a major tourist attraction, that attraction is due mainly to the street being tiled solid with bars, strip clubs, and general seedy business. The area was one of the few parts of New Orleans unscathed by Hurricane Katrina.

This is one of six singles released from the album The Dream of the Blue Turtles. Five of these at least charted on the UK Singles chart, including "Moon over Bourbon Street." The song put radio programmers in an awkward spot: Sting was one of the most popular artists of the time, but this song didn't fit any specific format. It didn't get a lot of play on American radio, but many UK stations expanded their horizons and added it.

The Dream of the Blue Turtles was Sting's first solo album. He enlisted four acclaimed jazz musicians to play on it and accompany him on the subsequent tour:

Branford Marsalis - saxophone
Kenny Kirkland - keyboards
Darryl Jones - bass
Omar Hakim - drums

Marsalis and Kirkland had been members of Branford's brother Wynton Marsalis' band, which caused some friction when they abandoned him for Sting. Hakim played in the band Weather Report, and Jones in known for this work with Miles Davis. With this new ensemble, Sting was able to create songs he couldn't do with The Police, which was a three-piece. "Moon over Bourbon Street" is a great example of how he put these seasoned jazz musicians to work.

Sting played the double bass on this track.

The album name comes from a dream Sting had. The album was recorded at Eddy Grant's studio (Blue Wave) in Barbados. Sting says that during his first night on the island, he awoke from a vivid dream that gave him the idea for the title. In the dream, he was sitting in the walled garden at his home in Hampstead when the wall crumbled down to reveal a bale of giant blue turtles, who proceeded to casually destroy the garden.

Parts of the recording sessions for this album are immortalized in the 1985 Sting documentary film Bring on the Night. The film won a Grammy for Best Long Form Music Video in 1987.

Sting was fascinated by the character of Louis, a vampire with a conscience, rather than the popular antihero Lestat in Anne Rice's novel. He explained for the live album All This Time: "The idea of being a vampire and being a predator, but regretting it all the time knowing that there was something morally wrong with your lusts and your hunger, and I love the struggle that is going on in that character's head. There was a kind of movement of people who thought that Lestat who became a rock star in resulting books was based on me. He wasn't the character I was interested in at all."