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When did you break up with Sting?

Never liked Sting or the Police

5 votes

Liked the Police but not Sting

1 votes

Ghost in the Machine

0 votes

Synchronicity

2 votes

The Police break up

5 votes

Acting in [i:qstnx40r]Dune[/i:qstnx40r]

0 votes

Dream of the Blue Turtles

1 votes

Acting in [i:qstnx40r]The Bride[/i:qstnx40r]

0 votes

...Nothing Like the Sun

0 votes

The Soul Cages

1 votes

Ten Summoner's Tales

2 votes

Mercury Falling

0 votes

Brand New Day

0 votes

Sacred Love

0 votes

Songs From the Labyrinth

0 votes

If On A Winter's Night...

0 votes

Symphonicities

0 votes

It's complicated

0 votes

I've loved Sting and will always love him

0 votes

Willets Point May 04 2011 01:12 PM

Over the years many of us have expressed that we once liked the music of Sting and The Police, but at some point our regard for the man and his music took a nose dive. I believe it was Edgy who coined the more appropriate moniker Stink. Now it's time to vote on when you finally decided enough is enough and that you wouldn't be listening to Stink's music any more. Poll inspired by recent episode and blog post on All Songs Considered.

Edgy DC May 04 2011 01:19 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

I like to think of Sychronicity as the beginning of Sting's career more than the end of the Police. That and the first two --- three even --- Sting albums I found to be interesting but nothing I would trust him enough to emotionally invest myself in. He seems so contemptibly false, so utterly self-congratulatory, so insufferably vain while pretending to be above it all. God knows how many bodyguards it must take to keep him from getting beat up every day.

John Cougar Lunchbucket May 04 2011 01:25 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

I associate 'Synchronicity' with Van Halen's '1984' and Springsteen's 'Born in the USA' as moments when the 80s jumped the shark and these bands became the kid of stars who could put out any old shit and still have people eat it up. None of them were their bands' respective best and by a long shot. I definitely preferred the Police as fighters for the top, not residents of it. Sting appeared to like the view more than anyone and so blew up the band then and there and used it ever after as a perch from which he's dump all kinds of toneless soft-jazz shit, even if I kinda like some of it.

Edgy DC May 04 2011 01:35 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I associate 'Synchronicity' with Van Halen's '1984' and Springsteen's 'Born in the USA' as moments when the 80s jumped the shark and these bands became the kid of stars who could put out any old shit and still have people eat it up. None of them were their bands' respective best and by a long shot. Note that all three were springboards to their singer going solo. Springsteen's Tunnel of Love was an E-Street Band album only grudgingly.

John Cougar Lunchbucket May 04 2011 01:36 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

'Brothers in Arms' as well.

TransMonk May 04 2011 01:40 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

I was young enough to be fine with Sting unitl the end of the Police.

HahnSolo May 04 2011 01:40 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Liked him up to Synchronicity. Kind of liked Dream of the Blue Turtles. Really started bothering me when he started going on and on (and on) about the rain forests. Fast forward to Summer 2010. My father passes away, and we bury him on a Friday afternoon. My week has sucked to that point (naturally)...at which point my wife reminds me that we have tickets for that night's Sting and the Royal Philharmonic show at Bethel Woods. The brother in law's wife apparently loves him and thought it would be great for the four of us to go. I had forgotten all about it (and really was looking for any excuse out). But my wife and other members of my family convinced me to go as a way to let loose. And you know what? It didn't nearly suck as bad as it sounds like it would. Awesome version of King of Pain. Right now Sting and I are like high school friends meeting up again on Facebook. Yeah, he's still around, and sometimes I listen to what he has to say, but it really doesn't bother me much anymore.

HahnSolo May 04 2011 01:42 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: 'Brothers in Arms' as well. And Sting was involved with that! Damn you for helping kill two bands!

Willets Point May 04 2011 01:51 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

I remember really liking ...Nothing Like the Sun when it came out. In fact I hadn't really liked the Police up to that point but I went back and got their albums and Dream of the Blue Turtles and became a Sting fan and retroactive Police fan. Then The Soul Cages came out and I was excited for a new Sting album and bought on like the first day. And it sucked, although it took me a while to realize that. I didn't like anything new by Sting after that and after a while I found it hard to listen to the stuff I used to like.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr May 04 2011 02:01 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Ten Summoners' Tales was my strike three, but that's probably a function of my youth, and my much-higher pretension/silliness tolerance during the preteen years. And come on now-- Brothers In Arms wasn't terrible by any means.

John Cougar Lunchbucket May 04 2011 02:31 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Ten Summoners' Tales was my strike three, but that's probably a function of my youth, and my much-higher pretension/silliness tolerance during the preteen years. And come on now-- Brothers In Arms wasn't terrible by any means. Nah but it resembled those other records in that it was huge but not the band's best, and followed soon after by a break-up.

Frayed Knot May 04 2011 02:44 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

I never really fell for The Police as hard as many of that era seemed to. I didn't DIS-like the band, but had more of a take 'em or leave 'em attitude where I could drop in or out at will and therefore never experienced the love-to-hate break-up pangs later on. That pretty much went for solo Sting as well as the band, it's just that he became more annoying as a media force in solo life so I think that phase gets more magnified.

metirish May 04 2011 02:45 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Liked some of the Police stuff, one of those bands that you get the feeling secretly bask in all the attention that used to be paid to them getting back together .......you weren't that good you twats ......my dislike for Sting no doubt reached it's zenith when he became the face of Amazon trees......his solo stuff ranks behind that of Phil Collins for me.

Edgy DC May 04 2011 03:19 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Yeah, I have to admit I saw him on the ...Nothing Like the Sun Tour (1988? --- my date's choice) and found it better than I expected. Springsteen came out for the encore, as they were just about to launch the Amnesty tour together and Bruce was just back from Europe, where he had been discovered to be carrying on with his backup singer and now wife. His arms were too big to hang at his side and he had seven piercings in his ear. Still the sum total of my Springsteen live experience.

TransMonk May 04 2011 03:30 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Edgy DC May 04 2011 05:20 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

I remember really liking ...Nothing Like the Sun when it came out. In fact I hadn't really liked the Police up to that point but I went back and got their albums and Dream of the Blue Turtles and became a Sting fan and retroactive Police fan. Then The Soul Cages came out and I was excited for a new Sting album and bought on like the first day. And it sucked, although it took me a while to realize that. I didn't like anything new by Sting after that and after a while I found it hard to listen to the stuff I used to like. This is pretty much the process by which it happens. The intellectual pretensions and the so-correct affiliated causes --- and for some of us, the leftover fuzzies of "It's Alright for You" --- caused one to give him so much slack, that you didn't realize how unhappy you were until well after he had begun hurting one with his music, and one would retroactively go back and hate on stuff one used to like. It seems childish, but it was mature adults acting this way. You can still women in Borders to this day --- mothers of two named Melanie, not quite sure if they're cool anymore --- picking up new Sting records, completely unsure of their own feelings, not knowing if there is still a relationship there at all. They're still incapable of making an honest assessment, caught up in some old obligation to a dishonest shadow of a relationship they think they used to have. It was during The Soul Cages that his intellectual pretensions got so bad that The Village Voice did a story on the "anti-intellectual backlash" popping up in stories about him, The Voice still too committed to him to accept that it was anti-Sting backlash. The one line I remember from a review around this period: "When Sting announce that the common thread of his next three songs was that they were all loosely connected to the sea, the audience became loosely connected to their seats." What really was the final slap in the face to me was seeing him asked in an interview about the meaning of the title of Ten Summoner's Tales. I recognized it as a reference to The Canterbury Tales, but did not get the pun on his name. That's cool, but he ddin't merely explain by saying, "It's from The Canterbury Tales --- a pun on my name, Sumner." No, he has to get all uppity and act like he's the only guy whose ever read anything, "There was this WrIGH-tuh name CHAW-shuh, and he wrote this fascinating series of stories about a group of pilgrims on a pilgrimage..." and wank-wank-wank going on overpronuncing his snotty blather for ten minutes like he was the only person in the English-speaking world high and intellectual enough to have heard of Geoffrey fucking Chaucer. Our divorce was finalized that day. Sometimes I'm certain he's stalking me though, his inoffensive, rubbish music playing in virtually every retail establishment I enter. A man his age having that sort of market position? It's utterly impossible without the assistance of Satan.

Ashie62 May 04 2011 05:57 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Loved the Police. The first U.S. tour in the VW bus and stop at C.B.G.B.'s is legendary. On his own, Sting is a fancy boy.

Edgy DC May 04 2011 07:22 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Frayed Knot wrote: I didn't DIS-like the band, but had more of a take 'em or leave 'em attitude where I could drop in or out at will Drop out on this. [youtube]CZpsnRtwMtE[/youtube]

Fman99 May 04 2011 07:50 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

TransMonk wrote: I was young enough to be fine with Sting unitl the end of the Police. Yep. The solo stuff never did anything for me. I can still dig on a lot of the Police stuff, even through and including Synchronicity.

John Cougar Lunchbucket May 04 2011 08:15 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

I really didn't give Sting much thought after he left the Police but one day I looked up and he was the spokesmodel for VH1 -- back when it was an intentionally lame version of MTV. The best comment on his cultural significace was when Mystery Science Theater parodied a cold-war thriller where two evil Russians are there and one of the robots say "You know, Comrade, that Sting was right. I like what he said about how we love our children."

Frayed Knot May 04 2011 08:50 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Ah yes, the overly pretentious (even for him) 'If the Russians Love Their Children Too' The cold war was, after all, just a giant misunderstanding that could have been solved by hugs and syrupy ballads. He was also most to blame for turning the jungle into a 'rain forest', much better for pr and fundraising that way. Hell, they've even got lousy eateries in shopping malls named after them now because nobody would go if you called it 'The Jungle Cafe' !

Gwreck May 04 2011 09:09 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Edgy DC wrote: Springsteen came out for the encore, as they were just about to launch the Amnesty tour together and Bruce was just back from Europe, where he had been discovered to be carrying on with his backup singer and now wife. His arms were too big to hang at his side and he had seven piercings in his ear. Still the sum total of my Springsteen live experience. Wow. You've never been to an E Street show? Remind me of this next year when the tour dates are announced and we'll see what we can do. Sting is frequently credited with indirectly convincing Bruce that he could work apart from E Street following that Amnesty tour in '88.

Willets Point May 04 2011 09:40 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

If you were to find a copy of the 1987 edition of my high school's yearbook you would find my sister's senior photograph and next to it as her senior quote the lyrics of "Love is the Seventh Wave." High school and pretension go well together.

themetfairy May 04 2011 10:18 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

I was never a fan.

Chad Ochoseis May 05 2011 04:10 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Me, neither. I went from "take him or leave him" with the Police to "sweet jeezus, he sucks" sometime around Russians. http://www.theonion.com/articles/you-kn ... nce,10932/

sharpie May 05 2011 04:15 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

I never cared much about him or the Police. I thought of the Police as a pretty good singles band at the time and saw them at one of the Amnesty concerts. Owned maybe one Police album, never have owned a Sting solo album. I met him once as I did some work on his book (which I never read). He was friendly enough, wore a vest with no shirt underneath.

metirish May 05 2011 04:24 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Wore a vest with no shirt underneath ...... I'm dying, maybe it's the way you wrote it but it's just funny.

Edgy DC May 05 2011 06:31 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Omar gave him the vest.

TransMonk May 09 2011 09:53 AM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Willets Point wrote: Poll inspired by recent episode and blog post on All Songs Considered. Just now listening to this on my NPR app. Loving the concept...hate the Sting.

dgwphotography May 09 2011 01:59 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

I was never a fan either, but I must admit that I did like his version of Fields of Gold on Studio 60 [youtube]9JAKiZ6ytLQ[/youtube]

Edgy DC May 09 2011 06:56 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

"Sting, I'm leaving." "But Edgy, after all we've been through. You wouldn't dare." "i would and I do. It hasn't been good for a long time. And you know what?" "Quoi?" "I faked all those orgasms."

TransMonk May 09 2011 07:13 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Now, that's funny.

Willets Point May 09 2011 07:24 PM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Damn, even with his yogic endurance Sting fails to satisfy.

Number 6 May 10 2011 12:38 AM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

How anyone can respect Sting or the other two wienies after this self-congratulatory ballad of horror is beyond me. [youtube:79zgnsg9]ofA3URC1wyk[/youtube:79zgnsg9]

Edgy DC May 10 2011 05:22 AM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

No doubt. I always thought Stingk brought his bass along so he wouldn't have to put his arms around the other two. But he didn't draw that line sharply enough by any estimation. I recall "Peanuts" was about what a wanker Rod Stewart was.

Willets Point May 10 2011 07:17 AM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

Number 6, I've never heard that song, and I don't plan on listening to it now.

Edgy DC May 10 2011 07:25 AM Re: When did you break up with Sting?

It's exactly what you think it is. That is, if you think it's the artistically ill-advised sequel to "Everything I Do, I Do It for You," it's exactly what you think it is.