Posted on 10/19/2006 9:06:29 AM PDT by dennisw
BERLIN (Reuters) - Sting said contemporary rock music is so stagnant that he prefers to sing 16th century English ballads.
The former teacher who shot to fame as lead singer, bassist and composer in the 1970s and 80s for The Police told German newspaper Die Zeit that he prefers singing songs of Elizabethan lutenist and composer John Dowland to the rock music of today.
His album of Dowland lute music "Songs from the Labyrinth" has topped classical charts on both sides of the Atlantic and entered the UK album chart at No. 24.
"Rock music has come to a standstill -- it's not going forward any more, it only bores me," Die Zeit quoted Sting as saying.
The 55-year-old singer, real name Gordon Sumner, had a string of hits with The Police with songs like "Roxanne" and "Don't Stand So Close To Me". He has since also had a lucrative solo career with songs like "Englishman in New York".
"Forty years ago it was my dream to break out of Newcastle and never be poor again," he told the magazine.
"I'm very privileged. I'm a successful musician, live in a beautiful house, and have a wonderful family."
Classical music ping...
Gotta go with the Stingmeister on that one. Rock pretty much peaked years ago, all the new stuff is just rehash.
Does he mean gems like this?
Ill send an SOS to the world
Ill send an SOS to the world
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
I hope that someone gets my
message in a bottle
sending out an SOS (repeat and fade)
The Police were OK but lets be realistic.
Dear ecurbh,
Thanks for the ping!
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sitetest
I agree. Today's rock is a bore. It all sounds the same. Unoriginal overamped, overmodulated noise then buried in all that noise is some effeminate male voice squealing God knows what.
Sting is right, but in a way, it's a good thing. Contemporary pop/rock music is mostly so bad that I started listening to classic American singers like Ella Fitzgerald and to swing and jazz artists and orchestras from the 30's, 40's and 50's. I might not have taken the opportunity to appreciate them if the current music scene wasn't so crummy.
Sting, we hardly knew ye.
He was much better with the Police IMHO.
I credit Sting and Phil Collins for driving me over to talk radio.
I'm glad that he's rediscovered lute music, but so did innovative "rock" acts like Dead Can Dance - who were incorporating chant and madrigal into their work back in the days when Sting was still playing watered-down white man's reggae for college students.
There are acts out there like The White Stripes, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Arctic Monkeys and Doves who are doing quite interesting things in the rock idiom.
Rather than badmouthing a scene he has become entirely out of touch with, Mr. Sumner should visit iTunes along with the rest of us in the unwashed masses and look around.
His first solo album "Dream of the Blue Turtles" was real good, used primarily jazz musicians for his band.
That might not be one of his best songs, but Sting is a pop music master. He was mostly annoying in his interviews during his concert movie "Bring on the Night," but his songs were fantastic. Listen to him sing "I Burn For You" sometime.
The best band you may never have heard of: Better Than Ezra
The last real rock was 80s metal.
(I KNOW I'll get flamed for that one!)
I've heard of 'em.
I remember the Dana Carvey routine on Sting, and the day he told his friends to start calling him "Sting":
“‘allo, Gordo!”
“You know, I’d really rather you call me Sting from now on,”
“Sting?!” “You’ve gone off your bleeding rocker, you have!”
There are several rock and hard rock bands in the Christian music world that are pretty good to. Now, before you start making fun of them, I will be the first to say that there are a lot of those bands that are cheesy. But there are quite a few these days that are very good, and several of them have gone mainstream in the secular market in the past couple of years.
Well the music in that song and very effective and conveys the tension that those repeated lines don't really do on their own.
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