The Soul Cages - Sting (CD 1991)

The important thing to remember, so I m told, is that there s a reason for everything and if you can t think of anything to write, it s either because you don t have anything to say or that you do have something to say and you re too afraid to say it maybe.

(Sting)



You weather one storm to live for another. You keep hoping that somewhere beyond the sea there s a place for you where you will never see the sky anger to black again. But so far you re just ever sailing.


Sounds familiar? Was that written about you? If it was, you should give The Soul Cages a spin or two. Ultimately a collection of sailor songs, Sting s most puzzling album to date tells a story of liberation, escape from a cage. Whatever it is that s holding you there, in Sting s case the ghost of his then recently passed father (1991), this album will take you on a journey through yourself and back to find that the cage you ve locked yourself in has always been open. Still haunted by ghosts in your memory? Board this ship.




Before we set sail, let me introduce you to the crew:


Manu Katche: drums
Kenny Kirkland: keyboards
Dominic Miller: guitars
Branford Marsalis: saxophone
Kathryn Tickell: Northumbrian pipes

Sting: vocals, bass, mandolin, all music, all arrangements, lyrics, Billy





Part 1: The stones of Faroe


Billy was born within sight of the shipyard
First son of a riveter s son
And Billy was raised as the ship grew a shadow
Her great haul would blot out the light of the sun


Have you ever seen Northumbrian Pipes? They aren t your regular pipes, twice as small, these are often believed to have the most limited range. But what range that is no other pipes I have heard sound this lonesome, enigmatic, rural. ISLAND OF SOULS opens to an amazing brief Northumbrian pipes solo by Kathryn Tickell, unhurriedly painting a small village by the sea, poverty and broken dreams entwined in the lives of a clincher and his son. The solo fades and gentle strings, a barely audible beat and quivery acoustic guitars add the missing element to the picture. Put you in it. Each time I hear this song, it always takes me there.


And six days a week he would watch his poor father
A working man live like a slave
He d drink every night and he d dream of a future
Of money he never would save

And Billy would cry when he thought of the future


Sting s bass drives this slow dreamy song, making you feel how time runs on the spot in the village. Eerie synths and pipes echoing in the background become the voices of ghosts from the past, already not of this world, yet somehow ever tied to this island of souls, forever locked inside of a souls cage. From which there is no escape, except in Billy s dreams, slowly taking the shape of the ship his father builds. The beat grows violent after the first chorus


Then what they call an industrial accident
Crushed those it couldn t forgive
They brought Billy s father by home in an ambulance
Brass watch, a check, maybe three weeks to live

What else was there for a riveter s son?

A new ship to be built, new work to be done


The song closes to another chilling Northumbrian pipes solo. As it fades, you hear a horn blow soon, on one of these ships Billy will leave the island of souls, resign to live a slave s life that has killed his father. On the instant Billy s life will start. But for now


I looked out across
The river today
I saw a city in the fog and an old church tower
Where the seagulls play


ALL THIS TIME picks up the pace at once, yet the tempo with its anthemic feel is a lure poppish as it may sound, this song is a celebration of the freedom a close person s death brings, as Billy watches two priests come to his and his father s house to serve the final rite . It may appear strange that the most obvious tribute to Sting s at the time recently passed father is given such upbeat vibe. Well, all I can say is, I m amazed that Sting has found the courage to record it like this.


I saw the sad shire horses walking home
In the sodium light
I saw two priests on the ferry
October geese on a cold winter s night


Billy spends time watching his father die. Many of us have been through this and I just DO relate to the tempo of this song. It always speeds stubbornly forward, toward Billy s and his father s freedom, the point of parting, where both will be released from their suffering, Billy from watching and his father from dying. The day it happens is the day to rejoice, not cry Sting seems to say. Becoming the boy s fighter spirit, the bass drones its way through, while, caressing, Dominic Miller s fingers pinch the strings of acoustic guitar all in a breezy, overwhelming celebration of freedom. Time begins melting away as the boy finds infinity in a river, flowing through the tortured land to sea.


All this time the river flows
Endlessly, like a silent tear
Father if Jesus exists then how come he never lived here





Part 2: A stone s throw from Jerusalem


Billy s life has started. Next two songs find him grown, falling in love, beginning to see a bigger picture. MAD ABOUT YOU is a Mediterranean romance, driven by mandolins and acoustic guitars, but if you listen carefully, you will also pay attention to Kenny Kirkland s barely audible keyboard brilliance in the background, and the way Branford Marsalis s saxophone is featured wonderfully toward the end of the song. Mediterranean jazz? Why the heck not. As regards Sting, he simply comes up with one of his best love lyrics.


And I have never in my life
Felt more alone than I do now
Although I claim dominions over all I see
It means nothing to me

There are no victories in all our histories without love


JEREMIAH BLUES Part 1 is the necessary social commentary. Yes, this is the man behind Synchronicity and Nothing like the Sun. In but four verses Sting pretty much paints the picture Billy comes to see, and it is sour, with much bitter irony. A bit schizophrenic bridge is absolutely creepy, as Gordon sings sometimes they tie a thief to the tree, sometimes I stare, sometimes it s me , while the keyboards (first bridge) and saxophone (second bridge) go where they never should go, like icy fingers creeping up your spine. Dominic Miller s raging guitar catches up each time, launching after the second bridge into one of the most enjoyable guitar solos I ve ever heard. Add Branford s saxophone, always there to back Dom, and Kenny Kirkland throwing in some funky chords, and you get a nice song about our society. The guy sure was called Sting for a reason.


Everyone told the truth
And all that we heard were lies
A pope claimed he d been wrong in the past
That was a big surprise





Part 3: This sailor song


We ve reached my favorite part of the album. They don t write sailor songs today anymore, do they? And neither does Sting. But he used to once, before he d found his shore. The first of the two sailor songs on this album is WHY SHOULD I CRY FOR YOU. Opening two verses find Billy sailing the seas of silence, over the reefs of moonshine, hauling on frozen ropes. On the third verse the chills come as that backing vocal joins in, like other sailors on the ship heard him sing and caught up lost at sea, what else can you do. The storm strikes in the fourth verse, as Manu Katche s percussion grows stronger and Dom s riffs start to flash with lightning, while Sting s impetuous voice sings a raging ode to loneliness in the eye of another memory storm:


Dark angels follow me
Over a godless sea
Mountains of endless falling
For all my days remaining


It is fun to sometimes think what song or what part of a song you are. I used to be fourth verse of this song for over a year. Now I guess I m the closing minute. Billy s ship has weathered the storm, and as the band launches into a funky slightly extended instrumental part, the skies clear up again. The song has one of the best videos ever, see it if you have a chance.


Why should I cry ?

Why should I cry .



A relaxed Mediterranean instrumental ST. AGNES AND THE BURNING TRAIN provides a small but much needed diversion for two minutes. Just listen to the guitars


At 6 minutes, THE WILD WILD SEA is another Sting s masterpiece. Never before had Sting written anything closely like it, and I m not sure he ever will. A life story in eleven verses, the perfect rollercoaster, this is a song about dreams and where they lead. Yes, it is another sailor song and the best of them all. Opening to breezy synths and hissing percussion, the song immediately puts you on a deck of a ship wailing guitars become the winds penetrating your soul, as turning your face leeward you watch the sky, and the hope just won t die.


I saw it again this evening
Black sail in a pale yellow sky
And just as before in a moment
It was gone where the gray gulls fly


Driven by Dom s gentle riffs, the song first rocks you in a cradle of loneliness. A heavenly choir will speed you on your way, but is doomed to get lost in the background as the scenery changes. The band reduces the decibels, and percussion disappears completely as Billy thinks he has found a home.


At first just a rustle of canvas
And the gentlest breath on my face
But the galloping line of white horses
Said that soon we were in for a race


The wind is beginning to blow harder as Billy discovers this is not a place for him the hissing grows stronger and guitars begin to rage, as somewhere in the background you hear claps of thunder:


The gentle sigh turned to a howling
And the gray sky she angered to black
And my anxious eyes searched the horizon
With the gathering sea at my back


Caught in the eye of a storm again, Billy meets the ghost of his father. He realizes he cannot change his life while his memories keep haunting him. All of a sudden a Northumbrian pipes solo brings the song to a halt, as Billy stops fighting his memories and faces them. The king of the sea is waiting as Billy s ship is devoured by the storm.





Part 4: A singing bird in an open cage


The best thing about this album, like always with Sting, is you can substitute your characters for his. Where Sting had dedicated this album to his father, it has helped me to get over the ghost of her.


A journey back to Billy s childhood, back to the island of souls, THE SOUL CAGES is the centerpiece of the album. A raging rocker, this breathtaking duet of Sting s bass and Dominic Miller s multiple guitar solos is a fighter s song. Really, it is enough to just hear the upbeat bridge to realize that Billy won t give up, he simply wasn t born to live in a cage of whatever. There s a slight shade of doubt as Sting sings the lines of the King of the sea though


What s in it for me my pretty young thing?
Why should I whistle when a caged bird sings?
If you lose a wager to the king of the sea
You will spend forever in a cage with me!


But when the song launches into the chorus of the Island of Souls, making it sound victorious, never dreamy or mourning like on the opener, it becomes clear that Billy hasn t lost the wager in his life. He has won, he's left the cage his father had died in. And now, looking back on what he has achieved Billy sets the memory of his father free.


And he dreamed of the ship on the sea
It would carry his father and he
To a place they would never be found
To a place far away from this town!!

A Newcastle ship without coals
They would sail to the Island of Souls



Opening to a subtle howl of guitars, the eerie closer WHEN THE ANGELS FALL is Sting's best ballad. The nearly 8 minute song finds Billy coming to terms with his new personality. He is forever free from his past. Caressing, Dom s guitar riffs bring on the night in the verse, while in the chorus it is the piano chords that complete this melting down of a man s past, dimming out stars in the sky one by one. The melody becomes victorious in the third verse as Billy turns around and cries with the ones still locked in the cages of their memories:


These are my feet
These are my hands
These are my children
And this is my demand
Bring down the angels
Cast them from my sight
Never want to see the million suns at midnight

Your hands are empty
Your streets are empty
You can't control us

You can't control us

Anymore


In the extended closing instrumental part the band's play grows more and more subdued, until there's only Dominic's guitar left... soon it fades too, Manu throws in another couple of beats... finally all that is left is an echo. Perhaps the eeriest song Sting has written, the feeling like Billy has lost a part of his soul just never leaves. Goodnight - a whisper closes the album after two or three seconds.






Final thoughts


This is my favorite album ever. Certainly something different for different listeners, it may be about the cages of poverty, the cages of loss, the cages of loneliness. Whatever it is for you, there's freedom that awaits, Sting seems to imply with a work dedicated to his father. But to gain that freedom you have to lose a part of yourself, which these memories have become. And that's the small miracle The Soul Cages has done for me.



Thank you Sting!



And thank you.





More on Sting by me
10 Summoners Tales
Fields of Gold: The best of Sting - the Videos 1984-1994
Brand New Day
Inside the Songs of Sacred Love DVD

..by other folks
Andrew - Sacred Love
Simon - Sacred Love
Ticktockman - All This Time DVD
Andrew - Brand New Day
Andrew - Mercury Falling
Andrew - 10 Summoners Tales
Andrew - the Soul Cages
Andrew - Nothing like the Sun
Tim - the Dream of the Blue Turtles
Andrew - the Dream of the Blue Turtles



More on the Police by me

Regatta de Blanc
Ghost in the Machine