Odd One Out (Sting's Music) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Message in a Bottle

Symbolically, the singer in "Message in a Bottle" refers to himself as a "castaway," and he must have found himself in that situation after traveling by some means, but that means is never mentioned in the song. In "One World (Not Three)," Sting sings: "I don't want to bring a sour note / But remember this before you vote / We can all sink or we all float / 'Cause we're all in the same big boat." In "Demolition Man," he sings, "Tied to the tracks and the train's fast coming." In "Don't Stand So Close to Me," you can hear these words: "Wet bus stop, she's waiting, his car is warm and dry."

Answer: Shape of My Heart

"Hungry for You" has an alternate title--"J'aurai toujours faim de toi." Most of this Police tune from "Ghost in the Machine" is in French except for the version of the chorus sung at the end of the song. "Perfect Love . . . Gone Wrong" from the "Brand New Day" album includes a couple of interludes of a rap-like chant in French. "They Dance Alone," also known as "Cueca Solo," from ". . . Nothing like the Sun" has an interlude spoken in Spanish; of course, the ". . . Nada como el Sol" version is sung entirely en Espanol.

Answer: Love Is the Seventh Wave

In "Brand New Day" from the same album, Sting boasts, "I'm the sun and you're the moon." From his Police days, Sting sings of some love-sick sisters who "would climb a high dune" and "pray to the moon" in "Tea in the Sahara" from the "Synchronicity" album. Finally, in "The Wild Wild Sea" from "The Soul Cages," you can find Sting claiming, "I swam with the moon and her lover." (By the way, I've counted at least 26 songs written by Sting with the word "moon" in them! Plus, I know of two other songs he's covered that also mention something of the moon.)

Answer: I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying

While "I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying" mentions "star" or "stars" five different times, there is no specific reference to the Dog Star. The first two lines of "Why Should I Cry for You?" are "Under the Dog Star sail / Over the reefs of moonshine" (there goes another "moon" reference).

In "This Cowboy Song" from "Fields of Gold: The Best of Sting" collection, Sting alternately sings "You'll be my" and "I'll be your" "Dog Star shining tonight"; then he ends the song repeating "Dog Star." Interestingly, there's another "moon" reference in the song: the cowboys ride all night and have "no moon to light [their] way." "Valparaiso" from 1996's "Mercury Falling" album begins, "Chase the Dog Star / Over the sea" and ends, "Under the moonlight, there she can safely go / Round the Cape Horn to Valparaiso." "The Dog Star" is another name for the star Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky. Sirius is often referred to as "the Dog Star" because it is located in the constellation Canis Major or "the Big Dog." Its prominence in the night sky marked the flooding of the Nile in ancient Egypt and conversely the "dog days of summer" for the ancient Greeks.

It was also highly important to navigation, particularly in the Pacific.

Answer: Dead Man's Rope

"Dead Man's Rope" is from Sting's 2003 album, obviously quite post-Police; it does contain an allusion to "Walking in Your Footsteps" from The Police's last album "Synchronicity." "So Lonely" appeared on The Police's first album "Outlandos D'Amour." While "Shadows in the Rain" appeared on Sting's first solo album--"Dream of the Blue Turtles"--it originally appeared on The Police's third album "Zenyatta Mondatta." "Demolition Man" did occur as part of the Sylvester Stallone movie of the same name during Sting's solo career; however, it most certainly was recorded first by The Police on their fourth album "Ghost in the Machine."

Answer: History Will Teach Us Nothing

"History Will Teach Us Nothing" mentions a lot of criminal activity and atrocity, but never mentions "murder" specifically. "Murder by Numbers" from The Police's "Synchronicity" album obviously contains the word "murder"; the chorus is "Because it's murder by numbers, one, two, three / It's as easy to learn as your ABC." The song is a most satirical one in the vein of Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal"; however, Jimmy Swaggart, a televangelist, apparently took the song literally and condemned it as "the devil's work." "St. Augustine in Hell" from Sting's 1992 "Ten Summoner's Tales" speaks of a jealous lover who has "A switchblade in his pocket / Murder on his mind." "All This Time"--and forgive my trickiness--does mention a "murder of crows."

Answer: She's Too Good for Me

"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" from "Ghost in the Machine" is where these lyrics are originally found. Then he sings them again in "Oh My God" from "Synchronicity" and again in "Seven Days" from "Ten Summoner's Tales." Seeing connections among the themes of his music, Sting will often incorporate parts of the lyrics of some of his songs into the lyrics of other songs of his. Sometimes he does so in a comical way. Take "Love Is the Seventh Wave" from his "Dream of the Blue Turtles" album for instance.

At the end of the song, he sings, "Every breath you take with me / Every breath you take, every move you make / Every cake you bake, every leg you break."

Answer: Desert Rose

Apparently Sting felt no reason to reference the ocean in the desert. In "Be Still My Beating Heart" from 1987's "Nothing like the Sun," Sting sings: "I sink like a stone that's been thrown in the ocean / My logic has drowned in a sea of emotion." In "I Burn for You," a song recorded for the "Brimstone and Treacle" soundtrack, Sting sings: "In peace we sleep entwined / And your love flows through me / Though an ocean soothes my head / I burn for you." In "Truth Hits Everybody" from "Outlandos D'Amour," the opening line is "Sleep lay behind me like a broken ocean." Sting claims that his father gave him only one piece of advice: "Don't ever get married--go to sea."

Answer: When We Dance

Sting composed the album "Ten Summoner's Tales" at Lake House, where he and his family had recently moved--"a run-down manor house built in the sixteenth century that needed some care and attention." It had beautiful gardens, and walking in them provided the inspiration for a fun and spirited album.

The title of the album is a pun on Sting's surname (Sumner) and the rascally character from Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" (The Summoner). The album would go on to peak at Number two on Billboard and earn a Grammy for Best Engineered Recording, Nonclassical. Sting himself won a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for his work on "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You." "When We Dance" was released as a new single, along with "This Cowboy Song," on "Fields of Gold: The Best of Sting."

Answer: Russians

"Visions of the Night" was released as a "B" side to the single "Walking on the Moon," and Stewart Copeland, the drummer for The Police, felt the song was "too cerebral" for the band's initial audiences. The guitarist Andy Summers, on the other hand, just knew it would be The Police's first number one hit.

At any rate, the song's chorus contains these words: "They say the meek shall inherit the earth / How long will you keep it?" "Walking in Your Footsteps" from The Police's 1983 album "Synchronicity" repeats this line: "They say the meek shall inherit the earth." "All This Time" from 1991's "The Soul Cages" contains these words: "Blessed are the poor / For they shall inherit the earth / Better to be poor / Than a fat man in the eye of a needle."

Answer: Bob Dylan

Sting mentions The Beatles in "Born in the 50s" from 1978's "Outlandos D'Amour": "They screamed / When the Beatles sang." He follows with a reference to Elvis: "And they laughed when the King fell down the stairs / Oh they should've known better." Brown and Redding are both mentioned in "When the World Is Running Down, You Make the Best of What's Still Around" from 1980's "Zenyatta Mondatta": "James Brown on 'The T.A.M.I. Show' / Same tape I've had for years"; and later: "Turn on the stereo, it's played for years and years / An Otis Redding song, it's all I own."

Answer: Nelson Mandela

Sting mentions John F. Kennedy's assassination in "Born in the 50s": "My mother cried / When President Kennedy died / She said it was the communists / But I knew better." In 1985's "The Dream of the Blue Turtles," Sting refers to the historic moment at the U.N. when "Mister Khrushchev said, 'We will bury you'" in his song "Russians." He also refers to Ronald Reagan in this song as well.

In " . . . Nothing like the Sun," Sting refers to Chile's notorious leader Augusto Pinochet in the song "They Dance Alone": "Hey, Mister Pinochet / You've sown a bitter crop /It's foreign money that supports you / One day that money's going to stop."

Answer: You Still Touch Me

"Sacred Love" and "Whenever I Say Your Name" are both from 2003's "Sacred Love" album. In the song "Sacred Love," Sting sings, "Don't want no preacher on the TV, baby / Don't want to hear the news," and in "Whenever I Say Your Name," he calls out his lover's name "Whenever the TV makes me mad, whenever I'm paralyzed with fear." In "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" from "Ten Summoner's Tales," he laments, "You could say I lost my faith in the people on TV."

Answer: Set Them Free

The first line of "King of Pain" from "Synchronicity" is "There's a little black spot on the sun today." The second line of "Fragile" from ". . . Nothing like the Sun" speaks of innocent blood "Drying in the color of the evening sun." The third line of "Fields of Gold" says, "You'll forget the sun in his jealous sky"; of course, the song goes on to mention "the sun" in three more lines.

Answer: Love Is Stronger Than Justice (The Munificent Seven)

Sting sings, "God bid [this] yesterday good-bye," in "Bring on the Night" from 1979's "Regatta de Blanc"; interestingly, "God" is somewhat mentioned twice in that line, for the word "good-bye" is derived from the expression "God be with you." The next two songs are from 1987's ". . . Nothing like the Sun." "History Will Teach Us Nothing" contains the following words: "If God is dead and an actor plays his part / His words of fear will find their way to a place in your heart." In "Rock Steady," a satirical discussion of Noah and his ark and modern-day televangelists, Sting sings: "He said he'd heard God's message on the radio / It was going to rain forever and he'd told him to go."

Answer: Stolen Car (Take Me Dancing)

In "Fortress Around Your Heart" from 1985's "Dream of the Blue Turtles," Sting begins with "Under the ruins of a walled city / Crumbling towers in beams of yellow light." In "A Thousand Years" from 1999's "Brand New Day," Sting mentions "a tower of souls" and sings of how "the towers rise to numberless floors in space." In "Send Your Love" from 2003's "Sacred Love," Sting hopes that we are "climbing down from an ivory tower."

Answer: Consider Me Gone

"The Lazarus Heart" from ". . . Nothing Like the Sun" is about Sting's attempts to deal with the death of Audrey Sumner, his mother. The first verse very powerfully captures his pain: "He looked beneath his shirt today / There was a wound in his flesh so deep and wide / From the wound a lovely flower grew / From somewhere deep inside / He turned around to face his mother / To show her the wound in his breast / That burned like a brand / But the sword that cut him open / Was the sword in his mother's hand." "Why Should I Cry for You?" from "The Soul Cages" is about Sting's struggle to understand his feelings about the death of his father, Ernest Sumner; he very poignantly at one point asks, "What would it mean to say 'I loved you in my fashion'?" "All This Time," also from "The Soul Cages" album includes not only his struggles with his father's death, but also his struggles with the Christian faith.

He states at one point that "If I had my way / I'd take a boat from the river / And I'd bury the old man / I'd bury him at sea." Later he wants to know from a couple of priests who have showed up to visit his father only in his dying moments, "Father, if Jesus exists / Then how come he never lived here?"

Answer: Don't be seen alone without your friends at night

"Don't be seen alone without your friends at night" is a line from "Low Life," which is the "B" side to the "Spirits in the Material World" single. It can also be heard on Sting's "Bring on the Night," a recording of one of his concerts during his "Dream of the Blue Turtles" tour. "Englishman in New York" is found on Sting's ". . . Nothing like the Sun" album.

Answer: Nothing 'Bout Me

Sting begins "Englishman in New York" with this line: "I don't drink coffee, I take tea. my dear." In "Seven Days," the singer frets, "He'll murder me in time for his tea." In "Big Lie, Small World" from the "Brand New Day" album, the singer notes that "the police arrived in time for tea"; this man is definitely in trouble with the law, for he's punched his ex-lover's boyfriend, assaulted the postman, and stolen a piece of mail.

Answer: Love Actually

1995's "Leaving Las Vegas" has a fantastic soundtrack, and Sting covers three classics--"Angel Eyes," "It's a Lonesome Old Town," and "My One and Only Love." That last song always makes me think of my beautiful wife, who is most definitely my one and only love.

The soundtrack to "The Emperor's New Groove," released in 2000, contains "My Funny Friend and Me," which was nominated for an Oscar. 2003's "Cold Mountain" soundtrack consists of the song "You Will Be My Ain True Love," which was also nominated for an Oscar. Alison Kraus sang the song with Sting providing backing vocals. Sting appears to have a knack for writing songs the Academy finds noteworthy; his song "Until," which he wrote for the movie "Kate and Leopold" also was nominated for an Oscar.