Sting's "Ten Summoner's Tales" Quiz

Answer: Geoffrey Chaucer

In Sting's 2007 book "Lyrics", he explained his inspiration for the composition and recording of the album "Ten Summoner's Tales": "In 1992 we moved the family out to the country, to a run-down manor house built in the sixteenth century that needed some care and attention. The gardens were beautiful, and walking in them was like walking into a dream. It was called Lake House. I felt inspired to write, and, for the first time in years, with a genuine spirit of happiness. There were no grand concepts, no plan, except to have fun telling stories in as many diverse styles and moods as I could think of. It is this carefree spirit that pervades the album and helped it to become one of my most popular records. The title was a mischievous conceit linking my surname, Sumner, with the scurrilous character in Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales'. There was nothing more to it than that, and subtitling the first and last songs ['If I Ever Lose My Faith in You' and 'Nothing 'bout Me'] 'Prologue' and 'Epilogue' was just further mischief". (The Summoner in Chaucer's "Tales" told one of the many completed tales in the collection, and the first part of the "Tales" is Chaucer's famous 'Prologue' cataloging all of the characters.) While this explanation might lead one to assume the album is a concept album, it truly isn't one.

The album does remain one of his most popular and critically successful. It peaked at number two in both the U.S. and U.K. album charts and managed to garner six Grammy Award nominations for Sting in 1994: Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Engineered Album (non-Classical), Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, and Best Long Form Music Video. He won Grammys for the last three of these nominations. The long form video was a live recording of Sting and a three-member band performing almost all of the songs in the order they appear on the album. The recording occurred in his own home, Lake House.

A truly trivial piece of information--according to Wikipedia, "On 11 August 1994, the compact disc for 'Ten Summoner's Tales' became the first item ever securely purchased over the internet, for $12.48 plus shipping".

Answer: If I Ever Lose My Faith in You

The words to the song "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" convey a message very similar to the Victorian poet Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach". The speaker no long has any faith in the institutions and practices of the world, but he decides to hold on to one principle--love. Similarly, the singer claims in the chorus, "If I ever lose my faith in you / There'd be nothing left for me to do", and in the bridge, "I could be lost inside their lies without a trace / But every time I close my eyes, I see your face". His loved one becomes the one guiding force in the darkness.

In his 2007 book "Lyrics", Sting claims that the words to the chorus of this song came to him during a moment of frustration. He had the melody and the chords, but no words, as he went "stamping around the countryside with this tune in [his] head". He remembers the sheep were staring at him with what looked like concern and the crows seemed to be mocking him with their cawing when the line "If I ever lose my faith in you" came to him, perhaps during a moment when he was beginning to lose faith in himself.

While the song lost to Whitney Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" for the Grammy for Record of the Year and Menken and Rice's "A Whole New World" for Song of the Year it did win Sting a Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. It also climbed to number seventeen on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and to number four on U.S. Billboard Top 40 Mainstream. It reached number fourteen in the U.K.

Answer: Love Is Stronger than Justice

"Love Is Stronger than Justice" represents Sting's journey into experimenting with country music. In fact, he even wore a cowboy hat when he performed the song live on a February 20, 1993, episode of "Saturday Night Live".

In "Lyrics", his book published in 2007, Sting writes, "One of my all-time favorite movies is 'The Magnificent Seven'. Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, et al., starred in the 1960 remake of Kurosawa's 'Seven Samurai'. The plot was transposed from medieval Japan to a beleaguered Mexican village in the nineteenth century. I must have seen it at least seven times. For the purposes of the song, I conflated it with the Hollywood musical 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers', which I saw but once. 7/8 time seemed the only logical choice for a time signature, as I attempted to retell both stories in my own fashion".

The subtitle of "Love Is Stronger Than Justice" is "The Munificent Seven", obviously a pun on the movie's title. The term "munificent" means "generous", and while the seven brothers of the song seem quite willing to give their time and effort to saving the citizens of a Mexican village who are frequently attacked by "los banditos", they are not so kind to one another. When they discover the mayor of the town has deceived them and that "the maidens numbered only one", the brothers attack each other until there is only one of them left; appropriately, the winner is "the seventh son of a seventh son". Thus, "love"--the lustful, physical kind, not the altruistic kind--"is stronger than justice".

Answer: She's Too Good for Me

"She's Too Good for Me" can be found not only on Sting's fourth studio album but also on "Symphonicities", a compilation of previously recorded songs that have been re-interpreted for a symphony orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, to be exact. Sting and the Royal Philharmonic toured together, and Sting often jokingly commented on how this orchestra was the biggest band with which he had ever played. Other remade songs on the "Symphonicities" album include Police songs like "Next to You", "Roxanne", and "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic".

The bridge of the song captures the dilemma of trying to become someone other than you are to win the heart of someone you love: "Would she prefer it if I washed myself more often than I do? / Would she prefer it if I took her to an opera or two? / I could distort myself to be the perfect man / She might prefer me as I am".

Answer: Fields of Gold

"Fields of Gold" climbed also to number sixteen on the U.K. Singles chart and to number twenty-three on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. The song was recorded with Kathryn Tickell playing Northumbrian smallpipes and Brendan Power providing a harmonica solo. In 2006, Sting re-interpreted the song to be accompanied by only a lute for his classical album "Songs from the Labyrinth".

In his 2007 book "Lyrics" Sting writes, "In England our house is surrounded by barley fields, and in the summer it's fascinating to watch the wind moving over the shimmering surface, like waves on an ocean of gold. There's something inherently sexy about this sight, something primal, as if the wind were making love to the barley. Lovers have made promises here, I'm sure, their bonds strengthened by the comforting cycle of the seasons".

Answer: Vinnie Colaiuta

Vinnie Colaiuta was born in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, in 1956. He began playing drums as a child, received his first full drum set at age fourteen as a gift from his parents, and attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He became a member of the Christopher Morris Band but then auditioned for Frank Zappa's band and became an instrumental member.

While touring and recording with Zappa, he became known as one of the greatest drummers; not only is he an incredibly accurate sight-readers of percussion notation on sheet music, but his performance on Zappa's "Joe's Garage" is listed as one of the top twenty-five drumming performances in a 1993 "Modern Drummer" article.

The reader's poll that appears annually in that same magazine has chosen him as the "Drummer of the Year" an amazing eighteen times.

Answer: Heavy Cloud No Rain

In his 2007 book "Lyrics", Sting writes, "The title occurred to me one day while looking out at the weather, though the song ended up as an extended metaphor for sexual frustration. I particularly like the verse about Louis XVI, and the royal astrologer is my favorite. One day he'll get a whole song to himself".

The song focuses on a man who wants a romantic encounter or rendezvous with his lover, but she tells him that she's saving "her love for a rainy day". Playing around with her expression in a literal manner, the man keeps looking into the sky and watching weather reports for a rainy day. He also compares his level of frustration to that of a royal astrologer who can't halt the execution of his king and to a farmer who can't save his crops that are suffering from a drought despite his dabbling in witchcraft to summon rain.

Answer: Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic

"Seven Days" is one of the many singles released from "The Ten Summoner's Tales". It was not released as a single in the United States; however, in the U.K., it climbed to number twenty-five on the Singles chart.

Chris Botti, the famous American trumpeter and composer, recorded this song with Sting and Dominic Miller. Botti also appears on a couple of Sting's later studio albums.

Some of the song's witty lyrics about the contest between the procrastinator and his rival include, "Asked if I am mouse or man / the mirror squeaked, away I ran" and "I.Q. is no problem here / We won't be playing Scrabble for / Her hand, I fear / I need that beer". The woman gives the man an ultimatum--"seven days"--and the chorus captures his procrastination: "Monday, I could wait 'til Tuesday / If I make up mind / Wednesday would be fine / Thursday's on my mind / Friday'd give me time / Saturday could wait / But Sunday'd be too late".

Answer: Saint Augustine in Hell

Before Saint Augustine or Augustine of Hippo converted to Christianity at age thirty-one and went onward from there to have a tremendous impact on Western theology and philosophy, he apparently was quite a libertine; he once expressed in his younger days this request of God: "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet".

The words spoken by Satan during the bridge of the song "Saint Augustine in Hell" are narrated by David Foxxe, a British actor who performs with Ian McKellen in "Mr. Holmes" and with Alan Rickman in "A Little Chaos".

About this song, Sting wrote the following in his 2007 book "Lyrics": "I prefer the saints in my personal hagiography to have at least some basic human flaws. Otherwise the concept of sainthood just seems unobtainable and not particularly interesting. For the purposes of the song I morphed the saint [Augustine] with another character, that of the great and shameless lover Don Juan. What ensues is a torrid tale of lust, infidelity, and revenge".

Answer: Everybody Laughed but You

"Everybody Laughed but You" begins with "Everybody laughed when I told them / I wanted you, I wanted you / . . . / Everybody laughed but you". The song ends with "Everybody grasped 'til they were through / It's all they thought they could do / 'Cause everybody fell / Everybody fell / Everybody fell but you".

Interestingly, Sting re-recorded this song keeping the exact same melody but supplying it with an entirely different set of lyrics. He called this remake "January Stars" and released it on the CD single of "Seven Days", which was released in Europe. These alternate lyrics are about a man longing and hoping for the return of a woman he loves.

Answer: Hugh Padgham

Hugh Padgham is an English record producer and is the winner of at least four Grammy awards. In addition to working with Sting, he has worked closely with the bands Human League and Genesis as well as with Phil Collins' solo projects.

Wikipedia explains the "gated drum" effect in this manner: ". . . [A] large amount of heavily compressed room ambiance [is added] to the original drum sound, and then . . . that reverb signal [is fed] through an electronic device known as a noise gate. This unit can be programmed to cut off any signal fed through it, either after a specified time interval (in this case, some tens of milliseconds), or when the incoming signal falls below a preset gain threshold. The result is the arresting 'gated reverb' effect, in which the reverberation cuts off abruptly, rather than fading away".

Answer: Something the Boy Said

The songs "Something the Boy Said" and "Shape of My Heart" are the only truly melancholy songs on the "Ten Summoner's Tales" album. Sting commented on the "Ten Summoner's Tales" Promotional Interview Disc: "I just felt that it [his previous album "The Soul Cages"] had served its purpose actually and that I had exorcised a few ghosts and didn't really feel the need to do it again, and I wanted to make a record that let me get back to writing songs just for fun. That's why I began the whole thing all those years ago - writing songs for fun, and I have to say that's exactly what happened. I was in a very good mood, I was with my band and I was writing songs to amuse them, to amuse myself, to amuse my family and it kind of makes me smile when I listen to the record." However, Sting--never wanting to be completely nailed down, put into a box, or appear transparent--obviously decided to throw in a couple of brooding songs despite his primary agenda.

Answer: It's Probably Me

The American composer and musician Michael Kamen wrote an instrumental with Eric Clapton for the soundtrack of "Lethal Weapon 3", and they used leitmotifs from the soundtrack of the first "Lethal Weapon" film to create the song's sound. Then Kamen asked Sting to write some lyrics. Later, Sting, Kamen, Clapton, and David Sanborn recorded the song as well as made a video, which shows Clapton flicking his Zippo cigarette lighter at the beginning to simulate the rhythm of drums. The single climbed to number twenty on the U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock chart and to number thirty on the U.K. Singles chart. Sting, Clapton, and Kamen were nominated for a Grammy for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television.

The re-interpretation on Sting's "Ten Summoner's Tales" album is a jazzier version.

Sting wrote the following about this song in his 2007 book "Lyrics": "While I am not by temperament drawn to these kinds of films, I was intrigued by the 'brief' that the producers wanted a 'buddy' song, and nothing too sappy. 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".

Some of the last few previous words are part of the song's lyrics as well as these: "If there's one guy, just one guy / Who'd lay down his life for you and die / It's hard to say it / I hate to say it / But it's probably me".

Answer: Shape of My Heart

As a single, "Shape of My Heart" was released only in Europe, where it reached number fifty-seven on the U.K. Singles chart. However, it remains a very popular song among other musical artists; several have sampled or interpolated its music and lyrics, including Monica, Blaque, Lil' Zayne, Sugababes, and Rain.

The song is one of the few in Sting's solo career that was co-written by another. Dominic Miller, Sting's longtime guitarist, wrote the music, and Sting composed the lyrics. Sting wrote about the song's origin in his 2007 book "Lyrics": "One day a week, he'd [Miller] come down to visit me at Lake House and we'd try out rough song ideas that either of us had had in the interim. During one of those visits, he turned up with a beautiful guitar riff. I was taken by it, and he and I worked on shaping it into a song for the rest of the morning. That afternoon, he asked me what I thought the song would be about. I said I didn't know, but I would take a walk and try to figure it out. I took off along the riverbank for a mile or so, through the woods and up to the sheep meadow, then headed back as the sun was dipping to the west. When I got back, the whole song was written in my head. Dominic now thinks that I find lyrics under a rock somewhere. . . . "

Answer: Nothing 'bout Me

"Nothing 'bout Me" climbed to number fifty-seven on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and to number thirty-two on the U.K. Singles chart.

In a February 1993 "Billboard" interview, Sting made the following comments: "On this album ["Ten Summoner's Tales"], I've looked around at the most normal things in my life: the cowboy movie on my TV, the golden fields of barley beyond my house, and tried to see the subtle stories within them. Yet on the record's final song, 'Epilogue (Nothing 'Bout Me)', I say you can search all and still not know anything about me, the storyteller. But maybe that's not true, because being whimsical is an essential part of my personality and my own searching. I want to be a good pilgrim on the road to Canterbury, but I want to ignore all the signposts along the way".

Some of the lyrics are "Lay my head on a surgeon's table / Take my fingerprints if you are able / Pick my brains, pick my pockets / Steal my eyeballs and come back for the sockets / Run every kind of test from A to Z / And you'll still know nothin' 'bout me".