Sting's "The Soul Cages" Trivia Quiz

Answer: All This Time

"All This Time" climbed to number five on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart and to number one on both the US Billboard Album Rock and Modern Rock charts. It did not fare quite as well in the UK, where it peaked at number twenty-two on the chart there.

While the song is about a fictional boy named Billy and his dying father, who has been injured in a shipyard accident, it represents Sting's struggle to understand and accept the death of his own father, who died in 1989, as well as his own rejection of his father's Catholic faith.

In his 2007 book "Lyrics", Sting includes these words from a speech he'd given in Newcastle: "The River Tyne runs through this region like a silent and constant spirit. It's a symbol of continuity, of commerce, and of creativity . . . . I was born within sight of that river. It runs through my veins, as surely as it runs through the landscape of my dreams. It is a constant recurring theme in many of my songs: 'All this time the river flowed endlessly to the sea'. I wrote that song about the time of the death of my father, gaining some solace in the idea that one human life may come to an end, but the river carries on, just as those of us who are left must carry on. I took this image with me . . . . It fed my dreams when I reached for the stars, and then brought me back home".

Furthermore, while the song is about death and the struggle to understand it, Sting mixes these resulting melancholy themes with dark humor. Not only are a few of the images and words witty or comical, but the melody is deceptively upbeat, backed by a happy rolling guitar riff. The video created to accompany the song is also quite comical and includes roles played by his wife Trudie Styler and Melanie Griffith.

Answer: drums

Sting primarily plays the bass guitar, and, in fact, has mentioned that he has grown so accustomed to playing one that he often feels a little awkward singing some of his songs without it. However, he plays many other instruments in addition to the three mentioned as correct answers, such as the guitar, the piano, the saxophone, and the harmonica.

"The Soul Cages" is one of Sting's most critically acclaimed and popularly successful albums. It climbed to number one on the UK, Canadian, Italian, German, and Swiss album charts and peaked at number two on the US album charts. Of course, there are many who do not think of it favorably because they find it too melancholy and brooding.

However, in an interview in "Billboard" in 1999, Sting had this to say: "'The Soul Cages' was an album of mourning. When you lose both your parents, you realize you're an orphan. Sadness is a good thing, too, to feel a loss so deeply. You mustn't let people insist on cheering you up. I'm very proud of that album."

It is also the first concept album of Sting's career outside of his work with The Police. All of the songs are concerned either with the death of a father or with the failures of Christianity, particularly Catholicism. Both of these themes represent Sting's struggles with the death of his own father, who was Catholic.

Answer: Why Should I Cry for You?

"Why Should I Cry for You?" was released as a single in 1991, but it did not perform well in any charts. Perhaps, some listeners felt it was too introspective and abstract. However the song is one of his most poetic, most profound, and most moving. Sting's father had expressed that he wished he could have been a sailor and suggested to Sting that he should "go to sea" himself. Because of these connections between the sea and Sting's father and because of Sting's memories of the shipyards of his childhood home, much of the song relies on rich seafaring imagery as Sting simultaneously wrestles with grieving for the loss of his father.

As stated in the question, "The Soul Cages" album was created after a lengthy and worrisome period of writer's block for Sting. In his 2007 book "Lyrics", Sting writes, "My father died in 1989. We'd had a difficult relationship, and his death hit me harder than I'd imagined possible. I felt emotionally and creatively paralyzed, isolated, and unable to mourn. I just felt numb and empty, as if the joy had been leached out of my life. Eventually I talked myself into going back to work, and this somber collection of songs ["The Soul Cages" album] was the result. I became obsessed with my hometown and its history, images of boats and the sea, and my childhood in the shadow of the shipyards".

In an interview in a 1992 issue of "Bass Player", Sting says, "For almost three years, I hadn't written even one rhyming couplet. I'd written a lot of little fragments of music, but there were no real ideas coming out. I was genuinely frightened. At one point I thought, 'This is it, I've just dried up !' Then I started to wonder why my creativity would suddenly dry up. Perhaps I was afraid of what might come out if I wrote something. I think there was an awful lot of denial and blockage going on in my subconscious - there were things I wasn't ready to face."

Answer: the saxophone

Marsalis was born in 1960 in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana; his parents--Ellis and Dolores--were both educators and jazz musicians, his father, a pianist, and his mother, a vocalist. His brothers--Wynton, Jason, Ellis III, and Delfeayo--are also jazz musicians; perhaps Wynton, a trumpeter, is the most well-known out of the group as he has won several Grammy Awards as well as a Pulitzer Prize for Music.

In the 1980s Branford and Wynton were part of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, but following Branford's release of his own album "Scenes in the City", he joined Sting to record "The Dream of the Blue Turtles" and to tour with Sting following the release of that album. From 1992 to 1995, Branford Marsalis was the leader of the "Tonight Show" band during the initial years of Jay Leno's tenure as host of the "Tonight Show". Throughout his career, he has played with Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Harry Connick Jr., and The Grateful Dead, and he has acted in such films as "Throw Mama from the Train" and "School Daze".

He has also created the Branford Marsalis Quartet, which has focused on classical and world music, released recordings, and won a Grammy award.

Answer: Saint Agnes and the Burning Train

St. Agnes is a virgin martyr celebrated in the Catholic faith. As the story goes, she was tied to a stake to be burned to death because several young men had exposed her as a Christian after their suits had been rejected by Agnes, who wished to remain chaste and loyal to her faith.

However, the flames would not touch her and parted away from her. Eventually, she was beheaded. Sting's grandmother was named Agnes and apparently was quite stubborn about her living and traveling independently. She insisted on traveling alone by rail when she would visit Sting's family, and during one journey during Christmas, the train she was riding caught fire.

She was unharmed, of course. One can see the connection between St. Agnes, Sting's grandmother, and surviving a fire. Perhaps, the song represents, despite the flaws Sting believes it to have, the allure of the Catholic faith--a belief in things supernatural and miraculous and victorious over death.

The following prayer "When Death Is Near" captures this allure and is attributed to St. Agnes: "I bless you, O Father, worthy as you are of higher praise, who renders me fearless even in the midst of the flames and who fills me with longing to go to you. Lo! I already behold Him whom I have trusted. I am about to grasp what I have hoped to embrace, Him whom I have so ardently desired".

The song's place on the album is perhaps a reminder of the pain and difficulty involved with letting go of something that holds such beauty. In other words, one loses the fear of Hell but also loses the joy of Heaven.

Answer: Dominic Miller

Dominic Miller was born in 1960 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he lived for ten years until his family moved to Wisconsin in the United States. After two years, he and his family moved again to London. He became a talented guitarist by the age of eleven and has studied at the Guildhall School of Music in London and the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

He eventually began playing with Karl Wallinger and his World Party before joining the band King Swamp. Then he worked for Phil Collins during the recording of the album ". . .

But Seriously". Miller has worked with Sting on every one of Sting's studio albums since "The Soul Cages", including Sting's "The Last Ship", and has contributed to the musical composition of a few of Sting's songs, "Shape of My Heart" being the most notable and well known of these collaborations. Miller has also released several solo instrumental albums--"First Touch", "Second Nature", "New Dawn", "Third World", and "Fourth Wall"--and he released "Shapes" in 2003, which was an album of his interpretations of various classical pieces, including works of Bach, Beethoven, Elgar, and Albinoni.

Answer: The Wild Wild Sea

In his 2007 book "Lyrics", Sting explains, "There are similarities between the dream state and the that strange fuzzy consciousness that can overtake you when writing a song. A lot of songwriters will tell you, 'Oh, that song just seemed to write itself; it was as if it was already there, waiting to be discovered'. 'The Wild Wild Sea' began as a dream, as disjointed fragments recalled from a night of fitful sleep. Of course, it's rare to dream in rhyming couplets, as it's rare for a dream to have a coherent narrative, so you're forced to finish the song in the cold light of day with a pen and notebook in your hand".

The song begins with the singer recounting how he'd seen a "black sail in a pale yellow sky". Then that night, while sleeping, he dreams of swimming far out into the ocean all night until he comes upon the ship with the black sail and suddenly finds himself aboard it. The world around him becomes silent and motionless--not even a breeze is blowing--and the sky frequently changes colors. Everything is so peaceful that the singer goes to sleep. Eventually, he awakens as a terrifying storm materializes, and the ship mysteriously turns straight into that storm. Perplexed and anxious, he looks toward the ship's bridge, and he sees his father at the wheel.

The song is yet another on the album about Sting's struggle with his father's death and with death in general, for the father is steering the boat's passenger (Sting) straight into the storm, which has awakened him from his peaceful existence.

The last words of the song mention that "the bridge to heaven is broken / And you're lost on the wild, wild sea". Sting appears to be suggesting that abandoning Catholicism leaves one lost in a world of chaos and chance, for there is no longer the destination of heaven to provide a sense of security or comfort. Thus, the song also represents Sting's struggle with Catholicism and faith in general.

Answer: David Sancious

David Sancious was born in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in 1953, and the E Street Band's name is a result of the early band members' use of Sancious' mother's house at 1107 E Street in Belmar, New Jersey, for rehearsing. Sancious began learning classical piano at age seven, and his keyboarding talents are showcased on Springsteen's first three albums: "Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.", "The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle", and "Born to Run". Sancious was influenced by both Mozart and Thelonious Monk, and both classical and jazz sounds can be heard throughout these albums. Sancious is a multi-instrumentalist; for example, he taught himself guitar by age eleven, and his saxophone playing can be heard on Springsteen's "E Street Shuffle". Sancious left the E Street Band in 1974 to form his own band Tone and eventually began touring with various other performers.

He was working with Peter Gabriel during the Amnesty International Human Rights Now! tour, when he met Sting. He ended up recording with Sting on both "The Soul Cages" and "Ten Summoner's Tales" albums and touring with him in support of these albums. Sancious' work can also be found on Springsteen's "Human Touch" album, and he has recorded and toured with Eric Clapton, Stanley Clarke, Santana, and Jon Anderson (of the band Yes).

Answer: Mad about You

"Mad about You" was released as a single in February of 1991; it did not fare well in the United States and climbed to only number 56 in the UK Singles Chart.

According to Second Samuel, Chapter 11, David witnesses Bathsheba bathing and is filled with such desire for her that he has some of his men bring her to him and he sleeps with her, despite her being married to one of his soldiers Uriah the Hittite. Eventually, Bathsheba informs David that she is pregnant, and David, afraid of his adultery being discovered, tries to get Uriah to go home and sleep with his wife. Uriah refuses to go home, so David orders Joab, the commander of his forces, to place Uriah at the front of the line during a battle and then to withdraw from him so that he might be slain. This is indeed what happens, and David and Bathsheba marry. The reader is then told that God is displeased. As David is supposed to be a loyal servant of God, the prophet Nathan, in Chapter 12, exposes David's hypocrisy, and God takes David and Bathsheba's son seven days after he is born.

The reason for the inclusion of "Mad about You" on "The Soul Cages" album is a puzzle, but an interesting one. Perhaps, it represents the failure of humankind to follow a faith--any faith--perfectly and thus serves as a representation of Sting's own questions about his father's Catholic faith. Perhaps, it represents the tendency of those in power to hide behind religion in order to manipulate and gain what they desire. In this song, David is willing to sacrifice his kingdom, and he risks a great number of lives to have what he wants. However, perhaps, the main point, for Sting that is, is that religion ultimately fails. David's faith does not keep him from creating havoc and tragedy among his society, one that eventually falls (though not while he is king), just as in the song "All This Time", the Romans, who "prayed to their gods" that "did not make a sound", ultimately lose their empire.

Answer: Kathryn Tickell

Kathryn Tickell, born in 1967, is a celebrated player of the Northumbrian smallpipes and the fiddle. She began playing the pipes when she was but nine years old, and she had won all the open competitions for Northumbrian pipes by the time she was thirteen. At the age of sixteen, in 1984, she was named the official piper for the Lord Mayor of Newcastle upon Tyne, the city three and a half miles from Wallsend, Sting's boyhood home. She has recorded with Sting on four of his albums, performed with him at Newcastle City Hall and Carnegie Hall, and worked with him on his musical "The Last Ship". Furthermore, she has recorded numerous albums as a solo performer and with her Kathryn Tickell Band.

Her work on Sting's "Soul Cages" album can be heard most notably on the songs "Island of Souls" and "The Wild Wild Sea".

Answer: Island of Souls

Sting wrote the following about the song "Island of Souls" in his 2007 book "Lyrics": "Ships are powerful symbols for me. As a child, I watched them being built [in Newcastle] in the flash of acetylene light. Each one had great ribs of steel, like the skeleton of a sleeping giant, and was tended by massive towering cranes, which moved with the slow deliberation of grazing dinosaurs. I could see, from the pulpit of my imagination, the nave of a mighty cathedral turned upside down, or a coffin ship welded and sealed to carry us all to the next world. The ship would grow day by day, many times taller than the houses, blotting out the sun, and then it would be gone, never to come back".

The song "Island of Souls" ends with these lines: "That night he [Billy] dreamed of the ship in the world / It would carry his father and he / To a place they could never be found / To a place far away from this town / A Newcastle ship without coals/ They would sail to the island of souls".

The song captures the tragedy and frustration of this life and suggests that the only way to escape it is through death, yet the song also captures the hope of a happier life some time and some place else. I am reminded of the words of Vincent Van Gogh: ". . . [W]e take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star".

By the way, the song is very obviously meant to be the companion and precursor to the song "All This Time".

Answer: Vinx

Vinx was born in Kansas City, Missouri, as Vincent D'jon Parrette, and he attended Kansas State University on a track scholarship. However, while there, he also began performing in the Kansas State Jazz Band and worked as a DJ. In 1980, Vinx achieved the second-best triple jump in the world and was going to represent the United States in the 1980 Olympics in Moscow; however, the U.S. boycotted those events. Vinx would have represented the United States in the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, but an injury during the trials knocked him out of contention.

He remained in LA, however, and eventually began to pursue his musical career. In 1990, while Vinx was playing in a Santa Monica club, Sting happened to drop by to wait for the rain to stop and liked what he heard and saw. Vinx went on to help Sting record "The Soul Cages" album and contributed both percussion and vocals.

He then toured with Sting on the "Soul Cage" tour as both an opening act and a participant on stage during Sting's performances.

He also performed with Sting during an MTV Unplugged recording at Carnegie Hall. Interestingly, in 1994, Vinx toured with the Rhythmatists, a band put together by Stewart Copeland who was the founder and drummer of The Police. Vinx has toured with a number of other musicians and bands, and he has released a number of his own albums.

Answer: Jeremiah Blues (Part 1)

The song's lyrics never mention the prophet Jeremiah, but the society described within the song is one that Jeremiah would have criticized. The title serves as a commentary on the corrupt state of a society whose hypocritical people are supposed to be loyal followers of God; it's as if Jeremiah is depressed or suffering "the blues" after looking upon this society, or at least someone gazing upon this society is experiencing the kind of blues Jeremiah would have felt.

Jeremiah is known as "the weeping prophet" and is most likely the author of four books of the Old Testament: Jeremiah, First Kings, Second Kings, and Lamentations. One of the most representative passages attributed to Jeremiah is the following: "And when your people say, 'Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?' you shall say to them, 'As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours'" (Jeremiah 5:19 ESV).

As far as can be seen from any listing of songs composed by Sting, there is not yet any "Jeremiah Blues (Part 2)".

Answer: When the Angels Fall

In a 1991 interview in "Creem", Sting explained, "That's what the 'Soul Cages' is about in a way; working through things yourself rather than trusting in mass ideologies. We come into the world alone and we leave alone. I mean, I'm not anti-religious, but if you believe anything wholesale, you open yourself up to a lot of perversions of the initial content. That's unhealthy. The core ideas behind ideologies are great, but invariably they get twisted. I'm not an expert, I'm just working on myself. That's the path to choose".

After the angels fall, the cross is taken down from the wall, and the churches crumble, ". . . the ragged souls of all the ragged men / Looking for their lost homes / Shuffle to the ruins from the leveled plain / To search among the tombstones". Here Sting seems to capture the problem with letting go of the faith with which one grew up; the ones who reject their faith are "homeless" and left haunted by something for which they are still searching. The English poet Philip Larkin wrote "Church Going", which focuses on a similar theme.

Answer: The Soul Cages

When Sting won the Grammy for Best Rock Song in 1992, he beat out Tom Petty, Bryan Adams, Jane's Addiction, Metallica, and Queensryche. The song, from which the title of the album comes, was the fourth single released and climbed in 1991 to number seven on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart, to number nine on the U.S. Modern Rock chart, and to number fifty-seven on the U.K. Singles Chart.

Sting wrote the following in his 2007 book "Lyrics": "There is an old British folktale about the souls of the dead being kept under the sea in the lobster cages of a creature who is half man, half fish. Anyone who dares try to free the souls of the dead must go under the sea himself and drink with the creature. If he drinks him under the table, the souls will go free. If, on the other hand, the creature prevails, the challenger will be imprisoned forever in the cages at the bottom of the sea. You need a strong stomach to treat with this creature".