November 22, 2000
The Police Message in a The Police
Message in a Bottle
I had a college roommate who was really into the Police, about the time I was into Judas Priest and various other old-school hard rock bands, and I remember thinking that his obsession was a bit too close to Sting's for comfort (we're talking about a guy who wrote a song about being in love with a whore, another song about being a stalker, another about rejecting abandonment, and starred in a movie about raping a comatose girl) but the thing that I find endlessly fascinating about Sting is the way he rebelled against his lot in life (he was the son of a milkman, IIRC) and articulated so many of the trials and tribulations of being intelligent but trapped in a societal role that would have otherwise relegated him to permanent invisibility. When I read The Vampire Lestat, I pictured Sting as Lestat. Not because of who he was, but because of who he so obviously wished to be. And isn't that how we all wish to be remembered? Posted by schampeo at November 22, 2000 11:52 PM