The Synchronicity Album and songs like this were a revelation in their unique sound (driven by Copeland’s amazing percussion) and Sting’s haunting vocals. This album dominated radio in 1983.
Yes, I remember when the summer was all synchronicity all the time. The Police ruled the air waves and the car radios. I saw this tour in Cincinnati, good show.
King of Pain might just be my favorite Police song. And that’s saying A LOT because I love so many of their songs. King of Pain brings back only the happiest memories with NO PAIN at all!!
Totally agree, and he changed the tuning for this album. Or maybe he changed his entire kit, I'm not sure (drummers in the know, please check in), but he kept evolving and adding to his already immense skill. He is my favorite musician.
I don't even play drums but I've always loved Stewart Copeland. I can always spot someone influenced by him pretty quickly. I just love drummers that can be so expressive with such a small kit.
@@Johnny_Socko he tuned his top snare head so tight it was almost like a membrane. It was especially critical that all the lugs be equally torqued because at that tension, it's super easy to break an unevenly-tuned head. A trick I always liked was detuning 2 opposite lugs -, like at 9 & 3 -- to take some of the ring out of the sound without deadening it much. I'd be nervous doing that on Stu's snare, but it always sounds like he's done that to me. (Not knowing what studio wizardry was performed back then.)
"There's a king on a throne with his eyes torn out There's a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed There's a skeleton choking on a crust of bread" I believe this refers to the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex and the myth of King Midas and the golden touch.
@@airandmist Hence "Don't Stand So Close To Me" which di play upon the teacher theme in the video, but was based on Nabokov's Lolita (which if that wasn't clear, Sting of course refernced in the actual lyrics).
My 10th grade religion teacher used this song to teach lifes endless irony. I may not remember her point...but everytime I hear it I remember her Good teachers get remembered. ~Red
My 12th grade English used the lyrics to Wrapped Around Your Finger to teach us about something. Can't recall what it was but he spent a few minutes breaking down the lyrics and what they meant. In that moment he became the coolest teacher ever. At least to me and my best friend. Everybody else in the class was more into Hooty And The Blowfish.
I love Ambers ability to decipher songs. She gets so close on songs that took me a year or two to figure out. Always loved this song but it became so much more meaningful during my divorce 10 years ago. Great reaction as always guys.
She’s actually shocked me in that regard so many times. She is extremely perceptive and when she went straight to ‘butterfly in a spider’s web’ it almost made me cry…wow I’m impressed with her.
Amber & Jay, here are some other good songs by The Police to react to: "Don't Stand So Close to Me", "Driven to Tears", "When the World Is Running Down...", "Invisible Sun", "Synchronicity II", "Next to You", and "Murder By Numbers".
This song is about compassion, and how _seeing_ the pain of others is the essence of compassion. Every one of these things embodies pain in some way: entrapment, terror, exhaustion, starvation. He's the king of pain because he can't stop seeing them, every single one.
not true. the song was inspired when sting and trudy were on the beach one day. Sting looked and actually saw a black spot on the sunt, and said, "look theres a little black spot on the sun today...thats my soul up there...."And Trudie said, ''oh here we go with Mr. Depression, (or something like that), ''
@@Augfordpdoggie Which says nothing to contradict what I said. See, this is the problem with leaping to yell NO - you have to make sure you're actually saying something instead of just yelling LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME.
@@thewomble1509 LOL, on what grounds? So the song, with all its painful images, and its cry of futility, is all about an offhand comment? You're the one not making any sense, now, kiddo.
"There's a black-winged gull with a broken back" always sends shivers up my spine, truly a song that makes you feel off-kilter and a little frightened...
@@6916dog I have a bit of a rep here for being negative & perhaps a little too... blunt.* But I was about to use those words almost verbatim & decided discretion is the better part of um, not being blocked. 🤣
@@hypno59 they were all near-equally talented; it wasn't Sting's musical genius that "overwhelmed" them. (Also, I maybe should've said "overshadowed" for clarity.)
For me, this song is about all the forms of suffering in the world. But we are subjective beings who are capable of empathy, but the only pain we can truly experience is our own pain. "I will always be King of Pain "
This was a song that defined the final months of my senior year (Class of 85). The entire Sychronicity album was so its own unique thing in a time where everybody was delivering creativity. No one drums like Stuart Copeland ❤
The skeleton was choking on a crust of bread. I've always loved the lyrics of this song, and when I read the Sting's wife Trudie inspired the title because of his mood, I loved the song even more because it's about what he was going through. I read that Sting was sitting outside and feeling down about a terrible divorce from his first wife, plus he and the other band members weren't getting along. He was looking at the sky and mentioned to Trudie that there were a lot of sunspots that day. He pointed at a sunspot and told her it was his soul "up there". Trudie replied by saying something like: "There he goes, again...the king of pain." He mentions the irony within his life and putting the point into this song. The story about the divorce from his first wife, Frances and how he and Trudie got together.....😯🫤 Moving on, I suggest - "Shadows In the Rain" (If you want some serious instrument solos and Sting giving you some "growl", this will give it to you!) "Rock Steady" (Sting) "Tomorrow We'll See" (Sting) "Perfect Love Gone Wrong" (pay attention to who's point of view it's coming from.) 😀 "Be Still My Beating Heart" (Sting - I relate to this song so much because it describes how we both felt after such a loss.) 😢
Yes that's the story that Sting himself told. The fact that he turned such an obvious terrible time in his life, used the lyrics to make this masterpiece, shows just how much of a genius he is.
@@artdogg50 I agree. It reminds me of his inspiration for "Be Still My Beating Heart", and how he said he didn't realize at the time, that he was writing down his feelings about his mother's death and how it made him feel. I loved the song before _my_ mother died, and after she did, I felt the lyrics even deeper and felt like he was singing about my feelings. 😢
Gosh darn it...this one is a straight shot to my heart strings...gonna cry, but I gotta watch. Alanis Morissette did a terrific rendition of this song...one of the best covers ever. IMHO
Sting is one of the few who had success as a solo artist as well but his work in the police are always my favorite. It was a treat to see you both vibe with another one of the police's hits.
Also, some solo Sting - If You Love Someone Set Them Free, When We Dance, Fortress Around Your Heart, Love Is the Seventh Wave, We'll Be Together, Moon Over Bourbon Street, All This Time, If I Ever Lose My Faith In You, The Cowboy Song, Brand New Day (Stevie Wonder on the harmonica).
My favorite is a very overlooked song from The Soul Cages, Jeremiah Blues. It starts out very jazzy and quirky and ends with an almost metal rock guitar. Brilliant.
Lyrics: Verse 1] There's a little black spot on the sun today It's the same old thing as yesterday There's a black hat caught in a high tree top There's a flag pole rag and the wind won't stop [Chorus] I have stood here before inside the pouring rain With the world turning circles running 'round my brain I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign But it's my destiny to be the king of pain [Verse 2] There's a little black spot on the sun today (That's my soul up there) It's the same old thing as yesterday (That's my soul up there) There's a black hat caught in a high treetop (That's my soul up there) There's a flag pole rag and the wind won't stop (That's my soul up there) [Chorus] I have stood here before inside the pouring rain With the world turning circles running 'round my brain I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign But it's my destiny to be the king of pain [Verse 3] There's a fossil that's trapped in a high cliff wall (That's my soul up there) There's a dead salmon frozen in a waterfall (That's my soul up there) There's a blue whale beached by a spring tide's ebb (That's my soul up there) There's a butterfly trapped in a spider's web (That's my soul up there) [Chorus] I have stood here before inside the pouring rain With the world turning circles running 'round my brain I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign But it's my destiny to be the king of pain [Bridge] There's a king on a throne with his eyes torn out There's a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed There's a skeleton choking on a crust of bread (King of pain) [Verse 4] There's a red fox torn by a huntsman's pack (That's my soul up there) There's a black-winged gull with a broken back (That's my soul up there) There's a little black spot on the sun today It's the same old thing as yesterday [Chorus] I have stood here before inside the pouring rain With the world turning circles running 'round my brain I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign But it's my destiny to be the king of pain [Outro] King of pain, king of pain King of pain, I'll always be King of pain, I'll always be King of pain, I'll always be King of pain, I'll always be King of pain, I'll always be King of pain, I'll always be King of pain, I'll always be King of pain
My uncle-in-law had the 33 LP and I would spend school break with my aunt, him and cousin. When they were out would put on the album and just play over and over, what a time.
Wow. I was just watching the lady who inspired this song, Sting’s ex-wife Frances Tomelty who is an excellent actress. It was a very painful divorce from what I read.
Reached #3 on the Billboard Charts and was one of the biggest hits for the band. At this time, they could release any single and it would have been a hit.
I remember playing this album over and over during summer break of 1983...such a fantastic record with a bunch of different sounding tunes...they were music geniuses for sure!
TEARS for Fears entire first album THE HURTING has deep lyrics like this, Mad World, Pale Shelter, Watch Me Bleed, The Prisoner, Change, Suffer The Children, Start Of The Breakdown, The Hurting, Ideas As Opiates, Memories Fade. Yes I know... I listed the whole album. Their entire output changed with the non album track The Way You Are, and then international stardom soon followed.
I grew up listening to the greatest of the 50s 60s 70s 80s and a few in the 90s. In the late 70s and the decade of the 80s those of us in our 20s got the second British Invasion with groups like the "Police, U2, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Duran Duran, Kate Bush, the Cranberries, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Rick Astley, Seal, Shenade O'Connor, Lisa Stansfield, Boy George, George Michael, Simply Red, and so many other amazing artists. It was a Cornucopia of new exciting sounds. Brilliant British music makers and our favorites from previous decades all cranking out incredible music history. What a time to be care free and connected together in music. We were the children of young adults that were in the Woodstock era. The Police were for some of my friends, their"Beatles" experience. What a time to be experiencing many of them live in concert. Stig has said in interviews along with many of his contemporaries that the Soul and Rhythm and Blues artists from American music history were their biggest influence. Mine too. Canadian Grandma Lori. C.
I love all the natural history in this song: Sunspots, rain, fossils, a frozen waterfall, a spider’s web, a blue whale, a butterfly, the tides, an injured gull, a hunted fox. Pain, suffering and death, all inevitable in the cycle of life.
I knew every word. And I haven't listened to the album in about 20 years. This album cemented The Police as one of the best and most significant bands in Rock. Thanks for reminding me of how much I adore this record. ❤
Awesome! Synchronicity was HUGE, and this is a great track from it! Have you guys done Don't Stand So Close to ME yet? Such a classic! And the fact that you're so appreciative of the poetic quality of the lyrics, I don't know if you know that before he became a famous musician, he was a teacher too! Don't Stand So Close to Me has a teacher/student storyline (hopefully not based on a true story!) There's the original version, which you should absolutely react to first, but then they did a cover version of their own song later, known as Don't Stand So Close to Me '86, which is an interesting take, and definitely worth a listen, but you gotta start with the original!
All their songs hit home each n every time. Remember, this is a 3 men band, no synths. There were Genesis then there were these guys. Brits owned pop music in the 80s.
Their melancholy is very post world war 2 Britian. Upbeat, hopeful, with tension. I always think of this song as a “then” modern fable, put to music. Now in nostalgia it’s surreal. Genius! Thanks for the reaction!!
The Police ended on top with Synchronicity. No dug up treasures, no half-hearted reunion album. They did tour together after, but not to support a lesser than album, just to give their fans what they wanted. There’s not a ‘bad’ Police song…..not even Miss Gradenko or Be My Girl-Sally. 😂
He was struggling with emotional stuff when he wrote this. Separated from his wife and other stuff and he just cobbled together symbols of pain and how they represented what his soul was feeling. As always, fantastic songwriting.
Strange? Maybe. One of the greatest songs ever written...It is supposed to be profound, atonal, syncopated and made to sound simple even though it's anything but. The production by Hugh Padgham even though seldom mentioned and the mix by him is peerless. Sting wrote it in Jamaica at the home of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond 007. At the time they recorded it, the three members were barely speaking with each other. How ironic that at that same time The Police where the most famous band in the world...time flies!
“That’s my soul up there….” I remember clearly when this was a Top 40 hit and constantly on the radio. And it was just another popular song that had intelligent and very creative lyrics. It’s songs like this that make so many people, especially those of us who grew up during the 80s (I was in high school), still say that 80s music is some of the greatest ever recorded.
Sting and his wife were laying beside the pool and sting said " there's a black spot on the sun, that's my soul up there" and Trudie said, " you always were the king of pain"
I met my first love at age 14 when she was 15 and she came to my Church, but by the time this song came out, her Mother moved her from KY to TX, and I lost her, and this song came out and resonated in my brain over and over and over again. Not one of my better days in life! Fortunately, life would get better a couple of years later when a new love interest came into my life and captured my heart, but for 2 years I was the King of Pain, and our House was stolen by the bank when they foreclosed on a home no mortgages were missed on, so the brothers of the board could try to remove us to get their brother permits he wanted to mine coal on since he was the town millionaire, and we were evicted when I was 16, so it was so many bad things happening at once! Although we lost the house, the decrease in gas prices under Reagan drove the price of coal down, and the state shut them down for excessive blasting, 10 times the legal amount, they almost killed my family with more than one blowout that threw fly rock onto our property and the blasting damaged the foundation of our home. It was tough times! Because of the drop in coal prices, no one else ever applied for permits to mine coal on either neighboring farms again, so their theft gained them NOTHING financially as they thought it would! 41 years ago this song was relentless on radio and in my head. It is NICE this is a distant memory that is not present in my life now!
Memories of my bestie and I driving back from Sydney to Melbourne in 1983 listening to this and Midnight Oil, still have the cassettes. This song and Wrapped Around your Finger are my favourites still!!
The Police were one of the best pop/rock groups of the 1980's. I grew up listening to them in D.C. "King of Pain" was my favorite song off the "Synchronicity" album (1983).
This is from their album, "Synchronicity", which is a phenomenal album. I'd suggest you check out one of the 2 title songs from the album, "Synchronicity II" (there's also a song called just "Synchronicity"). It's one of my favorites.
My very first concert was The Synchronicity Tour. Mesmerizing, symphonic, haunting, energizing, hypnotic and utterly genius. I remember it like it was yesterday.
King of Pain is my favorite of theirs. In the 80’s I played their greatest hits cassette nonstop. Around the same time Sting sang the intro to Money for Nothing, I want my MTV.
In the UK this was the fourth single, in the US it followed Every Breath You Take. Synchronicity was everywhere in 83. They went out at the top of their game.
Walking in your footsteps, Can't Stand Losung You, So Lonely, Tea in the Sahara, Murder by Numbers... All great Police songs among so many other great Police songs. And from Sting - We'll be Together (Super fun video with his wife) and I Burn for You from his live album.
It was great how touch upon on how creative and unique Bono and Sting are . Please listen to Clannad featuring Bono ‘s song IN A LIFETIME . His duet with Clannad’s lead singer Moira Brennan ( Enya’s older sister) is his vocal masterpiece . He has never looked or sounded better in this hauntingly beautiful song . Amber it has plenty of horns and Moira has the most perfect pure voice - a song which you wish it was longer . Sting will stop you in your tracks with his cold haunting song from early in his solo career - ‘ Russians ‘
The Police were happening when I was very young and before I'd grown into music, so this is one of those songs where, as a young nerd, I heard and repeatedly listened to the Weird Al version ("King of Suede") before I heard the original. To this day, as much as I've come to love the Police as an adult, I can't help but hear the background vocals to this song as "Is my size up there?" and my brain always wants to sing the middle section as "There's a two-for-one sale on our three piece suits / Check out our suede pajamas and our suede-covered boots / You can try on our suede underwear if you choose / Do what you want, but don't step on my blue suede shoooooeeess....."
This is my favorite Police song. This whole album "Synchronicity" was truly the pinnacle of their popularity and greatness. I feel very fortunate to have been able to see them live during this tour. Love your channel and reactions, keep it up !!
Love the transitions and the consistent key boards/piano and drums that keep the rhyming forward!!! ❤ The rhythm guitar!!! ❤. Enjoyed waiting to hear this song on the radio back in the 80s. Yes! Unless your at home playing an album or cassette you had to hope and wait for songs to play on the radio.
The Synchronicity Album and songs like this were a revelation in their unique sound (driven by Copeland’s amazing percussion) and Sting’s haunting vocals. This album dominated radio in 1983.
Stewart Copeland is amazing. Such a distinctive style!
Such a small kit!
And then they immediately broke up after such a massively popular album. Go figure.
Yes, I remember when the summer was all synchronicity all the time. The Police ruled the air waves and the car radios. I saw this tour in Cincinnati, good show.
@@SpuzzyLargoHappens to so many bands…
King of Pain might just be my favorite Police song. And that’s saying A LOT because I love so many of their songs. King of Pain brings back only the happiest memories with NO PAIN at all!!
Me, too - the writing is sooooooo good on this one and ‘Wrapped Around Your Finger’ ❤
It's definitely mine.
@@Kim-hc5si 💯
@@Kim-hc5si 💯
Same here 🍻
To say this song was hugely popular in 1983 would be an understatement. It was everywhere.
As was the whole album! Every where you went this was playing. Hard to believe that was 41 years ago!
So was ROX ANN in1978 and Message in a Bottle
Not as bad as "Every Breath You Take" I still can't really listen to that one to this day. Same thing happened with "Eye of the Tiger".
Oh I know what you mean, it took me many years to be able to enjoy again Every Breath You Take.
@@davedave8602 I really did get sick of Every Breath You Take. Good song, but I don't think it was even in my Top 5 favorite songs from Synchronicity.
Copeland OWNS the snare, man. Just a master of the perfectly-placed snare strike. Incredible. ❤
Totally agree, and he changed the tuning for this album. Or maybe he changed his entire kit, I'm not sure (drummers in the know, please check in), but he kept evolving and adding to his already immense skill. He is my favorite musician.
COPELAND is a GOD!!
Yes,! (Retired drummer here*)
I don't even play drums but I've always loved Stewart Copeland. I can always spot someone influenced by him pretty quickly. I just love drummers that can be so expressive with such a small kit.
@@Johnny_Socko he tuned his top snare head so tight it was almost like a membrane. It was especially critical that all the lugs be equally torqued because at that tension, it's super easy to break an unevenly-tuned head. A trick I always liked was detuning 2 opposite lugs -, like at 9 & 3 -- to take some of the ring out of the sound without deadening it much. I'd be nervous doing that on Stu's snare, but it always sounds like he's done that to me. (Not knowing what studio wizardry was performed back then.)
"A Blind man looking for a shadow of doubt." - Just brilliant writing!
I feel like that's an Oedipus reference
"There's a king on a throne with his eyes torn out
There's a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt
There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed
There's a skeleton choking on a crust of bread"
I believe this refers to the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex and the myth of King Midas and the golden touch.
If memory serves, Sting was a high school english teacher, so literary references abound.
The catalogue of tragedies presented in this song . . . these lyrics are worth a second and third look.
@@airandmist I think you're right, for an all boys school (contrary to what "Don't Stand So Close To Me" might make us think).
@@airandmist he was an English teacher so very well read.
@@airandmist Hence "Don't Stand So Close To Me" which di play upon the teacher theme in the video, but was based on Nabokov's Lolita (which if that wasn't clear, Sting of course refernced in the actual lyrics).
My 10th grade religion teacher used this song to teach lifes endless irony. I may not remember her point...but everytime I hear it I remember her
Good teachers get remembered.
~Red
My 12th grade English used the lyrics to Wrapped Around Your Finger to teach us about something. Can't recall what it was but he spent a few minutes breaking down the lyrics and what they meant. In that moment he became the coolest teacher ever. At least to me and my best friend. Everybody else in the class was more into Hooty And The Blowfish.
Such a great song! It's right up there with "Wrapped Around Your Finger" for my favorites from the Police.
YES!!! I agree!!
I liked them all on that album, even "Mother." Lol
One of my favorite songs! My other favorites are "Synchronicity II", and Sting's solo "Fortress Around Your Heart" ☮️
Hell yes!
I love Ambers ability to decipher songs. She gets so close on songs that took me a year or two to figure out. Always loved this song but it became so much more meaningful during my divorce 10 years ago. Great reaction as always guys.
She’s actually shocked me in that regard so many times. She is extremely perceptive and when she went straight to ‘butterfly in a spider’s web’ it almost made me cry…wow I’m impressed with her.
@@chrisreed3572 yep agreed. The one that shocked me the most was Great Gig in the Sky. She was spot on first listen to a song without lyrics.
It's because of her that I watch this channel. Jay is so dense all the time.always focus on the same thing all the time
@@jamesmorgan4121 Yes, I saw that episode. She has a gift.
@@chrisreed3572yeah. She is definitely a Floydian 😊😊
The Police consistently delivered such full-textured sound for a three-person band.
Amber & Jay, here are some other good songs by The Police to react to: "Don't Stand So Close to Me", "Driven to Tears", "When the World Is Running Down...", "Invisible Sun", "Synchronicity II", "Next to You", and "Murder By Numbers".
OOOO - saw your post after I posted - sorry - I forgot Murder By Numbers & When The World Is Running Down: SO GOOD! There are SO MANY!!! ALL BANGERS!!
Canary in a Coalmine
I'd like to add "The Bed's Too Big Without You "
Wrapped Around Your Finger, another moody one!
Thanks nobody would’ve ever figured out to go to their greatest hits album 🤦🏻♂️
"Voices Inside My Head" is a BANGER! Love The Police.
This song is about compassion, and how _seeing_ the pain of others is the essence of compassion. Every one of these things embodies pain in some way: entrapment, terror, exhaustion, starvation. He's the king of pain because he can't stop seeing them, every single one.
Bingo!
not true. the song was inspired when sting and trudy were on the beach one day. Sting looked and actually saw a black spot on the sunt, and said, "look theres a little black spot on the sun today...thats my soul up there...."And Trudie said, ''oh here we go with Mr. Depression, (or something like that), ''
@@Augfordpdoggie Which says nothing to contradict what I said. See, this is the problem with leaping to yell NO - you have to make sure you're actually saying something instead of just yelling LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME.
@@Serai3 Except that anecdote is more accurate and factual than your thesis.
@@thewomble1509 LOL, on what grounds? So the song, with all its painful images, and its cry of futility, is all about an offhand comment? You're the one not making any sense, now, kiddo.
The word you're looking for is cerebral. They were an amazing band. They enjoying pushing boundries.
"There's a black-winged gull with a broken back" always sends shivers up my spine, truly a song that makes you feel off-kilter and a little frightened...
'Invisible Sun ' is one of the best songs of the '80s
I’ve suggested this song to be reviewed by them. Perhaps more people will help get this to happen
Oh, yeah. This one is incredible!
Stu Copeland and Andy Summers, 2 of the most gifted & underrated musicians of the time, overwhelmed by the "Star Factor" of Sting.
I think you mean the pompous, over the top egotism of Sting.
@@6916dog I have a bit of a rep here for being negative & perhaps a little too... blunt.* But I was about to use those words almost verbatim & decided discretion is the better part of um, not being blocked. 🤣
umm, genius of Sting - get it right.
@@hypno59 they were all near-equally talented; it wasn't Sting's musical genius that "overwhelmed" them. (Also, I maybe should've said "overshadowed" for clarity.)
For me, this song is about all the forms of suffering in the world. But we are subjective beings who are capable of empathy, but the only pain we can truly experience is our own pain. "I will always be King of Pain "
Nice interpretation. Makes sense to me.
This was a song that defined the final months of my senior year (Class of 85). The entire Sychronicity album was so its own unique thing in a time where everybody was delivering creativity. No one drums like Stuart Copeland ❤
An awesome Police tune! One of my favorites. "Synchronicity II" is probably my all-time favorite, but this one ranks really high on the list!
I do so love, love, love this song!!! I remember holding this album, and reading the lyrics every time this song played until I learned them.
This is a song where the lyric video is worth watching. I never realized the change from rain to reign until I saw it.
LOVE love the Police ..."Don't Stand So Close to Me" should be next, guys!
The skeleton was choking on a crust of bread.
I've always loved the lyrics of this song, and when I read the Sting's wife Trudie inspired the title because of his mood, I loved the song even more because it's about what he was going through.
I read that Sting was sitting outside and feeling down about a terrible divorce from his first wife, plus he and the other band members weren't getting along. He was looking at the sky and mentioned to Trudie that there were a lot of sunspots that day. He pointed at a sunspot and told her it was his soul "up there".
Trudie replied by saying something like: "There he goes, again...the king of pain."
He mentions the irony within his life and putting the point into this song.
The story about the divorce from his first wife, Frances and how he and Trudie got together.....😯🫤
Moving on, I suggest -
"Shadows In the Rain" (If you want some serious instrument solos and Sting giving you some "growl", this will give it to you!)
"Rock Steady" (Sting)
"Tomorrow We'll See" (Sting)
"Perfect Love Gone Wrong" (pay attention to who's point of view it's coming from.) 😀
"Be Still My Beating Heart" (Sting -
I relate to this song so much because it describes how we both felt after such a loss.) 😢
Yes that's the story that Sting himself told. The fact that he turned such an obvious terrible time in his life, used the lyrics to make this masterpiece, shows just how much of a genius he is.
@@artdogg50
I agree.
It reminds me of his inspiration for "Be Still My Beating Heart", and how he said he didn't realize at the time, that he was writing down his feelings about his mother's death and how it made him feel.
I loved the song before _my_ mother died, and after she did, I felt the lyrics even deeper and felt like he was singing about my feelings. 😢
This song is my favorite the snare drum is so tight one of the best drummers in the world if not the best
Gosh darn it...this one is a straight shot to my heart strings...gonna cry, but I gotta watch.
Alanis Morissette did a terrific rendition of this song...one of the best covers ever. IMHO
Thank you for reminding me how much I’ve loved this song! Their musicality and Sting’s lyrics are magnificent.
My favorite Sting song is "Fortress Around Your Heart"
Great song! It has the same kind of melancholy vibes that King of Pain has.
Agree, that's why this review reminded me of it!
@@docj72
I always felt that Sting lifted the guitar part in the chorus from Jethro Tull's Nothing to See.
It's the Police..of course it's a great song.
So true!
One of bands whose whole album is full of good songs!
There are not too many of those… Police, Nightwish, Def Lepard and couple of others.
Sting is one of the few who had success as a solo artist as well but his work in the police are always my favorite. It was a treat to see you both vibe with another one of the police's hits.
This is my personal favorite Police song, but I've always been attracted to darker music. Alanis Morissette does a great cover.
Also, some solo Sting - If You Love Someone Set Them Free, When We Dance, Fortress Around Your Heart, Love Is the Seventh Wave, We'll Be Together, Moon Over Bourbon Street, All This Time, If I Ever Lose My Faith In You, The Cowboy Song, Brand New Day (Stevie Wonder on the harmonica).
my favorite is "Mad about You" kinda surprised that it does not get more love in these comments
My favorite is a very overlooked song from The Soul Cages, Jeremiah Blues. It starts out very jazzy and quirky and ends with an almost metal rock guitar. Brilliant.
Yes, that is a good one.@@kelly9876
Lyrics:
Verse 1]
There's a little black spot on the sun today
It's the same old thing as yesterday
There's a black hat caught in a high tree top
There's a flag pole rag and the wind won't stop
[Chorus]
I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running 'round my brain
I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign
But it's my destiny to be the king of pain
[Verse 2]
There's a little black spot on the sun today
(That's my soul up there)
It's the same old thing as yesterday
(That's my soul up there)
There's a black hat caught in a high treetop
(That's my soul up there)
There's a flag pole rag and the wind won't stop
(That's my soul up there)
[Chorus]
I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running 'round my brain
I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign
But it's my destiny to be the king of pain
[Verse 3]
There's a fossil that's trapped in a high cliff wall
(That's my soul up there)
There's a dead salmon frozen in a waterfall
(That's my soul up there)
There's a blue whale beached by a spring tide's ebb
(That's my soul up there)
There's a butterfly trapped in a spider's web
(That's my soul up there)
[Chorus]
I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running 'round my brain
I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign
But it's my destiny to be the king of pain
[Bridge]
There's a king on a throne with his eyes torn out
There's a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt
There's a rich man sleeping on a golden bed
There's a skeleton choking on a crust of bread
(King of pain)
[Verse 4]
There's a red fox torn by a huntsman's pack
(That's my soul up there)
There's a black-winged gull with a broken back
(That's my soul up there)
There's a little black spot on the sun today
It's the same old thing as yesterday
[Chorus]
I have stood here before inside the pouring rain
With the world turning circles running 'round my brain
I guess I'm always hoping that you'll end this reign
But it's my destiny to be the king of pain
[Outro]
King of pain, king of pain
King of pain, I'll always be
King of pain, I'll always be
King of pain, I'll always be
King of pain, I'll always be
King of pain, I'll always be
King of pain, I'll always be
King of pain, I'll always be
King of pain
My uncle-in-law had the 33 LP and I would spend school break with my aunt, him and cousin. When they were out would put on the album and just play over and over, what a time.
Depeche Mode live and in concert “never let me down again” or “personal Jesus”🙏🏽🙏🏽
They definitely need to do more Depeche Mode
Would love to see either one of those but prefer studio versions for reactions.
@@The80sCatfor Personal Jesus and Strangelove, nothing beats the studio versions
Yes gosh darnit!!!!😂
Wow. I was just watching the lady who inspired this song, Sting’s ex-wife Frances Tomelty who is an excellent actress. It was a very painful divorce from what I read.
Probably because he was cheating on her with their neighbor, Trudy, whom he ended up marrying after the divorce.
@@tamcon72 Many, many years later, but yes.
@@tamcon72 Frances and Trudie were friends too. Stings daughter, Kate is her absolute double!
@@thewomble1509 Well, ick.
I don't know how it did in the charts, but those of us in high school back then absolutely loved this and all songs by the Police.
Reached #3 on the Billboard Charts and was one of the biggest hits for the band. At this time, they could release any single and it would have been a hit.
I remember playing this album over and over during summer break of 1983...such a fantastic record with a bunch of different sounding tunes...they were music geniuses for sure!
Man...was in my early 20s when these dudes hit the scene. They were so good and different from other bands of the time.
TEARS for Fears entire first album THE HURTING has deep lyrics like this, Mad World, Pale Shelter, Watch Me Bleed, The Prisoner, Change, Suffer The Children, Start Of The Breakdown, The Hurting, Ideas As Opiates, Memories Fade. Yes I know... I listed the whole album. Their entire output changed with the non album track The Way You Are, and then international stardom soon followed.
This was such a massive hit back in the day - was on the radio every 5 minutes….hard to imagine that now!
This is my favourite, fantastic lyrics, stings teaching side really shows
I grew up listening to the greatest of the 50s 60s 70s 80s and a few in the 90s. In the late 70s and the decade of the 80s those of us in our 20s got the second British Invasion with groups like the "Police, U2, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Duran Duran, Kate Bush, the Cranberries, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Rick Astley, Seal, Shenade O'Connor, Lisa Stansfield, Boy George, George Michael, Simply Red, and so many other amazing artists. It was a Cornucopia of new exciting sounds. Brilliant British music makers and our favorites from previous decades all cranking out incredible music history. What a time to be care free and connected together in music. We were the children of young adults that were in the Woodstock era. The Police were for some of my friends, their"Beatles" experience. What a time to be experiencing many of them live in concert. Stig has said in interviews along with many of his contemporaries that the Soul and Rhythm and Blues artists from American music history were their biggest influence. Mine too. Canadian Grandma Lori. C.
I love all the natural history in this song: Sunspots, rain, fossils, a frozen waterfall, a spider’s web, a blue whale, a butterfly, the tides, an injured gull, a hunted fox. Pain, suffering and death, all inevitable in the cycle of life.
The Police always give you lyrics that make you think!
Sting was an English teacher and it shows in his lyrics
Alanis Morrisette does an incredible take on this in an old VHI Unplugged video.
Jay & Amber, You'll love their "Synchronicity II" and "The Beds To Big Without You" !!!!
edit- Jay, only Sting on lead and backing vocals.
I really agree on Synchronicity II!!!
They already did "So Lonely'. 😄
Oh Yeah, "Synchronicity II", my all-time favorite of theirs!
thank you, fixed@@richardkint6531
Best album Zentyatta Mondatta, When the World Is Running Down, Canary in a Coalmine, DRIVEN TO TEARS, Shadows In The Rain, Don't Stand So Close To Me
King of Pain came from the 1983 album Synchronicity … The Police’s biggest recording. The title tune is a must listen!
I knew every word. And I haven't listened to the album in about 20 years. This album cemented The Police as one of the best and most significant bands in Rock. Thanks for reminding me of how much I adore this record. ❤
Awesome! Synchronicity was HUGE, and this is a great track from it! Have you guys done Don't Stand So Close to ME yet? Such a classic! And the fact that you're so appreciative of the poetic quality of the lyrics, I don't know if you know that before he became a famous musician, he was a teacher too! Don't Stand So Close to Me has a teacher/student storyline (hopefully not based on a true story!) There's the original version, which you should absolutely react to first, but then they did a cover version of their own song later, known as Don't Stand So Close to Me '86, which is an interesting take, and definitely worth a listen, but you gotta start with the original!
All their songs hit home each n every time. Remember, this is a 3 men band, no synths. There were Genesis then there were these guys. Brits owned pop music in the 80s.
❤This has always been my top Police song along with Can't Stand Losing You. I love all of their stuff but these are just in a league of their own.
"There's a little black spot on the sun today"
Not sure why but I absolutely love that lyric.
Their melancholy is very post world war 2 Britian. Upbeat, hopeful, with tension. I always think of this song as a “then” modern fable, put to music. Now in nostalgia it’s surreal. Genius!
Thanks for the reaction!!
Synchronicity is an awesome song. Great lyrics and tempo. This King of Pain is unique and catchy.
The Police ended on top with Synchronicity. No dug up treasures, no half-hearted reunion album. They did tour together after, but not to support a lesser than album, just to give their fans what they wanted. There’s not a ‘bad’ Police song…..not even Miss Gradenko or Be My Girl-Sally. 😂
He was struggling with emotional stuff when he wrote this. Separated from his wife and other stuff and he just cobbled together symbols of pain and how they represented what his soul was feeling. As always, fantastic songwriting.
"A skeleton choking on a crust of bread", and the one I didn't catch until I looked it up "That's my soul up there." What lyrics!
Another great song from this same album: "Synchronicity II"
The whole album Synchronicity is awesome. You can pick almost any song from it and you'll have a good reaction.
This is one of those songs where I heard the Weird Al version first! 😂
Sting singing a medieval troubador song, several songs, "Songs from the Labyrinthe".
such a great album! You gotta do Synchronicity 2 now!
Copeland ,their drummer knows how to take their music to a new level.
Strange? Maybe. One of the greatest songs ever written...It is supposed to be profound, atonal, syncopated and made to sound simple even though it's anything but. The production by Hugh Padgham even though seldom mentioned and the mix by him is peerless. Sting wrote it in Jamaica at the home of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond 007. At the time they recorded it, the three members were barely speaking with each other. How ironic that at that same time The Police where the most famous band in the world...time flies!
Would love to see you check out Sting’s solo song “Russians”
“That’s my soul up there….”
I remember clearly when this was a Top 40 hit and constantly on the radio. And it was just another popular song that had intelligent and very creative lyrics. It’s songs like this that make so many people, especially those of us who grew up during the 80s (I was in high school), still say that 80s music is some of the greatest ever recorded.
Woop! Woop!
That's the sound of da police! 🎉
This is 🗣️ MY JAM!! I Remember me & my friends singing this song at the top of our lungs in our high school hallway with the good acoustics 😊
Sting and his wife were laying beside the pool and sting said " there's a black spot on the sun, that's my soul up there" and Trudie said, " you always were the king of pain"
Wow…😮even I didn’t know that one. 💯
I met my first love at age 14 when she was 15 and she came to my Church, but by the time this song came out, her Mother moved her from KY to TX, and I lost her, and this song came out and resonated in my brain over and over and over again. Not one of my better days in life! Fortunately, life would get better a couple of years later when a new love interest came into my life and captured my heart, but for 2 years I was the King of Pain, and our House was stolen by the bank when they foreclosed on a home no mortgages were missed on, so the brothers of the board could try to remove us to get their brother permits he wanted to mine coal on since he was the town millionaire, and we were evicted when I was 16, so it was so many bad things happening at once! Although we lost the house, the decrease in gas prices under Reagan drove the price of coal down, and the state shut them down for excessive blasting, 10 times the legal amount, they almost killed my family with more than one blowout that threw fly rock onto our property and the blasting damaged the foundation of our home. It was tough times! Because of the drop in coal prices, no one else ever applied for permits to mine coal on either neighboring farms again, so their theft gained them NOTHING financially as they thought it would! 41 years ago this song was relentless on radio and in my head.
It is NICE this is a distant memory that is not present in my life now!
Memories of my bestie and I driving back from Sydney to Melbourne in 1983 listening to this and Midnight Oil, still have the cassettes. This song and Wrapped Around your Finger are my favourites still!!
The Police were one of the best pop/rock groups of the 1980's. I grew up listening to them in D.C. "King of Pain" was my favorite song off the "Synchronicity" album (1983).
Sting, Andy and Stewart... Musical Gods, all talented in their own rights!! I honestly don't think they'll be another band like The Police.
This is from their album, "Synchronicity", which is a phenomenal album. I'd suggest you check out one of the 2 title songs from the album, "Synchronicity II" (there's also a song called just "Synchronicity"). It's one of my favorites.
“There’s a skeleton choking on a crust of bread” is one of my favorite lines from any song, ever.
Always impressed by Amber's understanding and analysis of songs she only hearing for the first time.
My very first concert was The Synchronicity Tour. Mesmerizing, symphonic, haunting, energizing, hypnotic and utterly genius. I remember it like it was yesterday.
“When their voices all come together.” Is there anyone other than Sting singing on this song?
King of Pain is my favorite of theirs. In the 80’s I played their greatest hits cassette nonstop. Around the same time Sting sang the intro to Money for Nothing, I want my MTV.
The Police are definitely one of the most creative bands ever. Their music style is so unique.
Great reaction,
Love this song it never gets old,Keep up the good work.
👏🙏
You MUST get to Synchronicity II. Awesome song.
Ahhh yeah....1983....Junior in HS. I'd go back to that year in a second!
Great choice!
This and Wrapped Around Your Finger are two of my favorite Police songs.
In the UK this was the fourth single, in the US it followed Every Breath You Take. Synchronicity was everywhere in 83. They went out at the top of their game.
Love this song!
The Alanis Morissette cover is awesome as well
Walking in your footsteps, Can't Stand Losung You, So Lonely, Tea in the Sahara, Murder by Numbers... All great Police songs among so many other great Police songs. And from Sting - We'll be Together (Super fun video with his wife) and I Burn for You from his live album.
It was great how touch upon on how creative and unique Bono and Sting are . Please listen to Clannad featuring Bono ‘s song IN A LIFETIME . His duet with Clannad’s lead singer Moira Brennan ( Enya’s older sister) is his vocal masterpiece . He has never looked or sounded better in this hauntingly beautiful song . Amber it has plenty of horns and Moira has the most perfect pure voice - a song which you wish it was longer .
Sting will stop you in your tracks with his cold haunting song from early in his solo career - ‘ Russians ‘
I had forgotten how much I love this song. Thanks for reminding me about yet another song!
The Police were happening when I was very young and before I'd grown into music, so this is one of those songs where, as a young nerd, I heard and repeatedly listened to the Weird Al version ("King of Suede") before I heard the original. To this day, as much as I've come to love the Police as an adult, I can't help but hear the background vocals to this song as "Is my size up there?" and my brain always wants to sing the middle section as "There's a two-for-one sale on our three piece suits / Check out our suede pajamas and our suede-covered boots / You can try on our suede underwear if you choose / Do what you want, but don't step on my blue suede shoooooeeess....."
My favorite song by The Police.
“Wrapped around your Finger” is my favourite. It is the most literate *-you song ever. Watch with lyrics, they’re brilliant.
This is my favorite Police song. This whole album "Synchronicity" was truly the pinnacle of their popularity and greatness. I feel very fortunate to have been able to see them live during this tour. Love your channel and reactions, keep it up !!
Love the transitions and the consistent key boards/piano and drums that keep the rhyming forward!!! ❤ The rhythm guitar!!! ❤.
Enjoyed waiting to hear this song on the radio back in the 80s. Yes! Unless your at home playing an album or cassette you had to hope and wait for songs to play on the radio.
This is 80s beach music. I remember walking down Corona Del Mar and hearing this song all the time.
I saw this Synchronicity Tour concert. They were so hot , great music so fresh and new.
Good choice. Check out Don’t Stand So Close To Me. Sting was a teacher and this takes the listener back to those days.