“It stood up”: The album Eric Clapton thought could stand alongside Mozart
Pop artists are never looking to compete with the giants of the classical world. Although the likes of Beethoven and Bach have etched their places into music history through their stunning sense of melody, there’s hardly anyone looking to do the same thing when they sit down to write a hit that can possibly get in the charts. Eric Clapton always existed on the fringes of the charts, though, and when even if he was indebted to the blues, he knew that Sting could compete with classical musicians during his solo career.
Before the bassist had gone solo, The Police were already a bit of an oddity compared to every other group in the new wave scene. They certainly had a lot of respect for the punk movement that had come before them, but there were just as many wild left turns in their music that had their roots in everything from jazz to avant-garde in some places.
But Sting always found a way to combine those disparate influences within the confines of a pop song. A tune like ‘Every Little Thing She Does is Magic’ doesn’t really sound that complex when you break it down, but looking at the entire tune, hearing the band go into a calypso groove in the chorus before going through strange chords to get back to the original key of the verses comes from someone who knows exactly what they’re doing.
And that’s because Sting was one of the few artists who actually managed to study music theory to some extent. Even though his melodies can be easily digestible sometimes, he always knows what note he’s hitting whenever he sings and what that note means in the context of the chord that he’s playing at any one time.
While The Dream of the Blue Turtles freed him from being strictly a rock and roll frontman, The Soul Cages was what put him on another level. While he was a long way from making ‘Fields of Gold’ or ‘Nothing About Me’, pieces of this album seemed to be pulled directly out of everything from jazz to world music in places as well.
Clapton had already been going through his soft rock period around the same time, but he thought the record set Sting apart from every other artist working, saying, “I liked it the first time, but it was a bit esoteric. And then it grew and grew, and for a period of time, it was all I listened to, over and over again. I would listen to it in my car in a CD cartridge, along with Mozart and Puccini and the Band and Muddy Waters. And it stood up on its own, amongst all those other classic things.”
Was Sting really thinking about getting put on that kind of level? Probably not, but that’s not really the point. He was trying to make the best song possible regardless of genre, and by following his muse, he didn’t have to rely on all of those old records to try to think of what he should play on any of the tunes.
Sting learned a long time ago that whether or not his music fits into one specific genre is kind of irrelevant. At the end of the day, it’s about whether the music hits the listener right in the heart, and it’s safe to say that The Soul Cages has tugged on its fair share of heartstrings in its time.
