The song Sting wanted to remember forever: ‘I regard it a masterpiece’
It must be terrifying for a musician to imagine that one day, through no fault of your own, you close lose every memory of the fame, fortune, and flourishes you’ve built for yourself. Sting is already taking steps to avoid that fate.
It’s not just purely out of a touch of ego, although admittedly, there is always going to be just a whiff of that whenever a rock star is around. But nevertheless, the vision of one day not being able to remember everything you ever made for yourself is enough to send shivers down many spines. Yet, as it has always been through the rest of life, music is always the answer.
Even as a bona fide god of the scene, Sting still has those special songs by other artists that stand out for him as representing some of the cornerstones of his life. In his world, ‘(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay’ by Otis Redding remains one of those standout classics, and the track that he could never envisage hearing his life without.
But perhaps surprisingly enough, his journey with the tune was one that emerged out of tragedy. “I think I was just 16 and Otis Redding had just died in a terrible plane crash,” he recalled in an interview for BBC Radio 2. “What a wonderful song. I mean, sad, sad song but without any minor chords. It’s all major chords, which is kind of an achievement in many ways.”
The bottling of this feat of sonic juxtaposition obviously made ‘(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay’ all the more remarkable, as well as all the more deeply resonant, given the heartbreak of Redding’s demise. Whether it was a combination of this backstory with the seminal age that Sting found himself at during this stage in life, from that moment forward, the song engraved itself into his heart as one of his life’s most important soundtracks.
Later in life, music is often used as the most powerful tool in allowing people with memory loss to remember flashes of life, so when asked which song he would always like to remember, there was only one clear answer for Sting. “To just draw attention to this issue I re-recorded what I regard a masterpiece,” the frontman enthused. “It actually made me analyse the song and what its power is. It was a learning exercise for me to remember the song and pay homage to the great Otis Redding.”
Redding himself may not have lived tragically anywhere near as long enough for him to realise just how much his genius transcended generations, but it’s testament to his power that, even almost six decades after his death, his voice still means so much to so many. Of course, no one on the outside world might expect him and a man like Sting to have such an intrinsic connection, but that only proves the point further.
For Sting, you can imagine he’d probably quite like for some of his acclaimed fans to feel the same way about his music, but only time will tell whether this will prove to be the case. If nothing else, it’s a strong marker of both pedigree and iconic status. Will your song want to be remembered by people even when all their other memories have faded? If yes, you’re on to a winner. If not, then you won’t make the cut.
That’s admittedly a rather bleak way of chalking up musical legacies for artists, of course, but it’s maybe the only way of knowing which songs will stand the test of time. Somewhere, even after the apocalypse, you’ll still hear Redding somewhere, whistling away on the dock of the bay to Sting’s favourite song.
