The one singer Sting was most honoured to play with: “One of my idols”
When The Police first began, Sting didn’t have any reservations about being seen as a grown-up.
He may have had his start as a rock and roller relatively late in the game, but when listening to the chops that they had on that first record, the power trio clearly had a handle on what their sound work compared to the rudimentary stuff that the punk scene had been spitting out. They weren’t afraid to show off when they wanted to, but when you’re making those records, you’re not thinking that the true legends are ever going to be listening.
But Sting’s penchant for great tunes was a lot more sophisticated than what the average rock and roll star was capable of. He had clearly studied the kind of music he was playing, and on a song like ‘Synchronicity II’, the way that he flip-flops between different modes feels like something that would have come out of a jazz record, especially when Andy Summers started adding in the strange jazz chords that turned up on their B-sides.
Because when you think about it, Sting was in the middle of the punk scene with a progressive mindset. That might seem like an oxymoron, but he could have easily been able to jam with someone like Jaco Pastorius just as well as any member of The Clash, but when he broke free from his bandmates, his future needed to be a little bit more complicated than the three-minute pop songs.
After all, the Beatles didn’t settle for being one style for the rest of their lives, and while a lot of Sting’s later records do have a bit too much of an adult contemporary feel for some people, it’s not like he lost his touch. The mood may have been a lot more mellow, but the strange harmonic lines that he would have in his songs, with the help of Dominic Miller, put him in the same realm that Brian Wilson was in. But even at his height, Sting figured that Stevie Wonder was on another plane of existence.
Wonder’s glory years may have been in the 1970s, but throughout every phase of his career, he was always reaching for what else could be done with the pop format. Songs in the Key of Life showed everyone that pop didn’t need to be the same four chords to be catchy, and even as far back as songs like ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life’, he could make songs that could have easily been written by the likes of Duke Ellington if he wanted to.
So to have Wonder as a friend later on in life was like the equivalent of getting musically knighted for Sting, saying, “Stevie Wonder is one of my idols, always has been. Someone whose records I cherished. He’s one of my teachers even though he’d never met me. So to meet someone like that who treats you as a peer is a great privilege and to appear on your record is like the highest honour.”
And when listening to how Wonder worked in the context of Brand New Day, his voice is like a ray of sunshine across Sting’s work. The bass legend could have easily tried his hand at singing some parts himself, but having Wonder on harmonica on the title track proved to everyone that he was equally as dangerous with almost any instrument in his hand whenever he entered the studio.
But one of the greatest strengths that Wonder has as a musician was that he never bothered to look at his music as work. Every single song came from a place of fun for him, and if more musicians learned to see their music in the same way, they would probably start appreciating their status in the studio. Yes, there are hangups that come with being a musician, but when it’s working right, it’s the best job in the world.
