to begin, i will not offer my editing skills to this article. i will merely refer you to its final paragraph...and bring up a conversation that i had with a friend over the past weekend - about how i was thinking of breaking down and going to see the SL tour. i was, really! no joke! despite the fact that i have stated here that i would not see him on this tour or any other. but i was beginning to rethink that. then i saw a setlist - something i have bothered to do since the tour started. and i told myself to forget it. the last paragraph of this review is the reason why i cannot bring myself to go see the SL tour - because, to me, sting he is mailing it in. he could perform a concert without doing a single police song and i would LOVE it - provided he didn't play it safe, played rare solo material and "brought it" musically. and although there are those of you that think he is "bringing it", that he is not "mailing it in", i firmly disagree. sting is too excellent a musician - a musician that can excel to heights that few can. unfortunately, these days, he is now content to barely leave the ground. rich --- Onecoatsam <onecoatsam@msn.com> wrote:
Perhaps a more appropriate review can be summarized as: "The love may be sacred, but the music is broken."
----- Original Message ----- From: "StingUs" <frotri@panafonet.gr> To: "Stingus@Yahoogroups. Com" <stingus@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 9:54 AM Subject: [stingus] Rocker feels sting of soaring act by Lennox & interesting article
Rocker feels sting of soaring act by Lennox
By Brad Kava
Saturday's packed Sting and Annie Lennox show at
Shoreline was one of
those rare occasions when the opener outdid the headliner.
Opener, Lennox, 49, who has resumed a career after taking almost a decade off to raise kids, has come back stronger than ever. She has long been overlooked as a soul singer, partly because she first achieved fame as a techno-rocker with the Eurythmics.
But her strong hourlong set of old and new songs put her in a rarefied league of pure-voiced, bluesy singers, outclassing and out-emoting any of several generations of younger divas. She's already held her own recording with the ``Queen of Soul,'' Aretha Franklin, and frankly, Franklin might have had a hard time keeping up with Lennox's blazing vocals Saturday.
She had the audience on its feet through ``Missionary Man,'' ``Walking on Broken Glass,'' Bob Marley's ``Wait in Vain,'' and ``Cold.'' This set was more up-tempo and uplifting than last year's post-divorce outing in San Francisco. She was better outdoors where there was nothing to stop her voice from soaring.
Sting, wherefore art thy sting? It was sad to see this once powerful rocker slide into the tedium of banal, smooth supermarket background jazz. On his 53rd birthday (which the audience celebrated in song), his Police songs such as ``Every Little Thing She Does is Magic'' and ``Roxanne'' got the crowd up, but it sat back down for an interminable number of new, tepid songs.
How sad to see him go Clapton-like into the realm of smooth, safe and boring, when once he roared so ferociously. Maybe it's time to think about that Police reunion. Or next time you'll be the opener.
Source: Mercury News
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Dynamic duo Sting and Annie Lennox share the Sleep Train stage By Chris Macias -- Bee Pop Music Critic The Sting/Annie Lennox tour is a meeting of 1980s icons and closely cropped hair. The show, which reaches the Sleep Train Amphitheatre on Tuesday, is also a long time coming. Twenty years ago, in the salad days of MTV, Sting and Lennox were riding high with their respective bands: The Police and Eurythmics. But the two bands never toured together for one awesome concert spectacular.
Seeing the two solo is still a solid option on its own. Both Sting and Lennox left their bands and pursued successful solo careers, albeit with a more adult-contemporary edge.
Sting has toned down his former reggae and new wave bent for a jazzier, more sophisticated sheen. Lennox also has aged with grace, with vocal pipes aplenty and critical respect for such albums as 2003's "Bare."
Here's a look, as illustrated by a grab-bag of Top 5 lists, at how the careers of Sting and Lennox have shaped up over the years:
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A compendium of facts and superlatives 5 of Sting's best bass lines with the Police 1. "Spirits in the Material World": A catchy, dub-reggae bass lick that rolls and rolls. It also sets a worldy tone for perhaps The Police's best album.
2. "Can't Stand Losing You": A textbook lesson from Sting's "less is more" school of bass playing. He fills in the spaces with just the right amount of notes and a variety of articulations.
3. "Masoko Tanga": Sting's all over his bass' fretboard on this overlooked tune from "Outlandos d'Amour." His nimble interplay with guitarist Andy Summers is also a zinger.
4. "Bring on the Night": Sting's bass line is bouncier than an overinflated basketball yet it carries the song's chorus oh so well.
5. "King of Pain": How else can Sting, the "King of Pain," dilute his sorrow? With a groovy bass line, of course.
-Chris Macias, Bee pop music critic
5 of Annie Lennox's best vocals with Eurythmics 1. "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)": Her calling card, a smoky, vaguely desperate vocal on the song that introduced her to the world.
2. "Right by Your Side": Lennox is just as good expressing uncontainable joy, as on this kick-up-your-heels charmer.
3. "Would I Lie to You?": Not only does Lennox toss off a tough, wry lead vocal, she showcases her uncanny ability to add striking backing vocals.
4. "There Must Be an Angel": Just that opening vocalizing, wordlessly soaring above the intro and dancing behind the lead vocal throughout, is enough to deliver chills. And anyone who can outshine a Stevie Wonder harmonica solo is the real deal.
5. "Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves": The politics of this "women's lib" singalong were behind the historical curve, but Lennox agreeing to duet with Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin - and holding her own - showed that she had ... nerve.
- David Barton, Bee staff writer
5 of Sting's best solo career lyrics 1. "Fortress Around Your Heart": A terrific series of images in which Sting imagines returning to a lover he's wronged - in effect, walled off her heart - and now has to find his way back in, "for fear of walking on the
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