Remember the good old 1980s when the United States and the Soviet Union could have blown each other, and the world, to kingdom come? How wouldja like to hear a song about it?
In 1985, Sting was in the early stages of his solo career. After the breakup of The Police, his first solo effort was The Dream Of The Blue Turtles. The album included upbeat fare like “Love Is The Seventh Wave”, “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free”, and then this joyous little ditty about Mutual Assured Destruction.
In “Russians”, we get signs of the beginning of Sting’s Pretentious Period, which, as far as I can tell, is still going on. Sting’s hope that “the Russians love their children too” is nice, but I think it’s pretty obvious they did. The sentiment was echoed by my young man’s heart then, but that’s changed as I’ve become older and hopefully wiser. Despite what the Beatles told us, love is not all you need to win against the most murderous ideology in the history of the modern world (Stalin and Mao, anyone?).
But I digress.
“Russians” debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart this week in 1986, and peaked at number 16 in March.
I’m a huge fan of Sting and The Police. More the Police I suppose. I don’t consider Sting a genius or anything, but he’s pretty good at what he does.
My thoughts on his pretentiousness: He seems to be far more interested in the experience of experimenting with music than actually making sure what comes out is really good.
Instead of letting his music come naturally, he tries to force things. So, using “Russians” as an example, he’ll say “I’m going to make a song on the Cold War, and no matter what I ~must~ finish it and put it out there.” This has happened with his country songs* and his new album of “winter” songs.
* He’s got 3 or 4 country songs, I think, and only one — “I’m So Happy I Can’t Stop Crying” — really worked. That song literally makes me tear up because it’s so touching.