First you make a stone of your heart
The video here is of The Police performing at the Oakland Coliseum, California USA on 10th September 1983. This chilling song had been omitted from what was to be their last studio album, Synchronicity, apparently for reasons of space on the vinyl release and it became instead the B side of the hit 45rpm single ‘Every Breath You Take’.
It was recorded in one live take at the AIR studios owned by legendary Beatles producer George Martin on the island of Montserrat. According to lyric-writer Sting, “A few years later this volcano would destroy half of Montserrat, but on this day it was just bubbling quietly and throwing up a strong smell of sulfur. The words formed in my head and that pungent smell of sulfur continued to cling to the song: Jimmy Swaggart, the TV evangelist, publicly cited it as an example of the devil’s work. He condemned it colorfully while entirely missing its irony and its satirical content. The devil indeed!” Sulphur has long been associated with the devil and demons in folklore, suggesting the smell emanating from the fiery pits of Hell. [thanks for the help, Songfacts].
I love the unusual jazz style chord progression – I’d like to play the song but I’m not sure about BbMaj#11, nor indeed F#7#9! The guitar has a lot of flange effect on it which creates a slightly disturbing sense that the pitch is never quite right.
Much more disturbing are the lyrics and the message of the song. To my reading it is a clear criticism of the UK government and the way in which it’s policy had caused distress and even death. In 1982 unemployment stood at over three million partly as a result of Thatcher’s de-industrialisation strategy with whole regions blighted by decline and poverty. I think we are still living with the consequences forty years later.
Today I read desperate news headlines: migrants in small boats who have drowned attempting to reach safety in England, starving babies in Afghanistan and thousands dying from Covid in poor countries where the vaccines have not been made available. It’s not inevitable, or just ‘how it is’. It is because powerful governments and leaders have decided to make it so. It’s murder by numbers.
But you can reach the top of your profession
If you become the leader of the land
For murder is the sport of the elected
And you don’t need to lift a finger of your hand
Justice is a recurring theme in the Bible and I have selected only one passage to represent it all. The prophet is speaking to the whole nation and its leaders whose “hands are covered in blood” in the book of Isaiah chapter 1. God help us.
