Why must I? Why should I?

Some Police fans were a bit disoriented when Sting started recording solo albums. What's this soft jazz shit? I liked Blue Turtles a lot, and that was actually a hit album. However, fewer of my friends enjoyed Nothing Like the Sun, and I initially found The Soul Cages tiresome.

I really liked Nothing Like the Sun, and I was aware that he had written it after the death of his mother. The mother-son motif was something I could respond to. As Sting's father died shortly thereafter, Soul Cages was about him, which is probably why I didn't care for it.

Because the father-son thing. At the age of twenty-two I wasn't into the father-son thing. I loved my father, but there wasn't much understanding there. I mean, I tried. But it wasn't a thing.

The album grew on my however, even as I stopped listening to new Sting material altogether. We used several themes from Soul Cages in the Bad Epitaph production of Hamlet. The loss of fathers weighs heavily in that play, and my Hamlet in that production has lost his father a few years earlier himself.

One song in particular has always crushed me, even when dad was living; Why Should I Cry For You. It is not a disrespectful question, it is an honest, searching inquiry. It also has perfect beats per minute. It is hard to run fast and cry at the same time. I am glad I wearing sunglasses.

Distance: 5 miles
Avg Pace: 7:56
Duration: 39:45
Route: Boulevard-Noble Loop
Temperature: 30° → 34°
Climate: cool and bright
Pavement: dry
Weight: 161.5 lbs.
Mood: as you might expect

1991 Playlist

- or -

"The Soul Cages" by Sting

Island of Souls

All This Time

Mad About You

Jeremiah Blues (Part 1)

Why Should I Cry for You (162 bpm)

Saint Agnes and the Burning Train

The Wild Wild Sea

The Soul Cages

When the Angels Fall