Memories in Wax #3- Sting – The Dreams of the Blue Turtles

Sting was never an artist that was on my radar when I was record hunting. I was a fan of the Police like anyone else, was, but I never really delved into his discography into much later in my record hunting and music journey. For context, my music journey started in 2008, and I bought this album in 2015. That being said, this is one of my favorite albums ever, and it’s definitely a sleeper hit in context of classic rock and music in general.

I bought this record for $5 used from Turntablelab. I had just gotten into records and wanted to go into NYC to go record shopping. At this point there were a few records I wanted to find ‘naturally in the wild’ pretty sure they were the Red Hot Chili Peppers album ‘By The Way’ which was an Urban Outfitters exclusive, and Run The Jewels ‘Run The Jewels 2’. I figured a mainstream-ish store like TTL would have RTJ, but they didn’t. I wandered around the small shop for a bit, and then saw a table with a few crates of used records in it and this was one of the first few I saw.

Now, at the music school I took lessons at, one of the students that was a few years younger than me was a massive Police fan and loved anything Andy Summers and Sting. So I bought this record kind of in honor of him, and just hoped there was something good on that record. There was… a lot on this record that I’d fall in love with. ‘Russians’, ‘Children’s Crusade’ and ‘If You Love Somebody Set Them Free’ popped out immediately and fascinated me, but nothing prepare me for the Side A closer of ‘Shadows in the Rain’. That song is just something special. There’s no other way to describe it. The groove is infectious and Stings’ singing is otherworldly.

Over the years since than, I’ve become a bigger fan of Stings’ solo work. Yes, his time with the Police is incredible, but he has a REALLY strong solo career and this album was the start of it. I’ll never forget walking into that TTL with some friends and finding this gem of an album.