Happy #SongLyricsSunday! It has been a busy Sunday too, was online today with six different Zoom calls. But, I still have time for this week’s #SLS because the song I picked for this prompt has been on my playlist recently. And it is from one of my favorite bands too! This week’s #SLS prompt is to find a song with lyrics or title that features the words Anxiety, Delight, Emotions, Pain, Pride, or Relief. My pick? It is The Police’s 1983 song “King of Pain”.
But It’s My Destiny to Be the King of Pain
As you may know, I am a big fan of The Police and also the member’s solo works. I just featured Sting’s “Russians” a couple of weeks ago. And also mentioned my favorite The Police’s song “I Burn For You”. But, my favorite album will always be Synchronicity, which “King of Pain” is from.
The song was written by Sting, who was inspired by Carl Jung and Arthur Koestler when he was writing this song. It was also inspired by the musician’s separation from his first wife. “I conjured up symbols of pain and related them to my soul. A black spot on the sun struck me as being a very painful image, and I felt that was my soul up there on the sun. It’s just projecting your state into the world of symbolism, which is what poetry’s all about, really.”[1] Sting apparently wrote this song at the Goldeneye estate in Jamaica where Ian Fleming used to live.
I really love the way Sting writes about his pain in this song. Just a lot of really great hyperboles. My favorite part is before the instrumental break where it goes:
“There’s a king on a throne with his eyes torn out
There’s a blind man looking for a shadow of doubt
There’s a rich man sleeping on a golden bed
There’s a skeleton choking on a crust of bread”
What do you like about “King of Pain”. Check out the song below. Let me know what you think in the comments!
Candian singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette covered the song in 1999 on MTV Unplugged:
The Rules for #SongLyricsSunday
(This challenge is currently hosted by the generous Jim Adams.)
Anyone can participate in #SongLyricsSunday, even if you aren’t a music blogger! If you want to participate, here are the rules:
- Post the lyrics to the song of your choice, whether it fits the theme or not.
- Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due.
- Make sure you also credit the singer/band and if you desire you can provide a link to where you found the lyrics.
- Link to the YouTube video, or pull it into your post so others can listen to the song.
- Pingback to this post will eventually work, as long as you are being patient, but you can also place your link in the comments if you don’t like to wait.
- Read at least one other person’s blog, so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process.
- Feel free to suggest future prompts.
- Have fun and enjoy the music.
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References
[1] https://www.sting.com/discography/index/ablum/albumId/164/tagName/Singles+(The+Police)
Great song Amy and I have always liked Sting. This was the first time I listened to the Alanis Morissette cover, and that is also good. Thanks for joining in again.
I have heard a lot of songs from them, but can’t remember this one
I listened to their songs in the 80s. The Kind of Pain is about being hurt and you cannot do about it because thats the way it is. So sad.
You brought amazing memories, I love love love Alanis and her unplugged is awesome.
The Police were a great band and King of Pain a great song and choice for this week’s theme.
I really liked reading the lyrics to this song! Thanks for posting
I love this song and I love Sting! I have seen him in concert on his own and when he was with The Police!
I am a big fan of The Police and Sting. His voice is just so -ahhh. You can hear the pain in his voice.
Girl, you are really meandering between all styles – last week the Eurovision, this week the Police 😀 I was actually thinking a lot about this song Russians recently….for obvious reason.
I did not know this song! It’s really good and fun to know Alanis made a cover of it too.
Beautiful music! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
What a beautiful song! I can still remember this cover of Alanis before. Thank you for sharing the video. Enjoyed watching it.
What a beautiful song! I can still remember this cover of Alanis before. Thank you for sharing the video. Enjoyed watching it. 🙂
That sounds like a great song and thanks for always sharing with us new things and genres. I keep finding out ones that I really like as well.