Sting- The Last Ship Fifth Anniversary- pt 2

When sitting down to consider Sting‘s  The Last Ship,  either  his  album version released five years ago or  the stage musical production which saw a limited run on Broadway in 2014, one must check your assumptions at the door. ” It was never my intention to write a rock musical,” Sting stated emphatically here In the Studio in part two of our conversation,” and I don’t think rock’n’roll necessarily fits into the theater. It (musical theater) always seems a little bit fake. Theater is too small to really create the visceral energy of a rock’n’roll show, which is noisy and powerful. Theater is a smaller kind of music. And that’s what I wanted to make – a kind of old-fashioned musical, in a way, which harkens back to a different era.”

Growing up  beside the Swan Hunters shipyard in Wallsend near Newcastle England, “We didn’t have that many records, but my mother bought Carousel, West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Oklahoma    and South Pacific   which wasn’t one of my favorites. But I listened to those records like they were the bible. I love that music. And I fell in love with augmented chords, those things that Richard Rodgers used to write. And The Last Ship  is full of those things, just  little references to that love, that homage to that musical form. But that was my musical education. I didn’t study at a conservatory, I just poured over records.”

AC/DC lead singer Brian Johnson is featured on two songs including the rousing “Shipyard” on the fifth anniversary. This is the conclusion, part two of two. –Redbeard