Mad About You

This song is my very favourite! I listen to it almost every day. And I've come up with an interpretation to almost evey verse, but after reading what you guy's have posted... well, you've given me food for thought (very good with the David idea, rexbasior !). About his marriage, he married a year after, and only because his kids told him to. So he and Trudie took the vows 10 years after the started living together (aww... how sweet!) The album "Soul Cages" is, as Sting himself put it, and album about death, dedicated to his father passing away from cancer. But this soin doesn't seem to have much to do with death. Oh, well... like he said: we know "nothing 'bout him". Anyway, he's my interpretation of the song (brace yorself!):

"A stones's throw from Jerusalem"- Close to salvation, to redemption. "I walked a lonely mile in the moonlight"- He was alone in his desperation. "And though a million stars were shining"- Multiple things that were intereSting, that could have caught his eye, that could have distracted him.

"My heart was lost on a distant planet"- He loved someone who was as far as "a distant planet". "That whirls around the April moon"- He met her in the month of April one night? "Whirling in an arc of sadness"- She was sad, or their tale is a sad one because they're separated. .....

"Though all the kingdoms turn to sand"- All of his achevements and sucesses are rendered useless at the end of the day "And fall into the sea"- I have a feeling that water, and the sea in particular, represents emotion to Sting ("Be still my beating heart" is a great testemony to that), so he let his feelings get in the way of his work, either that or his work and career pale in comparisson to Love. ........

"And from the dark secluded valleys"- Again, the lonelyness he feels inside; or he's being tested by life, going through a hard time. "I heard the ancient songs of sadness"- Torment others had been through before him (I'm really not sure about this one, I have to think about it better) "But every step I thoght of you Every footstep only you..."- Not even the promisse of a tragic ending can frighten him out of losing his love. He uses the memory of his lady to give him strenght and motivation to advance towards whatever terible faith.

"And every star a grain of sand"- The sky becomes a mirroir to the universe, and the universe finds its reflection on Earth / All small things are important, and all big things are non important, and so on viceversa. "The leavings of a dried up ocean"- Either the ocean represents emotion, and all that's left when emotion is dead is a desert land, meaning Love is all, ant there's nothing more vital than that. ...........

"They say a city in the desert lies"- The city is a soul which is empty, it "lies in the desert". "The vanity of an ancient king"- Now this is really making me think about David, but before I read that interpretation I used to think the king was refference to the keeper of the city, the owner of the soul - the person had brought it uppon himself. "But the city lies in broken pieces"- Broken heart? "Where the wind howls and the vultures sing"- The wind is emptiness, like the soul, like the heart. And vultures are scavengers, that feed of the dead. The city is dead, totally and utterly. "These are the works of man"- Human beings have done the murer of the soul, through their wickedness and spite (lame interpretation, I know; but bare with me). "This is the sun of our ambition"- It what he (Sting) intends to do; to kill... or commit suicide of the soul. Or it's all he evere expects to achive.

"With every prison blown to dust My enemies walk free"- He tries to cantain his "enemies", but fails, and feels surrounded by people who are against him. ....

"Although I claim dominations over all I see"- He admits he's ambitioius... "It means nothing to me"- ...but knows that nothing can compare to Love and being with that special someone (lame the sequel, on my part of course.) ..........

"And though you hold the keys to ruin Of everything I see"- He knows this Love can mean the end of him and his life and career and etc.etc.etc.

"I'm mad about you I'm mad about you"- But he can't help being infatuated, he can't "still his beating heart".

Lol! That was long! Anyways "words were hard to find". I don't expect it to be very precise. I mean, what does a 17 year old know about lyrichs interpretation, particulary Sting's (he's so philosofical and hard to crack).

I'm pretty sure it's about David, king of Jerusalem succumbing to temptation with Bathsheba. Ultimately, because he fulfilled his physical desires, his kingdom fell apart and his enemies took advantage of him. Beautiful song. Just goes to show the power of lust and love.

Eerie, isn't it. You showed up in April.
Like someone possessed. Well you were! Don't you ever think .... It has crossed my mind more than a few times but if by some far stretch of the imagination, you were mesmerizing ... Me?! No way would he call me mesmerizing.
Well I couldn't have been. I was getting dragged facedown through some endless ocean of gravel. You do love to exaggerate, don't you? Problem is, I'm not even coming close to describing how you terrorized me So then, terror makes you enticing? That must be it. "Guess you think I'm crazy too, but mad mad me ..." You knew. What a rascal! No one will know what we are talking about. Trust me, no one will care

"There are no victories in all our histories without love" - Sting is probably the only person who can sing these lines without sounding corny! ; ) Beautifully descriptive and haunting song, brought to life by his unique voice!

Don't know enough about the Biblical David/Bathsheba story to contribute anything useful (except that it's supposed to also be at least part of the inspiration for the great Leonard Cohen song, "Hallelujah," which is now best-known for being the "Shrek" song, in its cover by John Cale). But it's pretty clear that in the verse about "the vanity of an ancient king," Sting is referring directly to the famous poem by the early-19th-century English Romantic poet Shelley, called "Ozymandias." (Don't forget Sting was a schoolteacher for two years before breaking out as a rock-star. Pretty much every English schoolkid would know this work.)
The point of the poem (the greatest works of the most powerful man, a king, are nothing in the face of eternity) plays into the point of the song (the singer's kingdom and works mean nothing without his lover's love). Here's the whole poem:

Ozymandias

  by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveler from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; And on the pedestal these words appear: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.

If you want to know more about the poem, its author, meaning, background:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias

This song is briljant...... If anyone has ideas about the meaning of this son, please post them.....

It came out with a cd released about the time he married. I feel he was thinking of what prompted him to make Trudie his wife. It would make a prison of my life if you became another's wife. Living with her, someone could snatch her away. So he married her. Everyone comments about how much they love each other. How much longer? He was wondering how long his relationship could last if he didn't marry her. So he did.

There's a verse missing above..

And I have never in my life Felt more alone than I do now Although I claim dominations over all I see It means nothing to me There are no victories In all our histories, without love

I think this song is how we reach for so much in our lives which inevitably is all empty. He's lost someone he loves and has realised that she's more important than anything he has ever strived for. That LOVE - beyond all else is what life is for. Not building kingdoms for all to see. Ambition is wrongly placed and his enemies are the desires for more wealth and materialistic obsessions. He's realised this at the same time as he sees the profoundness of his love for someone who is no longer there. And he's missing her. Missing her to the point he feels like he may go mad.

Well...that's what I think... Other songs I would recommend... Sting : Fields of Gold Jeff Buckley : Lover, You Should've Come Over (actually ANYTHING by Jeff Buckley - go and buy the album Grace people!)

The talk turns to 'Mad About You', a brooding ballad on The Soul Cages. "That's another one in the lust-power jealousy genre; Sting says, smiling. "I think it's a fascinating genre." It's suggested that 'Every Breath You Take' is perhaps the classic of the idiom. "It's funny, I got a British Music Industry award last night for 2 million plays of that record, which, added up, is about seventeen years of continuous radio play!" Sting says incredulously. "It would be a pretty boring radio station, but the staggering idea is that this song, which is so ambiguous - it's seductive, but it's also quite pernicious... it works. This may sound highfalutin, but it's probably the song of the Reagan years - this idea that you'll be looked after by this patronising, figure. Like Star Wars: You'll be under surveillance but also... protected. That mixture of sex and power is very compelling."

[Sting]: Mad About You (1991) is inspired by the story of King David and Bathsheba. These stories of murder and obsessive, jealous love appeal to me for some reason. Yes, those lines "There are no victories / In all our histories / Without love" have the quintessential Sting idea that romantic love outweighs global issues. I really believe that. Love is continuity of the species, it's the most important thing. That's why love songs are immortal. A political song will be dated within a year. It took me a long time to learn that.