For October, the Mental Jukebox is dialing it way back to the eighties and going deep. Deep cuts have always been an important element of music listening to me because they’re often the songs that resonate with me most. Deep cuts are usually the ones that the true fans appreciate most. I like my singles and hits, but I love my deep cuts.
My Dream of the Blue Turtles cassette was a prized member of my music collection. I loved all those songs. “Russians” and “Fortress Around Your Heart” are top 5 solo Sting tracks for me. But it’s the maturity and versatility of the entire album that I remember as I listen back to it for the first time in quite a while. The Dream of the Blue Turtles is an amalgam of social themes and genre explorations – and “We Work The Black Seam” is one of the album’s most ambitious tracks.
“We Work The Black Seam” is more than a song, it’s an essay about the decimation of the coal industry and the bleak prospects of a nuclear-powered future. The lyrics are Pulitzer Prize quality. But in typical Sting fashion, the best part isn’t just the words. It’s the way in which he strings the words along to a melody. Like many of the other tracks on The Dream of the Blue Turtles, “We Work The Black Seam” has inventive, wildly ambitious chord progressions, fused together to create a melody like no other.
“One day in a nuclear age They may understand our rage. They build machines that they can't control And bury the waste in a great big hole.”