57TH & 9TH (Deluxe Edition) Sting

• 1 I Can't Stop Thinking About You 03:31
• 2 50,000 (NEW Version) 04:17
• 3 Down, Down, Down 03:48
• 4 One Fine Day (NEW Version) 03:14
• 5 Pretty Young Soldier 03:06
• 6 Petrol Head 03:32
• 7 Heading South On The Great North Road 03:18
• 8 If You Can't Love Me 04:34
• 9 Inshallah 04:56
• 10 The Empty Chair 02:50
• 11 I Can't Stop Thinking About You (LA Version) 03:38
• 12 Inshallah (Berlin Sessions Version) 04:58
• 13 Next To You (Live At Rockwood Music Hall) 02:54
• Total Runtime 48:36

Info for 57TH & 9TH (Deluxe Edition)

57th & 9th represents a wide range of Sting’s musical and songwriting styles, from the ferocious, Road Warrior-style imagery of “Petrol Head,” to the anthemic, “50,000” and the raucous, guitar-driven first single, “I Can’t Stop Thinking About You.” The album was recorded with Sting’s long-time collaborators Dominic Miller (guitar) and Vinnie Colaiuta (drums) and includes contributions from drummer Josh Freese (Nine Inch Nails, Guns n’ Roses), guitarist Lyle Workman and the San Antonio-based Tex-Mex band The Last Bandoleros. Riding a wave of inspiration, 57th & 9th came together impulsively, with sessions completed in just a few weeks. “It happened very quickly, very spontaneously,” he says. “My idea always is to surprise myself and the people I'm working with—and, hopefully, the listeners.”

Earlier today, he debuted “I Can’t Stop Thinking About You” with a world premiere performance on the Kevin & Bean show at KROQ, LA’s premiere alternative rock station. The single is available now at all digital retailers.

The album, produced by Martin Kierszenbaum, takes its title from the Manhattan street corner that Sting crossed each day as he walked to the studios in Hell’s Kitchen where the recordings were done. Sting notes that if there’s a theme in the lyrics of 57th & 9th, it’s the idea of travel and motion, most apparent in “Inshallah” and the autobiographical “Heading South On The Great North Road.”

“It’s about searching and traveling, the road, that pull of the unknown.” he says. “On this album, we ended up with something that’s energetic and noisy, but also thoughtful.”

Sting, vocals, bass, guitar, piano, percussion
Dominic Miller, guitar, 12-string, shaker
Vinnie Colaiuta, drums
Rhani Krija, percussion
Martin Kierszenbaum, organ, piano, mellotron, keyboards
Rob Mathes, piano
Lyle Workman, guitar
Josh Freese, drums
Jerry Fuentes (of The Last Bandoleros), backing vocals, vocals, guitar
Diego Navaira (of The Last Bandoleros), backing vocals, vocals, bass
Derek James (of The Last Bandoleros), backing vocals
Zach Jones, drums
Razan Nassreddine, additional vocals
Hazem Nassreddine, Turkish zither
Marion Enachescu, violin
Jean-Baptiste Moussarie, guitar
Salam Al Hassan, percussion
Accad Al Saed, percussion
Thabet Azzawi, oud
Nadim Sarrouh, oud
Nabil Al Chami, clarinet

Sting
Born 2 October 1951, in Wallsend, north-east England, Gordon Sumner's life started to change the evening a fellow musician in the Phoenix Jazzmen caught sight of his black and yellow striped sweater and decided to re-christen him Sting. Sting paid his early dues playing bass with local outfits The Newcastle Big Band, The Phoenix Jazzmen, Earthrise and Last Exit, the latter of which featured his first efforts at song writing. Last Exit were big in the North East, but their jazz fusion was doomed to fail when punk rock exploded onto the music scene in 1976. Stewart Copeland, drummer with Curved Air, saw Last Exit on a visit to Newcastle and while the music did nothing for him he did recognise the potential and charisma of the bass player. The two hooked up shortly afterwards and within months, Sting had left his teaching job and moved to London.

Seeing punk as flag of convenience, Copeland and Sting - together with Corsican guitarist Henri Padovani - started rehearsing and looking for gigs. Ever the businessman, Copeland took the name The Police figuring it would be good publicity, and the three started gigging round landmark punk venues like The Roxy, Marquee, Vortex and Nashville in London. Replacing Padovani with the virtuoso talents of Andy Summers the band also enrolled Stewart's elder brother Miles as manager, wowing him with a Sting song called 'Roxanne'. Within days Copeland Senior had them a record deal. But the hip London music press saw through The Police's punk camouflage and did little to disguise their contempt, and the band's early releases had no chart success. So The Police did the unthinkable - they went to America.

The early tours are the stuff of legend - bargain flights to the USA courtesy of Freddie Laker's pioneering Skytrain; driving their own van and humping their own equipment from gig to gig; and playing to miniscule audiences at the likes of CBGB's in New York and The Rat Club in Boston. Their tenacity paid off though as they slowly built a loyal following, got some all important air-play, and won over their audiences with a combination of new wave toughness and reggae rhythms.

They certainly made an odd trio: guitarist Summers had a career dating back to the mid-60s, the hyper-kinetic Copeland was a former prog-rocker, and Sting's background was in trad jazz and fusion. The sound the trio made was unique though, and Sting's pin-up looks did them no harm at all. The band returned to the UK to find the reissued 'Roxanne' single charting, and played a sell-out tour of mid-size venues. The momentum had started. The debut album 'Outlandos d'Amour' (Oct 78) delivered three sizeable hits with 'Roxanne', 'Can't Stand Losing You' and 'So Lonely' which in turn led to a headlining slot at the '79 Reading Festival which won the band some fine reviews, but it was with 'Reggatta de Blanc' (Oct 79) that the band stepped up a gear.

Reggatta's first single, 'Message In A Bottle', streaked to number one and the album's success was consolidated further when 'Walking On The Moon' also hit the top slot. The band was big, but about to get even bigger. 1980 saw them undertake a world tour with stops on all continents - including the first rock concerts in Bombay - and the band eventually returned to the UK exhausted, for two final shows in Sting's hometown of Newcastle. Much of this groundbreaking tour was captured on the 'Police Around The World' video and a BBC documentary entitled 'The Police in the East'

Within weeks, the band were in a Dutch studio recording new material but Sting's stock of pre-Police songs and ideas were wearing out. When 'Zenyatta Mondatta' was released (Oct 80) although it sold well and produced another number one single in 'Don't Stand So Close To Me' and a top five hit with 'De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da' a rethink was required. Sting later admitted that he felt 'Zenyatta' was the band's weakest album but by the end of 1980 the band were undoubtedly the biggest-selling band in the country selling out two shows in a huge marquee on Tooting Bec Common in London. For more please visit www.sting.com

This album contains no booklet.