Sting – “Fortress Around Your Heart” (1985) Review | A Bridge Trudie Far
Kronomyth 1.2: Don’t let it bring you down, it’s only castles burning.
In order to appreciate Sting the artist, you need to reconcile the intellectual with the physical, which is problematic. For example: Fortress Around Your Heart. On the one hand, you have this literary imagery of divorce as a battlefield, with the old bonds of love portrayed as a fortress. Very smart stuff accompanied by an equally smart (if sere) jazz arrangement. On the other hand, you have the music video of a shirtless Sting with his guitar plainly meant as a phallic symbol as he thrusts his hips back and forth. Of course, the smart-sexy combination is less of a conundrum for some, but for me I like my sex symbols and suffering poets in separate boxes. Depending on what part of the world you lived in, the flip side featured the album track Shadows in the Rain or the live version of Consider Me Gone that would later appear on the live album, Bring on the Night.
The Product (US/AUS’L)
A1. Fortress Around Your Heart (Sting) (4:48)
B1. Consider Me Gone (live version) (Sting) (4:50)
Original 7-inch single version
A1. Fortress Around Your Heart (Sting) (4:48)
B1. Shadows in the Rain (Sting) (4:46)
The Pictures
Photography by Melanie Nissen (UK).
The Plastic
Released on 7-inch single in August 1985 in the UK (A&M, AMY 286), the US (A&M, AM-2767), Australia (A&M, K-9755) and the Netherlands (A&M, 3900 817) with regional picture sleeve. Also released as promotional 12-inch single in 1985 in the US (A&M, SP-17339) feat. A only. Reached #49 on the UK charts and #8 on the US charts.
