Put down the lute, Sting — reunite with Police

The Police were hard-driving. Sting, conversely, was as airy and whimsical as an elf’s eyelash. Most of his solo compositions seemed designed to be sung to a fair maiden lying in a bed of lupines.

This was a far cry from the Police’s most memorable songs, such as “Can’t Stand Losing You,” “The Bed’s Too Big Without You,” “Walking On The Moon,” “Message In A Bottle,” “Driven To Tears,” “Don’t Stand So Close To Me,” “King Of Pain” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.”

The Police had a sound as unique as any in rock history. When Sting went solo, he certainly produced his share of hits — “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free,” “Fortress Around Your Heart” and “If I Ever Lose My Faith In You,” to name but a small handful — but it was as if he took the Police sound and added water to serve a larger audience.

That’s unfortunate, because the Police brought reggae to the masses. Certainly artists like Bob Marley and Peter Tosh were more accomplished and more renowned practitioners of the genre. But the Police popularized a form that had previously been the bailiwick of the dreadlocks-and-reefer brigade. And they did so without compromising or conforming. Their success on the charts wasn’t met with derision, simply because they commanded as much respect for what they did as the Clash did for their work.

A lot of that is forgotten now. The front man is older and mellower. He still performs some of the old Police hits in concert, including “Roxanne,” but most of his music now is the equivalent of a G-rated movie. Lost is the fury, the urgency, the brashness. Age is partly responsible, but it’s also due to a lack of will and an abundance of comfort.

Lost, but not forgotten. Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey still get together and rage like they used to. The Rolling Stones never lost their desire to rock out.

Why Sting might consider reuniting with his old bandmates is a mystery, but it probably is because the drumbeat for such a concert tour has been loud and relentless, and perhaps he finally wore down.

A Police reunion would help music fans forget the obscure meanderings of Summer and Copeland as well as Sting’s gradual sink into mainstream ooze and remind everyone that there was once a band that blasted onto the scene with the kind of power and excitement that can be summed up in one bellow of a prostitute’s name:

“Rooooxxxxx-anne!”   

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