![\"STING](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/STING-1990s-Gordon-Matthew-Thomas-Sumner-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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Credit: LastFM<\/p>\n
The first rule that Sting<\/a> always had as a musician was to never stop being curious.\u00a0<\/p>\n There are plenty of disposable pop songs that never had that much substance to them, but if there was one thing that managed to catch his ear, it wasn\u2019t abnormal for him to look and see what was underneath the surface on some of his favourite songs. But it took a lot more out of him trying to dissect every layer to the pieces that he learned when he was still discovering what rock and roll was all about.<\/p>\n Then again, Sting\u2019s definition of rock and roll involved a lot more complicated arrangements. He wasn\u2019t afraid to sound like a bit of an intellectual every single time he played, and while many Police songs don\u2019t have the same structure as the typical pop tunes, there are other tracks that are so out of left field it\u2019s hard to even gauge what he\u2019s doing, like when he switches between different keys on songs like \u2018Synchronicity II\u2019 or even in his solo career on tracks like \u2018Fortress Around Your Heart\u2019.<\/p>\n But that kind of ingenuity only comes from listening to people that wanted to push the envelope when they were kids. Everyone had had enough of the same ho-hum style of guitar playing, and it wasn\u2019t hard to see what The Beatles<\/a> were doing when they made their masterpieces. They were interested in seeing where music could go, and that meant following their bliss even if it didn\u2019t fit into the confines of what rock and roll was supposed to be.<\/p>\n The same could be said of everyone from Led Zeppelin to Pink Floyd, but for any standard rock and roll outfit, all roads led back to the blues. No matter how many times that people try to reinvent the wheel, it\u2019s that focus on that bluesy swagger that kept creeping back into rock and roll, and even for someone who lived and breathed it like Eric Clapton, there was still a lot more ground for people to cover.<\/p>\n Even when he was in one of the greatest blues acts in England, The Yardbirds weren\u2019t giving \u2018Slowhand\u2019 the kind of thrill that he wanted. He needed to wow the audience playing the kind of blues that he grew up on, and while John Mayall gave him the perfect outlet<\/a> for that sound, Bluesbreakers was going to be the only album that he ever needed to show what he could do on guitar.<\/p>\n The Bluesbreakers were only a passing fling for Clapton, but Sting felt that getting those songs absolutely right was a pursuit that would last a lifetime, saying<\/a>, \u201cI had a record called Bluesbreakers and Eric was the lead guitarist. He played a Freddie King song called \u2018Hideaway\u2019 which I learned by slowing it down to 16 and learning every lick and gradually speeding it up to 33rpm so that I could play with him, note for note. And I could play the whole album like that, eventually. So I learned to play lead guitar by listening to Eric Clapton.\u201d<\/p>\n Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n But when talking about Clapton\u2019s best albums, Bluesbreakers tends to get overlooked ever so slightly. It\u2019s not some obscure record by any means, but whereas his records with Cream and especially Derek and the Dominos<\/a> have been given their just due in recent years, it\u2019s hard to think of an album where he is playing with this much fury, especially when he starts to delve into instrumental territory when working on \u2018Steppin\u2019 Out\u2019.<\/p>\n He still had a long way to go as a bluesman, but this was the only homework that Sting ever needed to do to know the ways of guitar. It was a lot more straightforward than the fusion players that came after, but it certainly didn\u2019t hurt listening to a musician that was in complete control of every single note they played. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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