The Police "King Of Pain"

This week our guest blogger is Scott Lajoie, who has substituted for me before as editor of Cape Cod Magazine. Now a writer with the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Yarmouth Port, Scott is writing about songs addressing animal welfare issues of today.

I was obsessed with Synchronicity when it was released in 1983. Granted, I was only 10, but it proved to be pretty prescient as I still consider the album one of the greatest of all time.

The song King of Pain described phenomena of the natural world we humans perceive to be horribly tragic. Two lines stand out to me now because the non-profit for which I work, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, specifically addresses these issues.

There's a blue whale beached by a springtime's ebb.

Blue whales rarely beach themselves. The problem of stranding comes mostly with smaller whales (pilots) and dolphins. I wrote about IFAW’s Marine Mammal Rescue and Research team, the group that rushes out to the flats to attend to these creatures, when I was still with Cape Cod Magazine. We do not know why whales and dolphins strand, but we are learning about potential factors, including the overwhelming amount of noise with which we humans have polluted the ocean.

"There's a red fox torn by a huntsman's pack."

I really wasn’t very aware of what this line meant until I learned specifically about the fox hunt in Britain. IFAW has campaigned for years against this cruel “sport,” in which hounds led by a hunter descend on a chased fox and literally rip the animal apart. Another rock star has joined the fight against this practice: Brian May of Queen. Although it has been officially banned in the UK, hunters still engage in it under authorities’ radar. IFAW, however, has sponsored observer teams to follow these hunters into the woods and document their actions.



Hear the song on Youtube.

The Police "Wrapped Around Your Finger"

While PJ is on vacation, he's writing about songs that taught him something . . .

My Dad had studied Greek Mythology so we had a helpful book on the shelvesat home to explain "the Scylla and Charybdis" to me when this Police song came out.


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Police "Don't Stand So Close To Me"

Last week I invited mvy listeners and EDIWTB readers to write about the first video they remember seeing on MTV.

Tim Taylor from Little Rock wrote today's entry:

I remember exactly where I was the first time I ever saw a music video. It was the summer of 1981. I didn't have cable television at the time, so I wasn't really aware of the draw of MTV. But the gym I worked out at did have cable in various rooms, and I remember stumbling into the lobby of the gym after a particularly hard workout to witness three men jumping up and down in graduation robes in a classroom. It was The Police, singing their hit "Don't Stand So Close To Me." I was immediately transformed into a fan of their music and the medium. I had no idea what MTV was or what music videos were supposed to accomplish, but I knew that they would have a dramatic impact on the music world.


If you have a good "First MTV Video I Saw" story, I have a few more guest blog slots. Send it to pj@mvyradio.com.