We Work the Black Seam

"We Work the Black Seam"
Single by Sting
from the album The Dream of the Blue Turtles
B-side"The Dream of the Blue Turtles"
ReleasedJune 17, 1985 (1985-06-17)
RecordedNovember 1984 – March 1985
StudioBlue Wave Studio, Saint Philip, Barbados and Le Studio, Morin-Heights, Quebec, Canada
Genre
Length5:42
LabelA&M
Songwriter(s)Sting
Producer(s)Sting and Pete Smith
Sting singles chronology
"Moon Over Bourbon Street"
(1986) 		"We Work the Black Seam"
(1985) 		"We'll Be Together"
(1987)

"We Work the Black Seam" is a protest song recorded by British musician Sting for his 1985 debut solo album The Dream of the Blue Turtles, on which it is the longest track. Its lyrics express the position of the British coal miners who had been on strike during the year prior to the album's release, addressed to the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. They tell of the miners' deep attachment to their work and its importance to the country's economy and culture, alluding to William Blake's poem "And did those feet in ancient time", while criticising Thatcher's economic policies, particularly the effort to shift from coal to nuclear power as Britain's primary source of energy.[3]

Sting was moved to write the song by his own youth in Northumberland, outside Newcastle, where many communities depended economically on mining. He felt no one during the strike had made the case for continued coal use and the dangers posed by nuclear power.[4] His father had worked in shipbuilding, another industry that had once dominated the British economy but had been diminishing in importance in the later 20th century. He drew the melody line from a song he had co-written and recorded as a member of the mid-1970s British jazz band Last Exit.[5] It was released as a single in Germany, Australia and New Zealand; a live version was filmed the following year for Bring on the Night and its soundtrack album. Sting re-recorded it with a different arrangement in 1993 for Ten Summoner's Tales and then adapted it for symphony orchestra on 2010's Symphonicities.[6]

Critics generally liked the song, at least musically. They have noted in particular how its insistent, repetitive synthesizer figure and unchanging backing percussion rhythm suggest a contrast between machinery and the humanity represented by Sting's vocal and Branford Marsalis's soprano saxophone fills. It also has been seen as an evolution in Sting's protest music, the first time he devoted a song to environmental issues. The lyrics drew a mixed reaction; scientists have criticised the song for its inaccurate statement that carbon-14 is dangerously radioactive, when in fact it is a widespread product of natural decay that is harmless in those quantities and instead used for carbon dating.[7][6] Three decades after its release, Sting said he had revised his opinion of nuclear energy in response to climate change and now saw it more favourably.[8]

  1. ^ Pareles, John (17 June 1997). "The Dream of the Blue Turtles". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on 7 November 2007. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
  2. ^ Larkin, Colin (1999). All-Time Top 1000 Albums. Virgin Books. p. 101. ISBN 0-7535-0354-9. Archived from the original on October 8, 2021.
  3. ^ Harrington, Richard (23 September 1985). "Sting's Lyrical Power". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  4. ^ Sting. "Fields of Gold, 7". Sting.com. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  5. ^ Rait, Matthew (May 2019). "2.4 Rhythmic Flexibility". The Music of Sting (PhD thesis). York University. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  6. ^ a b Bonger, Bert (2022). Understanding Interaction (1st ed.). Abingdon, Oxon: CRC Press. ISBN 9781315355993.
  7. ^ Tiemann, Jonathan. "Ruminations on Radiation". Tiemann Investment Advisors, LLC. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
  8. ^ Rodrick, Stephen (December 1, 2016). "Sting Opens Up About Dark Obsessions, Rock Rebirth". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 6, 2023.