"Seven Days" by Sting

Hey Dialophiles!

I'm feeling rather mellow tonight, which correlates perfectly with the Dial's latest serving, a track from Gordon “Sting” Sumner’s 1993 pop masterpiece “Ten Summoner’s Tales”… the amusing and upbeat “Seven Days”.

A lyrically rich and clever song, in which Sting’s lady love is being woo’d by a burly gentlemen described as six feet ten and resembling a Neanderthal. It seems that the lady had grown weary of the pacifistic ways of Sting’s character, so she wrote him an ultimatum telling him to fight for her love in seven days, or release her to follow her new suitor.

I’m particularly fond of Sting’s realization that he and his challenger will not be locking wits for her love... “IQ is no problem here… we won’t be playing Scrabble for her hand I fear… I need that beer”. 

The tune also possesses a truly catchy chorus that ticks down the days Sting has remaining in which to make his move, concluding with “Sunday’d be too late”, the seventh day mentioned in the note.

We never learn the results of the confrontation, as the song ends with Sting stating he “can’t run away” because he loves her so. I like to think that he found his courage and bested his challenger, a true David and Goliath scenario to be sure, even if no tile-based board games were involved. Of course, the other school of thought is that perhaps he’d be better off without the girl…

And as a shout out to Sting’s earlier group, the final thirty seconds of Seven Days features an interpolation of The Police’s 1981 hit “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”…  “Do I have to tell a story… of a thousand rainy days since we first met…” a snippet Sting also incorporated into The Police’s “O My God” from Synchronicity.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy this jazz-styled tale of a man torn between fighting for the woman he loves, and protecting his own neck. We here at the Dial like to think he made the right decision.

“Monday, I could wait till Tuesday, if I make up my mind… Wednesday would be fine, Thursday's on my mind, Friday'd give me time, Saturday could wait… But Sunday'd be too late.”