The Police - “So Lonely”
There are songs about being lovelorn and miserable - those predictably sad-sack numbers by Richard Marx or Coldplay or whoever you get your Sad Song Smack from - and then there’s The Police, whose biggest singles were about stalking someone they love, getting their asses kicked by the brother of someone they loved, being muted by a magical witch they loved, being drunk and on an island alone sending bottles to people they love, and a whore. That they loved.
And what’s nice is that these songs are just as heartbroken and sad and fucked up as anything you’ll ever hear. They’re desperate, all of them (even this nonsense). But The Police do more than “pop” songs. Are these punk songs? Reggae songs? Ballads? Does it matter? Whatever they are, they’re the heart’s equivalent of being given Triaminic as a kid. Doesn’t really get the job done like it should, but tastes far better than any of the other shit shoved down your gullet. And also, you can take it in public without puking it up or crying. That’s nice, too.
And this song? Well, technically, it’s about being lonely. Which is decieving. Because it’s really a song about being lonely for other people (the chords are a blatant ripoff of “No Woman, No Cry”) and misunderstood (the slipped-out chorus was often mistaken for “Sue Lawley” or even “salami” by dickfaced critics and casual listeners alike). Which is kind of, really, what it’s like sometimes.