Ten Summoner's Tales is the fourth solo studio album by the English rock musician Sting. The title is a combined pun of his family name, Sumner, and a character in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the summoner. Released in 1993, it explores themes of love and morality in a noticeably upbeat mood compared to his previous release, the introspective The Soul Cages released in 1991 after the loss of both his parents in the 1980s. This album contains two US hits; "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" reached No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and "Fields of Gold" reached No. 23. Ten Summoner's Tales was shortlisted for the 1993 Mercury Prize. In 1994, it was nominated for six Grammy awards including Album of the Year, winning Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and Best Long Form Music Video, while "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" was also nominated for Record and Song of the Year. A laser disc and VHS of the album were released, containing live performances of all songs on the album at Lake House. A promotional disc was made where Sting discusses some of the songs on the album. There is also a live album produced during the Ten Summoner's Tales era titled Meadowlands of Gold, which contains 13 tracks performed at the Meadowlands Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The songs consist of tracks from the album, and a few Police songs and a cover of The Beatles' "A Day in the Life".
Background
The album was recorded at Lake House, Wiltshire, mixed at The Townhouse Studio, London and mastered at Masterdisk, New York. The cover of the album was photographed at Wardour Old Castle in Wiltshire, featuring Hrímnir, an Icelandic horse Sting owned for a period. A long form "performance" video of the entire album was filmed at Sting's Lake House property. The audio used is partly from the album, but partly recorded as played by the band during the filming. This film was released in conjunction with the album. The video went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Long Form Video in 1994 and was directed by Doug Nichol and produced by Julie Fong. On 11 August 1994, a compact disc of Ten Summoner's Tales became the first item ever securely purchased over the Internet, for $12.48 plus shipping. There was also an interview disc released for the album, in which Sting talks about all tracks on the album. The second track on the album, Love Is Stronger Than Justice, is titled after Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven. According to the interview disc, the idea came to Sting when he wanted to write a song in the 7/4 time signature. The song Seven Days is also noted for Vinnie Colaiuta's sophisticated playing in the 5/4 time signature. The international-exclusive track "Everybody Laughed But You" was excluded from Canadian and American album releases. However, US singles from the album include the song, and a version of the song with different lyrics titled "January Stars". The singles for Ten Summoner's Tales also give credit to Fernandes Guitars, as Dominic Miller plays a Fernandes P-Project Acoustic Electric Nylon guitar throughout the album.
1998 re-release
Ten Summoner's Tales was remastered and re-released in 1998. The re-release CD includes a bonus video track of "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You". It features the song "Everybody Laughed But You", which was excluded from the original 1993 release in the US and Canada. The song did appear on the original release in the UK, Europe, Japan and other territories, and the "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" single. The instrumental track for "Everybody Laughed But You" was also used with an alternate lyric and released as "January Stars" on the "Seven Days" and "If I Ever Lose My Faith in You" singles.
Track listing
All songs written by Sting except where noted. French bonus disc – five live recordings
The backing track of "Shape of My Heart" was used, in a slightly altered way, by rapper Nas on his song "The Message" on the 1996 album It Was Written. In the later 1990s and the 2000s, it became a popular sample in R&B and hip hop songs, possibly inspired by Nas' usage. It has been sampled or interpolated in the following:
"Take Him Back" by Monica from the 1998 album The Boy Is Mine
A different version of "It's Probably Me", featuring Eric Clapton, was featured in the opening titles of Lethal Weapon 3. This version is available as a single. The song "Shape of My Heart" was featured in the end credits of the 1994 French thriller , replacing Éric Serra's "The Experience of Love". In 2011, "Shape of My Heart" was used to conclude the final episode of the seventh series of the British television drama seriesHustle.
