Morning's Coming

Album: 44/876 (2018)
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Songfacts®:

  • This slow paced, horn-drenched, jaunty track references the sweet sounds of the nightingale.

    Sweet nightingale
    Why do you wake me so?
    Sweet nightingale
    You're telling me something I don't know


    Sting recounted the story behind the song to Genius:

    "I was walking in the woods in Tuscany, and I had this beat in my head, and I had this phrase,' "Sweet nightingale, why do you wake me so?' I think the nightingale's the only bird that sings at night, so what the hell is he singing? What are they singing about? Oh, he's just singing the obvious … morning's coming. So I thought that was a pretty optimistic and simple statement, that morning is coming. In the political sense, I think we have to assume that morning will come, even though it's getting pretty dark politically in the world.

    So it's a simple, childlike nursery rhyme, but it also has a political meaning. Then I played it to Shaggy. I said, 'Okay, give me your viewpoint on this theme,' and he went away and wrote his verses, and then we joined it together. So we have a kind of three-dimensional or two-dimensional conversation about this theme., written as a song of hope in turbulent times."
  • Despite the seemingly simple, jaunty lyrical content, there's a deeper meaning to the track. "There's a political sphere in this song," Sting explained. "There's also a romantic sphere in this song. Today might be the day when he meets the one of his dreams, the one who's gonna transform life for him."

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