Sumner's Tales: Sting talks...

"'Love is the Seventh Wave' was written in Barbados. I was at Eddy Grant's studio, watching the surfers, and they told me that the seventh wave was the strongest wave: they get stronger and stronger until the seventh wave, then start again. So the idea of love being the strongest wave that would encompass everything was an appealing one at the time. At the end I sing, "Every cake you bake, every leg you break". I quite like using the songs as a modular system where you can mix and match lines from different songs. Its a tradition now. People expect it. Basically, it's all one big song. You could say it was an aspect of postmodernism if you liked but you'd be called pretentious if you said that. It's just something that amuses me."
Independent On Sunday, 11/94

"In popular myth, if you count the waves on a sea shore, the seventh wave is supposed to be the strongest, the most profound. And I felt that at present the world is undergoing a wave of evil, if you like. The world's never been as polluted. We've never had as many missiles pointing across the borders, or as many armies in waiting. We seem to be in the grip of this growing sense of doom. And the song is uncharacteristically hopeful, saying that behind this wave there's a much more profound one. It's love, beyond selfishness. And I think if there isn't this wave, then we are finished. So it's singing about something and hoping that by singing about it you'll create it. The alternative, thinking that in five years time the world will end, isn't that helpful. It might sell records, but it doesn't help the people listening."
NME, 6/85

'Love Is The Seventh Wave' appeared on Sting's debut solo album, 1985's 'The Dream Of The Blue Turtles'. Released as a single in reached #41 in the UK, but fared better in the States reaching the #17 spot. The song featured extensively on the 'Blue Turtles' world tour, and a live version of the song recorded in Paris in 1985 can be found on the 'Bring On The Night' album. The B-side, 'Consider Me Gone', was a regular in the set list from the subsequent tour (and from the later 'Nothing Like The Sun' tour), and this live version recorded in Paris also appears on the 'Bring On The Night' album.