Message In A Bottle

I knew someone who had served in the Army who always pictured Sting sending chipped beef on toast to the world whenever he heard this.

I know it's just a metaphor, but think for a minute about how many bottle a hundred billion is. If the average bottle is 4 inches wide and 1 foot long, that's a carpet of bottles that is over 1 square mile.

The Pete Townsend story below is BS, btw. Townsend's biggest dependency problems have been alcoholism, not heroin addiction.

Thank you Andrew from London for clarifying what the "sending out an Esso Blue" meant as the last line of the song. I've been trying to find out the meaning of that for the better part of a quarter century!

This is how much of a contemporary music geek I am - I hear one of the verses as "No one there but Milhaud..." (Darius Milhaud, french composer 1892-1974, pronounced "mee-oh"). Btw, the Police disbanded in 1984, not 1986 as it says above. But they briefly reunited for a recording project in '86, that might be what they mean.

This song seems to just be about love. Love leaves you stranded alove, when it's gone like you are the only one on that island of loneliness and you send out an S.O.S. for someone else to come along and rescue you with what? Love. For every love disaster you have, don't fear everyone is going through the same thing and looking for someone to love. Pick up a bottle, be rescued and rescuer.

Song is a great classic i always remember hearing on the radio on my trips to Philly.. The song is great for listening to if you feel lonely, reminding you of the millions out there that feel the same way that you can hope to meet and help :)

I freakin' love this song.

I always loved this song. During the first chorus after the second "I'll send an SOS to the world", that drum fill was always one of my all time favorites. Copeland was a genius.

lyrics are mediforic about an outcast who looks for people like him but he thinks theres noone out there but one day finds out that there are millions of outcast like him

This song is quite obvious is meaning. A person has lost someone that they had been in a romantic relationship with. Whether the person with them cheated on them, or they passes away, or just broke up with the narrarator... it doesn't matter, I suppose that's self opinion. But obviously, the point of view in the song, is saying the the person became lonely and began to give up hope... thinking that there's no one else out there. Their past love was the only good one, but now that they're gone, there's nobody left out there for them. Though at the part where it mentions "hundred million bottles washed up on the shore" it's pointing out that all this time he has been moping around, lost in his own thoughts and feeling hopeless, he hadn't even taken a second to realize there's so many people out there, he can find someone else. I dunno, to me that's what i believe.

pretty obvious what this is about but if you listen carefully to the album version the final line that Sting sings is "sending out an ESSO BLUE" which was a popular brand of parafin that heated our homes back in the 50s and 60s

this is an episode of the office and in guitar hero 2. sick song

I love the police and this song is my favorite.
Sting is an ezcellant song writer and I want to write beautiful songs just like him some day(I know kinda teenie bopper-ish)but it's true.I'm a poet myself.The poice and their music is so insparational.

As a demonstration of how these neighbouring music markets differ, this song went to #1 in Canada, compared to its #74 chart placing in the US. (Some other Police #1's in Canada: "Don't Stand So Close To Me", "De Doo Doo Doo, De Da Da Da", "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic", "Every Breath You Take"; only the last title was also a US chart-topper.)

i say here it once or a hundred just try it. as i said before favorite song.

this is my favorite song, everything is cool about it.it's so good i can''t even think what to type.

I like the Sting solo live versions better than the studio Police version

Perhaps MIAB states: 'no one is an island' ?
Also, I'd like to comment on the Police EBYT DVD: Does Sting, or Andy, or Stewart ever glance at these things before they're flooded into the market? Just wondering what they think of the quality, which could have been a lot better since the VHS version came out in 1986. However, the additional segment with Jules Holland on 'The Police in Montserrat' was worth buying the DVD for. "Chocks away"...lol.

I was told that this song is about Pete Townsend trying to ween himself off of heroin. He went to a secluded island to get away from it and a boat with crate of coccaine capsized and the coccaine washed upon the shore, thus the Message in a Bottle. There's much more irony than people think. Listen to the lyrics and most of it makes sense. This makes the song that much more enjoyable whether it's true or not.

This is a great song when done by the police, however, I like Matisyahu's version a little better.

I never get bored to listining to this song.It is deeper than we imagine. I sometimes picture myself in the place of the castaway. It is amazing how a song can tell so much with so little words. It is more than a song, it is a great poetry.

Regatta does mean a boat race but you have to consider that the on the album it's spelled "reggatta" -- with two G's. Maybe just a typo. But maybe it's intentional...

The best part about this song is how it sounds like it's about a castaway until the last verse in which you discover the whole song is just a massive metaphor for loneliness.

God this song is amazing. Awesome guitar, amazing drums, and the singing is great. The lyrics are so awesome too, I think everyone can relate to this song in some way.

He better than lennon. heck Ray daies of the Kinks is better than Lennon

Sting is a great songwriter. I compare him to the likes of John Lennon and Bob Dylan for the 80's

To expand on John's comment, what I think the song is about is a man who has suffered the devastating loss of a significant other, probably through a break-up. The "S.O.S. to the world"/"Message in a Bottle" probably signify his attempt to reach outside of himself and try to find new love. This is a great risk that comes with a great reward if one is successful, as evidenced by the line "Love can mend your life/But love can break your heart."

The writer seems to have "More loneliness
Than any man could bear" due any number of things, a break up, loss of friend, depression etc. Most probably it is over a failed relationship, "Love can break your heart." He starts to reach out to other people with "a message in a bottle." To his surprise he finds out that one hundre million people (and perhaps everyone in the world) has the same problem as him. We've all suffered a loss in our lifes and we must remember that everyone else has too. The problem is not unique. He is a figurative "castaway" after his loss of love.

The album title doesn't mean "White Reggae." The first three album titles were just nonsense titles that sounded cool. "Blanc" does mean white but "regatta" is a boat race.

This song always reminds me of my holidays, this song was playing on the plane radio and I thought i was just singing to myself, but i was singing the song very loudly and everybody was looking at me. lol

John Mayer covered this song and is by far one of the best covers by anyone. He sounds almost exactly like Sting when he does now with out the band.

One of the greatest rock classics. Cool riff, great harmonies and progressions, and lyrics with a spin on em. The bus fact was from a documentary, "Police in Montserrat" which is featured in the Every Breath You Take DVD.

Now, this piece really kicks ass. It is a masterpiece (funny to learn it was written in the back of the bus)

MAchine Head are not an Industrial Metal band, they are thrash metal - There is a difference