The first copy of the LP I bought did not have this track. A cassette version and a CD version did. It was also the B-side of the omnipresent "Every Breath You Take". Because that song was on virtually every jukebox in the universe during the Eighties, I used to get a kick out of playing "Murder by Numbers", which tagged along with EBYT on the jukeboxes in rednecky places, making everyone wonder, "What the hell is this?"
This song describes three more or less incompatible forms of killing. Serial killers tend to try to maintain normal lives, with the killing unknown to their (seemingly safe) families. Of course, the "sport of the elected", killing via war, is quite different. This song is, obviously, a dark satire in the spirit of "A Modest Proposal". It also has a political message if you work backwards: It suggests (implausibly) that a serial killer might go on to lead a country, but asks us to make the reverse connection: Leaders of nations are often de facto mass murderers.
I wonder if a few years later, Sting would have felt that this song was within the bounds of reasonable taste. It was around this time that various murders and suicides were alleged to have been caused by the influence of various rock music (much harder than the Police!) on teens. A case like this concerning Judas Priest took place two years after this song was released.
The first copy of the LP I bought did not have this track. A cassette version and a CD version did. It was also the B-side of the omnipresent "Every Breath You Take". Because that song was on virtually every jukebox in the universe during the Eighties, I used to get a kick out of playing "Murder by Numbers", which tagged along with EBYT on the jukeboxes in rednecky places, making everyone wonder, "What the hell is this?"
This song describes three more or less incompatible forms of killing. Serial killers tend to try to maintain normal lives, with the killing unknown to their (seemingly safe) families. Of course, the "sport of the elected", killing via war, is quite different. This song is, obviously, a dark satire in the spirit of "A Modest Proposal". It also has a political message if you work backwards: It suggests (implausibly) that a serial killer might go on to lead a country, but asks us to make the reverse connection: Leaders of nations are often de facto mass murderers.
I wonder if a few years later, Sting would have felt that this song was within the bounds of reasonable taste. It was around this time that various murders and suicides were alleged to have been caused by the influence of various rock music (much harder than the Police!) on teens. A case like this concerning Judas Priest took place two years after this song was released.