“The Lost Boys: Hard-To-Find ’80s LPs” will give you exactly what the title implies: a rare or out-of-print album or EP from the ’80s in its entirety. Some will be from CD, but most will have been lovingly transferred from pristine vinyl culled directly from the Analog Kid’s vast collection. Whatever album I choose, it will be one that you can’t easily find for sale on Amazon or in the iTunes store. Death…by stereo!
The dark 1982 film Brimstone & Treacle was Sting’s first starring role in a motion picture. He also contributed the majority of the film’s soundtrack, and even enlisted his bandmates from The Police for a few tracks. Sting’s version of the 1930’s-era standard “Spread A Little Happiness” was his first solo hit (#16 in the UK), and he also won a Grammy in the Best Rock Instrumental Performance for the title track at the 1984 ceremony.
The Police’s three new songs on Brimstone & Treacle are highlighted by the hypnotic “I Burn For You,” one of the band’s best songs and one that would have fit very nicely on side two of the next year’s Synchronicity album. Sting played “I Burn For You” live on the 1985 Dream Of The Blue Turtles tour, and that fantastic version is included in today’s bonus tracks.
Brimstone & Treacle was finally released on CD in 1988, but it has been out of print for years. The three songs from The Police can be found on the three-disc Message In A Box compilation, but the Sting solo songs are not available anywhere else. The Analog Kid is pleased to spread a little happiness as he goes by…
Brimstone & Treacle: Original Soundtrack Album
A&M Records, 1982
1. Finchley Children’s Music Group: “When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder”
When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder
2. Sting: “Brimstone & Treacle” (Sting)
3. Sting: “Narration” (Sting/Potter)
4. The Police: “How Stupid Mr. Bates” (Copeland/Sting/Summers)
5. Sting: “Only You” (Sting/Potter)
6. The Police: “I Burn For You” (Sting)
7. Sting: “Spread A Little Happiness” (Ellis)
8. The Go-Go’s: “We Got The Beat” (Caffey)
9. Sting: “You Know I Had The Strangest Dream” (Sting)
You Know I Had The Strangest Dream
10. Squeeze: “Up The Junction” (Difford/Tilbrook)
11. The Brimstone Chorale: “Bless This House” (Brahe/Taylor)
12. The Police: “A Kind Of Loving” (Copeland/Sting/Summers)
13. Sting: “Brimstone 2” (Sting)
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Bonus Tracks!
The first rule of The Analog Kid blog is that if you write about a song on the Analog Kid blog, you share the song on the Analog Kid blog.
Sting: “I Burn For You” [Live] (Sting)
From the 12″ single Russians
A&M Records, 1985
Vinyl rip courtesy of the Analog Kid
The Analog Kid 
Why yes, I did have this album. The fact that my favorite Squeeze tune is on it is a big plus. There are a lot of soundtracks to choose from for this category, aren’t there? (Gremlins, I’m looking at you!)
I have already ripped “Gremlins” from my LP! Good call. I will feature it soon.
“I Burn For You” still gives me the chills when I hear it. Yummy stuff.
God bless you, Kid! “I Burn For You” is one of the best Police songs and one that never ever plays on radio. I love the “Spread A Little Happiness” song too. Oddly enough, I think that’s the best performance Sting ever gave on film too. In most movies, like Mick Jagger, Sting’s legendary vanity can’t be reined in by whatever character he’s trying to play. He winds up preening and posing for half the movie and announcing his lines like he’s trying to reach the back row of the theater (his painful turns in “The Bride” and “Dune” come nauseatingly to mind.) But in “Brimstone and Treacle” he’s pure gold. Charming, nasty, cool and sinister all rolled into one. *Honorable mention: He rocks in “Quadrophenia” too, but that’s before the Police were the biggest band in the world and he fell hopelessly in love with himself.
thank you kid for giving me the opportunity to remember the music of my youth.