Short Review: Lyrics By Sting
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
As I am probably the biggest Police fan in the Southern Hemisphere, the book was given to me as a gift in 2008. It has become one of my closest companions during those times when music and lyrics invade my brain at very fractious hours and gives me a rock of sorts, knowing that, the lyrics and the music come from two separate areas, as Sting (aka GM Sumner) has so many times stated in interviews.
Excerpt from the Foreword:
Publishing my lyrics separately from their musical accompaniment is something that I've studiously avoided until now. The two, lyrics and music, have always been mutually dependent, in much the same way as a mannequin and a set of clothes are dependent on each other; separate them, and what remains is a naked dummy and a pile of cloth. Nevertheless, the exercise has been an interesting one, seeing, perhaps for the first time, how successfully the lyrics survive on their own and inviting the question as to whether song lyrics are in fact poetry or something else entirely. And while I've never seriously described myself as a poet, the book in your hands, devoid as it is of any musical notation, looks suspiciously like a book of poems.
So it seems I am entering, with some trepidation, the unadorned realm of the poet. I have set out my compositions in the sequence they were written and provided a little background when I thought it might be illuminating. My wares have neither been sorted nor dressed in clothes that do not belong to them; indeed, they have been shorn of the very garments that gave them their shape in the first place. No doubt some of them will perish in the cold cruelty of this new environment, and yet others may prove more resilient and become perhaps more beautiful in their naked state. I can't predict the outcome, but I have taken this risk knowingly and, while no one in their right mind should ever attempt to set "The Waste Land" to music, in the hopeful words of T. S. Eliot, “These fragments I have shored against my ruins.”
—Sting
The book is a fascinating and utterly interesting perspective behind every song that Sting wrote, during his time with The Police, and thereafter in his highly successful solo career. The book covers just about every song, right from the beginning- the eponymous Roxanne, from the Outlandos D'Amour - the debut album of The Police, to his latest works just prior to 2007. In this book he explains, in exceptional detail, the rationale behind each song, and his personal experiences that in some way have shaped the songs he wrote one way or another. A lot of introspection into the man behind the pop star is gained by the reader, as well as his personal life at the time of writing each song. Many songs are basically just songs he wrote, while others have deep spiritual, personal, and in some cases, political connotations. Some songs get a whole page of explanation, for example, the song "Humanize Yourself" from Synchronicity, Sting clearly explains how a youth, being beaten up in front of his house, for no apparent reason, gave rise to the fast-tempo song on the album which deals with violence being a social norm in the UK at the time.
For me it is one thing to listen to the record, but an entire new world opens up when, coupled to listening to the record, you can read this book and gain an introspection, second to none, about why and how he wrote that particular song and perhaps its less subtle, or hidden meaning. It also offers surprising new perspective, as many of the song lyrics are and were misinterpreted by myself in my younger years.
I must stress that this is not the sort of book that one would read for any medium-to-heavyweight entertainment. I would say that this book, in its uniqueness is the sort of book one should be reading when listening to his music, or when composing and in between playing, which I often find myself doing. Nonetheless, it was one of the best reads of my life, and it led me to acquiring other books about Sting, of which I will review as soon as I have finished reading.
The format and index of the book allows you to open it up and quickly find the song of interest. The book also has a feel for the two distinct sections, one of his career with The Police, followed by the second part, dealing with his solo career, and his first solo album- The Dream of the Blue Turtles. In between he also explains his rationale behind why he went solo, albeit he has failed to mention that a large contributing factor was the constant, almost unstoppable fisticuffs between him and Stewart Copeland as they disagreed about almost everything musically.
Next time: Sting and I - The hillarious story of life as Sting's best mate- By James Berryman
