The book is a collection of the lyrics for his music from Outlandos d'Amour (with the Police) through his album Sacred Love. There are notes and comments throughout. Sparser than I would like but I still enjoyed it.
The books finally dispelled my long held questions about "The Magnificent Seven" and "It's Probably Me." The former being inspired by both the film by the same name (and Seven Samurai) as well as Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. The latter being about the best friend duo in Lethal Weapon.
In general, Sting walks around with melodies and lyrics rattling around in his brain. He talks about frantically scribbling tunes down before he loses them--guessing at the notes. I'm fascinated by this endless well of creativity. Although I have random story lines constantly popping into my head, somehow creativity in another form seems so much harder.
Sting also pokes fun at himself and offers up anecdotes that are charming as well as insightful. I laughed and laughed at this story:
I was sitting moping under a tree in the garden, and as the sun as sinking toward the western horizon, I noticed that there was a lot of sunspot activity.
I turned to Trudie. "There's a little black spot on the sun today."
She waited expectantly, not really indulging my mood but tolerant.
"That's my soul up there, " I added gratuitously.
Trudie discreetly raised her eyes to the heavens. "There he goes again, the king of pain."
And thus the number one 1983 single "King of Pain" was created. Here's Sting performing the song that year.
2 comments:
Too funny. I like how she's tolerant of the flights of fancy.
Cute story!
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