Broken Music: Memoirs - Hardcover

Sting

3.87

4,534 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743231848 ISBN 13: 9780743231848

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd, 2003

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

"Having been a songwriter most of my life, condensing my ideas and emotions into short rhyming couplets and setting them to music, I had never really considered writing a book, but upon arriving at the reflective age of fifty,I found myself drawn, for the first time, to write long passages that were as stimulating and intriguing to me as any songwriting I had ever done. And so 'Broken Music' began to take shape. It is a book about the early part of my life, from childhood through adolescence, right up to the eve of my success with the Police. It is a story very few people know. I had no interest in writing a traditional autobiographical recitation of everything that's ever happened to me. Instead I was drawn to exploring specific moments, certain people and relationships, and particular events which still resonate powerfully for me as I try to understand the child I was, and the man I became." STING

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

"I had no interest in writing a traditional autobiography", claims musician, actor and environmental campaigner Sting in Broken Music. It is, as he says, a book that explores "specific moments" of his life, mainly his upbringing in Tyneside (unavoidably part Hovis ad and part Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads) and the years he spent paying his musical dues in numerous bingo-hall jazz combos and Last Exit--a group he fronted prior to the Police and which Sounds magazine "Picked to Click in 76". So, nothing on tantric sex, those embezzled millions or, for that matter, a great deal on the Police. This is a slight pity as you're left yearning for a smidgen less about the chicken-in-a-basket gig circuit and a bit more about the quibbles over royalties that he hints led to the multi-platinum trio's "ultimate demise", or the battle with Virgin publishing to regain copyrights, or an aside on "Message in a Bottle" storming the charts. Something for the second volume, perhaps.

Still, this being Sting, the book does open with the singer and his second wife Trudie Styler hunkered down in the Brazilian jungle imbibing mind-bending Ayahuasca in an Indian ritual. The drug awakened memories of his childhood and forced him to think about his recently deceased parents, thus kicking off the whole autobiographical endeavour. (Proust had to make do with a soggy Madeleine.) His relationship with his milkman dad Ernie and mum Audrey and their unhappy marriage provide the real backbone to the tale of how Gordon Sumner evolved into Sting, and he writes thoughtfully and honestly about the strengths and failings of his parents and himself. One for the fans, perhaps, but it does offer a chance to discover sides of the songwriter usually obscured by the glare of celebrity. --Travis Elborough

Review:

"Sting's gift for prose and reverence for language, nearly the equal of his musical gifts, shine on every page. Even when Broken Music addresses the quixotic life of an aspiring rock & roller, it reads like literature from a more rarified time when adults didn't condescend to the vulgarities of pop culture." --Rolling Stone
"You can't fault his scrupulous candor....A natural storyteller." --London Sunday Times
"Sting mixes tenderness, sadness and humor in his narration, indulging readers with the same style of descriptive, pensive words that characterize his songs....Even readers unfamiliar with Sting's music will find the book compelling." --Associated Press "A beautifully styled, elegantly crafted and intelligent portrayal of Sting's own life...[it] ranks on the highest shelf of literary debuts." --Toronto Globe and Mail
"A first-rate memoir...Engrossing...With writing that is both witty and refreshingly self-deprecating, this book has pleasures that extend well beyond interest in the man's music alone." --People
"An engaging, lucidly written reminiscence...intellectually vigorous...elegant and thoughtful." --Entertainment Weekly

From the Paperback edition.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.