Customer Reviews

The Words and Music of Sting (The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection)

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This book is an absolute must for anyone interested in the art and craft of songwriting.

The structure of the book is interesting and effective. The Introduction explains Sting's inclusion in the Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection and describes Sting's recent CD of lute music as the logical musical evolution of a restless artist, risk-taker, and seeker. Each chapter covers an album, starting with the Police, on through Sting's solo career. The final chapter comes full-circle again with Sting's lute CD.

The pacing is brisk throughout. Dr. Gable does not get bogged down by analyzing every song, but wherever he lands he goes deep. The songs he chooses represent recurring song-writing motifs which can be easily identified in other songs. The explanations are not overly technical, but speak in terms of mood changes and chord modulations as they relate to the lyrics.

Dr. Gable's contribution to the literature on this fascinating and complex, dare I say, musical genius called Sting is essential reading, a book for the lay reader, with scholarly bona fides.

This fine work will illuminate phrases (both lyrical and musical) within Sting's large body of work that you never noticed, or that you loved but couldn't figure out why. Dr. Gable traces the themes of family, love, dreams, and exploration and shows how Sting uses twists of phrase as well as harmonic, melodic and rythmic patterns to draw the listener into his state of mind. The book covers everything from early Police recordings through his latest works with orchestras and chant and will make you immediately put on your headphones and listen with newly enlightened ears, hearing things you never noticed or understood before.

Sting has successfully established himself as one of the most important singer-songwriters in Western popular music: this survey of his songs and solo and group career offers critical analysis of the extent of his works, from his performances with The Police to the structural diagrams of his songs. College-level libraries strong in popular music analysis need this.