UBER MODESTY: The Sting memoirs

Although this Jones review of String's memoirs is a month old, the second graph has a pretty good summary of what's wrong with Sting overall, nicely detailed:
"Broken Music" isn't smarmy or pompous. Sting is a likable narrator, neither falsely modest nor proud beyond merit, and he writes with a self-deprecation that works. In the end, though, the book fails in a very familiar pattern: Sting starts strong with undeniable chops, then loses nerve and hires the strings. And the wind machine. And the voiceover.
Couldn't you make the case that since String wallpapers our lives via tv, Disney movies, and radio, that his memoirs are redundant. I mean, what would it be like if we had to READ that guy's music? Anyway, I had long passed on that book, it was an easy call, hope Jones got a nice fee for having to take notes on it. Once I saw that, though, I got to clicking. I never finished Kempton's book; Jones articulates why.

And everybody is linking to these ads, but they deserve to be popular. Here are my favorites.
January 12, 2004 11:05 AM |

Categories:

Me Elsewhere

millennium pop 
Elitism for Dummies
Bernstein's YPC DVDs
BBC MEETS THE BEATLES
Defining Covers
Drive My Car
Beatles 2000 Keynote
WBUR's Arts pages 

WBUR Arts Pages:
MOVIE NATION (1/15/05)
BOB DYLAN'S CHRONICLES (11/15/04)

NPR's Here & Now 

True Love Ways (2/14/05) [RA]
2004 As Meathook (1/04/05) [RA]

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This page contains a single entry by blog riley published on January 12, 2004 11:05 AM.

MASTERPIECE REVERB: Forsyte Saga Rocks was the previous entry in this blog.

PETE ROSE GO HOME: Ghosts and Empties is the next entry in this blog.

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