----- Original Message -----

From: Sandy P. Klein

To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU

Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 7:58 AM

Subject: [NABOKV-L] Lyrics By Sting ...

 

 
 http://wollondilly.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=lifestyle%20news&subclass=relax&story_id=1174666&category=books
 
05 February 2008 - 1:38PM
 
Lyrics By Sting
 

If, like Sting, you had once written a lyric that mostly comprised repetitions of the line "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da" you, too, would protest that you had never really wanted to see your lyrics in book form. But, methinks, this is a rather hollow protestation because, with Sting's obvious approval, here we have a hardback with a classy cover, beautiful layout and lots of intimate quotations about the genesis of the lyrics.

 

Sting has endorsed this book in extremis and therefore he must account for why his lyrics are so banal and why a song such as, say, Don't Stand So Close to Me has the words "Don't stand" repeated no fewer than 21 times.

But it also mentions Vladimir Nabokov, so it must be clever and intelligent then, eh? That's the problem with Sting. On the rather dubious grounds that he once used "Nabokov" in a lyric of breathtaking ordinariness, he has long been considered one of the pop and rock world's more literate and poetic lyricists. This is a book for people who believe in that particular piece of self-indulgence.

Simon & Schuster, 296pp, RRP$45 (hb)

 
 
 

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