336 pages, It Books, ISBN-13: 978-0061791512
I liked The Police and their music, but I was never really a fan of either; that is, while I’d listen to their songs if they ever came on the radio or MTV – back when MTV played music videos – I never bought their albums or their merchandise or whatever. And while Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner CBE – er, sorry: “Sting” – has all but sucked the oxygen out of everyone’s lungs as without question the most famous of the trio, there is also lead guitarist Andy Summers and drummer Stewart Copeland, the author of Strange Things Happen: A Life with The Police, Polo, and Pygmies. That subtitle should serve as fair warning to any die-hard The Police fan, for his time with the band gets short shrift; his many, many, other interests and obsessions occupy the vast majority of the book; so beware The Police fans. Beware.
Like, for instance, writing music for movies and TV, or composing a drum-centric opera or two (carefully side-stepping any mention that both were critical and commercial flops), fathering a brood of seven children with two wives, entering the prohibitively expensive world of polo (you need to own at least seven ponies just to qualify), his small collaborations with numerous bands, the weird low-budget fantasy film, The Rhythmatist, about traveling through Africa with a pretty girl referred to only as “a tall cool blonde”, and of course the titular pygmies, who are reduced from people to window dressing for Copeland’s brief, strange excursion into break-dancing (you read that correctly). So, Stewart is one happenin’ dude with a plethora of interests, and he wants YOU to know about each and every one of them, too.
Really now, Copeland’s life would be singularly colorful and memorable even if he wasn’t one of the founding members and rhythmic piledriver of one of the most powerful and successful musical acts of the post-punk New Wave movement; seriously, how many drummers wanted to emulate his uniquely aggressive yet subtle style that he stood alone in a room of the world’s most notable percussionists? Copeland is a musical genius, and I think that we all know that – HOWEVER, do we need to be told that over and over again by the author? A true genius is comfortable in his own skin and can let the facts speak for themselves, but Copeland feels the need to continuously point out how fantastic he is at music and percussion (yes), polo (um…I guess) and opera writing, staging and presenting (damned if I know).
It also doesn’t help that each chapter follows the same pattern, to wit: Stewart is confronted by an insurmountable problem; Stewart manfully takes on said insurmountable problem without a second thought; Stewart realizes that this insurmountable problem was even worse than expected; Stewart utilizes “System D” (a manner of responding to challenges that require one to have the ability to think quickly, to adapt and to improvise when getting a job done); Stewart pulls everyone together as a unit in order to rise above the odds and conquer this now very surmountable problem; Stewart smiles and exchanges knowing glances with the several personages involved over many expensive and foreign liqueurs; Stewart is pleased. The insurmountable problems may change but the implacable Stewart Copeland does not.
For all that, I can’t honestly say that I disliked Strange Things Happen. For all of his obvious need to tell us everything he did outside of The Police, I’m glad that he did, as Copeland’s mere decade membership in one of the world’s most popular and influential bands is but a small portion of his richly filled and atypical life, and his reflections make for terrifically entertaining reading. His dry wit and gimlet eye take apart anything and everything they land upon, not least himself (when he’s not subtly stroking his ego, that is; see above). There are hundreds of books out that musicians have “written”, but all do so with either a coauthor or are so juvenile in tone that they are virtually worthless. As original as Copeland is on his drums he is just as good pounding out terrific stories that entertain as they captivate. Sting who?
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