Sting considered this book of lyrics as poetry and didn't know if it will stand up as such. In my mind probably not, but who cares.
All The Police and Sting's solo songs that I like I already know by heart so I didn't need this book for that. Each of the albums have introductions, as well as most of the well known songs. Sting is from NewCastle which I didn't know beforehand. Except for Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, all the songs from Ghost in the Machine (my favorite) were written in Ireland. He says that the album Synchronicity was a reference to Jung's concept of meaningful coincidence. I don't know what that concept is. In Synchronicity II the book lyric has "Of a Scottish Lake" when he speaks more correctly 'Of a Scottish Loch' which is what lakes are called in Scotland.
Sting says that he has no "faith" in any religious tradition. Every Breath You Take has its opposite in If You Love Somebody Set Them Free. He says that King of Pain was a generated literally while moping and sitting under a tree. Born in the '50s was about the day when Kennedy was assassinated and Sting's mother said it was the Communists. She may have been right. I don't like Roxanne but Sting says that he is paid to sing it with new feeling each time he does sing it. Sting is a pop artist, in my mind, and has made a fortune with his talents. When I think 'Sting' I think of pop music (radio play list) second only to maybe Duran Duran. When I saw them in San Francisco some girl threw a SF police officers hat up on stage. Sting picked it up but not recognizing that it was a police hat and that his band was called The Police hesitated putting it on at first. He did, at last, and then threw it back out into the crowd after a song or so.
I'm not the greatest Sting fan but this book is great for even ordinary fans like me. I once saw a copy Paul McCartney's lyrics as a book but since it had none of his commentary, I didn't get it. [Single color pictures, index by song title, index by first line.] ( )

Having recently seen Sting in concert, it was enjoyable to flip through the pages of this book. I liked hearing brief descriptions of how a song got it's start or was created. And it was fun to see the number of songs written by Sting. I love this quote by Sting in the introduction of the book "The two, lyrics and music, have always been mutually dependent, in much the same way as a mannequin and a set of clothes are dependent on each other; separate them, and what remains is a naked dummy and a pile of cloth." ( )

I love Sting's work though I feel he is pretty self-absorbed. But then again, he wouldn't be Sting if he wasn't.

I've been collecting his lyrics from album sleeves and online sites for years and was glad to find this book to bring most of my favorites together in one place. ( )

While somewhat disappointed that he did not provide the inspiration for every song he's written, I must say that such a collection of lyrics is a interesting display of his growth. The cover is the most beautiful thing I have seen in a very long time. ( )