One Train Later: A Memoir

One Train Later: A Memoir
by Andy Summers

One Train Later: A Memoir
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Book Summary Information

Author: Andy Summers
Introduction: The Edge
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-05-29
ISBN: 031237481X
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Book Reviews of One Train Later: A Memoir

Book Review: Andy, Sting and Stewart and the Police
Summary: 5 Stars

I very much enjoyed reading Andy Summers memoir of his life before and during the years of his band the Police. Andy is not only a gifted and fabulous guitarist, but also an excellent photographer and writer. His memoir is extremely well written. He does a wonderful job of explaining his love and appreciation of music. For somebody like myself who knows little or nothing about music, he manages to convey the magic it provides to his very existence. Making good music is his purpose in life. At several key times in his early career, it is his love of making music that keeps him from going off the cliff that has destroyed so many other musicians.
He tells of his early life and his first fascination with popular music, especially jazz as a young boy growing up in a small village in England. There is a definite honesty to his story telling. That's obvious from his discussions of his developing interest in sex and later drugs. Most people would tiptoe lightly around the edges of this kind of frank honesty. Not so with Andy. He doesn't hide his heavy drug use that seemed an unavoidable part of the popular music, especially jazz and rock and roll movements.
That was the one part of the book that definitely repelled me. He describes his first experiences with mind-altering psychedelic chemicals. He gives details of the experience that seem so mind-expanding and colorful that it reminds one of the images conjured up in many of my favorite Beatles songs. As Andy points out, that is where those images came from. Even late in his story, which ends when he was still very young, he is still saying that the incredible work and travel schedule of the Police was so jam-packed that it would have been impossible to accomplish without the help of lots of "rocket fuel." I personally feel that Andy makes taking drugs seem so commonplace and matter-of-fact that I'd prefer my own kids don't read the book until they are old enough to know that not everything associated with Rock and Roll is normal behavior.
Andy hints that what saved him and the rest of the Police band was that they were so interested in their creation of music that it kept them from going completely over the edge like some of the other famous rock musicians and movie stars like his friend John Belushi, who Andy describes hanging with on several different occasions. A couple of those adventure such as sampling "magic mushroom omelets" and then driving all over Bali in a jeep were nearly disastrous, but fortunately no bystanders were killed or injured.
As someone who has seen too many of his friends become drug addicts, commit suicide or OD or who now wander the street with their brilliant Harvard educated minds burned out by LSD acid, I feel that the members of the Police were very lucky that their life style didn't also cause them to crash and burn. I'm delighted for them. I'm delighted with the story Andy tells in the memoir of his youth. It has wonderful descriptions of their difficult climb up the ladder of their craft, of their serious musical talents, and how they were able to work together to force their individual talents to come together to create the musical sound of the Police. They all knew that they had musical talent, but it wasn't until they joined forces that all those right creative elements came together. Since Andy, Sting and Stuart Copeland were all independent-minded as hell, it wasn't easy for them to make the creative compromises needed to reach the top of the rock and world. Andy also discovered that fame and wealth aren't all that great if you lose your soul along the route to that fame. His memoir has a happy surprise ending for that chapter in his life. Overall, it's a very good read.

Summary of One Train Later: A Memoir

"A disarming, surprising literary memoir by the ex-Police guitarist . . . A rollicking you-are-there history of the 60s-80s rock era."---Entertainment Weekly
 
In this extraordinary memoir, world-renowned guitarist Andy Summers provides the revealing and passionate account of a life dedicated to music. From his first guitar at age thirteen and his early days on the English music scene to the ascendancy of his band, the Police, Summers recounts his relationships and encounters with the Big Roll Band, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, the Animals, John Belushi, and others, all the while proving himself a master of telling detail and dramatic anecdote.
 Andy's account of his role as guitarist for the Police---a gig that was only confirmed by a chance encounter with drummer Stewart Copeland on a London train---has been long-awaited by music fans worldwide. The heights of fame that the Police achieved have rarely been duplicated, and the band's triumphs were rivaled only by the personal chaos that such success brought about, an insight never lost on Summers in the telling. Complete with never-before-published photos from Summers's personal collection, One Train Later is a constantly surprising and poignant memoir, and the work of a world-class musician and a first-class writer.

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