One Train Later: A Memoir by Andy Summers
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Book Reviews of One Train Later: A Memoir
Book Review: A Zelig-like, hysterically funny journey through modern popular culture!
Summary: 5 Stars
I could NOT have enjoyed this book more!
Andy Summers proves to be a terrific writer. The book follows his life from childhood to the break-up of the Police.
I found myself laughing out loud often while reading this memoir. He's genuinely funny; describing a boxing match in which he was forced to participate in grade school, he comments that his loutish opponent burst from his corner towards him like "a dog with his tail on fire."
During a sojourn through Spain while still a teenager, he recounts a dinner where he and a friend are guests of a kind Spanish family, with two beautiful daughters there to tempt them. At the table, he says the mother enjoyed torturing them (by sitting them across from the two goddesses but preventing any sort of contact) "like a witch cooking two shrimps in her cauldron."
He's self-deprecating, witty and vivid with his descriptions of life in England, life on the road, observations on human behavior.
He's merciless in commenting on his own shortcomings, especially with his wife and with drug use. There are passages that are acutely painful, like how he let his family down while seduced by the life of a rock star.
On the other hand, I will never forget his description of what it is like to urinate while on LSD. I laughed so hard I had to put the book down.
I was continually surprised to see how he floated through popular culture, Zelig-like, for decades. The tale of the 1959 Les Paul Sunburst, Eric Clapton and the first Cream album will have you slack-jawed. Not only are there several episodes involving Clapton (and how he fits into rock history as a central figure), but Summers encounters people like Hendrix, places like NYC and LA, the psychedelic era, prog-rock...I had no idea he was such good friends with John Belushi! He captures Belushi wonderfully.
The birth of the Police is fascinating. Being one of the biggest Police fans ever, this was the initial reason for buying the book, being in The Police is a thread laced throughout the whole book.
You know they're gonna be huge, and then break up. It all happens with such inevitability, like some Shakespearean tragedy.
The image of the three guys pushing a dead van over a bridge in Paris is a riot, and the subsequent genesis of the song, "Roxanne" (and hence, the whole Police sound) is almost fairy-tale in it's construction.
Seriously, I feel like starting all over and reading this book one more time...there are SO many great passages, SO well written! His love of music...the appreciation for musical theory and talent...is infectious. You will want to learn how to play guitar after finishing this book.
The story of the Police plays out like the arc of a flare, burning impossibly bright for a few moments, sailing high, and then at it's apogee, it burns out. Disappeared.
The epilogue is most hopeful...both personally and professionally. It seems with the Police reunion this year, Mr. Summers may have done what he wanted...to give us Police fans a proper farewell.
Just buy this book...it's perfect for beach reading, perfect for ANY music fan, terrific for anyone who can appreciate good storytelling...
Book Review: A rare treat
Summary: 5 Stars
A rare treat as far as the genre of music books is concerned. Not only is Andy Summers a most entertaining writer, this is also a 'bio' that has real substance and structure. Importantly, this is a book about Andy Summers and not the Police, even though the latter's shadow obviously looms large. I first knew Andy Summers as the guitarist with Zoot Money's Big Roll Band and am a proud owner of both their original vinyl albums from the 60s. He was a short-haired chap playing a lovely, but fairly conservative jazzy guitar. I took me a while to make the connection years later that this was the same Summers bloke now playing with the Police, and looking considerably funkier. Before that, I heard him on Eric Burdon's 'Love Is' album, and initially was a little unhappy because the guy he replaced (Vic Briggs) was one of my favourite guitarists, and I had a very soft spot for that partiuclar line-up of the Animals. With Andy Summers joining his old bandmate Zoot Money in the Burdon band, I saw the writing on the wall for the New Animals. Still, his guitar solo on Coloured Rain is terrific. But I digress.
What is really cool about the book are those brief meanderings into musical theory and things that only guitarists might find of interest. Yet, it is written in such a way that everybody ought to find it enlightening. What stands out is his dedication to the cause, and it comes across as being totally and utterly genuine. Let's face it, how many people would, after a fairly interesting musical career in the UK and the States, decide to study classical guitar when the chips are down? The development of his own style and continuous search for individual expression is one of the things the book explains wonderfully and makes for a great read. There is a lesson for anyone picking up an instrument; you have to be passionate about it like Summers was. There is a lot more to Summers: his photography, his interest in some fairly esoteric subject matters, and his recordings of the past few years. Quite a chap. I am keen to see one of his exhibitions after reading this book, and I will want to lay my hands on his instructional DVD. Well, done Mr Summers, I could not put the book down; it was that good.
Book Review: Most enjoyable read
Summary: 5 Stars
Summers is an interesting (and very good) writer, a somewhat Baroque, gonzo style that is both insightful and often laugh-out-loud funny. As he points out, when he first started playing in a band as a teenager there were no "guitar heroes," no MTV, no stadium rock, or any of the trappings one now associates with the industry. He was there during the metamorphasis, and the book is an inside look at this cultural revolution, a series of real-life adventures, often bizarro; it's (fortunately) not an analysis of an era, the thing just flows along, what makes it so much fun to read. (He also seems to have a photograpic-memory recall of people and events.)
For Police fans, or those who enjoy Andy's jazz playing, his description of how his playing style evolved is enlightening. Although he knew and greatly admired the likes of Clapton, Hendrix et al, he never tried to emulate their playing - that was their thing, and Summers was more interested in ideas from Monk to Indian ragas, more free-form harmonic constructs. Moving away from traditional triadic harmony - where the third of a scale pretty much determines a major or minor feel - always seemed to be in his head, so when the Police hooked up the ingredients (including Sting's classical guitar background and openness to new ideas) were present for a new sound - stacked fifths and a lot of seconds and fourths - that makes a lot of their music so hypnotic. It all seems very simple now when one looks at sheet music, but it all came out of Summers' life experience - a pretty wild ride, but he never lost his focus.
Book Review: Couldn't put it down
Summary: 5 Stars
On a Police high after getting tickets to the tour and seeing Stewart Copeland speak at a presentation of his film "Everyone Stares", I ran out and got this book. Copeland spoke of it as a good companion to his film, as it reveals much of the grit, and darker moments behind the goofy antics displayed in Stewart's film. Totally inspired by Copeland's magical enthusiasm and his own wonderful film, I wanted more.
Being a Police fan who hasn't followed Summers' career since the breakup, I thought I'd skim through the first half of the book, which details his pre-Police musical life. Instead, I wound up thoroughly enjoying his very charming descriptions of a musician coming of age. A musician myself, I found myself fascinated by all of the different musical adventures that led him to his unique sound. I sipped slowly at these chapters like it was tea.
Then, he meets Sting and Stewart- and I find myself ripping through, madly devouring the chapters like the rock and roll that it is. Summers tells it honestly and gently pulls you along on his wild roller coaster ride, adding wry comments from his older and wiser self along the way. At the end you feel a bit wistful, first for the artist in all his loneliness, and then for yourself, who, like those hordes of fans outside the limo, would give anything just to be able to hang out with him over a beer and talk about the meaning of life.
A must-read for any Police fan or anyone curious about the life of one of the most intelligent, musically eclectic guitar gods around.
Book Review: Super!
Summary: 5 Stars
When the book arrived by mail at home, by coincidence I had just read Clapton's "Autobiography", so an immediate comparison between the two guitarists/writers was innevitable.
As much as they play complete different styles, their writing follow suit. Andy's book is more complex, dense and indeed very well written, with a rich and colorful account of his entire life, not just centering the story on the Police time, which would be way too obvious.
Andy's life is truly an artist's one, and that's the point that should come more visible to the reader. More, he's a witty guy, full of references and deadly funny, so it's a pleasure to read so many stories about the 60's, 70's and 80's rock through his vision, which is privileged itself for Andy being also a great photographer (see also "I'll Be Watching You").
This completeness - writing, playing and photographing - of Andy's work is outstanding and puts him miles ahead from the ordinary pop star. It also makes this book deserve great attention not only from Police fans, but mainly from those who love rock and roll and reading. A must-have!