Strange Things Happen: A Life with The Police, Polo, and Pygmies Book

A candid, confident autobio from from a guy so much more than the drummer from the Police - someone who's written dozens of film scores, an opera, is a champion on the polo field and has a strange time grasping the finer points of idolatry. You get a humane look at someone intelligent enough in certain ways and not intelligent in certain ways (in Sting's eyes) and how this balance was enough - and necessary - to make some unbelievable music. Lots of great stories, extremely well-worded paragraphs and finely timed humor in clipped, amusing vignettes. The stories from his childhood are particularily vivid and borderline touching.

Some of the humor comes across in a humane way to deal the moon-sized talent of Sting, who Copeland artfully talks about without giving us too much.

Here he describes Sting's wife: "Trudie Styler is unique. Not one for half measures, she always greets family with full Latin embrace. No pecks on the cheek for Trudie - she inspires and demands full mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. She can turn the most Nordic of dweebs into Antonio Banderas." So Copeland is self-effacing, too, a pleasant trait for any rock star.

He also reaches a high point humor-wise when he describes a jam with a band of parents from the highest-end school that his kids go to, a band that includes big-tongued Gene Simmons from KISS: "What I really like is how all of the alpha moms are scandalized by the Neanderthal lowbrow vibe and just can't stop twittering about it."

Of course, the funniest parts involve Sting, described here in a difficult Police concert moment in Italy:

"Andy takes a solo. He can feel the excitation. As he ramps it up and up, I'm raging with him. OK, so the tempo gets a little overheated. When we get back to the song Sting has to snatch at the lyrics in the brighter tempo. Well, I know that's going to piss him off.

"And it does: now he's got Tourett's syndrome. He doesn't want to miss a precious word of his blessed song, so he's singing like a bird, but after every line of soaring beauty, his head twitches around to spit venom... It's vital that I not miss any drop of his message."

Throughout the book, Copeland often says more by what he leaves out. It is a strength of the book because it's probably meant to keep the pace plugging along, but it also gives an incomplete view of Copeland and who he really is. It would seem possible to not reveal too much information while giving his multitude of fans some vital info: what his wife is like, what kind of dad he is, more of the nice things and encounters that he's had with people, namely The Police. What efforts has Copeland made to contribute to the band and break through the Sting mystique? How does he manage to stay so incredibly busy? We don't learn much from this book.

Still, there's a very understanding paragraph near the end of all of it, written after a year of the recent reunion tour. Copeland is restless to move on to other parts of his overall agenda:

"Maybe Sting still has the energy to continue harassing me after a solid year of it because he thinks he's going to be stuck with me. Maybe he's so resistant to collaboration because he sees a trap closing around him. Well, I certainly can sympathize. I've felt this constriction for a year now..."

Well said. Empathetic. I just wanted more of this human stuff.

Still, I flew through the book, as fast a Copeland's hands at the unforgettable Police concert I saw in Vancouver, WA in '08. What we have here is a musician standing up and looking good in his own kind of light.