Thursday, May 05, 2016

Sweet Dreams are Made of this: A Life in Music by Dave Stewart, 321 pages

Dave Stewart had led a pretty remarkable life. He has created some outstanding songs, both as a songwriter and as a producer, and he comes across in this memoir as a guy who is easy to get along with and always up for a bit of fun. It is also pretty apparent that he wrote this work without the aid of a ghostwriter. I think it would have been a stronger work if he had. There were so many insane stories in this book--his time working on the score for Showgirls, an accidental vacation at a Yugoslavian nudist colony while he was still dating Annie Lennox, and the stories behind the composition and recording of Tom Petty's "Don't Come Around Here No More," to just name a few. In each instance, however, he either is way too brief, or ends the anecdote a few paragraphs later than he should have. The his re-telling of the Stevie Nicks/Tom Petty saga surrounding "Don't Come Around Here No More," brings this to mind:
http://thetvmouse.tumblr.com/post/133792222659/undeadqueers-deactivated2014122-best-of
Even with that complaint, I did enjoy this book quite a bit. If you're a music fan, even if you're not a Eurythmics fan, you will find a lot to like in this book, as it seems Stewart has worked with just about everybody in not just pop and rock music, but country and soul as well. I found myself hunting down songs on youtube regularly while reading.

Genre: nonfiction Good Plane or Waiting Around in Line Reading: Yes Good Enough Reading to Keep You Distracted From Plane Movie/Obnoxious People on Plane: Yes Hey, I guess this is Different: Stewart is best friends with Paul Allen (known in our family for owning the Portland Trailblazers, but I suppose most people know him as a computer billionaire). Can read when depressed and/or when winter: Definitely

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