Thursday, February 12, 2009

FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY, BE LIKE A STING

When I went to the University of Durham there was a young man who had been playing in jazz clubs in Newcastle, the next train stop north and had been an English teacher. His name was Gordon Summner, and he had a magic voice and played a mean bass as well. He was discovered by a drummer looking for someone to help him start a punk rock group, and the rest was history. That bass player became Sting, one of the finest rock artists of the fifth and final great wave of the rock era. Here is a small sampling of some of his solo work, with a glimpse of his and Trudy's Tudor mansion which houses his recording studio. Enjoy, BW3






6 comments:

mason booth said...

Dr. Witherington,

this reminds me of Forest Gump...i remember at Asbury you talking about two musciains that you bummped into during your travels...one was a Dr. son names James Taylor in Chapel Hill and the other was Gordon Summner..just reminds me of Forest Gump..how he just kept bumping into all of these famous people...did you ever have a chance to meet Gordon before he became Sting??

thanks for the postings..

mason

Ben Witherington said...

While I would certainly love to have a chat with the good Mr. Summner I have only seen him from afar at a concert.

BW3

Marc Axelrod said...

I like Sting's solo stuff even more than the stuff he did with The Police. Fields of Gold is just great. I also like When We Dance and Fortress Around my Heart. Every married couple should have a Sting album, on the same pile with the Nat King Cole and the Frank Sinatra.

Robin Dugall said...

I've been a huge fan of Mr. Summner's for a long time...his music is soul-full and positive...he is poetic and a fabulous musician. I envy his home studio because it is bigger and better than mine, but hey, what can I say! I've got spiritual issues!

thanks for posting these...

do you know if he ever released a dvd with that entire session for viewing?

Hey, I"m going to be emailing you today...I'm looking for some "recommendations" for new texts for my Luke/Acts class...I already use YOUR Romans book for my Romans/Galatians course at APU...

Robin

Ben Witherington said...

My memory is a little hazy on this but I think there was a DVD the BBC did where they interviewed Sting in his house, he showed them around, including his famous gym room where he does his yoga, hanging upside down, and then there were some clips of songs being recorded there. I think I saw this in a store in Worcester, England when I was visiting friends.

BW3

Crowm said...

Nothing better than Fields of Gold.