As tempting as it is to deride Gordon Sumner, aka Sting, for publishing a book of his lyrics (with commentary!) ’t’other year, I can’t deny that I own a similar tome for The Fall’s Mark E Smith.

Lyrics without music is one thing, but what about lyrics with different music? Sting’s got some experience with that concept already, as The Police did reunite briefly in the mid-eighties to record “Don’t Stand So Close to Me ’86.” Same words, brand new notes, longer running time and title! (And, according to the marginally updated lyrics, in the six-year interim between that version and the original, the novel Lolita had become “famous.”)

Fast-forward to January 2009. Early in the new year, a Microsoft release called Songsmith has made it possible for there to be a limitless number of “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” remixes (Microsoft’s term). In fact, it’s made it possible to rewrite the book on music history, should one be audacious ambitious enough. Read More