Bryan Adams: Everything He Does

Jack Broumpton is a music professor at the University of Wisconsin’s
Indianhead Arts Centre in Shell Lake.

Bryan Adams has become one of the most successful popular music
performers that Canada has ever produced. This accessible biography
chronicles his introduction to rock music as a teenager and the
evolution of his solo career, up to the release of his most recent
recording, Waking Up the Neighbours. As characterized by Sorrelle
Saidman, Adams is driven by a desire for creative control and commercial
success.

Saidman produced fan club newsletters for Adams from 1984 to 1987, a
duty that perhaps gave her access to sources unavailable to others. Her
book is filled with interesting facts and anecdotes. However, her
emphasis on Adams’s struggles as an adolescent seems misplaced. Adams
as heroic survivor is something of an overstatement, although a young
audience might empathize with this portrayal.

Anecdotes dominate some chapters, creating a “cut-and-paste” style
of narrative that detracts from the book’s strong points. Generally,
Everything He Does provides a good overview of Adams’s career. The
accompanying discography and appendix offer pertinent information for
the pop-rock enthusiast.