Eventually I would like to own all of his sad-bastard ballad LPs - for now the only ones I have are Watertown and Only the Lonely, which are both fantastic.
― Simon H., Sunday, 28 December 2014 15:09 (nine years ago) link
Bought my mother that London Sessions box that came out this year, but I haven't heard it yet myself.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 30 December 2014 17:27 (nine years ago) link
I bought the whole Capitol set not long ago. Fucking fantastic.
― Humorist (horse) (誤訳侮辱), Tuesday, 30 December 2014 17:38 (nine years ago) link
Songs for swingin lovers is the apex imo
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 30 December 2014 19:05 (nine years ago) link
FInally got around to hearing Only the Lonely... damn it's even heavier and bleaker than I imagined. And incredibly slow. This is my favorite Sinatra, his gloomy rope's-end persona. Where Are You? was my previous favorite LP. September of My Years is great also, if a little too positive.
Anyone heard Close to You, the one he did with a string quartet back in '57? Turned out to be a one-off experiment.
― Josefa, Friday, 16 January 2015 18:36 (nine years ago) link
The Hollywood String Quartet, great players. I've always wanted to hear that.
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Friday, 16 January 2015 18:51 (nine years ago) link
Only the Lonely era is great but it can be a bit of a slog if I'm not in the mood. Prefer the lighter late 50s stuff myself
― Οὖτις, Friday, 16 January 2015 19:03 (nine years ago) link
If you like Only the Lonely you must hear In the Wee Small Hours and the especially bleak No One Cares
― Lee626, Friday, 16 January 2015 21:08 (nine years ago) link
yeah I lost my copies of those
any love for the Sands live album mentioned upthread? song performances are great, the stage banter is inscrutable
― Οὖτις, Friday, 16 January 2015 21:23 (nine years ago) link
i love the Sands live album .. but then again, i have a lot of love for most of franks groove whether it's late night whiskey excess (only the lonely being the ultimate), or uptown party (either of the albums with count basie).
― mark e, Friday, 16 January 2015 21:30 (nine years ago) link
song performances are great, the stage banter is inscrutable
Yeah, that about sums it up. Haven't heard it in a long while though.
I've been listening to some of the more offbeat ones lately - the two Jobim albums (both excellent), and Watertown, an entire album of Bob Gaudio/Jake Holmes songs that baffled his clientele upon its release. Will put Close to You on my upcoming listening list.
― Lee626, Friday, 16 January 2015 21:38 (nine years ago) link
Wee Small Hours was one of my gateway Sinatra albums. Have never heard No One Cares, although that must be one of the best album titles ever (and of course an equally classic cover).
Also love the Sands live album, the first Jobim one, and from the uptempo ones A Swingin' Affair stands out for sheer non-stop energy.
― Josefa, Saturday, 17 January 2015 04:17 (nine years ago) link
I wrote a ranking of Sinatra's peak period:https://medium.com/@shujaxhaider/ranking-frank-sinatra-on-capitol-records-d5f1e5e95057
I'm also a No One Cares (and Gordon Jenkins in general) fan.
Surprised I haven't seen this type of ranking before! Would be interested to see how mine corresponds to a consensus.
― japishco, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 23:12 (nine years ago) link
this piece is great, well done
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 23:20 (nine years ago) link
def agree about the top 5, tho maybe not in that precise order
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 23:25 (nine years ago) link
Same here. Only the Lonely casts a pall as thick as Joy Division.
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 23:28 (nine years ago) link
man that She Shot Me Down cover is lol, never seen that one before
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 23:35 (nine years ago) link
It does toe the line of caricature, but I think you'll be surprised how solid the album is! Especially if you're a fan of the Capitol classics.
― japishco, Wednesday, 25 February 2015 23:43 (nine years ago) link
I really grew tired of the Billy May records after a couple of listens. So little subtlety in the music.
― bollnality of weevil (brownie), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 23:49 (nine years ago) link
Have all these LP's been re-released somewhere?
― bollnality of weevil (brownie), Wednesday, 25 February 2015 23:50 (nine years ago) link
As far as I know they're widely available, at least the more famous Riddles and Mays.
― japishco, Thursday, 26 February 2015 02:16 (nine years ago) link
I love "Come Fly with Me", but other than that I only have a Greatest Hits collection. Not sure where I would go next. I'm not a huge fan of downer Frank.
― o. nate, Thursday, 26 February 2015 02:56 (nine years ago) link
I really grew tired of the Billy May records after a couple of listens. So little subtlety in the music
But then Billy May also did the album Pretty Eyes with Peggy Lee that is one of her subtlest, so I don't know..
― Josefa, Thursday, 26 February 2015 03:02 (nine years ago) link
Just what I needed tonight -- thanks!
― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 26 February 2015 03:29 (nine years ago) link
recently added September of My Years and Where Are You? to my collection - now I just gotta track down Wee Small Hours and No One Cares.
― Simon H., Thursday, 26 February 2015 03:34 (nine years ago) link
I haven't gotten around to listening to it, but I just noticed that literally half the songs on the new Dylan standards album are on Where Are You and No One Cares—apparently Robert shares this board's Sinatra LP preferences. Of the other half at least two only appeared as singles on Columbia.
― japishco, Saturday, 28 February 2015 13:22 (nine years ago) link
Everything ranked in the article except for the Christmas album and This is Sinatra! is included in this box, which I think is pretty much the best $40 I've ever spent.
― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Saturday, 28 February 2015 13:39 (nine years ago) link
Whoa... that's going on my wish list.
― o. nate, Sunday, 1 March 2015 02:16 (nine years ago) link
I've only watched half of part one, but so far I approve of this HBO doc
― Οὖτις, Monday, 6 April 2015 15:30 (nine years ago) link
no one else saw this...? pretty great. made me feel like Sinatra and Shatner share some similar characteristics, this weird mixture of macho bravado and hystrionic melodrama and ego
― Οὖτις, Friday, 10 April 2015 15:16 (nine years ago) link
I watched second half so far, partially due to your post, thanks. Thought it was pretty great. Loved it when he told Dino "you got a beat like a cop." Had forgotten he had Mia served her walking papers during the filming of filming of Rosemary's Baby.
― You Play The Redd And The Blecch Comes Up (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 April 2015 16:21 (nine years ago) link
Loved it when he told Dino "you got a beat like a cop."
haha yeah this was one of his better zingers. Often I find Sinatra's jokes really inscrutable and/or dated
― Οὖτις, Friday, 10 April 2015 16:38 (nine years ago) link
Heard that expression before, but that was a perfect usage of it.
― You Play The Redd And The Blecch Comes Up (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 10 April 2015 16:44 (nine years ago) link
Liked the doc a lot, though musically speaking a lot went unmentioned or was glossed over. Nothing about September of My Years, only a few seconds relating to the Jobim collaborations, etc. Was the name Gordon Jenkins even mentioned?
But the story is so big they have to focus it in some way, and it was a nice move to focus it on Sinatra's own words and the words of his family and closest colleagues.
The story of Sinatra's political shift circa 1970 is still so strange and baffling to me.
― Josefa, Friday, 10 April 2015 17:00 (nine years ago) link
only a few seconds relating to the Jobim collaborations
yeah was cool to see the (brief) concert footage but those albums didn't even get a mention!
― Οὖτις, Friday, 10 April 2015 17:29 (nine years ago) link
re: his politics - Sinatra drifting rightward as he aged doesn't strike me as all that uncommon. and in general his politics strike me as being consistent in their clannishness, in that they were guided more by his affinities for (and proximity to) various groups rather than by principle.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 10 April 2015 19:13 (nine years ago) link
his racial politics also reveal a common limitation of white liberalism in the US - ie, overt legal/institutional racism and discrimination is wrong but we still get to make racist jokes
― Οὖτις, Friday, 10 April 2015 19:19 (nine years ago) link
^ Yeah, but I see that as just part of the overall evolution of society, the way things progress in stages. But to switch to the party that is more or less overtly racist, forsaking all previous political connections - that's surprising. To marry a hippie in 1966 and end up endorsing Ronald Reagan in 1970 requires some explanation. It's hard to believe it's all about the Kennedys.
― Josefa, Friday, 10 April 2015 21:41 (nine years ago) link
oh all the old leches of his generation wanted a hippie chick of their own, that's not so surprising. and as noted in the documentary the pairing was doomed from the start, rife with misunderstanding. Doc suggested he did not actually switch parties fwiw.
learning that he liked to pal around with Agnew was p lol
― Οὖτις, Friday, 10 April 2015 22:19 (nine years ago) link
I know, the Agnew thing, what..?!
― Josefa, Friday, 10 April 2015 22:46 (nine years ago) link
obviously no one enjoyed hangin out w Nixon, maybe Sinatra liked Agnew more cuz he was closer to an actual gangster. Although you'd think Nixon would've introduced Frank to Bebe Rebozo, I bet they would've hit it off
― Οὖτις, Friday, 10 April 2015 22:56 (nine years ago) link
Complicated guy. (Will definitely watch the documentary once it's out for rental/sale.) I can't stand watching him and Martin and Davis making fun of racism via tasteless shtick, but at the same time, I know that's very easy for someone to say from the safe vantage point of 2015. I'm sure he did, in his own fashion, fight the good fight.
― clemenza, Friday, 10 April 2015 23:02 (nine years ago) link
Sonny Rollins said when he was on high school, or maybe shortly thereafter, he was really inspired by Sinatra's "The House I Live In," which may have been a "soundie," a pre-video short subject for movie theater (saw an amazing collection of those once, think it was titled Jazz Ball, with a pre-disco ball on the poster)(there was even an attempt or proposal to put them on visual jukeboxes vs television, the new challenger to flicks). This was a gutsy thing to do, early in Sinatra's solo career especially, when racial integrationist sentiments themselves were (at least) highly suspect to some, let alone such sentiments capable of being spread via our National airwaves! And the Silver Screen!
Really like Live In Australia, from 1959, I think, with Red Norvo's combo: the audience and performers are so excited, but the source material is so sad! How will they balance it all, on this great and rare night (Sinatra down under, wtf!). But it works and it's Frank at his jazziest, minus the Chairman of the Board camp, that is (he left in Vegas storage, for this occasion anyway).
― dow, Saturday, 11 April 2015 01:08 (nine years ago) link
He left *it*, the camp, in Vegas storage, that is.
― dow, Saturday, 11 April 2015 01:11 (nine years ago) link
Oh yeah!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Sinatra_with_the_Red_Norvo_Quintet:_Live_in_Australia,_1959
― dow, Saturday, 11 April 2015 01:13 (nine years ago) link
― Οὖτις, Friday, April 10, 2015 3:19 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Josefa, Friday, April 10, 2015 5:41 PM
Charleton Heston, guys.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 11 April 2015 01:40 (nine years ago) link
He was at the March on Washington and 18 year later was one of Ron and Nancy's more honored White House guests.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 11 April 2015 01:41 (nine years ago) link
messy, undisciplined doc that struggles mostly because dude's life was so damned huge and all over the map. That "Ol' Man River" footage with MLK in attendance was really something. Nice to see a Watertown shoutout - would have gladly watched a doc of the same length that stuck to just the music.
― fuck me, archipelago (Simon H.), Saturday, 11 April 2015 05:07 (nine years ago) link
If you want to see concert docs (which might have some commentary added as bonus material by now, I dunno), def try the TV specials that show him at his 60s peak, as elder statesman (well, Dadpop, flaunting his age amidst the rising tide of Boomer hormones) who also found his own way through some current trends, to creative and commercial success. These also loop back through initial hits, his 50s post-Ava Gardner/throat hemorrhage renaissance as the king of Adult Pop (cool and vs. that greasy kid stuff from Memphis), with Gordon Jenkins and Nelson Riddle aboard sometimes. Check A Man And His Music, from 1965, AMAHM Part II, '66 (think that's the one where he duets with Nancy), and 1967's AMAHM + Ella + Jobim(There's also a 1980 or '81 concert set titled The Man And His Music, but I don't think I've seen it, unless it's the one where he's growling at Wolf Trap, almost like the Muddy Waters of lounge, at times).The range of the TV trilogy can be disconcerting, especially when he kicks ass on "That's Life," then practically busts a vein on the singing waiter special, "Come Back To Sorrento," like he's immediately gotta reassure Jilly and da boys that he ain't turnin'...reminds me of Greg Tate writing that he couldn't listen to a whole FS album at one sitting, because of getting creeped out by certain old school associations (like race talk in The Godfather). But ain't that America. Think there are audio-only editions, at least there is or was a double-album version of the first special.
― dow, Saturday, 11 April 2015 13:57 (nine years ago) link
This helped put him on HUAC's shit list; his name was brought up a number of times during the hearings, though he himself was never brought before the committee.
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 11 April 2015 16:51 (nine years ago) link