Comments on: Frank Sinatra's Watertown

By: Wigwam Jones

Wigwam Jones — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Been there, done that, got the bounced checks over ten states to pay for. And yes, her mother thought I should move on. Even that. Mine wasn’t dead, I just wished she was. Unlike Frankie’s protagonist, I didn’t want her back, I just wanted my checkbook back.

However, I’m a Sinatra fan and I never heard of this album. Now I gotta find it. Thanks!

By: melvillain

melvillain — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Since I respect the venerability of BoingBoing, I would like to point out that I also posted this album about two months ago at The Melvillain Blog. Links for an MP3 version are still good, for now. Thanks for posting Rich. It is Frank's Berlin and an amazing album.

By: Antinous

Antinous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Did he adopt a new look for the album?

By: melvillain

melvillain — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sorry Rich, I just read you hate MP3s. For the rest of you the offer still stands. It’s free, why not?

By: peregrine81

peregrine81 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I created an account just to say this. I like Sinatra, its a good listen and is always pleasing.

But I love this album. I knew Frank had some darker CD’s but this is it. I love this Sinatra. He to me never seemed a happy person, at least it always seemed he had some dark past.

Thanks :)

By: Sputnik

Sputnik — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Firstly, she has not only abandoned him but also the two kids – I know this DOES happen but is not exactly common behaviour amongst women. Secondly, he mentions that her Mother still comes by to help with the children and along with other friends they encourage him to move on and find a new love. Surely any Mother would concentrate on getting her wayward Daughter back on track and try to orchestrate a reconciliation?

This happens more than you’d think, especially now.
In the early 90′s my wife split, leaving me with a very active toddler. Her mom, sizing up the situation decided that I was the best parent for my son, acted accordingly, and never looked back.
Search “custodial dads”

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I believe Sinatra himself said it was an allegory about his fans or record buying public. Which did turn out to be dead when nobody bought this album.

By: slywy

slywy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

#1 is right. It happens. It didn’t strike me as odd at all.

By: Sekino

Sekino — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Lastly I just don’t get why she would say that she is coming back and then just not turn up, breaking his heart a second time.

I had a friend who’s mom just took off when he was a little kid. One day, when he was a teenager, she told them (the dad and the kid) that she wanted to see him. He waited but she chickened out at the last minute. He never did see her and, after that, he was so disappointed and disgusted he never tried to seek her out later. So, unfortunately, it does happen.

However, I agree that the album can also be interpretated as the woman being dead. It works. Perhaps Sinatra left it open for people to imagine the details themselves (or is it revealed in the end?).

Either way, it sounds like a very haunting story.

By: Richard XXIII

Richard XXIII — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Damn!
I was hoping it was a concept album along the lines of Kevin Kostner’s Waterworld.
Still sounds weird, in a Lee Hazelwood kind of way, though.
He also had a mega-weird song called World War None that I used to habitually play in mixes all the time. Worth checking out.

By: Tom Hale

Tom Hale — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

She’s not coming back because she’s dead.

I thought of that just a few seconds before I read the line. Do any of the songs allude to her death other than the inconsistencies of her actions? I gather that they don’t, which makes the album even sadder in that the husband never comes to grips with the reality of his wife’s death.

Who’d have thought that Ol’ Blue Eyes could be so deep?

By: wolfiesma

wolfiesma — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I love albums with train tracks on the cover. Here are two of my favorites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Train_Coming

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumbleweed_Connection

Welcome, Richard. Looking forward to your cultural gleanings.

By: peregrine81

peregrine81 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve listened to the whole album start to finish. I don’t know if she died. I think she just left.

This album is just amazing it makes me feel like a human. Everything online is made to stimulate you and most is for laughs, smiles, or shocks. There is very little true remorse or sad feelings. There is so much of frank in his singing that you just don’t find these days.

By: BattyMcDougall

BattyMcDougall — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Holy. Crap.
First Rushkoff. Then Metzger. Thank you Boingboing. Thank you.

By: mscherie

mscherie — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have this on vinyl… and I must admit that it is my favorite Sinatra album ever… his character is so real and his words are so vulnerable like someone begging, pleading, denying that this has happened…that she would leave them to sweep up the dirt and hold tissues to the snuffling children’s noses. There are songs on there that I can not help but cry and others makes me sob. It is a collections of songs that asks the listener to be vulnerable and open and feel everything going on inside your own guts. You leave a different person after having listening just as after someone leaves you.

By: batu b

batu b — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

look forward to listening to it…my first tangential thought was Lee Hazlewood’s Trouble is a Lonesome Town. Also a must have for storymusic seekers. My current favorite Sinatra album is Sinatra and Jobim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Albert_Sinatra_%26_Antonio_Carlos_Jobim
which is a narcotic delight.

By: theobese_sk8r

theobese_sk8r — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I actually have the album on record. It’s definitely worth having if you’re into concept/themed album collecting. It should be fairly inexpensive and easy to locate in a thrift shop. I paid four bucks for mine in very good condition.
In regards to the album, it reminds me of Dream Theater’s Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory with its multiple interpretations.

By: TJ S

TJ S — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

@6:
A little offtopic, but maybe you’d like this for use as a wallpaper? (Warning: very larget image size (2 or 3MB)
I took this (and the other pics in that directory) near my apartment.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

One of Franks finest!! It should be put in a time capsule to capture this cultures problems with relationships. Lady Day is a very important song as it shows him seeing the relationship through her eyes instead of himself as victim!! Sinatras voice is not “A” bt his interpreting skills were never better—-GREAT ALBUM!!

By: powermatic

powermatic — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

CD’s aren’t the only medium on which music has been recorded. Ebay, at this moment, has about twenty of these for sale, starting at .01. And if my experience is any indication, they’ll sound better than the digital copy as well.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m38.l1313&_nkw=frank+sinatra%2C+watertown%2C+lp&_sacat=See-All-Categories

By: Godzilla

Godzilla — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

good call on that ebay link

Vinyl > CD > MP3

By: buddy66

buddy66 — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a piece of film of Sinatra doing a one-take studio version of “It Was A Very Good Year” that is uncanny and quite wonderful. His body language ages as his narrator voice ages. I think he does it sitting down. His professionalism and mastery is absolutely stunning.

MSCHERIE, I know how you feel. Catharsis.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Watertown is easily Sinatra’s most unusual album. When I found this CD in a sale bin at a record store that was going out of business, I thought it must be some sort of joke. It isn’t.

It isn’t for the timid or people who want to hear Sinatra sing songs like Ring-a-Ding-Ding or New York, New York. This is music for people who are die-hard Sinatra fans, singers who understand singing or collectors of the unusual.

I love this music.

By: w000t

w000t — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Somewhat off-topic, but whenever the topic of concept albums comes up, I feel compelled to mention The Coolies. They released only two albums (they were basically just a side project), but they were both gems. dig? came first and is a collection of eclectic, frequently hard rock, covers of Simon & Garfunkel covers (plus a Paul Anka bonus track). They followed with Doug, a cult classic rock opera that never fails to surprise and entertain. Here is a good little write-up of on The Coolies.