So much to quote
about the great “Swoonatra” piece by Ian Penman in the July 2, 2015, edition of
the London Review of Books, about the incomparable Frank Sinatra (1915-1998),
in parts an elegy for a time when listening to music meant a long-playing
album, what Sinatra was first to see as “an opportunity for sustained mood
music, a pocket – (my aside between em dashes) what a deft phrase, dated and intimate, oooh so pre-Internet –
of time focused entirely on one defining concept or tone.”
And,
“It’s no
coincidence that so much music from the next decade sounded so good, and still
does, half a century on. At this make or break point (the 1950s), many
jazz-schooled musicians saw which way was up and swapped the marriage-destroying
purgatory of touring for well-remunerated union-protected session work.”
And, most
pointedly, when it comes to our theme, If the Greats Were With Us:
“When today’s
stars try to pull off an imitation of old-style song craft they may get the
surface details right, but they completely miss the center of gravity, or sense
of connective purpose.”
Finally,
“It’s doubtful
any singer will ever again possess that kind of sway. Who could reign as
monarch of so much territory, and certainty, ever again? Maybe he is our last
voice, at that.”
Next: Running for Your Life: Plain Train
Game
