Spent some time with this album recently. It is a testament to Sinatra's interpretive abilities - or my own gullibility - to imagine the protagonist yukking it up with Dean and Sammy at the Sands. You really believe that Frank is the protagonist. Lyrically, I like the ambiguity of what happened to the wife. You can interpret it as her leaving him, or that she died and he is in denial. Both interpretations work. The more I listen, the more I think she's died.
I recently listened to Watertwn and then the 4 Seasons Immitation Life Gazette. Bob Gaudio was really writing cool stories in 69-70. I picture Frankie Valli singing some tracks on Watertown and Frank singing Immitation life tracks! That would have been interesting!
So, with the encouragement of some kind people here, I finally FINALLY took a listen to Watertown this weekend. The only thing I knew about Watertown prior to this was: the song cycle story; that the album was musically quite a departure into "contemporary pop" and also that it tanked ratings-wise. Well, it’s a stunning, beautiful and very emotional album – I listened once on Friday and had to immediately listen to it again. This album grabbed me right away!!! The “song cycle” is really pretty incredible, and to me it works very well. It’s very emotional. Amazing. I found all the material – the songs themselves – to be really, really strong and engaging. To me, many of them could have worked separately in concert, as individual songs apart from the cycle. Don’t know if Sinatra ever performed any of these. I love the arrangements – lots of electric guitar, bass and rock-type piano that one doesn’t normally associate with Frank (maybe?). By the way, what a cool and unusual way to start a Sinatra album – with BASS guitar! Love the singing too OF COURSE. It’s Sinatra! So many of these songs are just killer “For a While” is a great one. “Goodbye” in fact I am just really, really impressed by the writing and the very cool creativity that went into this. I’ll just have to ruminate on why this one tanked ratings-wise – to me it’s a classic. He should’ve done 10 more like it. Thanks to all for the encouragement! @HGN2001 @I333I But for you guys I would have been spinning Sextet for the 500th time! (I'll get back to that later!) P.S. Alas, my CD is missing “Lady Day”. Was that supposed to be there? Anyway, this is just an incredible album. WOW just WOW
The "Lady Day" bonus track was included only on the 1994 Warner/Reprise CD issue. It was not on the original LP, and it was dropped from the 2010 UMG reissue CD. Also dropped were the extensive liner notes by Ed O'Brien with interviews of Gaudio and Holmes.
To me, the addition of Lady Day ruins the narrative. I like it to end on The Train, which is a perfect conclusion, in my opinion. There are some powerful moments on that album. Some of those lyrics, and Frank's presentation of songs like Michael and Peter give me chills just thinking about them. It's a shame the album didn't do well. Glad you liked it! Now you can move on to the disco tunes!
Good to hear that you are fond of WATERTOWN, David. As for "Lady Day", there are two common schools of thought: - It definitely belongs on WATERTOWN, after "The Train". - It should be nowhere near WATERTOWN, ever. I'm firmly in the second camp. Once I discovered WATERTOWN which I had in my LP collection for years, I went out and found the CD version, the Reprise edition with the Jake Holmes interview inside and "Lady Day" at the tail end. By the time I'd received the CD, I'd listened to the LP version over and over again, and got VERY USED to "The Train" being the devastating ending to this story. Having "Lady Day" follow it - having ANYTHING follow it, just seems wrong to me. But as I said there are two definite schools of thought on that subject, adding even more to the legend of WATERTOWN. Harry
Watertownology - A Study of Frank Sinatra's album, Watertown » Bob Gaudio interview by Ed O'Brien reprinted from cd package (with permission) Bob Gaudio on Watertownology » Jake Holmes interview by Ed O'Brien also reprinted here: Jake Holmes on Watertownology »
^^^ Interesting orchestration (I like the harmonica), but the young guy singing just isn't as believable as the original:
I'm a HUGE, HUGE fan of The 4 Seasons "Gazette" album and I even have a "Frankie Valli" signed copy of it, when I met him back in the 80's. Sinatra singing "Gazette" songs would be out of this world and I can actually imagine him singing the opening "American Crucifixion Resurrection", "Look Up Look Over" or "Saturdays Father". I believe that there is only one "known" demo for the "Watertown" project with Frankie singing on it and that is "Michael And Peter". Note: Songwriter Jake Holmes sings the first verse, then Frankie comes in.
Neil Peart talks about this album in his book entitled Traveling Music. It's one of his favorite Sinatra albums. I made a point to seek it out after reading the book but eventually forgot about it. After reading this thread, I really need to find this lp!
