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Great old school rockabilly.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
The more I listen to this album (released in 1970) I think it is not only Frank's best work of the 1960s, but one of the great ignored classic albums of that wondrous decade. It deserves to stand alongside his melancholy masterpieces from the 50s, such as "In the Wee Small Hours" and "Only the Lonely". The voice is not quite so assured as it was in his 50s heyday, but it is ideally suited to the broken man he portrays in this heartbreaking story. There are no hit singles on the album but listen to it a few times and the songs will seep into your brain - there is not a bad song among them. The lyrics are understated and without a hint of sentimentality. You can feel the man's pain and his inability to understand what has happened. This is intelligent writing of the highest order. The music sounds very late-sixties, but nothing wrong with that. The orchestration is superb throughout - just listen to the clarinet on the opening track! If only the majestic "I would be in love anyway" had been Frank's epitaph rather than the ubiquitous "My Way". As we only hear the story from the man's point of view we are left wondering about the woman - why did she leave him? Was it that Watertown, where nothing ever happens except rain, is a symbol for the dull, lifeless marriage she had to escape from? Was there someone else? It is hinted at in “What’s now is now” but the implication is that that affair is now over, though still she does not return to him. This mirrors Frank’s own life as when, after his failed relationship with Ava Gardner, he did not go back to Nancy and his children. All in all it is a great story set to great music. And Frank Sinatra, the twentieth century's finest interpreter of popular song, gave us one last masterpiece before the curtain came down.Read full review
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