story part one :
back in the autumn of 1987 i was a fresh faced kid learning the ways of student life.
i had my room, i had my grant, and i had my boombox.
a red panasonic noise making beast that had state of the art autoreverse and detachable speakers.
it was fantastic, and for its compact size, sounded great.
especially when i placed the speakers on top of a stack of coke cola cans – but that’s a story in itself.
anyways, i was still to fully fall in with the noise-n-beats crowd meaning my listening was a wild mish-mash of styles, often depending on my budget.
for no apparent reason i picked up an nme sanctioned tape called what’s happening stateside that compiled all manner of excellence from the stateside reissue label, which as followers of the blog will realise has in the last few years become a mainstay of the ireallylovemsuic archive with their superb back catalogue and quality 60s soul and funk compilations.
yet that week something was in the air. i distinctly remember picking up 2 cassettes by frank sinatra, come fly with me, and come dance with me, again,for no obvious reason as neither of my parents had ever shown any interest in the mans style, and nor had i any real inclination as to how they would sound.
those cassettes were to become part of my saturday night get-on-up mood setter, and grabbed whenever i found my mood to be dipping, as a quick blast of frank with the big band swing would quickly eradicate any feelings of self doubt.
the sheer vitality and exuberance in the music, the rich voice, the melodies, and for those of us still pining for the attention of the opposite sex, a hint of male bravado.
the music was magical, and filled my crappy little room with colour and adventure.
i guess it was by pure chance that i picked up two of his best concept albums that were part of his golden era of long playing concept albums, a format the man just about invented singlehandedly.
however a few weeks later, hip hop, acid house, and later on, baggy came along and swept me into the modern world, meaning the cassettes were replaced by ska-acid mixtapes, def jam, and a lot of on-u sound system records, yet i have very fond memories of those 2 cassettes and the joy they brought into a period of my life when things were somewhat different to how they are now.
story part two
flash forward 20+ years.
i now run a blog, the successor to a review website, you may know of them, and, in this capacity over the last few years i have been privileged to receive a lot of music on the off chance i may write a few words of praise.
there was a period when every day my letter box would be stuffed with full version cds with packaging and suchlike.
the situation become unsustainable, just not enough hours in the day, and being honest, not enough good music.
subsequently, i slowed the rate of reviews down to a trickle.
this meant little by little the influx of cds to ireallylovemusic understandably dried up.
a lot.
yet for some reason, i received an email a few weeks ago advertising the fact that eight albums (proper albums, none of that compilation rubbish) by frank sinatra from his reprise era, (the label that was set up by frank sinatra in 1960 meaning he became known as “the chairman of the board”), were to be given the reissue treatment.
i read the promo email, and thought, ‘now those i could listen to’, but thought no point in trying due to demand from others.
a few weeks later and i received another email urging take up of some of the cds.
“oh sod it”, i thought, “i’m going to pimp for these.”
after all, the last few years have been dominated with beat driven machine made music, whereas 2009 has been all about going back not forward. the majority of my listening this year has been about discovering the pleasure in the excessive productions by david axelrod, the intense fusion era of mile davis, and not caring about keeping up with the latest and greatest.
for the next 5 days my heart leapt each time the letter box rattled. i was genuinely excited about the prospect of hearing some classic sinatra albums.
a sensation i’ve not felt about music in a long long time, and is something i have greatly missed.
the excitement, the tension, and the eventual pay off when the music is blasting out of the stereo. instant mp3 culture takes that whole part of the fun away.
anyway, the upshot of all this that yesterday i received 4 of the current reissues.
but, as is the way, i have a real life to get on with, meaning in the afternoon i had to do a 60 mile round trip to take my eldest son to one of his regular orthodontist check ups.
so, i grabbed one of the cds and set off.
on the way, my eldest performed his usual trick of non-stop questions and chat, but twice i saw him visibly jump when the big band did their bam-bam-da-baaaaaam thing.
at this point, i should mention, that the relationship my eldest has with music has yet to blossom. i have learnt (psychological scars are still in evidence) to let him find his own course, as there is nothing worse than a dad trying to assist a near teenager learn the joys of a song/track only for the mass of hormones to walk away shaking his head in sheer disgust.
so, imagine my surprise when during the return journey the boy was quiet. very very quiet.
i became concerned.
then after another couple more of those big blasts of the band, he turned and said : ‘dad, who is this’
my response : ‘frank sinatra‘.
now at this point i held back from telling him that for all his skills as a jazzed up crooner, the man was connected to both sides of the criminal world, a womaniser, a hard drinker, and was in fact someone who makes the modern musical gangstas look like kindergarten rejects.
i held back from explaining that for all the watered down crap that has been done in the name of the big band sound by such charlatans as westlife, robbie williams and all the sodding panto hopefuls that rise through the ranks of various high profile talent shows (there just has to be a big band special every year doesn’t there ?), and that the real deal by bands such as the one that count basie was in charge of, is a hugely exciting form of music that when done right can make grown adults like me cry in sheer joy, while the stresses of the daily grind slip-n-slide away.
instead i let these two words hang in the air.
my son, took on this fact, and for the time ever in regards to music said the following : ‘it’s brilliant’.
game, set, and match.
so, please forgive me as for a few days i’m going to kick back, and let these glorious blasts of 60s era sinatra dominate the ireallylovemusic world, and who knows, possibly have a chat with my eldest about music that brings a smile to both our faces.
now that would be a very special treat indeed.
note : record artwork and track listings of the reissues to follow.