Interpolate high, plaintive vocal doodles around his companion's gruff assertions.

"The song hits a peak of passion when Bono exclaims, 'Don't you know, Blue Eyes, you never can win.' In a flash it conjures up a picture of a young man in the throes of romantic turmoil sharing his exhilara­tion and confusion with a tough, resilient father who has been through it all. With its mixture of sagacity and sexiness, 'I've Got You Under My Skin' is a stunning intergenerational collaboration that reveals how pro­foundly Mr. Sinatra has influenced younger singers, even rockers like Bono, who is a longtime Sinatra admirer."

Vanity Fair writer David McClintick goes even further in a seven-page appreciation of the album, praising the Bono-Frank collaboration and claiming, "Frank Sinatra Duets signals a late, dramatic, and unexpected surge in what already stands as the most extraordinary career in the history of popular culture, surpassing those of Bing Crosby, Elvis, Judy Garland, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Chaplin, Garbo, Brando, and all other contenders."

U2's old adversaries in the British music weeklies offer a contrary proposal. Melody Maker has photos of Bono and Sinatra on its cover, but snickers about Bono's contribution to the team-up: "It's debatable whether his posturing narcissistic over-delivery is (in contrast to Frank's clipped dry suggestion) entirely appropriate or plain ludicrous. Cer­tainly he can't be accused of lacking the ego or presence to rise to the challenge."

New Musical Express is more reserved in its praise. "A crappier and more, well, insulting record would be hard to imagine," they declare. Bono's mumbling take on 'I've Got You Under My Skin' confirms his covetable status as World's Most Pretentious Human Being."

The strangest critic, though, is Nixon-aide-turned-right-wing-political-columnist William Safire. On the op-ed page of the New York Times Safire attacks the method of recording Duets with a venom he usually reserves for progressive social causes. "Much as I despise Sinatra's bridgework between entertainment, casinos, and crime, I have always admired his artistry," Safire writes. He then says of Duets, "It's a disaster; his voice is shot. Not all the vocal technique and tricks of recording enhancement and propping up by other voices can make him sound other than the pitiful straining of an old man pretending to be the singer he is no longer. Unlike Garbo and Dietrich who refused to be

[396]

photographed in their later years lest it spoil the public's memory of their beauty, Sinatra greedily diminishes his reputation."

Safire goes on to rail against the trickery of studio overdubbing that allows Sinatra to sing with people he was never in a room with: "When a performer's voice and image can not only be edited, echoed, refined, spliced, corrected and enhanced—but can be transported and combined with others not physically present—what is a performance? In our lust for technical brilliance, are we losing the integrity of individual talent?"

Other writers echo the accusation, although in the world of popular music the argument about the validity of creating in the recording studio what could not be created on a stage is usually considered to have been settled with Sgt. Pepper.

The TV comedy show Saturday Night Live weighs in with a sketch in which an impatient Sinatra bullies Bono in the recording studio. Come­dian Adam Sandier plays Bono in Fly shades and a thick brogue, telling Sinatra (Phil Hartman) that he's written a song for them about technol­ogy and humanity. Sinatra cuts him off, calls for "I've Got You Under My Skin," and races through it while Bono struggles to keep up. Bono begs for a second take and Frank snaps, "I'm ninety-three, baby. When you're pushing a century, there is no take two! Get out, Bozo!

All of this notoriety is having its desired effect. Duets is double platinum—the bestselling album of Frank Sinatra's career. Phil Ramone is giving interviews about it everywhere, usually working in some varia­tion on the story of U2 going to see Sinatra in Vegas. I just saw Ramone on CNN. In today's version Frank looked at U2 and said, "Great guys—don't you think you could afford a better wardrobe?

I'm sure not going to tell Bono that I have heard that when the Capitol Records executives first presented Sinatra with the list of people they had lined up for him to duet with, Frank flew into a rage. Appar­ently when Frank is in such a fury he often vents his spleen on his perennial opening act, Steve Lawrence. This particular day Lawrence answered the phone and could not make out what the hell Sinatra was shouting about. He asked his wife, Eydie Gorme, to see if she could calm him down. Eydie got on and said Frank, Frank, what is it? What s wrong?

Sinatra was shouting, If these idiots think that at this point in my career I'm going to record a duet with Sonny Bono . . . !

[397]

⇐ Предыдущая104105106107108109110111112113Следующая ⇒

Поделиться: