My elder son just turned twenty, and over the past five years his interest in music has broadened quickly and widely. In junior high he listened to what his peers and the music industry dictated, as we all did at that age. In high school his interests moved toward a harder edge in popular music, and it was fun to listen to his knowledge of Ozzy Osbourne exceed my own (I realized as we drove to see Ozzy in concert). Then one day I heard Radiohead coming out of his room, and we later saw them together too in St. Louis. Then he started coming home with Johnny Cash’s classics, and I mentioned to him that Cash’s “Big River” was a Grateful Dead live staple for decades (dare I hope for a little Deadhead?).
He listens to Frank now. As anyone eventually will who’s musical interests are open to all things superior. I was fortunate, in that I didn’t have to trip across Sinatra’s work. My mother realized she had bought a second copy of Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits, Vol 2 (1972), and gave me the new copy (only a mother…). This was 1979, and I was a freshman at Notre Dame. I took it to my dorm room and played it. And played it. Frank’s voice was smooth, smooth like butter – no, creme brulee, creme brulee served at the end of a three-hour Mardi Gras dinner in a small New Orleans restaurant to celebrate a big raise at work.
Prior to this all I knew about Frank Sinatra was that he had called George Harrison’s “Something” the best love song ever written (and which he covers on this album), so I knew Sinatra was already a dude. But then I heard “What’s Now is Now,” and I learned something about love through the voice of of ‘Ol Blue Eyes. I’m so glad my son continues to search successfully for greatness is music, and now I’m wondering why I only have three Sinatra albums on my iPod.
You should’ve told me when it all began
You should’ve told me long ago
Someday I know you’re gonna find
Just one mistake is not enough to change my mind
What’s now is now and I’ll forget what happened then
I know it all and we can still begin again
And if the doubting faces made you go
It’s only mine that matters now
Those looks will soon begin to fade
If you come back and show them all you’re not afraid
What’s now is now and I’ll forget what happened then
I know it all and we can still begin again
Now that you know how much I understand
You have no reason to be gone
And if you feel at all like me
Just let me know, I’ll make it like it used to be
What’s now is now and I’ll forget what happened then
I know it all and we can still begin again
berowne.com 