Sad music. This is musky, cigarette smoke, records on the floor, your girl is gone and you know she’ll never come back music. The terrifying sensation that you may never find another quite as perfect as the one who is no longer there. “I get along without you very well… of course I do. Except when soft rains fall and drip from leaves then I recall the thrill of being sheltered in your arms. Of course I do.” That shit will make a grown man weep. The record will suffocate you if you aren’t careful. There are certain albums that are ONLY to be listened to when you are caught in the grips of heartbreak… this is one of those records. I can relate, I have been there. I think anyone who has ever dated anyone has been there. However, I am currently not locked in my house with the blankets over my head while eating cereal (comfort food), so I am not in the right state of mind to properly digest this music. There is a wonderful catharsis that comes with listening to devastating music while devastated… it beats the hell out of “it will be alright, man” or “there are plenty of dem fishies in da sea” type garbage spewing from your well-intentioned friends… SHIT IS TERRIBLE… THE WORLD IS ENDING! DON’T TELL ME OTHERWISE OR I’LL SQUEEZE YOUR EYEBALLS UNTIL THEY EXPLODE!
The bottom line is that you should not play this record during a game of Twister with friends.
Now, with that disclaimer behind us, let’s discuss the album: Frankie just broke up with his lady Ava Gardner and he decides to take all that angst he feels bubbling below his baby blue eyes and use it to create a masterpiece. He didn’t write the material… but that doesn’t matter. He feels it; he feels he could have written it, he feels anyone could have written it. And I’m not about to disagree with him. All of his emotion is laid bare for the world to see. The strings & piano are beautiful. In fact, the production is amazing. For an album made over fifty years ago, this still sounds fresh. Prediction: in a hundred years from now (if we don’t succumb to the zombie apocalypse), people will still be crying along to this album.
“In The Wee Small Hours” basically set the blueprint for what is now known as the “album”. I have a stormy relationship with albums. Of course, I love them. I love an album that KNOWS it’s an album and is able to maintain cohesiveness (without, hopefully, getting repetitive). The problem is that I have the attention span of a beetle. Thus, I have a lot of trouble getting through something longer than forty minutes. During a movie, I will take approximately ten breaks just so I can get through the damn thing… and a lot of the time I don’t make it. I’m not sure if this is because I spent my childhood glued to the TV set for eight hours a day, or if I was just born out-of-my-mind ADD. Either way, this is partially why I decided to tackle this project. I want to train myself to truly enjoy an album start to finish. This will be a huge challenge for me… but I am up for it.
So, go ahead and follow along, or just read my scribbles, or never come back to this site again… any of those are fine by me. Bye!
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