Soliquory
JUST IN TIME
By 1986, it was Sinatra's world to me - and the singer, 70, was still
performing. It's silly, of course, or redundant at best, but I have
often thought about what would have been, had I turned down
the invitation of family friends to join them at Milan's
Palatrussardi to see Sinatra in September that year, and had Frank's
serious illness a few weeks later cost him his ability to go on: I
don't have any idea. Impossible to imagine being without the memory
of all those live Sinatra moments. That night in late September, near
the end of a breathtaking set of songs, Frank Sinatra would settle
on his stool and sing "All The Way" accompanied by Bill Miller's
piano, obviously dedicating it to the audience. I didn't know the
song then, but when he closed on a trademark high note on
"all / al-uh the wayyyyy", my heart stood still. Difficult to
describe what happened in those seconds...
Back home, I discovered I already 'owned' the recording,
but hadn't really listened to it since I kept browsing newly
acquired LPs for uptempo songs, skipping the 'slow
numbers' after a few seconds. Well, Everybody Has The Right To Be
Wrong, at least once - ever since, I listened to the ballads.
No regrets.
The next year, he came back to Italy. Singing in the rain at the
Verona Arena, to a few thousand fella's with umbrellas.
He came back with Sammy and Liza, solo as a Diamond Jubilee, and
finally, bidding his own Farewell to Europe from an open-air stage
in Cologne. Encores for him, not all of them easy ones - Main Events
for me. Selfish thinking, I know. Blame It On My Youth, and Thanks
For The Memory. Cheers.