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Song of the Day #1,158: ‘Watertown’ – Frank Sinatra

Last November I dedicated a theme week to an entire album for the first time. That was Ben Folds Five’s self-titled debut. Over the next two weeks I’m doing the same thing, with a very different record: Frank Sinatra’s Watertown.

Watertown was released in 1970 to tepid sales and lukewarm critical reception. It probably doesn’t show up on most lists of Sinatra’s best albums, regarded more as a curiosity than an essential recording.

But this tear-soaked concept album is both a touchstone of my childhood and one of my favorite Sinatra records. I’ll be thrilled if I can give it some much-deserved exposure (no matter how little) through my blog.

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Song of the Day #1,156: ‘Don’t Drink the Water’ – Brad Paisley (with Blake Shelton)

As I write this, I’m in the middle of a game of concert chicken with StubHub in the hopes of seeing Brad Paisley live today. Paisley is playing my city, with Blake Shelton opening, but he’s chosen a venue I hate and the prices are way too steep.

I’m not big on concerts. They’re expensive and uncomfortable and often less enjoyable than the same music heard on record. I don’t want to hear drawn-out jams, I don’t want to wait until 8:45 for a show that was supposed to start at 8. But at the same time, a good concert can be a transcendent communal experience if you’re willing to put up with all that other stuff.

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Song of the Day #1,155: ‘Hearts and Bones (Live)’ – Paul Simon

Best Songwriters – #1 – Paul Simon

I flirted with putting Bob Dylan, Ben Folds and Elvis Costello in my #1 spot, but I kept coming back to Paul Simon, the most unassuming of them all. I’ll get to my reasons in a minute.

First, I’d like to reference some of the artists I left off this list, artists who made the initial cut but didn’t quite survive.

Lucinda Williams and Lyle Lovett, two southern stalwarts, are basically tied for 11th place, and either could have cracked the top ten but for my soft spot for Billy Joel. Bruce Springsteen is a legend who, like Bob Dylan, has gotten better with age. Tom Petty is considered the poor man’s Springsteen, but he’s plenty rich for me.

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Song of the Day #1,154: ‘Just Like a Woman’ – Bob Dylan

Best Songwriters – #2 – Bob Dylan

Once again, no surprise to see today’s artist on this list — I did, after all, dedicate nearly a year to Bob Dylan Weekends. In fact, I’m guessing most of you assumed Dylan would land at the very top. So I guess that leaves a little suspense leading up to tomorrow.

I’m not going to attempt to sum up Dylan’s greatness in a single blog post. Countless blogs, magazines, books and movies have tackled that task over the 50 years he’s been recording and I don’t know if any of them have quite done the trick.

Put simply, he changed the face of popular music, and did it more than once. Dylan was one of the first singer-songwriters of the modern era and you’d have a hard time finding artists working today who don’t credit him as an inspiration of one sort of another. He brought poetry to rock-and-roll and proved that it could be not just critically but commercially successful.

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