Wednesday, February 8, 2012

My Way

I have posted before about the best words ever written on Frank Sinatra. In 1969 the iconic singer was ready to put his career to rest. Songwriter Paul Anka borrowed a melody from a French song and wrote the words to My Way.
     "At one o'clock in the morning, I sat down at an old IBM electric typewriter and said, 'If Frank were writing this, what would he say?' And I started, metaphorically, 'And now the end is near.' I read a lot of periodicals, and I noticed everything was 'my this' and 'my that'. We were in the 'me generation' and Frank became the guy for me to use to say that. I used words I would never use: 'I ate it up and spit it out.' But that's the way he talked. I used to be around steam rooms with the Rat Pack guys – they liked to talk like Mob guys, even though they would have been scared of their own shadows."
    Sinatra has never been my favorite artist, but he is a fascinating figure. A powerful, troubled man who built a startling empire from nothing. Whatever his faults you can feel the power of this song. Every time I hear it, it sits down deep inside me - probing my mind with haunting questions and sending a pensive energy that throbs through my body and remains some time after the song is over. 
For what is a man? What has he got?
If not himself then he has naught !

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