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Originally Posted by olblueeyes
There may be some artistic truth in that - Watertown was an incredibly powerful album, and sold very little - but it is one of the Sinatra canon that continues to keep his music relevant in the minds of young people. Only The Lonely was already a successful and widely celebrated album from 10 years earlier. Sinatra did hate the song to begin with but he warmed to it eventually according to comments he made in the 80s. There's no denying that he was great at it though.
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I agree with some of that and you obviously know your stuff - but I wonder for instance, how many people under 30 are put off exploring Sinatra's catalog due to 'that song'.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sarge
That's the case with many artists. Ask someone what they know about Bruce Springsteen, The Beatles, Elton John, whoever... If the person you talk to isn't a die-hard music fan, he/she will probably rather associate these artists with songs like Born In The U.S.A., She Loves You, Can You Feel The Love Tonight than with Incident On 57th Street, A Day In The Life or Madman Across The Water. Often an artist's other work is more interesting than the biggest hits but it's the biggest hits that keep the artist in the public eye.
How many people would buy Meat Loaf's albums today if Bat Out Of Hell and his comeback album in 1993 hadn't been such a huge success? What would these albums sound like? Would he still release albums at all? He clearly benefits from his hits but they also make some people think that he has only released one or two hit albums some years ago and hasn't accomplished anything else in the meantime - or make them complain about that his other albums don't sound like Bat Out Of Hell or Bat Out Of Hell II.
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The difference is Bat Out Of Hell is symbolic and representative of the
spirit of Meat Loaf's work, even his non-Steinman albums. Triumph over adversity, heart on sleeve, emotional, pushing over the edge. It's a fair bet that if you don't like Bat you won't like Meat Loaf, and if you do, you'll like some of his other stuff. These are things we can apply to the majority if not all of Meat's work. The kind of swaggering, snotty, cocky self-aggrandizing of 'My Way' is not representative of Sinatra's work.