Jasmine
“Old-timers from Hoboken
would remember him later as a lonely boy,
standing in the doorway of his grandmother’s building,
watching life go by without him. In a neighborhood of large families,
he was often all by himself.”
– Pete Hamill,
Why Sinatra Matters, p.82
“As an artist,
Sinatra had only one basic subject: loneliness.
His ballads were all strategies for dealing with loneliness;
his up-tempo performances are expressions of release from that
loneliness. The former are almost all fueled by abandonment,
odes to the girl who got away. The up-tempo tunes
embrace the girl who has just arrived.”
– Pete Hamill,
Why Sinatra Matters, p.69