Sinatra: 80 Years My Way

Frank Sinatra should have been given a better 80'th celebration than this. When an Legend turns 80, with small hope of getting much older, you don't plug your current lineup of artists, completely unknown to the guest of honor! You drag out whoever can walk of crawl of artists that he know and respect, and which actually mean something to him! As it turned out, sinatra was celebrated by a host of people he had no idea who were. Only one artist stood out in that respect, and stood out big time! Bob Dylan; who know an occasion when he sees one, rose to it, and delivered a performance so fitting, so sublime, that everything before and after was promptly forgotten and outshined, and even the birthday-boy's jaw dropped to the floor. Dylan even changed some of the lyrics to his more than 30 years old song, and made it into more of a masterpiece than it already was. If it wasn't for this one song, the whole TV-"special" would have been forgotten the next day. But as it were, i can't forget it, and listen to that song every now and then.

The title, "Sinatra: 80 Years My Way," does not seem appropriate for this special since I can't believe the Chairman of the Board had any input when it came time to select the performers. I suspect that Sinatra looked upon Hootie and the Blowfish and the other "contemporary" performers present to salute him, and said to himself, "Who the hell are these people? Where's Steve and Edie?" Except for the bit about Steve and Edie (they were on the bill), I asked myself the same question. Except for the film clips, a fairly amusing monologue from Norm Crosby, and occasional tributes from the likes of Gregory Peck, the only thing memorable about this ratings driven enterprise was the appearance of Bob Dylan, who sang a coherent (for him) and rather moving version of his own "Restless Farewell," a song that may not have been written about Sinatra but, with its reference to "gossip" and "rumor," seemed to be a summation of Mr. Frank's (as Dylan addressed him) frequently controversial public life.