Browsing the dollar bins at Rasputin records in Berkley over Labor Day weekend, I couldn't pass up this curiosity by Frank Sinatra. It was the cover that grabbed me, with its monochromatic air of desolation (it brings to mind Neil Young's Greendale)-so utterly unlike anything I've seen before from Old Blue Eyes. It turns out that Watertown is a 1970 easy listening concept album, with Sinatra narrating the story of a middle aged man down and out in Watertown, NY after being left by his wife with two sons to tend to. Its a complete song cycle, detailing the break-up of a marriage and its impact on the narrator. Easily the most interesting thing I've heard from Sinatra, the album is a mix of folk rock, easy listening, and swirling baroque pop coupled with an atmosphere of loneliness.

I've chosen to post the title track, which sets the scene as Sinatra tours the lonely town and finds himself at the train station in the rain, as his wife leaves him behind. The last sound we hear is the train pulling out of the station and heading away.

The album was a commercial flop, not even entering the top 100, but is hailed today by many as a lost gem in Sinatra's canon.

Watertown