Music Review: Sinatra: Vegas
Published November 11, 2006
Why is it okay for Sinatra to take potshots at Claudine Longet ("one of the great marksmen of all times"), but not Liz Taylor? And then, during the "introductions" monologue later on, there's yet another edit. While acknowledging the presence of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley in the audience, this ill-advised off the cuff remark has been removed...
"Even if he is colored, he's a Hell of a man. He knows that, we tease him all the time. I'm glad to see ya, Thomas. He's my fella."Too politically incorrect, perhaps? Well, that's Sinatra: Vegas, folks. Deal with it. Of course, when he calls Paul Anka "that little Arab," it doesn't get edited out.
What happened here? Why not include the complete monologues — unedited and uncensored? There's plenty of swearing, drug references, and other off-color humor elsewhere in the Sinatra: Vegas recordings. What was it about these particular comments that was deemed "over the line," and by whom? Did the Sinatra Family insist on the edits before approving this release in order to "protect" their father's image and "legacy?" I think we can all handle the unsanitized Sinatra: Vegas experience, warts and all, just as the original audiences experienced it.
Sure, the Live at Caesar's Palace DVD is a fantastic, compelling performance regardless. People who haven't heard the bootleg version won't notice the deletions, and it certainly seems like "the complete unreleased concert"... as promised.
So it's too bad that this otherwise outstanding collection is tainted by these perhaps minor but conspicuous revisionist tinkerings. I now have to wonder: What might have been purged from the monologues on the four CDs?
Despite this, Sinatra: Vegas is still a welcome, overdue, and highly recommended collection. Just hang on to your original bootleg of Caesar's Palace May 5, 1978 (or find yourself a copy) to hear the truly complete, unedited, unvarnished monologues in all of their pugnacious, swaggering glory — "Sinatra: Vegas" as it should be.
- Music Review: Sinatra: Vegas
- Published: November 11, 2006
- Type: Review
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Jazz, Music: Live Concerts, Music: Pop, Music: Popular and Standards
- Writer: Stephen V Funk
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A little more background on the DVD edits and Nancy's response... on the SinatraFamily.com online forum, a link to Will Friedwald's New York Sun review of Sinatra: Vegas is posted, which includes the following comments about the DVD:
"Sinatra [...] refers to [Mayor] Bradley as being "colored" - an aside that is mysteriously deleted from the DVD. I can't imagine why it's okay for Sinatra to poke fun at Jews and his fellow Italians, but not at blacks, especially since he literally kvells with delight that both Bradley and his wife are in the audience, and is obviously jazzed that Los Angeles now has a black mayor. He literally seems to be taking this fact as a personal point of pride. The producers also snipped out Sinatra's attacks on William Randolph Hearst and Louis B. Mayer, as well as a scathing Andrew Dice Clay-like appraisal of Elizabeth Taylor's reproductive organs. On the unedited tape, Sinatra declaims, it turns out correctly: "I'm layin' 11 to one that you don't use this on television!""
Later in the same thread, a SinatraFamily forum reader posts this comment: "I find it interesting that Will points out the "sanitizing" of the DVD with Frank's less than PC comments eliminated. No one else has mentioned that."
To which Nancy replies: "Because it isn't true. WF didn't look or listen. But that's not unusual for him." Quite a slam on Will Friedwald... Nancy then apparently read the review more closely and posted:
"<< The producers also snipped out Sinatra's attacks on William Randolph Hearst and Louis B. Mayer, >> That is absolutely not true."
Interestingly she does not deny that Sinatra's remarks about Liz Taylor and Mayor Bradley were edited out (and they definitely were!) As far as I can tell, though, she is correct in saying that the rest of the monologue has been left intact. I'm not sure why Will Friedwald thinks the W.R. Hearst and L.B. Mayer comments were edited -- they are clearly included on the DVD. Maybe he has a different bootleg copy than the rest of us...
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