Dylan and Sinatra: So Different, and Yet . . .

I happened to finish reading a biography of Bob Dylan, and start reading a biography of Frank Sinatra, and more or less the same time that Dylan released an album of Sinatra covers ("Shadows in the Night") last week.    The two have more in common than might first appear.

Both Sinatra and Dylan came from places--Hoboken, New Jersey and Hibbing, Minnesota--that were well off the beaten track at the time.   Both came from minority groups (Italians, Jews) that--again, in the relevant time and place--were considered cultural outsiders.   Although Sinatra obviously has the more pleasing voice, both sang in a markedly different way than anyone else, and achieved fame less by having a "better" voice than a more distinctive and recognizable one.

There are some interesting similarities in their career trajectories, as well.    Both rocketed to fame in their twenties and were considered washed up somewhere in their thirties, Sinatra's comeback beginning with From Here to Eternity and the Capitol recordings in the 1950s, Dylan's arguably waiting until Time Out of Mind in the '90s, although there were several intermediate "comebacks" before that.    Both balanced a number of marriages against a habit of indulgence with other women, although there is no legend of Dylan's physique to match Sinatra's (it must be noted that the latter is based on circumstantial evidence, all of it provided by people who, well, liked him).  

And of course, both were rather difficult people, but that pretty much goes without saying.   (They did meet, Dylan performing at Sinatra's 80th birthday party, although I suspect this was a bigger deal to the former than the latter.)

There are a lot of differences, of course.   Dylan remains counterculture-oriented, at least in theory, even in his old age; Sinatra was resolutely mainstream.   Dylan had a middle class upbringing that was, if anything, somewhat boring; Sinatra's was anything but.   Dylan, for better or worse, writes nearly all his own songs; Sinatra almost never did.   And it would be hard to confuse them, in person or on their records.

The Dylan/Sinatra album has received excellent reviews, BTW, although I suspect he could record the Friday night service and get good reviews at this point.   Come to think of it, he DID record a version of the Amidah ("Father of the Night") once, together with a song ("Forever Young") that's more or less a takeoff on the priestly blessing.   Which leads to one final difference: Dylan, who was born and by most lights remains Jewish, had a born again Christian period.  Sinatra didn't have to.