Word: swaggering
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Sinatra's attitude about all this was simple enough. He was responsible to the world for his music, but for his life answerable only to himself, and to hell with the rest of you. There was, all through him, a kind of animating anger, an Italian street-kid swagger that made such good cover for his black-and-blue soulfulness that it was easy, especially when he was living high or mouthing off, to take it at face value. But as much as anything else, that attitude was a dodge, barbed wire for the unwary, protecting his private preserve...
...behind--from I'll Never Smile Again of 1940 to Hey Look, No Crying of 1981--there were songs that eluded him till the end. Studio outtakes and bootlegs show him chiding the arranger, bugging the conductor, riding the band and beating up on himself with a good-humored swagger that doesn't hide the disappointment and frustration that are chewing him up. You can hear the defeat in his voice, as if he had lost a chance at lasting love...
...what about the rest of the contemporary music crowd? Can Sinatra's influence be seen? Yes, mostly in the swagger. Luther Vandross, 47, the R.-and-B. singer who teamed with Sinatra on his 1993 album Duets, says he was drawn early on to Sinatra's blunt Hoboken, N.J., charisma. "When I was growing up," says Vandross, "he represented success and respect." Another pop star who has learned from Sinatra is Bono, 38, lead singer of the Irish rock group U2. Presenting Sinatra with a special "Legend" Award at the Grammys in 1994, Bono pinpointed Frank's appeal...
...champions of the form over the past 17 years has been the New York City band Sonic Youth. "We got past the hardest part together," says band member Thurston Moore, 39, "which was getting through our 20s and 30s together." Sonic Youth doesn't embrace the swagger and sexual bravado of mainstream rock. The band's lyrics are often deliberately remote, seeking to capture, through abstract imagery, the wildness of adolescence, the plight of junkies and losers, and the social frustrations that come with gender barriers. Sonic Youth's members present themselves not as saviors but as everyday sorts...
Both have It--that mixture of swagger, danger and vulnerability. Folks who meet the President typically refer to his heat, to the musk of his personality, whether he is flashing them a thrilled-with-it-all smile or listening, hands folded prayerfully, concentrating with a ferocity that is a virtual assault of attentiveness. And he uses It like a movie star. The confluence of politics and performance finds its nexus in his indefatigable showmanship. He wants to romance not just the Congress or perhaps a stray intern but America, the world...