44: In the Wee Small Hours

In the Wee Small Hours is often considered Sinatra's best work and arguably the first concept album. The "concept" is something along the lines of "I am awake at 3am and I am feeling deeply sad about a lost love." And that's really it. Just when you think there couldn't possibly be any more songs about the nuances of that kind of misery, there are seven more. It's relentless, it's brutal, it borders on self-harm and it changed the way we all listen to albums forever. So many emotions, such beautiful music, so much history, such an enormous legacy. And yet, what is there to say? Sometimes it's best just to listen - not just to Sinatra, but to the people out there in the world, all with their own problems, who heard this and felt something.

Selected resources:
* Woody Guthrie - Dustbowl Ballads (1940) (featured: "Dust Cain't Kill Me")
* Gordon Jenkins - Seven Dreams (1953) (featured: "The Cocktail Party (The Fourth Dream)")
* The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds (1967) (featured: "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "That's Not Me", "Caroline, No")
* Paul Kelly - How to Make Gravy (autobiography, 2010)
* Jane Russell & Hoagy Carmichael - "I Get Along Without You Very Well" (from Las Vegas Story, 1952)
* Bob Crosby and His Orchestra (with Marion Mann, vocal) - "Deep in a Dream" (1938)
* Laurie Anderson - "Smoke Rings" (from Home of the Brave, 1986)
* The Berlin Patient (podcast hosted by Joel White, 2016-17) (Complete series available on YouTube and Internet Archive)
* Sophie Calle - Take Care of Yourself (book and art project, 2007)
* Nick Hornby - High Fidelity (novel, 1995)
* Marian McPartland Trio - "This Love of Mine" (from self-titled album, 1956)

Special thanks to W.M. Akers.

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