Dylan reveals his first Sinatra concert was here

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A new piece of Pittsburgh lore is revealed in a wideranging interview with Bob Dylan posted on his website Wednesday.

Dylan, who will release “Triplicate,” his third straight collection of American standards (this one a three-disc collection) on Friday, talks about his appreciation for Frank Sinatra, who so majestically sang many of those standards.

Interviewer Bill Flanagan asks Dylan when he first saw Sinatra, to which he responds, “Pittsburgh, maybe ’67 or ’68 at the Civic Arena. He sang ‘ Summer Wind,’ ‘Day In, Day Out,’ ‘ Moonlight in Vermont.’ ”

It was, in fact, July 2, 1967, and it was Sinatra’s first time performing at the arena and his first time in Pittsburgh since playing the Stanley Theatre at the height of the bobbysoxer era in 1942.

Remember, in the postWar World II era, Sinatra was a has-been in his mid30s.

“He went out of popularity,” recalls Pittsburgh promoter Pat DiCesare. “It wasn’t until ’53 when ‘From Here to Eternity’ came out — and he begged to do it — that he made his comeback.”

And in those days, he was holed up in Vegas at his playground the Sands, where, in 1966, he married Mia Farrow and recorded his first live album, “Sinatra at the Sands.” (He would leave the Sands the following year when new owner Howard Hughes pushed him out.)

Mr. DiCesare says he tried to lure Sinatra and the Rat Pack out of Vegas during that time to do a week at the Stanley, but his manager asked, “What is Frank going to do in Pittsburgh for a week?”

Mr. DiCesare suggested he could fly back and forth to New York each day, but that didn’t, well, fly with Frank.

In the mid-’60s, despite the British Invasion wiping out the vocal groups, Sinatra was in the midst of a career renaissance, recording some of the finest material of his career, including the albums “September of My Years” (1965), “Strangers in the Night” and “That’s Life” (1966). (“Strangers in the Night” won the record of the year Grammy in 1967.)

No wonder Dylan wanted to see him.

The strange thing is that, no, Dylan was not also performing in Pittsburgh on July 2, 1967. He wasn’t even touring in 1967. He was in his self-imposed exile period, post-motorcycle accident, in Woodstock, N.Y., holed up in the basement of Big Pink with The Band recording “The Basement Tapes,” so he made a special trip here to see Sinatra.

Pittsburgh was the start of a nine-city swing that included Cleveland, Madison, Wis., Baltimore and Philadelphia. The concert was self-promoted by Sinatra’s management and the $12.50 tickets were sold via mail order. The show set a new single-day attendance record at the arena of 23,484 for two shows (4:30 and 8:30 p.m.).

He was backed by Buddy Rich and his Orchestra, and the show also featured Brasil ’66 and comedian Pat Henry. The Pittsburgh Press review, subtitled “Frankie Boy Sets Records in Attendance, Box Office,” was written by Kaspar Monahan, who recalled the teenagers drowning him out with screams at the Stanley, and noted, “Last evening, many of these self-same screaming girls, now plump and fortyish, sat entranced at the Arena and let their daughters and nieces do the screaming.”

He wrote of Sinatra, at 50, that “the voice is still golden, his technique much smoother and his frame, alas, considerably plumper.” Of course, there is no mention of Dylan being there, nor did it ever pop up again in those pages.

Dylan’s memory is true. Sinatra started the concert with “Summer Wind” and played all three of those songs mentioned, according the setlist.fm.

Mr. Flanagan also asks Dylan about being invited, along with Bruce Springsteen, to Sinatra’s house for dinner around the time they did a TV tribute to him, which would have been in 1995 for Sinatra’s 80th birthday celebration. Here is the exchange: “Had you met him before? Did you feel like he knew your stuff?”

“Not really. I think he knew ‘The Times They Are a-Changin’’ and ‘Blowin’ in the Wind.’ I know he liked ‘Forever Young,’ he told me that. He was funny, we were standing out on his patio at night and he said to me, ‘You and me, pal, we got blue eyes, we’re from up there,’ and he pointed to the stars. ‘These other bums are from down here.’ I remember thinking that he might be right.”