Nancy Sinatra is Wall Street’s answer to the hippie. She’s a facially beautiful broad that plays the almost fetish sex role to shake up her record sales and overall public appeal; and yet she never seems to really overdo it.
She borders on the absurd in her prolific poses, yet she doesn’t really try as hard as she could to ‘sell’ herself. You know, that Mansfield coax that is so exaggerated it’s comical. But that’s because Papa’s got coin. It’s because of this that she can skyrocket to the top of almost any music survey any time she’s in a mood to bellow out.
And without the money and Papa Frank’s weight? I went to Edgewater “Amusement” Park Saturday to see if I couldn’t satiate my Freudian desires. Yeah! By the way, Edgewater is anti — hippie and refused me free admission to watch Nancy for this story. Arise and picket!
Nancy was there to smile, spread her personality, drum up some record sales, and answer questions that diskjockey Dick Perton of WKNR put to her. Some of her answers were enlightening. There was no doubt that she had come to the park to publicize herself in just the right light.
She said she loved to perform for the type of people in the audience, and wouldn’t perform in nightclubs because kiddies couldn’t afford a $6 cover charge. The audience consisted of about 200 kids from age 8 to 17, about 10 adults, and lots and lots of officers.
She said she’s been trying a long time to make it in the record business, that she’d put out a couple of records that didn’t make it. She was trying to make herself look like a poor girl that struggled to the top the hard way. It was an attempt to arouse sympathy and sales from the audience.
Also she said a change in image helped her shoot up to the top. One of her latest records sold 4 million. I don’t exactly recall her past image, but her present one is a pseudo-hippie semi-sex goddess.
She said she’s planning to make another movie (last one was “Wild Angels,” a play on Hell’s Angels), and it’s to show what’s “really” happening at Berkley. Another appeal to the hippie and semi-hippie market.
In the middle of her appearance I glanced out at the rides at the park. Most were full with kids who didn’t give a damn about some broad talking. I’d estimate there were three times as many kids on the rides as there were in listening to Nancy. I don’t really blame them. Kids are interested in singers with voices, not broads with bullshit and images.
Pull and pressure, unfortunately, dominate the music industry. At least as far as guild up goes. I mean, you put a broad like Nancy on the front of a few music magazines, general interest publication, and a Detroit News TV Guide and you set the brainwash machines in motion. Then you get together the finest recording and performance equipment around and cut a record. Send it to the diskjockeys with Papa Frank’s name there in between the lines, and hitsville!
If some of the same treatment were furnished to some of the hard working Detroit groups like Billie C and the Sunshine or the magnificent MC 5 who have really sweated out musical talent, a name like Nancy Sinatra would only be a body. These groups have had to start from the bottom of the pile and try and climb upwards. Maybe that’s why they emit a much more real music. When Nancy asked Papa if he thought she could sing he said sure. Here’s the money for the record company to prove it.
In the context of musical art she is something to be ignored. She has most other artists at a disadvantage, and when creativity and talent comes into play, she isn’t. After seeing her perform and listening to a couple of her records again, I’m certain she should donate her connections and recording interests to the two groups I mentioned. That is, if she has any aesthetic appreciation. They are artists in a much truer sense, although I really doubt if they’d look good in miniskirts stretched out for the traditional pose on a rug.