How many folk singers do you know who play Frank Sinatra songs? Yes, I’ve finally accepted that I’m a folk singer. I’m too much of a late bloomer to be a rock star. But that’s life.
Despite his popularity, there aren’t a lot of Frank Sinatra songs that really resonate with me, but he also didn’t write his own songs. The only song he ever wrote was called “This Love Of Mine”. I’ve always loved this song, written by Dean Kay and Kelly Gordon, but I have to be honest and admit that my love for it was probably spurred on David Lee Roth’s version. It’s similar to how I’m now learning how to play “The Place I Live In” because of Payy Labelle’s performance of it at Sinatra’s 80th birthday party…. Wow!
Of course, when I do “That’s Life”, I tend to change the last line. I’ve been through too much in life to just “roll myself up in a big ball and die” just because nothing comes around in July. July is way too hot to do anything in Florida anyway, so I changed it to “roll myself up a big old joint and get high.” Sometimes, it gets a laugh.
This is the poem I use to introduce it when I perform it in The Cowboy Cabaret.
“That’s Life”
If anyone ever told you that life is somehow fair,
they deserve a real good face smack or a kick in the derrière.
While its true that life provides and she’s got plenty good at it,
fairness aint no part of it, no matter which way you spin it.
While Jefferson was poetic, he’s also full of shit.
We ain’t created equal, now let’s get over it.
Life, it has its ups and downs, and you just gotta ride it.
Life, it may not be that fair,
but it’s a hell of a lot better than dyin’.
