(The Annotated) That's Life!

THAT’S LIFE!¹

written by Dean Kay & Kelly Gordon²

sung by Frank Sinatra³ 

That's life,

That's what all the people say⁴.
You're ridin’ high in April,
Shot down⁵ in May
But I know I'm gonna change that tune⁶,
When I'm back on top⁷, back on top in June. 

I said that's life,
And as funny⁸ as it may seem
Some people get their kicks⁹,
Stompin' on a dream¹⁰
But I don't let it, let it get me down¹¹,
'Cause this fine ol' world, it keeps spinnin’ around¹²

 
I've been a puppet, a pauper¹³, a pirate, a poet,

a pawn¹⁴ and a king.
I've been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing:
Each time I find myself flat on my face¹⁵,
I pick myself up and get back in the race¹⁶.

That's life,
I tell you, I can't deny it,
I thought of quittin’, baby
But my heart just ain't gonna buy it¹⁷.
And if I didn't think it was worth one single try,
I'd jump right on a big bird¹⁸ and then I'd fly

I've been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet,
a pawn and a king.
I've been up and down and over and out
And I know one thing:
Each time I find myself layin’ flat on my face,
I just pick myself up and get back in the race
That's life,

That’s life and I can't deny it
Many times I thought of cuttin’ out
But my heart won't buy it
But if there's nothing shakin' come this here July¹⁹
I'm gonna roll myself up in a big ball and die.

My, my!²⁰

_________________________

¹Sinatra’s hit version of this song was recorded on his own Reprise label in October 1966, the same month the Beatles were beginning work on Sgt. Pepper and the Jimi Hendrix Experience was dazzling the London club scene. Although Frank was clearly not in a psychedelic mood himself, this is nevertheless one of his “hippest” tracks, thanks largely to the soulful organ playing, which sounds like it could be Jimmy Smith. 

The king of the Hammond b3. When asked for advice by an aspiring 
jazz organist, Jimmy told him: “Give it up. You’ll never be as good as me.”

Guess again! On the b3 for this session was actually respected keyboardist and arranger Michael Melvoin. 

    Don’t let appearances deceive – Melvoin’s hundreds of recording credits 
    would later include John Lennon’s “Rock & Roll” album and Tom Waits’ 
    “Nighthawks at the Diner” (on which Tom quotes "That's Life!")

²The first artist to record Kay & Gordon’s song was British jazz singer Marion Montgomery (in 1964), followed a year later by a then-unknown O.C. Smith. Smith’s version was a flop, although he himself would strike fame and fortune in 1968 with the million-selling “Little Green Apples”. (And if that’s not loving you / then God didn’t make the little green apples / and it don’t rain in Indianapolis in the summertime…)

³Italian-American singer.

⁴Yes, that’s what they say. And although it’s equally “life” when things go well, this time-worn cliché is most often heard when they don’t. A variant of the more elegant “c’est la vie”, after which Marcel Duchamp would name his feminine alter ego, Rrose Sélavy.

 

Duchamp in drag as Rrose Sélavy, 1921.

⁵“Riding high” (having a lot of success and/or luck) seems to be a cowboy metaphor, while “shot down” may be another Western-movie idiom (“Billy the Kid was shot down by Pat Garett”) or one having to do with fighter planes.

 

⁶I’m going to be in another frame of mind.

⁷When I’ve regained my success.

⁸Funny strange, not funny ha-ha.

⁹Get their excitement. Like Nat King Cole used to do on Route 66. Often refers to the effect of drugs or alcohol, as in another Sinatra hit (I get no kick from champagne / Mere alcohol doesn’t thrill me at all / but I get a kick out of you).

¹⁰“Stompin’” is a colloquial pronunciation of “stamping”, which means to step very heavily, in this case with the intention of deliberately crushing something.

¹¹I don’t let it depress me.

¹²1,670 kph at the Equator.

¹³Somewhat archaic word for a very poor person (which Frank’s Hoboken accent renders here as “paw-pah”). Even if we don’t use the word much anymore, we all know it from Mark Twain’s 1881 classic of switched identities.

¹⁴The smallest and least important piece (or “man”) in a chess set. Also, a helpless or ignorant individual who is used or manipulated by more powerful forces (e.g. the poor white racist in Bob Dylan’s “Only a Pawn in their Game” or, of course, George W. Bush).

¹⁵(flat on my face = defeated; failed) As if that string of p’s weren’t enough, we have here another fine example of alliteration, the repetition of consonant sounds for poetic effect. The repetition of vowel sounds is known as assonance.

¹⁶I stand up again (after a fall) and rejoin the race. An athletic metaphor, perhaps, or does this mean “the human race”? Hmmm…

¹⁷I’ve considered abandoning my goal but my heart won’t let me. In the last verse, Frank replaces “quittin’” with “cuttin’ out” which has more the idea of physically leaving. Whatever the case, the singer seems to be having an existential moment here.
 

To be or not to be…

¹⁸An airplane.

¹⁹If there’s nothing (good) happening this coming July. “Shaking” simply means “happening”  …although I think Eddie Fontaine was referring to something else in this song:

²⁰An expression of detached amusement.

 

Frank and Dean at the blackjack table.

  

Magic Bob