There I celebrated what I find to be Dino's most interesting period, a strange world of almost intentionally lacklustre recordings, a melange of stale Tin Pan Alley standards, big band, country and sixties bubblegum pop that, in the late 1970s, sounded particularly incongruous.

Hey pallies, likes as we were typin' Dino-patter for our initial Dino-gram on this very very special month of celebratin' "The Day That Coolness Came To Earth," we were wonderin' how coulda we tops a post internationale in nature and hugely homagin' of our Dino likes yesterday's sharin' of Montesilvano's Councillor Carlandrea Falcone  proposin' they tag their new convention center after our Dino.  What coulda compare to our most beloved Dino's mother earth....Montesilvano....birth site of our Dino's daddy-o ponderin' the passionate possibility  of honorin' our Dino in this wondrous way?!?!?!?!

Well, likes we needn't worried, 'cause as soon as we finished that powerful post, as we began our usual google Dino-blog search, we were likes almost immediately directed to more international Dino-devotion, if possible even more hugely homagin' of our main man.  We were delightfully directed to the blog of one of our newest pallies-in-Dino, Mr. Joshua Meggitt's swank site, "...As Though The Shame Would Outlive Him - music and listening."

Faithful readers of ilovedinomartin knows that Josh is that awesome Aussie deeply diggin' Dino dude who in April did that most spectacularly  special of special radio programmes on the life, times, and teachin's of our Dino in his latter years on radio 3RRR FM's Max Headroom.  You can locate our original post of deep Dino-appreciato  HERE.  And, likes we had been hopin' to find an appropriate way to be able to 'gin  accent this fantasticly fabulous programme for all who may have missed the original post.

So, likes today we are totall totally thrilled to be able to share Mr. Meggitt's superb scribin' "Dean Martin - The Later Years, on Max Headroom."  Upon postin' our original prose on his poweful programme, Josh left us such nice appreciato and we replied by sayin'....."Might you consider takin' your notes from this programme and creatin' some Dino-prose for us as we finds it spot on in deep, pure, and true devotion to our Dino...you are one of few who truly "gets Martin" in our Dino-book."

And, likes that pallies is exactly what Josh has done with his most Dino-honorin' post...so we finally have in print much of Meggitt's spoken Dino-reflections from the radio show....'long with that coolest of cool gif from "The Cannonball Run II" where our Dino takes a nip right from the bottle....and some great youtube clips of some of Dino-croons shared on the radio programme.  Likes this is 100 % proof purely potent prose pallies!!!!!!

In addition Mr. Meggitt is so so kind to include thanks to ilovedinomartin for doin' our  small part in spreadin' the news of his immense 'n intense Dino-efforts...includin' a couple of links and portions of our praise for his astoundin' 'n awesome work in the cause of Dino.  All in all, it one of the most important Dino-postin's that we have ever been privileged to share here at ilovedinomartin.

And, likes we  are absolutely awed that Meggitt has been sharin' his deepest of deep devotion to our Dino with his prodigy!  Josh sez, "The main appeal with Dean Martin was his carelessness, a quality I've even managed to get my four year old to appreciate."  That's where it's at pallies.....one generation leadin' the next into deep, pure, and true devotion to our one and only Dino!

On this second day of our month of rememberin' "The Day That Coolness Came To Earth" we salute Mr. Joshua Meggitt for his extraordinary efforts in the spreadin' the Dino-message far and wide.  And, once 'gain here is the LINK to Meggitt's remarkable radio programme.  To checks this out in it's original format, simply clicks on the tag of this here Dino-gram.  Dino-always, ever, and only, DMP

Thursday, 28 May 2015

Dean Martin - The Later Years, on Max Headroom




More belated and perfunctory posting. I recently presented a special on the later years of Dean Martin for 3RRR FM's Max Headroom, which can be streamed here . There I celebrated what I find to be Dino's most interesting period, a strange world of almost intentionally lacklustre recordings, a melange of stale Tin Pan Alley standards, big band, country and sixties bubblegum pop that, in the late 1970s, sounded particularly incongruous. Ironically such product could also only come from the 1970s.

Here is the blurb for the show:
Over his long and varied career, Dean Martin, "The King of Cool", was a heart throb, crooner, film star and leading member of the rat pack.

He was also known as "The Laziest Man In Showbiz", churning out countless albums of stale standards and hosting formulaic, TV specials for over 40 years.

On Max Headroom this week, Joshua Meggitt explores this lacklustre Dino, playing choice filler from his later albums, with excerpts from such cinematic highlights as The Cannonball Run 2
By focusing on the later years, I intentionally avoided his younger, more well known material, the stuff of nostalgia shows and Scorsese films, and went straight to the end: his lazy, resolutely uncool, critically condemned, and now long forgotten (if ever paid attention to) final years. It's a world of strange, almost studied mediocrity, so mindlessly middle-of-the-road that hearing it now, its quite unlike all other music. Exemplary is "Old Bones", the opening song from his final album, 1983's The Nashville Sessions:



Today, Dean Martin is largely remembered as a lazy, lackadasical Frank Sinatra, a Las Vegas self-parody, his reputation resting on a few comedies he made with Jerry Lewis, and some charming pieces of pop fluff that once topped the Hit Parade with retro “lounge” revivals and appearances in mafia films. Even by the later years of his own career, his early days as a global, charismatic romantic icon are long forgotten… and yet I can’t look away! This song is so stupid, but I love it: "Love Thy Neighbour" from 1978's penultimate Once in a While:



The main appeal with Dean Martin was his carelessness, a quality I've even managed to get my four year old to appreciate. He was, as biographer Nick Tosches dubbed him, the ultimate menefreghista - one who just doesn't give a fuck.Or, going further, what contrarian commentator and Oxbow singer Eugene Robinson describes as outright violent misanthropy.
Dean Martin’s vocals say one thing to my ears: FUCK YOU!

The more I listen, the more I agree. Hostility and scorn for both his material and his audience is clearly expressed in his reading of "It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'", from the wonderfully titled, My Woman My Woman My Wife of 1970. Essentially a ballad about the pain of breaking up, listen to Dean laugh as he delivers the line, "I cry myself to sleep each night", as though the very concept of him feeling heartbreak is absurd:



The ilovedinomartin Dean Martin fansite blog got wind of the program and promoted it heavily. Check out their kind words here but here's an excerpt:

Hey pallies likes are we in for the hugest of huge Dino-treats as today, as promised we share our newest pallie, down under dude Mr. Joshua Meggitt's  coolest of cool "celebration" of our Dino....an hour long radio programme that is a marvelous  mix of  '70's and '80's Dino-croons and choice audio recordin's from our Dino's later work on both the small and big screens...

We gotta 'fess up that we  grooved on each and ever moment of this purely potent programme of passionate appreciato for our King of Cool.  We particularly loved listenin' to a number of croons from our Dino's last al-b-um, "The Nashville Sessions."  And, we couldn't 'gree more with Josh that these particular croons really are remarkably revelatory of our Dino's life and times at that point...truly these croons form a stellar set of Dino-teachin's!!!!!

We coulda goes on and on, 'bout the wonderful mixin' of Mr. Meggitt's Dino-reflections with our Dino's singin', but likes we wants  youse all to enjoy this amazin' programme lovin'ly presented by in-the-know Dino-holic Mr. Joshua Meggitt.

We salute Josh for this tremendous tribute to our main man and for encouragin' his audience to develop a deeper understandin' and relationship with of our Dino by readin' Nick Tosche's Dino-bio, "DINO: Living High In The Dirty Business Of Dream.  And thanks ever so much to pallie Josh for even givin' a nice shout out to our humble little Dino-blog, ilovedinomartin. for doin' our part to promote his Dino-special.

I suspect there'll be more Dean Martin posts...