... he's better known for his drinking and comedy hour of the 70's and maybe his brat pack escopades in vegas
Wasn't it the
rat pack?
Spok, that's a nice find. I have only one vinyl recording of Dean Martin. It has whetted my appetite for more of his performances. (I'd especially like to collect some of his
live audience recordings). Not normally my bag in terms of music, and some of the songs are gag-worthy. But you cannot deny talent. Martin's forte was making it seem so easy that you could be convinced that even a drunk could do it. Just how much or how little the happy drunk shtik might have been a purposefully crafted motif has been discussed and considered here and there. He may never have been exactly the lush that was his cover persona.
Martin's career spanned a very tense and dangerous moment in world affairs at the same time that millions were trying to live with the nightmares and horrors of a scant few years before during WW II. His infectious, languid style, and his effortless, silky performance helped people to soar above their anxious fretting and worrying. Look at any outakes of his TV show and you will see, feel and hear the message that just being alive is enough. That is not a mean acheivement
Martin inheritated the mantle of the great Bing Crosby, and it should be left to better students of music history than I to describe or comment on things that may bind them. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that the connections were there and they ran deep. Martin kept the crooning tradition alive past it's due hour of departure. Like Crosby before him, he brought a certain elegance to the simplest and unadorned song.
I'm ready to drop a stylus or a laser diode on just about anything Dean Martin recorded. That seemingly effortless purity was not an accident, but he still brilliantly convinces us that it was just so. Millions remember not only the sound, but the feeling he gave us, and we feel better for it.
