When you are combing the Compact Disc racks looking for Dean Martin, you will inevitably run across Diana Krall. Her album The Look Of Love must have just come out or just won some awards during my Dino acquisition phase. I was seeing this album over and over again.
At the time, I had not heard of her. I was familiar with many of the songs so I decided to gamble. I figured even if it was very good, the cover was still good to look at. As it turned out, it was a nice collection of loungy songs.
I’d eventually go on to pick up most of her catalog. She was playing some intimate little venue in Indianapolis around that time. I thought it could be a cool weekend to take my lovely bride to a formal evening of smooth jazz vocals but it was winter and between the driving risk and other expenses we decided not to go.
Diana Krall feels like grown up music to me. It feels like adults in formal attire drinking vodka martinis, shaken not stirred, in an upscale club.
I have been a fan of Dean Martin’s my whole life. Dino was present in The Scratchy 45’s, The Christmas Albums, mom and I used to watch his variety show, and his movies like the Matt Helm series were favorites.
Some people think that Frank Sinatra is the voice of the era but I disagree. If you listen to Frank sing and compare it to Dean Martin, you’ll find that Dean is so smooth in his delivery and presence. Franks range is small and often forced where Dino’s is effortless and confident. He exudes charisma.
I picked up a few Dean Martin compilation CD’s and found that in addition to a few childhood favorites like Everybody Loves Somebody, there were many more excellent songs. It is difficult to not get caught up in that romantic nostalgia of the late 1930’s and 1940’s.
One night somewhere around 2004 I had this dream of Dean Martin singing in one of those glamorous venues of days gone by. He was singing My Lady Loves To Dance but instead of the actual lyrics, we was singing AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long. It was pretty funny to wake up to.
A guy I know named Phil who was also a Dino fan had several of the DVD’s of Dean’s Variety Show. He let me borrow them and I invited my mother over to watch them with me. It was an enjoyable time for both us. We spent a good part of the show pointing out who was dead and missing that kind of entertainment. Someday I’ll pick up that series. You can find numerous Greatest Hits and Best Of collections just about anywhere. Spend a few bucks and enjoy the King Of Cool.
My Lady Loves To Dance – OK, listen to this melody then imagine Dean singing the words to You Shook Me instead.
Sometimes a really good album comes totally unexpected, right out of no where. I heard the O Brother Where Art Thou? Soundtrack before I saw the movie or even heard of the movie. We were in Aric’s truck and hew was driving us up to Strawberry for another fishing weekend. This would have been October of 2001. We were on 131 a few miles north of Grand Rapids when I first heard the rock breaking opening of what I now know to be Po Lazarus. As they song went on I couldn’t help but wonder what the heck I was listening to. Aric had already begun to dabble in country music. This seemed to take it a step further. He had only been living in North Carolina for 5 months but it appeared to be already taking its toll.
As the song continued he explained that it was from a movie based on Homer’s The Odyssey, called O Brother Where Art Thou? It seemed hard to explain and hard to comprehend. Fortunately, Big Rock Candy Mountain soon followed and from that point on, it was amazingly cool to listen to.
It carried this vintage feel that blended Old Timey music with Bluegrass and Appalachian music. It is a really good album. It made me want to explore more mountain music. It sent Scott on an Alison Krauss Odyssey. Isn’t it cool how such a small event as listening to this in the truck altered Scott’s Musical Evolution?
I eventually saw the film but it happened in an unorthodox Tarentino way. It was running on the Starz network that winter. The first time, I came in at the point where the Soggy Bottom Boys were on stage performing Man Of Constant Sorrow. I had recognized the song but I think the whole Odyssey aspect threw me off. I was trying to figure out how this was The Odyssey. A few days later, I saw it gain only I started watching it from about half an hour before where I came in the previous time. This happened 4 or 5 times. Each time I’d start from a little closer to the beginning and watch to the end. I finally wised up and set the VCR to get the whole thing.
It is a very entertaining film and like other period films like Mandingo, the vernacular is a character. They way they speak and the words they use are very interesting. I still think the Odyssey thing is a stretch.
James Carter And The Prisoners – Po Lazarus Imagine hearing this with no idea what it means.
After my initial score on Columbia House Roulette with Tragic Kingdom, I had to get more No Doubt. As new releases came out, I’d snap them up. I even picked up a couple of Gwen Stefani’s solo efforts. They all have good stuff to offer but none of them seemed to be that complete knock out package that Tragi Kingdom was.
Your peers are always going to be an influential force in you Musical Evolution. Aric, Scott and I began our journeys in different places. We converged for a few years in the mid 80’s then we each took separate paths again.
At the end of The Roach Days, the three of us drifted apart. I got married. A year later Aric got married and soon after he moved to Lafayette to go to attend Purdue University. Scott went on to nursing school. Our paths would cross occasionally but we all seemed to have plenty going on. It was during this period that I was introduced to New Age and began to pursue ambient electronic music. Aric drifted towards Stevie Ray Vaughan the women of country music like The Dixie Chicks and Gretchen Wilson. Scott somehow got tangle up in the blues. Not the up tempo brass section Chicago Blues like the Blues Brothers but the crusty, twangy Ralph Macchio Crossroads blues. I have no idea how that happened. OK maybe I have some idea. I seem to recall him tracing that evolutionary step to Gary Moore who had transitioned to blues. All I know is that I can’t take very much of it.
I love the Blues Brothers. I even drove to Celina, Ohio to see a Blues Brothers tribute band. They were fantastic by the way and the buffet was good. I just can’t get into that typical delta blues stuff. It all sounds the same to me. The structure of First Line, repeat First Line then commentary on the First Line. I recognized the relevance and the contribution to our musical culture but like, that twangy country music and gangsta rap, it all sounds the same and after a couple of tracks, I’m ready for the check.
With all that being said, even though I give Scott a hard time about the blues, I have to appreciate the exposure. There really are some good nuggets buried in there I just would rather not spend the time or money looking for them.
Still over the years Scott has been a great source of inspiration on My Musical Evolution and sometimes we are in perfect sync. for example in the same week this year, we both bought Johnny Horton best of compilations. He came over with his to our Saturday morning coffee and I told him “You aren’t going to believe this!” as I showed him the one I bought that week.
Below are a few tracks that Scott has shared with me over the years. Some that I like and others that I don’t. I’m sure he thinks the same thing about the Jazz or dubstep that I share with him.
Alvin Lee & Ten Years After – The Bluest Blues
Taj Mahal – Fishin’ Blues
B.B. King – The Thrill Is Gone I always tell Scott that the thrill was gone for me after the 8th time he said it.
The first time I played Zork it wasn’t even called Zork. It was called Dungeon and it was 1979. It was a text adventure that was wildly immersive even though all the details were products of my imagination. Back in The Academy Days we played it on a Digital PDP 11/34. No DEC system should be without one. It was usually played in marathon sessions because our version didn’t have the ability to save a game in progress so that it might be resumed later. Like in Stephen King’s book, each trip to the rabbit hole was a total reset. That was a pain but it really raised the stakes when taking risks that might cause you to have to start over.
Over the years as Infocom came into being and Dungeon evolved into Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III, I was happy to have them for my Commodore 64. When Zork Nemesis hit the shelves, it was the original adventures that were included in the set that really got my attention. I had made the move from the Commodore to Windows 95 and felt fortunate to be able to bring Zork with me.
I installed Zork Nemesis because I was curious. The pictures on the box made it look like Maniac Mansion or Zak MacKracken set in the Great Undergound Empire. As a Zork adventure, it was a disappointment. It really didn’t have anything to with Zork as I knew it except in a random name dropping way. The places didn’t really resemble the Zork I knew and the style was completely different. Even so, it was the most fantastic game I had ever played. Visually it was haunting and the soundtrack equally so. To see a video sample click here. I remember discovering a sinister set of stairs leading down into the dark and almost being afraid to go down them.
The game and play techniques might be primitive compared to today’s standards but I still think it holds up well. Wandering around the temple and trying to solve the puzzles was incredibly immersive and the art was very well down. It took me nearly a year to finish the game. By then I had assembled a notebook full of things that I had seen and information that might come up later. It really was a great challenge. I wish they made a version for Windows 8 because I’d like to play it again.
Years later, I was reminiscing about it online and found a website that had samples of the music and sounds. I would buy the soundtrack if it came on CD.
I guess my interest in the far east began in middle school while watching Kung Fu on TV. I wasn’t down for monk training or dragon shaped scars caused by intense heat but I did like the serenity of the gardens and the music. I’m sure that these factors are what led me to gamble on The Source by Osamu Kitajima.
I had never heard of him and to honest, even to this minute I didn’t know if he was not a she. I guess I just assumed. Names like Osamu come with a degree of gender ambiguity. So as I rummaged through the New Age section, I found The Source and it looked like it would be a blend of traditional eastern music and New Age ambience. I was not disappointed.
The album contains just three rather lengthy tracks. For the most part, they are slow, tranquil soul quieting pieces that conjure those same stone gardens with little bridges over still reflecting pools filled with coy. Paper lanterns and bonsai trim the borders of the gently curving path that calls you ahead.
This album prompted a few follow up purchases as it ignited my interest in traditional music from the ancient world. I bought a stack of CD’s that featured ancient music from China, Persia, India and even ritual music from Tanzania. Apart from the Tanzanian ritual music which is almost completely percussion, I’ve really enjoyed them all. I haven’t gone out and picked up a whole bunch more but that is more a function of economics than anything else. I enjoy it but I cannot justify getting a bunch more at the moment.
Osamu Kitajima – Heavensent
Osamu Kitajima – Thru Cosmic Doors
Of course I couldn’t find samples of the actual CD’s I have so I’m including the following because it demonstrates the flavor very well.
If I was only writing one post per day this year, this would the be the last one. On one of our early cultural fishing weekends on Strawberry, Aric brought up a pair of Greatest Hits volumes by Stevie Ray Vaughan. I was familiar with the name and even a couple of the more radio sized hits but that was about it.
I do remember where I was when I heard that Stevie Ray Vaughan had died. I don’t know why I remember it so vividly. At the time I was wildly indifferent to his music. I had just gone down that hill eastbound on State street past Wells where Clara’s Pizza King is. I don’t know where I was I headed. The guy on the radio came on, made the announcement and that was it.
Scott had seen him live at the coliseum but at that time he wasn’t a huge fan either. At some point between then and that time on the lake, Aric had become very fond of Stevie Ray Vaughan. That weekend we have some solid SRV time on the boat. I admit that it grew on me and it wasn’t long after that I added those two CD’s to my collection.
That being said, I still don’t listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan on a regular basis. It is cool when it pops up in a shuffle but I don’t actively put on these records and just listen to SRV. It is damn good stuff and listening to it right now it has me moving and grooving. I don’t know, maybe it was just a matter of timing. At this point in my life, the twangy blues driven stuff is not what trips the trigger. My favorite track is Riviera Paradise. If you are familiar with that track you know that it isn’t a blues riff Pride And Joy type song but a slower jazzier guitar exploration which puts it much closer to the mark for me. It is a track that you can put on and simply sway to in a dimly lit room.
Texas Flood
Pride And Joy
Crossfire
Change It
Cold Shot
Couldn’t Stand The Weather
Love Struck Baby
Scuttle Buttin’
Lenny
Riviera Paradise
Look At Little Sister
Pipeline – An old ventures tune. Cool!
Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) – This on sounds really good when those drums kick in and you have it turned up to 11.
It was only a matter of time before my pursuit of beats, sampling, electronics and such would put me in the same room with The Art Of Noise. I think my first taste of The Art Of Noise came from their video for Close (To The Edit)Like some of the Information Society stuff, it seemed that much of the music was happening in a computer where snippets of sounds and dialog were warped into musical elements.
Much of the music is instrumental and of course that appealed. The beats were dominate and the non-traditional nature outs this squarely in my win column. Add to it some movie and TV tie ins and a dose of humor and it was like this album was built just for me.
Tom Jones does a fabulous version of Prince’s song Kiss. It cracks me up and yet it is really good fun. I prefer it to the original every day of the week. When Tom says “Think I better dance now” it is classic.
Another memory tied to this album is when Grant was “signing along” to Dragnet. During the I carry, I carry, I carry a badge section, he nailed the exact number of I carries. Amusing yes! Why? I don’t know. Life is like that.
Opus 4
Beat Box (Diversion One)
Moments In Love
Close (To The Edit)
Peter Gunn Theme
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Paranoimia – Remember Max Headroom?
Dragnet ’88
Kiss – I really dig this concept as you’ll see with Pat Boone in a few days.
I’m not certain what triggered my turn towards easy listening and lounge music. Is it a by product of aging? I had been a fan of guys like Dean Martin and Andy Williams for most of my life even if they were absent for most of it. It seems unlikely that a guy that was so into Iron Maiden just a decade ago could be so into the soothing tones of Yellow Bird. They seem contradictory.
My wife and I are opposites when it comes to lyrics. For the most part, I don’t acknowledge the words. If the beat is good and the melody is moving that is good enough for me. My wife is a lyrics first person. She wants to know what they’re saying. What is the message? What is this song about? I’ll occasionally become intimate with lyrics particularly when I think that are clever or poignant. However, in case you haven’t noticed, I really like instrumental music more than any other. That is not to say that no songs with words rise to the top of the favorites list. Just that on a whole, I can listen to instrumental music all day long everyday and I do in most cases.
I bought Instrumental Gold from one of those TV infomercial offers like you did back in the pre internet days. I’m sure that I was watching the commercial and thought “that’s a cool song” about several of the samples. Perhaps there was one that stuck out. The two disc set is full of good stuff. There are a couple of songs that aren’t actually instrumental as that have vocal tracks but even they are reminiscent of that bygone era of songs and it does the job.
I think the only track here that I don’t care for is The Stripper. I don’t know why but that song just grates on me somehow. Maybe because it is so stereo typically burlesque. Maybe because the raucous brass clashes with the soothing tone of the rest of the collection. It is kind of like the clock chimes section of Dark Side Of The Moon. A smooth and cool vibe shattered by tolling bells and alarm clocks.
Percy Faith – Theme From A Summer Place
Morris Stoloff – Moonglow
Leroy Anderson – Blue Tango
Les Baxter – The Poor People Of Paris
Paul Muriat – Love Is Blue
Perez Prado – Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White
Frank Mills – Music Box Dancer
Billy Vaughn – Sail Along Silv’ry Moon
Apollo 100 – Joy
Robert Maxwell – Shangri-La
Arthur Lyman – Yellow Bird
Martin Denny – Quiet Village
David Rose – Holiday For Strings
Hugo Winterhalter – Canadian Sunset
Roger Williams – Autumn Leaves
Patricia – Wait a second, this kind of sounds like that Guinness screen saver song
When you are combing the Compact Disc racks looking for Dean Martin, you will inevitably run across Diana Krall. Her album The Look Of Love must have just come out or just won some awards during my Dino acquisition phase. I was seeing this album over and over again.
