Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Al Martino, 1927-2009

















Goodbye.

My dad's record collection had a profound impact on me. I didn't inherit his taste, but I picked up his passion for music. Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Ray Price were his staples. Sensing that tens of thousands of men were like just like my dad, non-country artists like Al Martino crassly issued Countrypolitan albums. Sure enough, my pop bought into it. I recall being tortured by awful Martino hits like "Think I'll Go Somewhere and Cry Myself To Sleep". I far prefer the crooner's glorious DayGlo schlock. Hearing "Love Is Blue (L'Amour Est Bleu)" filled me with tears today. It's not that I'm saddened by the song or stricken by news of Martino's death. The forgotten sound awakened suppressed dormant childhood memories. It's one of 25 hits on this compilation.

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On a related note, my favorite MP3 blog, The Driftwood Singers Present, inspired me to post a lengthy comment about the popular music of my infancy.

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Mastodon stomped all over me Monday night. Converge offered brilliant performance art. Dethklok made me laugh. Here's my review.

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Here's footage of Irv da Phenom at the VooDoo Lounge.

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Kansas City Click: I only recently became aware of Wonkachild. He's at the Record Bar on Wednesday.

The mighty Jucifer play Davey's Uptown on Thursday.

2 comments:

The DLC said...

Perhaps you recall how I feel about Bacharach, but that's neither here nor there. I completely agree that the real music of my youth I was too young to critique. For me, it was disco, Air Supply, the Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel...those songs continue to influence my musical taste more than anything that came out in my 20s.

Happy In Bag said...

Thanks for the confirmation, DLC.