The Explanation
(for those who require one)
And, of course, that is what all of this is -- all of this: the one song, ever changing, ever reincarnated, that speaks somehow from and to and for that which is ineffable within us and without us, that is both prayer and deliverance, folly and wisdom, that inspires us to dance or smile or simply to go on, senselessly, incomprehensibly, beatifically, in the face of mortality and the truth that our lives are more ill-writ, ill-rhymed and fleeting than any song, except perhaps those songs -- that song, endlesly reincarnated -- born of that truth, be it the moon and June of that truth, or the wordless blue moan, or the rotgut or the elegant poetry of it. That nameless black-hulled ship of Ulysses, that long black train, that Terraplane, that mystery train, that Rocket '88', that Buick 6 -- same journey, same miracle, same end and endlessness."
-- Nick Tosches, Where Dead Voices Gather
16 comments:
Apple juice. Every acquaintance in every Dino documentary says that's what he drank. He just pretended to be drunk. It's...apple juice...
Doesn't matter if it was apple juice, Jack Daniels or motor oil, it was still his act (well . . . actually it was Joe E. Brown's act, but Martin put his stamp on it good and proper).
"Somebody put orange juice in my orange juice!" -- W.C. Fields
OK, well he finished on scotch and percodan making Cannonball Run II. Not a good act in the end.
I read somewhere not long ago about a bootleg of a performance he did in Vegas, made the night after a performance that had been recorded and released. Comparing the two recordings made it clear that the performance was pretty much the same. Every stumble, malapropism, aside to the bandleader, etc. Which is not a complaint. To do that and make it seem fresh each time takes skill of a very high order.
There's a great example of that act here (with Foster Brooks.As a Limey I'm not terribly familiar with Brooks work but having watched this clip endlessly I would like to count myself a fan!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8L-ZZSc8JU
Doesn't matter if it was apple juice, Jack Daniels or motor oil, it was still his act (well . . . actually it was Joe E. Brown's act, but Martin put his stamp on it good and proper).So who said it wasn't his act? And, ultimately, it began to matter a great deal what he was drinking--onstage or off.
Big time correction:
I meant Joe E. Lewis . . . not the star of You Said a Mouthful and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Much like Lewis, Martin's drunk bit slowly evolved into the real thing, and with a Percodan chaser . . . which, as we know, was also Jerry's shtick; at least offstage.
Well said, Tom. Tragic but true.
great Foster Brooks clip there Testify.Brooks was always the hilight of those Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts.Nobody could top him for laughs!...I can't imagine being in a sketch with him and try to maintain a straight face!its not at all possible! ..lol
"There's a great example of that act here (with Foster Brooks.As a Limey I'm not terribly familiar with Brooks work but having watched this clip endlessly I would like to count myself a fan!)"
The interesting thing about Foster Brooks is that he was a drunk who got sober. When he was drinking he was an adequate character actor seeming to be sober - check out some of his appearances in the 1968 "Dragnet." When he got sober he worked up the drunk act and became a star.
There's an interesting scene in the rather awful "Rat Pack" TV movie where all of the others (Frank, Peter Lawford and JFK) are in there hotel rooms drinking and getting laid by women who were not their wives. The last person we see is Dean having a glass of milk and watching TV.
http://coolnessistimeless.blogspot.com/
There. Enough said...
According to Tosches "Dino" it was percodan than gave Dean the fades. It wasn't pretty at the end, drooling as he vainly joked his way through 20 minutes twice nightly at the MGM Grand.
Dean Martin is one of the few people in history who seemed to vanish into thin air while still retaining corporeal form.
(Saint Nick's Dino is, incidentally, a wondrous thing).
With all due respect to Dino and Tosches (who has been caught playing fast-and-loose with the facts before and since), it was Percodan washed down with generous helpings of Mister Booze.
Well in Dean's defense: he started drinking and taking lots off pills after his sons death! No parent should out live their children and thank god Dean was dead when his daughter died of cancer!!
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