I’m still feeling a bit rat packy after they used a Dean Martin song at the end of Mad Men on Sunday.Or is that ratty and packy? I’m not sure which it is, y’all.
Swingin’ Down Yonder was released in 1954 and was Dino’s first full length 33 1/3 LP. It’s essentially a songs of the South concept album. It employed some trad jazz (a term I prefer to Dixieland) themes and musicians. On the cover, Martin looks as if he’s eager to board that riverboat and steam on down to New Orleans without that annoying brat Jerry Lewis in tow.
I’d never heard this album before yesterday but it’s pretty darn good. Btw, the song list on the cover is not the running order of the LP. Bad, record company, bad:
When I look at that cover, I see a nattily dressed arsonist fleeing the fire he’s just set in the ship’s engine room.
Not pictured: Jerry trying to extinguish the fire with seltzer.