On account of having climbed off my death bed and straight into a 15-day unbroken stretch at the office (I did get home to sleep) I kinda missed a few things happening in the world.
Such as the death of exotica king Martin Denny. I have a healthy, non-obsessive number of Denny records (including one, sans cover, almost too warped to play, but which contains the most bizarre version of "Macarthur Park" you could ever imagine), mostly bought cheaply in the golden days before Bruce Milne went around all of the Melbourne op shops and second hand record stores picking them up for two dollars and sticking them up on the wall at the now-defunct Au Go Go Records for upwards of $60 a pop.
I can hear the fake bird calls cascading down from beyond the pearly gates now.
Here is his version of "Caravan", because you can't have too many versions of "Caravan". It's taken from a Rhino Records compilation from 1990 called "Exotica: The Best of Martin Denny". Enjoy.
[Editor's Note, 5.10pm: 1. The reference above to Bruce Milne perhaps seems uncharacteristically negative in tone. It was intended only as a good-natured jibe and would hopefully be accepted as such. Au Go Go Records was in almost every respect an exemplary record store, especially the rarities/second-hand section upstairs, which has been the final resting place of many of my hard-earned dollars. It is also the shop from which I bought "The African Man's Tomato" by the Cannanes, which dates the starting point of my Second Golden Age (which came to an end when the world chose Nirvana over Beat Happening, a travesty for which the world should never be forgiven).
2. The above link is now working.]
