DuVernois Blog

Martin Denny RIP

For inspiring lounge lizards everywhere, for bringing Tiki to the American public, though we didn't deserve it, for making exotica a CD-classification category at your local record store, here's to you Martin Denny, may your hurricane glass remain ever full with a zombie. Space-age bachelor pad or exotica? Doesn't matter what you call it. As Boyd Rice said in RE/Search,

Once in a while somebody does something so personal, so much them, that it seems just completely separate from everything else. What Martin Denny did back then was completely different from anything people were doing. Later, after he became popular, a million people put out 'exotic' albums, but he was using these strange instruments and these uncliched sounds and I think it had a more direct appeal, was more genuine — at least to me. It was such a strange idea to combine primitive instrumentation with relaxing, easy-listening arrangements — can you imagine the mind that would combine those two?"

Oddly enough, my coworkers didn't know who Martin Denny was! I went around the offices with a handful of memorial MD CDs. Couldn't find too many takers. Left one with the barista at Wilde Roast.