The Days Dwindle Down...
At left is me (Dan Martin) and my friend and Blue Velvets co-founder John Douglass
playing at a Kansas University off-campus bar in 1961. At right we're playing, at the end of 1963,
in some south Kansas City school gym. During those two or so years, John decided to play bass, we
lost a guitar player to marriage, and we gained a vocalist and a sax man. We lost the white
sport coats along the way too - but was that really a loss? John and I had been friends since
1953. Now fast-forward our lives 50+ years...
My wife Sheryl and I visited John and his wife Cathy one cold Friday
evening in January 2005. That was the last time we were to see him
alive - at least on this earth. Lung cancer, spawn of the
Evil Weed, had so weakened him that he
could no longer carry the weight of his bass guitar. In only seven more months the mutant cells
would claim his life. I wanted to celebrate all the times he and I shared with this final tribute
to a true friend and bring to a final close,
The Band Days. Here
are the two of us that chilly Friday night, reunited in our Last - at least on this earth - Jam Session.
John was always a rock-solid member of the band. He never missed a gig - not even the
one that began only hours after his father died. I never heard him complain. Even
in the final weeks before his own death, John was always upbeat, always positive. He was a
real soldier and a real friend.
The Day The Music Died...
His best friends called him Duckie. This was an affectionate nickname that he
acquired from a group consisting of him, me, and two others: Tim and Bob. We took
turns driving to and from high school every day between 1954 and 1958. For those four
glorious years the four of us were almost inseparable. At left, all but Bob are shown
in our high school senior pictures (1958) and at our 35th class reunion (1993). At right
the three survivors, including Bob, are pictured on that sad day in August 2005 when Duckie was
laid to his final rest. He leaves behind
Cathy, three grown children, and all of us who
loved him. We miss you, man, and lovingly dedicate Mariah Carey's
One Sweet Day to you, and my late son Scott.
Sad news: Duckies wife Cathy passed away January 7th, 2020. She lived in Olathe, KS, near their daughter, Megan.
Both Cathy and Duckie knew the Lord Jesus. While updating the html file for this page, I realized it was almost 15 years to the day that
Duckie and I had our last Jam Session (shown above). I played One Sweet Day one more time in
loving memory of Cathy, Duckie, and Scott - three unforgettable souls in my life. I wept.
Although I always selected most of the songs on our revolving
Play List, it
was Duckie who discovered (in his precious
Fake Books) the haunting
Leonard Bernstein
tune Some Other Time. At first I was indifferent to the song, but Duckie persisted and
it was soon added to the show. Here it is, digitized directly from our 1964 Blue Velvets 45
rpm master recording,
Some Other Time [1 Mb
.mp3]. That will be Duckie you hear playing the fabulous bass lines on his 1963 Fender
Jazz Bass.
Some Other Time has since been recorded by many artists, including
Maureen McGovern (Another Woman in
Love - 1987),
Tony Bennett (The Tony Bennett/Bill
Evans Album - 2006), and
Frank Sinatra (Frankie Goes to
Hollywood - rereleased 2005).
Once you hear the Some Other Time lyrics you'll know why I am so thankful for, and get so
emotional when I hear, this beautiful song. Be sure to download the .mp3 above
(or by clicking here). If
you like it too I hope you will give a nod of thanks and appreciation to my late friend
John "Duckie" Douglass. I'm sure he will be pleased.
The Waning Years...
In October 2006, Cathy was kind enough to give me all of John's instruments: two bass guitars (a Fender and a Carvin), plus his old 1960 Wards Airline 6-string (S/N: T 44538). This last I treasure above all, as he bought it to play in our fledgling band, originally known as the Countdowns (it would be a year before our name Blue Velvets came to be).
These two pix show John and his Airline then (1960) and me and his Airline in 2006.
As you can see, the Airline has held her age far better than I have! You also see John and his Airline
in the first picture, way top left. When I first held her, she was not in playable
condition. Her volume and tone controls were rough and noisy, her strings were slack and rusted,
and the rollers on her Bigsby whammy-tail were siezed up and missing some screws. I have now
completely restored this classic lady and added a modern tune-o-matic bridge for perfect string
intonation. Now she is singing sweet and clear and strong again, just like John would
want her to. Speaking of strong, any one of those three chunky Airline
pickups is potent enough to jumpstart a
Peterbilt in deep winter,
and their snarl would send a Bengal tiger into cardiac arrest. One of John's sons now has that vintage Airline guitar.
Here are John and me as we were in 1960 at my home in Leawood, KS. That's a portrait of my
sister in the background, painted by my mom in 1958. In late 2003 I gave the same Fender
Jazzmaster guitar (along with matching 1960 Fender Concert Amp) to my son Steven so he could add them
to his own guitar collection. Steven also has several of his
late brother Scott's guitars
and amps. These fine old instruments may be relics of another age, but they can
still stand proudly as weapons of choice on any musical battlefield of today.
On the left is me and one of my finest, a
1995 Carvin AE185 (acoustic/electric)
guitar (S/N: 25793). On the far right is a centerfold (late 2006) of my entire
troupe. Which one of them is my favorite? Well, the lyrics of the song
To All The Girls I've Loved Before come to mind...
By the way, John's
1978 Carvin CB100 Bass
Guitar (S/N: 07743 - second from back-left, above) is a perfect mate to my own
1978 Carvin CM130 6-string
guitar (S/N: 07751 - second from back-right, above). By
the closeness of their Serial Numbers, these two instruments are virtual brothers, as were John and I. At
far left above you can see we are playing them in our last face-to-face meeting on this troubled
planet. See you later bro, maybe in the heavenly
Night Shift. Like the song
once said... "Rock 'n Roll never forgets."
NOTES: In mid-2018 I gave both Carvins - the CM130 and CB100 - to son Steven. Arthritis had stolen my hands.
Thanks to Carvin Museum for historical info!
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