Dewey Martin
Posted: Fri Feb 06, 2009 1:49 pm
Dewey Martin, drummer for the short-lived but
long-resonating rock band Buffalo Springfield
whose career after the group split never ignited
like those of his former band mates Neil Young
and Stephen Stills, has died. He was 68.
He was found dead Sunday by a roommate in his
Van Nuys apartment, longtime friend Lisa Lenes
said Thursday. The cause of death has not been
determined. "We believe it was natural causes,"
Lenes said, adding that he had suffered health
problems in recent years and performed publicly
only sporadically.
Martin was one of the founding members, along
with Young, Stills, singer-songwriter-guitarist Richie
Furay and bassist Bruce Palmer, of Buffalo
Springfield, a key progenitor of country-rock music.
The group existed for just two years and recorded
only three studio albums before disbanding amid
rising tensions and musical ambitions of the band's
talented but explosive leaders.
In his autobiography "Shakey," Young praised
Martin's musical sensitivity. "You get harder, he hits
harder. You pull back, he hits back. He can feel the
music -- you don't have to tell him."
"It's a great loss," Micky Dolenz, drummer for the
Monkees, said Thursday. Dolenz said he became
close friends with Martin in the late '60s when both
were working in and around Hollywood. "We never
worked together, we just hung out a lot. We went to
shows together at the Whisky and the Troubadour.
He was a great drummer -- it's a well-known fact.
And he was a really nice guy."
Martin played on Buffalo Springfield songs, including
"For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's the Sound),"
"Mr. Soul," "Rock 'N' Roll Woman," and "Broken
Arrow." He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame as a member of the group in 1997.
"He didn't want to go to the induction," Lenes said.
"But I told him, 'You need to be there, you need to
be acknowledged.' When I saw him on TV, it was so
great."
When Buffalo Springfield broke up, Young launched
a solo career that's still going strong 40 years later;
Stills moved on to Crosby, Stills & Nash (and
sometimes Young) and Furay formed Poco, another
early country-rock outfit. Martin's fortunes remained
closely tied over the years to his time with Buffalo
Springfield.
He first began performing as the New Buffalo
Springfield with other musicians. "We have a more
powerful sound . . . that's the way I would compare
it with the old group," Martin told the Oakland
Tribune in 1969. "Before it was east-going
country-western. Now we've added some electronic
sound devices and Jim Price on amplified trumpet
and trombone."
Stills and Young successfully sued to prevent him
from using the name without their participation.
Nevertheless, in the mid-'80s, he and Palmer toured
as Buffalo Springfield Revisited, and for a time in the
'90s Martin played shows as Buffalo Springfield
Again at community events mostly in the Southland
such as the Taste of Newport in Newport Beach.
Guitarist Rick Corradini backed Martin as part of
a pickup band for some of those shows. "He was
a great guy and seemed as enthused to play with us
bunch of guys as he was to play with those other
hotshots," Corradini said Thursday.
Martin was born Walter Milton Dewayne Midkiff
on Sept. 30, 1940, in Chesterville, outside Ottawa,
Canada, according to Buffalo Springfield scholar
Nick Warburton's Sixties Rock Archive website.
He moved to the United States looking for work as
a musician and played on sessions in Nashville in
the early-'60s. Even though Young and Palmer were
also Canadians, they didn't meet Martin until all had
migrated to Los Angeles to take part in the
burgeoning folk-rock scene here that was
spearheaded by the Byrds.
Young, Stills and Furay had crossed paths previously,
and when they reconnected in L.A. in 1966, they
decided to start a new band. Within days of the starting
rehearsals with Palmer, they brought in Martin to handle
drums. Nine days later, they opened an arena show for
the Byrds in San Bernardino.
Byrds founding member Chris Hillman recently
recalled touting the group to Whisky A Go-Go
co-founder Elmer Valentine the first time he heard
them, which led to a residency at the club that helped
launch Buffalo Springfield's career.
Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun quickly
signed the group to his label at a time when he was
trying to expand its roster into rock after years of
focusing primarily on R&B, soul and jazz.
The group wasn't a huge popular success at the time
-- the highest any of its original three albums charted
was No. 42, and "For What It's Worth" was its
biggest hit, peaking at No. 7 in 1967. But the group's
songs, mostly written by Stills and Young, but also
including some of Furay's, have become an enduring
part of the classic-rock canon.
Outside of his Buffalo Springfield incarnations, Martin
formed several other groups, including Medicine Ball,
which released one album that failed to chart. In recent
years he'd worked on developing a new type of drum
head.
Lenes said Martin would be buried in Canada at his
family's request, and that plans for a memorial service
in the Los Angeles area were in the works. Information
on his survivors was not immediately available.
long-resonating rock band Buffalo Springfield
whose career after the group split never ignited
like those of his former band mates Neil Young
and Stephen Stills, has died. He was 68.
He was found dead Sunday by a roommate in his
Van Nuys apartment, longtime friend Lisa Lenes
said Thursday. The cause of death has not been
determined. "We believe it was natural causes,"
Lenes said, adding that he had suffered health
problems in recent years and performed publicly
only sporadically.
Martin was one of the founding members, along
with Young, Stills, singer-songwriter-guitarist Richie
Furay and bassist Bruce Palmer, of Buffalo
Springfield, a key progenitor of country-rock music.
The group existed for just two years and recorded
only three studio albums before disbanding amid
rising tensions and musical ambitions of the band's
talented but explosive leaders.
In his autobiography "Shakey," Young praised
Martin's musical sensitivity. "You get harder, he hits
harder. You pull back, he hits back. He can feel the
music -- you don't have to tell him."
"It's a great loss," Micky Dolenz, drummer for the
Monkees, said Thursday. Dolenz said he became
close friends with Martin in the late '60s when both
were working in and around Hollywood. "We never
worked together, we just hung out a lot. We went to
shows together at the Whisky and the Troubadour.
He was a great drummer -- it's a well-known fact.
And he was a really nice guy."
Martin played on Buffalo Springfield songs, including
"For What It's Worth (Stop, Hey What's the Sound),"
"Mr. Soul," "Rock 'N' Roll Woman," and "Broken
Arrow." He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame as a member of the group in 1997.
"He didn't want to go to the induction," Lenes said.
"But I told him, 'You need to be there, you need to
be acknowledged.' When I saw him on TV, it was so
great."
When Buffalo Springfield broke up, Young launched
a solo career that's still going strong 40 years later;
Stills moved on to Crosby, Stills & Nash (and
sometimes Young) and Furay formed Poco, another
early country-rock outfit. Martin's fortunes remained
closely tied over the years to his time with Buffalo
Springfield.
He first began performing as the New Buffalo
Springfield with other musicians. "We have a more
powerful sound . . . that's the way I would compare
it with the old group," Martin told the Oakland
Tribune in 1969. "Before it was east-going
country-western. Now we've added some electronic
sound devices and Jim Price on amplified trumpet
and trombone."
Stills and Young successfully sued to prevent him
from using the name without their participation.
Nevertheless, in the mid-'80s, he and Palmer toured
as Buffalo Springfield Revisited, and for a time in the
'90s Martin played shows as Buffalo Springfield
Again at community events mostly in the Southland
such as the Taste of Newport in Newport Beach.
Guitarist Rick Corradini backed Martin as part of
a pickup band for some of those shows. "He was
a great guy and seemed as enthused to play with us
bunch of guys as he was to play with those other
hotshots," Corradini said Thursday.
Martin was born Walter Milton Dewayne Midkiff
on Sept. 30, 1940, in Chesterville, outside Ottawa,
Canada, according to Buffalo Springfield scholar
Nick Warburton's Sixties Rock Archive website.
He moved to the United States looking for work as
a musician and played on sessions in Nashville in
the early-'60s. Even though Young and Palmer were
also Canadians, they didn't meet Martin until all had
migrated to Los Angeles to take part in the
burgeoning folk-rock scene here that was
spearheaded by the Byrds.
Young, Stills and Furay had crossed paths previously,
and when they reconnected in L.A. in 1966, they
decided to start a new band. Within days of the starting
rehearsals with Palmer, they brought in Martin to handle
drums. Nine days later, they opened an arena show for
the Byrds in San Bernardino.
Byrds founding member Chris Hillman recently
recalled touting the group to Whisky A Go-Go
co-founder Elmer Valentine the first time he heard
them, which led to a residency at the club that helped
launch Buffalo Springfield's career.
Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun quickly
signed the group to his label at a time when he was
trying to expand its roster into rock after years of
focusing primarily on R&B, soul and jazz.
The group wasn't a huge popular success at the time
-- the highest any of its original three albums charted
was No. 42, and "For What It's Worth" was its
biggest hit, peaking at No. 7 in 1967. But the group's
songs, mostly written by Stills and Young, but also
including some of Furay's, have become an enduring
part of the classic-rock canon.
Outside of his Buffalo Springfield incarnations, Martin
formed several other groups, including Medicine Ball,
which released one album that failed to chart. In recent
years he'd worked on developing a new type of drum
head.
Lenes said Martin would be buried in Canada at his
family's request, and that plans for a memorial service
in the Los Angeles area were in the works. Information
on his survivors was not immediately available.