Doug Bennett; Vancouver Sun obit
Hyfler/Rosner
singer-songwriter Doug Bennett an Everyman in a Sally Ann
suit
BYLINE: John Mackie, Vancouver Sun
Doug and the Slugs were an improbable success story, and
Doug Bennett was an improbable rock star. In an age of
glamourous video-friendly performers, Bennett was an
Everyman in a Sally Ann suit, an independent spirit who
succeeded through sheer determination, and a unique talent.
Bennett died Saturday in Calgary after lapsing into a coma a
week earlier. He had unspecified health problems for some
time, but his death came as a shock to his friends.
"He hadn't been looking after himself," said former Slugs
keyboard player Simon Kendall.
"His health has not been good for the last couple of years,
so it wasn't a total surprise. But nobody realized how sick
he was."
Kendall thinks Bennett struck a chord with the masses
because of his persona, which was humourous and witty but
also had an edge.
"Especially in the early years, he really tried to stay off
the beaten path, and I think he did a great job," said
Kendall.
"He had some unique and very interesting lyrics. An
anachronistic style, if you like. He was a bit of R&B, he
was a bit 1940s, he was a bit Tex-Mex. As a writer, I think
he deserves more credit than he gets for being intelligent.
He wrote some beautiful and quite provocative songs."
Douglas Craig Bennett was born Oct. 31, 1951 in Toronto. A
gifted cartoonist and graphic artist, his first brush with
fame came when he moved to Vancouver at the tail end of the
hippie era and landed a job at the Georgia Straight, then a
fairly wild alternative weekly. He was also very fond of
telling stories from his stint laying out the Vancouver
Star, a weekly sex tabloid published by the Straight.
"He was kind of our art director at a time when we didn't
have an art director, we didn't have titles," recalls
Straight owner Dan McLeod.
"We didn't have a masthead, because we were afraid anybody
whose name went on a masthead would get arrested or have a
writ filed against them. That's what they would do in those
days, take all the names on the masthead and put them on a
warrant.
"He did a number of great cartoons. He had a great sense of
humour, a different sense of humour."
In 1977 he moved to Montreal to pursue cartooning, but he
quickly returned to Vancouver and did an abrupt career
switch to music.
"You know, that was kind of a mystery to all of us," said
his longtime friend Bill Gotts, who worked with Bennett at
the Straight.
"He left the Straight and went to Montreal to work on his
cartooning career. Then he came back to Vancouver and one
day said to me 'I'm playing with these guys and we're doing
a band at 317 Railway.' "
Doug and the Slugs didn't get off to an auspicious start --
it lost out in a Battle of the Bands at the Body Shop, and
had a hard time convincing club owners to book them. So the
resourceful Bennett started promoting his own dances at
community halls, giving them hilarious names (Beach Blanket
Bungle, The Last Upper, Secret Agent Man) that earned them a
hardcore local following in 1978-79.
Record companies weren't all that impressed with his local
success, so Bennett decided to put a 45, Too Bad, on his own
Ritdong label. (He described Ritdong as the sound made by an
out-of-tune guitar.) It became a top-10 hit across Canada,
and was followed by the hit album Cognac and Bologna.
Kendall marvels at how Bennett triumphed over adversity.
"He took on an industry that was at best indifferent to his
talent and succeeded on his terms," said Kendall.
"Whatever success we achieved as a band was due to his
determination and his chutzpa. Nobody would hire the band.
'Okay, well we'll put on dances. Rent a hall.' Eventually
the industry goes, 'Where is everyone?' 'They're at a Doug
and the Slugs dance.' 'Who's Doug and the Slugs?' 'You
remember, those guys you wouldn't hire.'
"So that's how we got in the clubs. Then we couldn't get a
record deal. So we put out a single, Too Bad, that became a
top 10-single across the country. Still couldn't get a
record deal. So he said 'Let's make an [album.]' Sam Feldman
mortgaged his house and we made a record."
Feldman was the band's manager, and is normally not given to
betting his house on a band. But he was charmed by Bennett.
"I saw him at the Spinning Wheel [cabaret], and just fell in
love with the guy," said Feldman, who now co-manages acts
like Diana Krall, Norah Jones and Elvis Costello.
"I hadn't seen anything like that, I was just captivated. I
was further ahead in my career than he was, but I remember
when I had a meeting with him, I was going to sort of check
him out, and I found myself being very subtlely interviewed,
more than I was doing the interview."
Feldman said Bennett was a multi-talented individual who
wrote his own songs, designed his own album covers and even
directed his own videos.
"Doug could express himself in any and every medium," said
Feldman.
"His satirical ability and marketing genius was phenomenal.
He was very, very clever. I learned a lot from that guy.
"He wasn't blessed with Hollywood good looks, but he had
that Everyman look. I always used to tell him he looked like
[Forties actor] Edmund O'Brien. He was a bit of a heartthrob
in his day."
Doug and the Slugs became a national favourite with albums
like Wrap It, Music For the Hard of Thinking and Propaganda,
which spawned hits like Making It Work, Day By Day and Who
Knows How To Make Love Stay.
But the hits stopped in the late 1980s, and the original
band (Kendall, guitarists John Burton and Richard Baker,
bassist Steve Bosley and drummer Wally Watson) drifted
apart. Bennett continued to tour with other versions of the
band, although the original group got back together for a
sold-out 25th reunion show last fall at the Commodore
Ballroom.
After his marriage broke up a couple of years ago, Bennett
moved into a room at the Eldorado Motor Hotel on Kingsway,
which friends say appealed to his bohemian, Tom Waits-style
take on the world.
"He was still making pretty decent dough," said Gotts, who
runs the Doctor Vigari gallery on Commercial Drive.
"People would say to me 'Poor Doug, he's living at the
Eldorado' and stuff. But that was his choice, that wasn't a
necessity. Doug was still doing fine and making plenty of
money. He was never broke or destitute like people might
want to think."
Bennett made no secret he liked a drink now and then, and
eventually the years of touring and playing bars took a toll
on his health. But he kept on playing right to the end: he
was on tour when he died.
"I think he definitely identified with that performing
spirit, he loved to do it," said Kendall.
"That's what he knew, it kept him going. Whether he could
have had another option . . . I'll never know.
"He was a multi-talented guy. I was sorry he got away from
writing. If he was writing stuff in the last 10 years, I
didn't get to see or hear any of it. To me that's one of the
tragic aspects -- he was more than a performer, he was a
writer, and writers should keep writing."
Bennett is survived by his wife Nancy and three daughters,
Della, Shea and Devon.
GRAPHIC: Photo: Doug Bennett (left) and the Slugs circa
1980. The single Too Bad became a top-10 hit across Canada.;
Color Photo: Doug Bennett succeeded in an industry
indifferent to his talent.;
Photo: "Three false starts and a deck of marked cards Well I
confess, ain't the way to begin ... " Advice To A Friend
Cognac & Bologna, 1980;
Photo: "If you don't come and get me out I'm going to turn
my back on you Call it all off as a big mistake It's a
simple thing to do ... " If You Don't Come, Music for the
Hard of Thinking, 1983;
Photo: "Now I found someone who's made to measure And it
really couldn't suit me any better ... " I'm Excited,
Animato, 1986;
Photo: "You helped me believe that I could believe in
myself. You helped me achieve what I did with nobody else.
You took what I gave and then you turned it around. You
helped me to stay, stay right here, right here on the
ground." Making It Work, Slugcology 101, 1993
BuccaneerJuan
>singer-songwriter Doug Bennett an Everyman in a Sally Ann
>suit
Bennett was also a bit of an actor and I remember seeing some acting credits
once upon a time. His biography at http://www.dougandtheslugs.com/slug.html
lists several music videos that he produced.
Supposedly the band used to do an annual outdoor festival known, naturally
enough, as the Slugfest.
Very talented gentleman, and his videos with the original Slugs in the 80's
were a hoot.
RIP. I regret that I never found the time to get to British Columbia to see
their shows and never had a chance to meet the man.
~~~~~~~~~~~
A great war leaves the country with three armies - an army
of cripples, an army of mourners, and an army of thieves.
-German proverb
