PERCUSSION IS ONLY PART OF THE DISCUSSION FOR DON YOUNG
Drummer rubs elbows with the greats
The beat goes on for Don Young.
At 73, the Regina-based drummer — who has performed throughout Saskatchewan, Canada, the United States and also in Europe — approaches each day with the energy of someone who is a fraction of his age.
Along the way, he has accumulated several lifetimes' worth of memories and stories, which he is always pleased to share.
Many of the anecdotes reference a who's-who of musical colleagues, along with interactions with legends such as Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Paul Anka and Frank Sinatra.
“I met Sinatra in Vegas,” Young says. “He was drinking Chivas Regal. I got to go into his dressing room at the Riviera during the afternoon, when he had a rehearsal, when he was presented with a gold union card.
“I was the president of the musicians' union and the guys from New York wanted to give him a gold union card because he didn't cross a picket line and it was something they always appreciated. He always used union musicians.”
Later that day, Young saw Ol' Blue Eyes perform.
“Frank Sinatra Jr. was conducting a 32-piece orchestra,” continues Young, who was then a key player with the Regina Musicians' Association, Local 446. “He said in his dressing room, `I've gotta give the kid a job.'
“I went to the show with Brian Dojack, who was the secretary-treasurer. We were sitting 12 feet from the stage. The tickets cost $100 — $50 went to the casino and I put $50 in the hand of the doorman.
“Sinatra walked on to the stage and gave a toast to Mr. Chivas and Mr. Regal. At one point during the show, he pointed to us in the audience and said, `See those guys with blue badges on? They're musicians. I'd be a bartender without musicians. Give them a hand.'
“They stopped the show and we stood up.”
Bob Hope?
He twice performed at the Agridome — now the Brandt Centre — in the early years after the arena opened in 1977. Young was a playing musical contractor for the groups that accompanied Hope.
“He was very personable,” Young says. “He brought a 3-wood (golf club) with him on stage for rehearsal. One time, he took a big backswing and barely missed me.
“He was in his 70s and he had been performing for years and years. I asked him, `Why do you still do it?' He said, `Why do you play? It's what I love. I'd do a show in a phone booth if they asked me.'
“Later, as he was going out to do the show, he walked by the drum rise and said, `Sonny, I still have to pay the taxes on all that property in Palm Springs.'
“I even gave him Ron Lancaster's name because he wanted to make a joke about football.”
Sure enough, Hope incorporated the Saskatchewan Roughriders icon — who was then in his late 30s and in the crowd at the show — into the act. Hope told the audience: “I'm coming to Regina to be Ron Lancaster's backup quarterback, because we've both been around the same amount of time.”
Young's longevity as a performer now rivals that which Hope enjoyed when he visited Regina.
The personable percussionist was born in Regina on June 1, 1947, to Dan and Anne Young, both of whom had a passion for music.
“My dad played the accordion,” a proud son recalls. “I had wrinkles in my stomach for a while.”
Initially, Don Young took trumpet lessons in Moose Jaw, where the family resided from 1953 to 1958 before moving back to Regina. However, there was an irresistible hankering to play the drums, so he soon picked up the sticks.
“I just had a snare drum to begin with,” he says. “I wanted to play a set, with a bass drum, cymbals and a cowbell.
“One of the first songs I learned was `Glendora,' by Perry Como, because it had a cowbell in it.”
Young quickly proved to be a natural as a timekeeper. Early in his high school years at Sheldon-williams Collegiate, he was already playing in a rock band. Over a three-year span while in high school, he played in 45 different communities in Saskatchewan, Alberta or Manitoba.
In 1964, as a teenager, he made his first recording, as a member of The Chevrons.
“I started playing on New Year's Eve in 1963 and never missed one until 2019,” Young says. “The first one I played was in Holdfast and we got $50 for the whole band — four of us. A tank of gas was only $3 back then, so it wasn't that bad.”
Young eventually attended the University of Saskatchewan's Regina campus — now known as the University of Regina — with aspirations of becoming an educator.
He did teach school for a while, and enjoyed it, but music won out. Even so, he has put the teaching skills to great use while conducting music lessons.
“I was making more money in the bands than I was when I was teaching,” he notes.
“When I was going to university, I was in five different bands. Have drums, will travel. I went around and played anywhere, anytime.”
He also played virtually anything, from rock to pop to blues to country to polkas to, well, you name it.
“I might not be the best drummer, but I'm one of the most versatile,” Young says with a chuckle. “Plus, I sing. There's not many drummers who sing.
“You've got to play it all if you're going to make a living, because sometimes the elephants don't like the peanuts you're serving.”
Young's scroll-like musical resume includes gigs with several members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, such as Martha Reeves (with Martha and the Vandellas), Little Anthony and the Imperials, The Coasters, The Drifters and The Platters.
Young has also performed live alongside luminaries such as John Denver, Jose Feliciano, Bobby Goldsboro, Bobby Vinton, Chilliwack, Amos Garrett, Long John Baldry, Shirley Eikhard, Lucille Starr, Lynn Anderson, Gary Lewis, Gordie Tapp and Walter Ostanek.
As a backup musician, Young has shared the stage with stars such as Hope, Skelton, Anka, B.J. Thomas, Rich Little and Wilf Carter.
More names? Oh, have we got names. Young has also met stars such such as Oscar Peterson, B.B. King, Randy Bachman, Garth Brooks, Kevin Costner, Mickey Rooney, Bob Newhart, Dionne Warwick, Willie Nelson, Glen Campbell, Amos Garrett, Harry Belafonte, Liberace, Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers, Roger Miller, Boots Randolph, Eddy Arnold, Petula Clark, Buddy Rich, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Louis Bellson, David Clayton-thomas, Colin James and Stan Kenton.
“I've found that in the music business you're only as good as the people you perform with,” Young says, “and I've been privileged to work with great ones.”
That includes Young 's long-time friend and musical colleague, pianist Ken Jefferson. In addition to playing together, they once owned a music studio.
Young has also been active in charity and community events, receiving accolades such as the MS Society's President's Award and the United Way Outstanding Citizen Award.
He is also a President Emeritus of the Regina Musicians' Association, Local 446 — part of the Canadian Federation of Musicians.
Young relishes another title — that of Dad.
Terry Young, the only child of Don and his ex-wife, Shirley, was born July 31, 1982.
When Terry was just three days old, he saw his father perform at Victoria Park during the Regina exhibition, now known as the
Queen City Ex.
“One of the recurring experiences I have with Dad is that ability for him to remember colourful details of his tales from the musical road,” Terry says.
I've found that in the music business you're only as good as the people you perform with and I've been privileged to work with great ones.
“From the many famous artists he has worked with to the young rising stars, he has seen it all.
“He has witnessed it from the best seat in the house — the drum throne.”
And he wouldn't change a thing. Well, OK, there is one quibble.
“COVID-19 has been such a blow for musicians,” Young laments. “There's no entertainment. People have a tough time making a living at it. It's a sad state of affairs.”
Young can hardly wait for that to change.
“As a musician, an entertainer, you're nothing without people,” he says. “They come to be entertained.”
It is doubtful, though, that anyone derives more enjoyment from the experience than Young.
“I always say that music is my mistress,” he concludes. “I'm happiest when I'm playing. You can make people happy. You can make people sad. You can feel it.
“I'd just like to keep playing until I finish the gig, get up from the drums, and fall off the stage. That would be the perfect ending for me.”