A Good Man Gone

I had the brief privilege of knowing and working with Gary Minkler. Gary is best known for his work with Red Dress, one of the first PNW bands that I remember putting out an independent single, in 1980, with their “Pterodactyl Teenagers” backed with “Bob Was A Robot”, on their own Glass Mouth label. Totally cool. A few years ago when I started my radio show Freeform Northwest on KAOS Olympia, my very first show I played “Bob.” Gary tells the tale of Bob, who, amongst other things, romances Gary’s girlfriend, Jane. What I forgot was that the band does a full stop in the middle of the song – bang – and Gary states in no uncertain terms, “Bob, that ain’t your fucking job.” That, of course, is an FCC violation. Oops. I pulled the fader down and moved on. When I moved back to Seattle in 2006, when I was unpacking stuff, I found a beautiful hand-silk-screened “Teenage Pterodactyls” poster (hand made by Helana Rogers), which I have had framed in my studio ever since.

In 1984 Red Dress put out what I felt was, at the time, the very finest PNW record of its day, the “Money Dreams” single. By now Gary was mobbed up with Mr. Conrad Uno at PopLlama, who would also put out their “Little Ship” live album in 1985. Somewhere around this time I have a vague memory of playing with my band, The Icons, at the Rainbow Tavern on 45th, where Gary, I guess, was tending bar that night. All I know is that after the joint was closed we sat in there and drank beer for another couple hours and solved all the world’s problems.

In 1994, Uno put out a double CD, “Red Dress – The Collection.” That was a great public service. It is essentially the collected works of Red Dress, long out of print, of course, but you can find yourself a used copy somewhere. You can also listen to the whole damn thing online nowadays. You want it. You should do it right now.

While you’re listening, Dennis White’s great history of Red Dress can be found right here: jivetimerecords.com/northwest/red-dress/

In 2013 Gary put out a solo album, Little Trailer Ruby. He initially put it out on PopLlama, but Uno was putting that whole thing to bed and not much was happening with it. I told Gary I’d be happy to take it over – I tweaked up cover a little bit, and let it go to the world. Gorgeous.

In 2020 Gary asked me if I’d put out a single by the tHe FaR bE iTs, which was him and Bill Bagley of Red Dress. I said sure.

In 2022 Gary reformed Red Dress and started playing some shows and did a couple of worthy albums, which you can find out there on Bandcamp.

My favorite thing I did with Gary was for the third Green Monkey Records Christmas charity record, It Crawled Down the Chimney. I’d written this song called “Christmas Time for Sailors” and asked Gary if he would come sing it. He said, “Sure.” He and Bill Bagley came over and knocked the whole thing out in one take. I asked him if he wanted to redo anything. He said, “Nope.” We were done. So good!

While I think I was just a small-part player in the glory that was the Gary Minkler story, I am happy to have served and consider it a privilege to to know the man.