My friend Jon Card left us a couple days ago. Cue the Tommy Gun drum fill.
There have been many heart felt stories, and great memories of him shared by friends on the book of face. If Chris Walter’s hasn’t already written his life story, then I suspect he has a good start on it.
If you knew Jon, you loved him. Kind, super intelligent, hilarious, the kind of guy who would literally give you the shirt off his back. In my case, it was his belt.
It was the night of Hardstock, a benefit concert at the Commodore for my band mate and best man, Scott Harding, aka Scotty Hard, aka Broadway Sol Goodman. Scott had been severely injured in a late night car accident in New York, an accident that transformed him overnight into a paraplegic.
It was soul crushingly horrible. I helped to organize an event called Hardstock to raise money for his hospital expenses. Yardstick was a very special night driven by the collective outpouring of kindness from the cream of the Vancouver music community. There are so many people who made it happen, but I must give special thanks to Nick Jones, and also to Gerry Barad in particular, for making it all possible.
We promoted this show hard, and in the end, we sold out the Commodore. It was a Cavalcade of Stars, so I can’t remember which band Jon played with that night, but he was backstage, and I was about to go on, every act getting 15-20 minutes. I noticed my pants were sagging, and said out loud that I wished I had been smart enough to bring a belt.
Well, it wasn’t his shirt, but my guy Jonny Card came through in spades. He whipped off his own belt and handed it to me. The belt itself was a gnarled piece of leather barely holding itself together, much less someone’s pants, but I graciously accepted this offering and put it on. After all it was Jon Card. I was dressed in full Jazzmanian Devil regalia -white dinner jacket, shirt, tie and my gray high waisted “swing” pants. These pants, which are long gone god knows where, were made locally in the Zoot Suit style, extremely high waisted, coming up to the base of my sternum. Normally I wore them with both suspenders and a belt, but had forgotten the belt that evening. Jon Card’s belt was just what I needed to give me the ultimate confidence before going on stage.
But that was Jon. He was so charismatic and charming. Jazzmanian Devils were fortunate to have played at his wedding to Laurel Thackeray from Bolero Lava, which I think was at the Arts Club Theatre on Seymour. We gave them the rock royalty rate, which was a bottle of single malt, consumed that night before the set ended and the wedding was consummated.
When their marriage sadly ended, I joked that our normal wedding guarantee of counselling was not applicable due to the whiskey payment.
Both events demonstrated a “laughter through the pain” theme that was part of the Jon Card essence. He was no stranger to pain and tragedy. The JDs were about to go to Victoria to play a show, and Jon offered this joke. The Harpo’s band house was very cool he said. Hot and cold running goat’s blood. I later told the joke on stage at Harpo’s, and some local Wiccan’s cursed me from the audience.
Jon and I played in a short lived band called Les Goodman’s Great Swingin’ Dick, along with Greg Boothroyd and Tony Wilson. We played the following original songs that I wrote:
Free Peewee!
My Dick Broke ( And it ain’t no joke).
All Teens Must Die.
A Cheating Man’s Head Explodes.
He was amazing. Very propulsive, yet almost jazzy. A real Swingin’ Dick, our boy Jon Card.
When Laurel called me the other day, I was so choked up. I knew he had some health problems, but in public he was always so strong, so funny and such an amazing drummer.
When he played at the Commodore one night with Art Bergmann, Art was doing his “thing” with drummers, upset with Jon on the stage for some imagined mistake. Excuse me Art. Jon Card didn’t make mistakes. Not as a drummer anyway.
I ended up walking out. I couldn’t watch my beloved Jon being disrespected. If it’s not clear, I loved this guy.
I have had the great fortune of playing with many of the great drummers in our town. But playing with Jon was special. He was the real deal.
He was The Joker.
He was The Wild Card.
He was the Diamond in the Rough.
He was The King of Clubs.
He was The Card of our Hearts. .
♠️
He was the Ace of Spades
Card. Jon Card.
❤️ Cue the Tommy Gun drum fill.
Of course. Mike had a great band and set. There was only one Jon Card, and we are left with memories. Thanks for jogging mine.
Great post, Dense. Jonny played with the Mike Webster Band at Hardstock, who graciously opened the evening because somebody has to do it. Jon was one of a kind and will be dearly missed by many.
- Jellybean