On June 6, Dorsey Roy Martin passed away at the age of 63, ending a lifelong relationship with the Tampa Bay music scene in which he made a big noise as drummer for Tampa punk band Not Much (where he would use trash can lids instead of cymbals) and then as guitarist for legendary punk-rock band Pink Lincolns.
Dorsey, along with his Pink Lincolns bandmate Chris Barrows, were a direct link to the days when the local punk scene consisted of a few dozen people who frequented bars like The Lucky Yard or My Backyard. Some believe that one of Dorsey’s bands, Triple XXX Girls, made some of Tampa’s first punk-rock records in the ‘80s.
Hilariously unrestrained in his disdain for some bands, Martin once said that he’d get rid of Candlebox if he could, adding that he wanted Green Day frontman Billy Joe’s “head on a stick." Martin, along with Barrows, also kept politics out of the Pink Lincolns’ music.
“We do music, not politics. If we did politics we'd join a party or something. We'd create the Pink Lincoln Party,” he told the Black and Blue Press. “Bars should be a refuge from shit like that.”
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In a social media post, Barrows wrote that Not Much was his favorite Tampa Bay band. The band’s guitar player, the late Ben Hughes, was Barrows’ best friend and a huge influence on him. Dorsey invited Barrows to play covers and a few originals as part of a band called ABCD (named for its members’ first names; Alan Price, Hughes, Barrows and Martin) at Martin’s barn.
“That was huge for me, to play with them,” Barrows wrote, adding that he spent a short while playing guitar alongside Martin in a band called Veal Rifles. Hughes died in a car accident after that, and Martin joined a band Barrows was in to start Pink Lincolns, which eventually released some of the snottiest, silliest and best punk rock that Tampa Bay has ever produced.
As news of Martin’s death started to spread, Tampa scene lifers like Scott Imrich — who paid homage to Martin on the June 8 edition of his WMNF program Saturday Asylum — offered condolences and memories.
“I just knew him as one of the ageless scene guitar players,” Imrich told CL. “A legendary guy for Tampa.”
Manny Kool, who runs long-standing St. Petersburg record shop Daddy Kool Records, learned of Martin’s death from a customer visiting from Cincinnati. As a teenager, Kool would see the Pink Lincolns’ name on show fliers. He eventually made his way to a show after getting acquainted with Pink Lincolns drummer Fred Stoltz, who worked at a restaurant close to the one where Kool waited tables.
“For me, they were a band from here that was making original music that was just as good as bands from elsewhere, and that was a first,” Kool told CL. “Original music that sounded good, intense, rocking. They opened my eyes to the local music scene.”
Before Stoltz, Martin played drums on the first few Pink Lincolns LPs, and contributed slide guitar to a track on a self-titled 1986 cassette. He eventually played bass for the band before settling into being one of two guitarists for the outfit and then ending his life as the Pink Lincolns’ only guitarist.
“[He was an] extremely original person and I am honored that I got to do as much music as we did together,” Barrows wrote. “Sometimes we argued like rabid monkeys, but it was mostly because we both cared about the music. A guy like Dorsey Roy Martin doesn't happen very often. I am very grateful that he happened in my lifetime.”
CL made contact with Barrows on Monday morning and will add more to this story.
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This article appears in Jun 6-13, 2019.