I have said it many times.

There are things we never get over.  We work through.

This photo was taken on my wedding day, February 10, 1996.  This photo is on the wall to my right as I type these words.  Words that don’t get any easier.

On this day in 1997, my dear friend Malcolm Todd “Corner King” Lincoln Sr died suddenly.  This tragic time took a great deal of wind out of the old sail.

To this day I have a twinge of guilt.  I was so low in the doldrums that my dear wife, Carrie, insisted I do something about it.  She suggested guitar lessons.  I procured a guitar and away I went.  My musical journey began in the middle of October 1997.  It took this tragedy to extract what has always been in my head and that is music.  I can pick up a guitar and in twenty minutes find words and music that will mean a great deal to me and I will take them with me for the rest of my life.  Songwriting is not difficult for me.  I wish everything were this simple.

I have ended up in a room making music with the likes of Tim Krekel, Jeff Guernsey, Rod Wurtele, Barry King, John Burgard, John Hayes, Gene Wickliffe, Dan Trisko and I could on.  With my dear friend and musical partner, Jeff Carpenter on the board, we have created some nice tunes together.

The Corner King and I were great together.  I dug sports and literature.  He dug cars and chrome!  We both dug into a can of SKOAL often and we both dug the music of The Moody Blues.  We saw The Moodies five times together.  In June of 1997, a Moodies concert in Ft. Wayne was our last road trip together.  Did we ever have fun.

On my first CD that I recorded in 2001, I wrote a song for Corner King.  In 2019 we revisited it and gave it some new treatment on my third CD.

I am 53.  I was 29 when the Corner King passed.  There are days when I can certainly relate to the lyrics of Bob Dylan in a song I enjoy hearing The Byrds sing.  The song is My Back Pages.

I can relate when Dylan writes:

I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.

That is how I feel some days when I look back on my time with the Corner King.  We thought we would enjoy a cruise in old age.  We talked about driving to Montana some day, just because.

The song I wrote for Corner King Lincoln was this…

Don’t Miss The Last Dance

There were so many thing that I wanted to say

There were so many times we both had to go our separate ways

And one day the phone was ringing

I picked it up and you’d gone away

 

Did you ever leave a party without dancing the last dance?

Have you ever stared at the ceking at night when you knew you had a chance at romance?

One day the phone was ringing.  I picked it up and you’d gone away

There’s a force of nature that science just can’t explain

And the Lord leaves us to wonder, why some go and some remain

 

But we’ve got our memories and believe it or not they help to pull us through

And we’ve got our hopes and dreams where there’s still a little piece left of me and you

There’s a force of nature that science can’t explain

And the Lord leaves us to wonder, why some go and some remain

 

Did you ever leave a party without dancing the last dance?

Take the hand of someone you love tonight, while you still have a chance

And don’t miss the last dance

Don’t miss the last dance

Don’t miss the last dance

 

I so love this song.  I so miss the Corner King.  We never had a cross word.   We just enjoyed each other’s company to the end.  I can’t wait to see him again.  I know I will.

Speaking the sad rights…

Danny Johnson