Museum Matters

We think of him as a nationally famous entertainer, but singer songwriter Johnny Duncan was born in Dublin in 1938 in Dr. Guy’s hospital above the Rexall Drug Store. Though he was born here, he went to school in his early years in Alexander because the Duncan farm was closer to it than Dublin. He went to school on a old school bus that had a stove in the middle that was heated by the exhaust. L.T. Cooper said he hoed cotton with Johnny Duncan. Johnny always wanted more out of life and said that while he was building fence in the hot summer sun, that he didn’t want to to do that for the rest of his life.

In his sophomore year, he started attending school here in Dublin. Kids in Dublin would call him the “Alexander Hillbilly” when he first started. School officials learned of his talent and gave him the opportunity to sing at a school assembly for all 12 grades. After hearing him, “People saw that there was talent there and they dropped the hillbilly thing pretty quickly.” (Laura Kestner, Dublin Citizen, Sept. 28, 2000) I was talking with a friend at lunch a few weeks ago. He was saying that back in the 1950s one of the hang outs for high school kids was the upstairs of the Camp Dublin Service Station. At that time, he and Johnny Duncan would sing a few songs while Johnny played the guitar. By the age of 12 Johnny knew that playing music and singing songs was going to be his life. Even before he graduated from high school, Johnny knew a lot about a guitar. He picked up the west Texas music sound when he was young.

People used to gather after hours and sing in the McIlroys grocery store parking lot. Johnny would sing at those gathering and he would also sing in church. His mother played rhythm guitar in his uncle’s band. So by the time Johnny graduated from Dublin High School, he had a long history of making music.

In April 1959 he auditioned with Norman Petty in Clovis, New Mexico. He signed a contract with Leader Records. Petty flew him to London in 1962 to record 4 of the songs he had written. (Dublin Progress Aug.16, 1962) After three singles and one UK release, he saw little action. He grew tired of pop music so he decided to try country music and moved to Nashville. While there he wrote songs for Charley Pride, Marty Robbins, Chet Atkins, Conway Twitty and Jim Ed Brown. He said that most of his success as a songwriter came from other artist he penned songs for. (Laura Kestner, Dublin Citizen, Sept. 28, 2000) Working as a brick layer’s helper for $1.25 an hour, it took two and a half years to get a record deal. He began to record for Columbia Records in 1967 - 1973. His recordings never reached the top twenty until he recorded “Sweet Country Woman.” It went to number six on the charts. “Thinking of a Rendezvous” and “It couldn’t have been any better” both went to number one on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. His biggest hit was “She can put her shoes under my bed anytime.”

Johnny Duncan’s top-10 hits continued into 1979. With the changing of musical tastes his star power started to fade in the 1980s though his recordings continued to be played on country music stations through the 1990s. (Wikipedia, Johnny Duncan) The “Dublin Flash” was a nickname used at Country Gold WBAP in Fort Worth. It started with Don Thompson, the afternoon DJ and was later picked up by Don Day.

For him, the nickname kind of stuck. The 50,000 watt blow-torch clear channel station played his songs often, broadcasting them across the central United States and beyond. When he made personal appearances at radio stations and venues, he had a personality that everyone liked. The “Dublin Flash” must have taken his talent and little bit of his home town personality with him.

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