R.I.P., Bob Shane, founding member of The Kingston Trio.*

RIP Bob Shane. The Kingston Trio influenced so many. A staple in so many family record collections.

 

Guard, Shane and Reynolds. 1990

 

They replaced the word with a loud guitar strum.

 

The censored version:

 

I always blame The Kingston Trio for two things: getting me into record collecting in high school back in the late 80's (taking a chance on a near mint stereo of "Here We Go Again" for a dime) and helping me discover my eclectic taste in music. I became a huge fan of the Trio, and over the last 30 + years after spending that first dime, I ended up buying every LP (both in mono and stereo from "At Large" thru the 4 Decca albums), EP's, 45's, CD Box Sets and other releases-----even today the Trio still plays a HUGE part in my music rotation. I really love them. RIP Bob

 

The Kingston Trio were around when I was just starting to become aware of popular music. I remember "Tom Dooley" being on the radio constantly.

I always wondered why it was important that it be a "wide oak tree". Wouldn't a normal oak, or even a thin one, have served just as well?

The other thing that bothered me, once I started to actually think about the lyrics of that MTA song, was this: his wife apparently had time to hand him a cut lunch each day as the train passed through the station. Couldn't she just as easily have slipped him some coins as well, enabling him to pay his fare and get off? This is the elephant in the room. It's my uneasy suspicion that she simply did not want him back home, and was happy to just see him once a day for a few seconds.

 

The Kingston Trio were an important influence in music history and in my own personal early musical development. Rest in peace Bob Shane.

 

In a sense, it's a shame that Shane's death was overshadowed by that of Kobe Bryant who passed away the same day, albeit under much different circumstances . . .

 

Died at a hospice facility.

Bob Shane, Last of the Original Kingston Trio, Dies at 85

Bob Shane, Kingston Trio Co-Founder, Dead at 85 - Best Classic Bands

 

Rest easy Bob.

 

You're right. I just realized that when looking up the day he died.

 

Thanks. That does clarify who he was for many. Being a pretty rabid Kingston Trio fan myself, I sometimes forget that Bob, Nick, and Dave (and John) aren't nearly the household words that John, Paul, George and Ringo are. Cheers!

 

For many years, that censored version of "Greenback Dollar" was unavailable. All of the compilations used the album version with the "damn" intact. Some years ago while thrift shopping, I just happened to scare up a copy of the censored single. It's now included on the Bear Family box set The Stewart Years. It was a bit of a shock to a lot of people in the early '60s who knew the song from the censored version on the radio, and then bought the album The New Frontier and behold, there was that forbidden word.

 

My mother's favorite band and thus part of the soundtrack of my childhood.

RIP Bob

 

I don't think I ever heard a "censored" version of Greenback Dollar, though I always heard the word as "dang", probably because I heard what I expected to hear.

 

My favorite of their hits is the cover of Pete Seeger's song:

 

I learned so many songs from Trio albums first. I guess they were the first "manufactured image", but they were truly world music as well as folk. I love every track by the Guard led trio. The Stewart years about 70 percent.
Look for the reunion concert on DVD as well as the video biography.
RIP Bobby. Mud in your eye.

 

Which they admitted they stole from Peter Paul and Mary. They saw them perform it, wrote the words down and recorded a similar arrangement claiming authorship. The spit hit the fan as first they had stolen a Pete Seeger song and they were embarrassed, apologized and set that right and by way of PP&M they gave them Cruel War in apology. According to John Stewart Mary never forgave them.

 

Didn't they just play at The Throckmorton Theatre a week or two ago?

 

No original members in current lineup.

 

Poorly. Its so obvious its painful. they laid that loud guitar strum over the word. Yeesh.

 

Bob was one of my first music heroes more than 60 years ago. Lots of memories with the trio whose LP's were the first I bought. Got to see them once just after John took Dave's place. They were an often much maligned band who opened a lot of doors for what was to follow them. Rest in peace, Bob, and thanks for helping to open so many doors.

 

Yeap. It's a complete 'out of place' strum thing......
An overdub on the original recording perhaps?
It was the hit version here, so I am kind of use to it.
Still, wanna know how they did it.

 

The lyrics refer to a "white oak tree" rather than a "wide oak tree".

Tom Dula was actually hanged on a gallows in my home town of Statesville, NC and not from any kind of tree. The Kingston Trio gave a concert at Statesville High School at the height of their popularity and I was there!

Tom Dula was convicted on flimsy grounds and may have been innocent.