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

Their hit Reverend Mr Black wasn't a fluke, it was a classroom project. A class in Chicago attempted to influence a hit record and chose the KT album track and started inundating the radio stations with requests for Reverend. Not only did they get this adaptation of an old gospel song on the radio, they actually broke it nationally.

 

Seriously?! You were there?
How Cool! Do tell.....

 

R.I.P. My Dad was a fan. As a very young kid I played the 45 of "Tom Dooley" to death.

 

...and "Merry Minuet" is every bit as amusingly timely now as it was back then. (Apologies if someone else already said so; I'm plugging through the thread on my phone.)

 

I am aware of that now. The point is that, being a young kid and never having seen a white oak tree, that's what I heard. It's what's called a mondegreen.

 

I'm so dumb, I don't get what you guys are talkin' bout.

 

According to this article from USA Today, he died of complications arising from pneumonia.

Bob Shane, last original member of the Kingston Trio dies at 85

 

I learned Tom Dooley by ear. Wide oak is how I sang it and I damn well like it that way! Its called the folk process. The KT don't sing Frank Profitt's lyrics either. They were never about being authentic, just making good records.

 

I got introduced to the KT thanks to a retro jukebox that was in a Kentucky Fried Chicken I used to eat at. I had never heard of them. Thanks KFC!

 

I just finished reading the Wikipedia article on the Kingston Trio. The more I learn about them, the more I think they may well have been the most influential popular music band of all time. Yes, more so than that well-known Liverpudlian quartet.
Just check the list at the end of the article, for artists who claim the Kingston trio as an influence. Unlike many such lists, where artists say "Oh yes I listened a lot to the Beatles when I was young", in most of these cases you can actually hear the KT influence coming through in these people's music.

Those who criticised the band for altering and "sanitising" folk songs to make them commercial, have to face the uncomfortable fact that many of these songs might otherwise have been forgotten.

 

A bit of the Trio could be heard (arrangements notwithstanding) in The Animals' "The House Of The Rising Sun" - their version certainly ensured that old blues standard wouldn't be forgotten. And the lyrics of that were certainly altered in some spots.

I see Lindsey Buckingham's name was mentioned in connection with those influenced by the KT. He actually worked with some of the "original" members, performed amongst them on the 1981 reunion special which featured the then-current, Guard and Stewart Trios, and supervised Stewart's Bombs Away Dream Babies album - on which Stevie Nicks was one of the background singers on his biggest solo hit, "Gold."

And as was said, at one point The Trio was the biggest thing happening to Capitol, accounting for a healthy chunk of their profits (alongside such other heavy-hitters of the times as Sinatra and Nat King Cole). Even, at the zenith of Triomania in 1959, considering a strike at their Scranton plant which lasted from June to September of that year.

 

Also issued on the CCM reissue of New Frontier/Time to Think.

The Kingston Trio* - New Frontier / Time To Think

 

And the Kingston Trio succeeded in their goal, making great records. Everybody needs to hear their music.

 

That interesting fact made me ponder the idea that the emergence of the Kingston Trio might be as good an event as any to mark the point of the passing of one musical era and the beginning of another. From the era of crooners and big bands, to one dominated by trios and quartets playing music largely based around the guitar.

 

People of all ages can love their music but you had to be alive in the late 50's/early 60's to realize how important they were. Their music was everywhere and it was part of the vanguard of the folk revival with it's focus on music that was more meaningful than much of the pop music of the time.
RIP and thanks.

 

A mono copy of the album The Best Of The Kingston Trio (1962), which my parents purchased shortly after their marriage in 1966, was a record I've played since I was about 3 or 4 in the mid-1970's. It was a great introduction to The Kingston Trio and it's made me a fan of theirs all of my life. I bought many of their original albums at second-hand shops over the years and still listen to them regularly to this day. It's sad to see the last-surviving original member go.
RIP Mr. Shane. I genuinely thank you for the music you helped create.

 

The person who arranged this adaption is legendary country singer-songwriter Billy Edd Wheeler.

 

I am fully aware of how important they were.

 

Frank Proffitt's version of Tom Dooley:

 

Frank's recordings are available through Smithsonian Folkways, BTW:
Smithsonian Folkways - Search

 

Not to mention the striped, button down shirts, with the elbow length short sleeves!

 

That was a huge fashion statement at the time and is a timeless look.

 

Which the Beach Boys openly swiped.

 

Well, I read Frank Proffitt's dismissal of the Kingston Trio's version of his song, but this is the first time I have heard the original, and I have to say: Sorry Frank, with all respect, the Trio breathed extra life into the song. I'd go so far as to say they gave the song something it needed - a mournful sense of regret and foreboding.

I'm reminded of something Bob Lind said. Someone had played him a cover of one his songs - a very odd cover, in a completely different style from the original. They clearly expected Lind to be critical, and to claim that his song had been butchered. Instead of that, he said "I love it when someone finds something in one of my songs that I didn't know was there."

 

Frank Proffitt of Reese, North Carolina | Smithsonian Folkways Recordings is where to order the album.