Insights into … the Kingston Trio
[17 Billboard Hot 100 singles, 1958 - 1963, and one RIAA-certified gold single]
In a whimsical 1972 recording, Dr. Hook and the
Medicine Show pined for exposure on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
Thirteen years earlier, long before Rolling Stone was conceived, the
cover of Life magazine was the highest pedestal to which any entertainer
could aspire. Images that the publications editors selected for the cover
reflected momentous societal and political events in the nation’s history. The
cover story in Life magazine’s issue of August 3, 1959, began: “The
brightest new sounds heard through all the racket of rock ’n’ roll come from
the voices and instruments of three college grad cutups, Dave Guard, Bob Shane
and Nick Reynolds, who call themselves the Kingston Trio. …The Kingston Trio
at Large is now the best selling LP in the country.” The fact that Life,
geared to middle America, recognized the enormous popularity of the Kingston
Trio was news in itself.
The Trio, as they were known simply to their fans, ushered in numerous trends and fads. They launched the folk music craze of the late ’50s and early ’60s, even though they did not consider themselves to be folk musicians. They catapulted pop music from the confines of the 45 RPM single record with enormously popular top-selling albums. They established the college circuit – previously the exclusive realm of lecturers – as a viable concert touring platform. They set a fashion trend with their wide-striped shirts – a style the Beach Boys later adopted. And they influenced numerous performers who followed them, including Bob Dylan.
Their rise to fame became a matter of legend – how
nightclub entertainment publicist and Frank Werber – a refugee from Nazi
Germany — discovered the Trio at the Cracked Pot nightclub near Stanford
University on the peninsula south of San Francisco, became their manager and
signed them to a lengthy engagement at San Francisco’s Purple Onion nightclub,
leading to their contract with Capitol Records.
The group recorded The Kingston Trio album,
their debut release, with the Purple Onion’s upright bass player, Elmer Lynn
“Buzz” Wheeler, in just three days beginning February 5, 1958. Singing into one
shared microphone as they played their instruments, the boys efficiently laid
down the songs they regularly performed in their Purple Onion stage act. Their
repertoire included the song that seven months later would soar to the top of
the charts – “Tom Dooley,” a rural folk ballad about a man who was perhaps
wrongly convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. The label had
only modest expectations for the album, according to Werber. “They weren’t
planning to release any singles, and they pressed only 1,000 copies of the
album,” Werber said.
Their meteoric rise to fame was ignited, however,
when disc jockeys began playing “Tom Dooley,” and listeners swamped request
lines in response. Other stations added it to their playlists, and as demand
increased, the label released “Tom Dooley” as a single. Little time elapsed
before the Kingston Trio became the most popular vocal group in the nation.
Riding the crest of their wave of popularity, the
Kingston Trio ended 1959 triumphantly with the unprecedented distinction of
having four LP records in the national top 10 simultaneously. The trio endured
the departure of Dave Guard in the summer of 1961 by recruiting
singer-songwriter John Stewart, a longtime Trio devotee. Close Up, the first Trio album with Stewart, included a track that
became another signature song for the group: their poignant rendition of Pete
Seeger’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?”
[rumor has it that the title of that Pete Seeger tune just may have helped to inspire an excellent series of books that specializes in interviewing well-known pop stars from the '60's ... just sayin' - kk]
The Kingston Trio in 1962.
Standing, Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds;
Seated, John Stewart
Although the Trio ceased recording and broke up in
1967, they created a voluminous library of musical treasures during their
decade-long recording career encompassing 23 U.S. albums of new material. But
their cultural imprint vastly transcended their own record sales. In
February 2011, nearly 57 years after Dave, Bob and Nick began performing
together, the Recording Academy honored the Kingston Trio with a Lifetime
Achievement Award during Grammy presentations.
About Dave Guard’s aloofness
“David was a very bright human being. But he had a funny habit of trying to keep people at arm’s length. It was hard for him to get really close to people, and he would use his intelligence and his quickness to set up little barriers. There were so many people who loved him, and for all the right reasons. I think this is true for a lot of entertainers: they really want to be loved, but maybe at a distance. He was very engaging, when he wanted to be, and he could be pretty remote, too.”
— Gretchen Guard
(Dave's wife)
The Trio’s formative era on the San Francisco Peninsula
“After having some acceptance [performing] at
nightclubs on the peninsula, we got it in our blood. When people applaud and
like what you’re doing, even though you’re just having fun, it’s kind of like a
narcotic. The socialites of San Francisco started hearing about us and coming
down to see this new phenomenon, three young brats having way too much fun. Our
rapport with the audience became infectious. We’ve always played with the
audience, involving them in our conversation, because we certainly weren’t
great musicians or great singers.”
— Nick Reynolds
The transition from Dave Guard to John Stewart
“John had written songs for us and he knew the style
that we were into. We put it together and rehearsed and went right back out six
weeks after Dave left. We were still getting sold-out crowds and standing
ovations, so we knew we had done something right.”
— Bob Shane
Why the Trio declined electrical pickups for their instruments
“Bobby Shane, I’ve got to say, is simply one of the
best rhythm guitar players. He plays with a big, heavy pick and heavy-gauge
strings, and would break them several times during a show. He’s a very strong
man and he would really lay that guitar down. It was like a drum section. While
Peter Paul and Mary were terrific pickers and they strummed, Bobby attacked.
When you put that together with Nick’s tenor guitar, which was like a mariachi
band, it would really add to the drive. Nick would play these terrific triplets
and double-time riffs like on ‘M.T.A.,’ and no other group had that.”
— John Stewart
The beginning of the end in 1964
“While we were at Decca’s offices negotiating a
contract, I looked outside and saw police officers holding screaming teenagers
behind barricades outside the theater where the Beatles were appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show. In my heart, I knew it
was over,”
— Frank Werber
manager
The narrative and quotations in this article are
excerpted from the book Where Have All the Pop
Stars Gone? — Volume 1, by Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff
March. This material is copyrighted © 2011 by EditPros LLC and may not be reproduced
or redistributed without written permission.
Order your copy ... and read the whole interview ... here:
https://www.editpros.com/WHATPSG_Vol_1.html
THE KINGSTON TRIO HIT LIST:
1958 - Tom Dooley (#1)
1959 - The Tijana Jail (#12)
1959 - M.T.A. (#15)
1959 - A Worried Man (#20)
1960 - El Matador (#32)
1960 - Bad Man's Blunder (#37)
1962 - Where Have All The Flowers Gone (#21)
1963 - Greenback Dollar (#21)
1963 - Reverend Mr. Black (#8)
1963 - Desert Pete (#33)
