SINGY BOYS

mark

Phil Ochs . . . great . . . i haven't thought about him in many years . . .

I saw this man in concert several times in the early 1970s--there's no way they could improve him in the studio. "Higher Love" is from the mid-1980s.

The group the Youngbloods, with Jesse Colin Young as lead singer, were popular in the late 1960s. Although their biggest hit was "Get Together" in 1969 (#5 on Billboard Hot 100), my favorite was always "Darkness Darkness" (probably because it was widely popular with GIs). The fiddle intro was played by Big Charlie Daniels, then a Nashville session musician, who also produced the album.

Here's the first little man with the big voice (as far as my lovestruck sisters were concerned, back in the mid 60's).


Scott Walker....

Cool, Boss . . . (never heard of him, but we all know the ladies are always right!)

Here's a big man with a big voice . . .

Here's a singy boy who Vonny and maybe a few others here would know, here singing a song about Von's home toon.


Jimmy Nail - Big River.

And of course, Eric Clapton (covering Robert Johnson)

W00t!

There were essentially two Kingston Trios, if you cull the ones using that name right now.
The first were like this:

And the second went like this

Despite the Kingston Trio's nearly unprecedented success in record sales, by early 1961 a rift developed and deepened between Guard on one side and Shane and Reynolds on the other. Guard had been referred to in the press and on the albums' liner notes as the "acknowledged leader" of the group,[9] a description never wholly endorsed by Shane and Reynolds, who felt themselves equal contributors to the group's repertoire and success. Guard wanted Shane and Reynolds to follow his lead and learn more of the technical aspects of music and to redirect the group's song selections,[42] in part because of the withering criticism that the group had been getting from more traditional folk performers for the Trio's smoother and more commercial versions of folk songs and for the money-making copyrights that the Kingston group had secured for their arrangements of public domain songs.[1] Shane and Reynolds felt that the formula for song selection and performance that they had painstakingly developed and rehearsed still served them well.[42]

Furthermore, over $100,000 appeared to be missing from the Trio's publishing royalties (an accounting error eventually rectified)[42] and that created an additional irritant to both sides: to Guard because he regarded it as inexcusable carelessness and to Shane and Reynolds because it highlighted what they perceived as Guard's propensity to claim individual copyright for some of the group's songs,[43] including "Tom Dooley" (though Guard eventually lost a suit over copyright for that number to Alan Lomax, Frank Warner, and Frank Proffitt)[44] and "Scotch and Soda".[43]

The situation became intolerable for all concerned, and Dave Guard resigned from the Kingston Trio in April 1961, though pledging to fulfill group commitments through November of that year. Shane, Reynolds, and Werber bought out Guard's interest in the partnership for $300,000[32] to be paid over a number of years and moved to replace him immediately. The remaining Trio partners settled quickly on John Stewart, a 21-year-old member of the Cumberland Three, one of the myriad of groups that sprang up hoping to imitate the Kingston Trio's success. Stewart was already well-acquainted with Reynolds and Shane, having sold two of his early songwriting efforts to the Trio, and he was a proficient guitarist, banjoist, and singer who seemed to the partners to be perfectly positioned to replace Guard.[26] Stewart began rehearsing and recording with the group nearly immediately, commencing public appearances with the Trio in September 1961.

According to Shane, "We did nearly as well with John as we did with Dave."[45] Six of the group's next seven albums between 1961 and 1963 continued to place in Billboard's Top Ten and several of the group's most successful singles, including "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" and "Greenback Dollar", charted as well.[46]