Nick Reynolds is dead. Nick Reynolds, as in Bob Shane, Dave Guard...and later, John Stewart: the Kingston Trio. I am sure that means nothing to the vast majority of people online, but they were the soundtrack to my freshman year in high school. They were the group that crossed over from folk to Top 40. Who doesn't remember "Tom Dooley" or "MTA" or "Tijuana Jail" (and the calm baritone response to Nick's frenzied Spanish yipping in that introduction: "No more drinks for the dwarf.")? But I always liked the tongue-in cheek songs that you found on their albums or in their concerts and not on the radio...Zombie Jamboree, Merry Minuet, Ballad of the Shape of Things....
As much as the music, the Kingston Trio brings back times and people. My introduction to them was via Tom Magrogan, president of our CYO, and an avid fan who had all the albums--and was murdered in his early 20s before his life began. They bring back the years BEFORE the Beatles, the years of Joan Baez and her copper kettle, of The New Christy Minstrels, of Peter, Paul and Mary...and the Kennedy years, when joining the Peace Corps was a valid ambition, and the world's problems seemed to be solvable.
We were all much younger then. Goodbye Nick.
1 comment:
OH NO! HE can't be dead! that will only leave Bob Shane and John Stewart. true, the original trio stopped touring a while back. Last time I saw them together was at the Wilmington Opera House.
I took myself there one soft spring evening. When I said I was going, my children looked at me as if I were too old to understnad let alone enjoy a concert. I went anyway. I enjoyed myself immensely. It was comfortable just like old times.
Nick had just had a hip replacement. Instead of standing with the other two, he sat on a barstool.
He had lost none of his charm ( if that's what you call it) nor his wit.
they played off each other just as they did when I saw them at the Civic Center in Baltimore freshman year.
It just didn't get any better than that. I still listen to the music. I always will.
Funny, I was thinking about CYO and of course Tom Magrogan the other day. I think about those days and enjoy them much more now than I did when they were happening.
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