Customer Reviews

At the Bitter End

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The songs in this album are some of the few that have well writen, smart, fun lyrics. Some of the songs are comentaries on the "curent" events and are almost the musical equivilant of political cartoons. My favorits are "John birch society", "James james Morrison Morrison" and "Last night I had the strangest dream". I think a lot of people get turned off by the words "folk music" but then most of them don't have much experiance with it. The first time I heard on of their songs I fell off the couch laughing! If you come across the album "a mighty day on campus" it is even better than this one. (P.S. I'm 17 and listen to folk music on a record player, there may be hope yet.)

The Chad Mitchell Trio released three albums for Kapp Records at the beginning of the 1960s before parting ways (the studio refused to release the group's cover of "Blowin' in the Wind" and let Peter, Paul & Mary have the hit instead). These were the years when the American folk music revival was approaching its zenith and after the success of "Mighty Day on Campus," recorded live at a Brooklyn College concert, Kapp followed up with this March 19, 1962 live recording "At the Bitter End" in Greenwich Village (where else?). The trio at this point consisted of Chad Mitchell, Mike Kobluk and Joe Frazier. Backing them up for this intimate concert was former Weaver Fred Hellerman, future Byrd Jim McGuinn, and bass player Bill Lee. If that were not impressive enough, the songs were being arranged by the legendary Milt Okun, who mixed up traditional folk songs like "The Unfortunate Man" and Woody Guthrie's "Great Historical Bum," with more contemporary works by Tom Paxton ("Come Along Home") and Bob Gibson ("You Can Tell the World"). The album begins with "The John Brich Society," a wickedly barbed song that certainly sets the tone for the evening's festivities, and then continues on the other ten songs.

"The Chad Mitchell At the Bitter end" offers up both political satire and social humor. The group also had the advantage of performing in a coffeehouse, where the audience response was a lot more appropriate than what they had received on the college campus. You have to think that the three singers, all of whom were still in their early 20s when this album was recorded, were inspired by both their audience and the superb musicians backing them up. Besides, one of the great truisms about albums by folk singers are that they just do not sound the same if they are not performing live for an audience. This makes sense. Folk music is the music of the people, to be played by people, and for people. There are several excellent collections of songs by the Chad Mitchell Trio, but if you pick up one of their original albums, then this would be the one I would urge you to track down. Note: The most familiar song on the album might be "You Can Tell the World," which Simon & Garfunkle covered on their first album.

I spent most of my teen years listening to the Chad Mitchell Trio. This collection is as good a cross-section as any of the brilliance of the lyrics, and the harmonic resonance of the group, even though, as Chad jokingly once put it: "One of us doesn't have a very good ear."

If you've never heard the group, you need to buy this album. They represent a great style of music that is all but extinct. It's a shame, too. It's our loss.

I was fortunate enough to hear The Chad Mitchell Trio in person when they appeared at Bellarmine College in Louisville, Kentucky. That was in the early sixties, and hearing "At The Bitter End" was just like reliving the experience. From the highly satirical "John Birch Society" to the hauntingly beautiful "Moscow Nights", this CD showcases all that was the best of the heyday of folk music, and...noone did folk music any better than The Chad Mitchell Trio.

I loathe kids' music. My mother brought me up on other kinds of fun songs to sing -- and since she was a child of the 50s & 60s, that included old showtunes and folk music from the old beatnik clubs. Well, this is one of them. There are a few songs that she used to sing to me all the time and I remember absolutely loving them. Plus the album is fun because it is recorded live so you feel like you're there in the club back when a spoof picking on the "John Birch Society" meant something. The songs are pretty, funny, interesting and well sung.

When I got a new MP3 player recently, I went through about 5000 MP3s on my hard disk, just picking out my favorite songs from each artist/album to go on the player, but when I got to Chad Mitchell Trio, *ALL* of their songs from all their (pre-John Denver) albums went on.

Some of their songs are funny, some are rousing, and some are just beautiful melodies with those great CMT harmonies. There is not a song in the bunch that I don't enjoy listening to. And "At The Bitter End" is possibly their best album. But you can't go wrong buying them all.

Downhome, but witty and sophisticated -- the Chad Mitchell Trio offers a smorgasbord all too rare in folk music today. We expect (and get) good picking and smooth harmonies, but we also get a wicked sense of humor and lyrics that thumb their noses at the dominant paradigm. The album has aged well.

If you like the Trio or want to experience a great folk group, this disk is unbeatable. All the classics are here, from John Birch Society to James James Morrison Morrison. Great fidelity for a live recording on CD.

This is pure 1960s close harmony folk singing. This album is representative of all their albums, containing a mix of traditional folk songs and humorous songs. "The John Birch Society" is an example of their political humor, which does have a liberal bias that you should expect in the '60s. "An Unfortunate Man" and "A Great Historical Bum" are excellent examples of their non-political humor. Unfortunately this album does not include "The Ballad of Lizzie Borden." If you like Folk music I can't believe you won't like The Chad Mitchell Trio, and "At the Bitter End" is a good album to get acquainted with.

Chad Mitchell Trio's Bitter End album was recorded at that famous NYC coffee house on 3/19/62.

The LP's Side Two is my single favorite "live" folk concert recording. Its six excellent tracks are highlghted by a sweetly lullabyeish "Moscow Nights" sung in Russian. One of the boys (Chad?) overlays a gorgeously high-flying falsetto warble in the final bars that's still amazing almost 50 years later. On the same side, "Alberta" is a well-turned but melancholy ballad while "Golden Vanity" a nicely energetic sea tale.

Milt Okun arranges songs on this set. Backing musicians include Jim McGuinn (later of THE BYRDS) on guitar and banjo, Bill Lee plays bass and Fred Hellerman guitar.

It's a still vital recording of a once-great folk group, one eventually torn apart by internal strife and jealousy, but when "At The Bitter End" was waxed, this lay in the future. Recommended for all folk music aficionados.

PROGRAM--

[2:49] The John Birch Society
[2:44] Hello Susan Brown
[3:12] The Unfortunate Man
[2:51] Blues Around My Head
[1:53] James James Morrison Morrison
[2:46] The Great Historical Bum (The Bragging Song)
[2:35] Alberta
[2:41] Golden Vanity
[2:31] Moscow Nights
[2:21] Come Along Home (Tom's Song)
[2:30] You can Tell the World
[2:05] Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream

TOTAL TIME: 29:58