Customer Reviews

The Kingston Trio/ From the Hungry I

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
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Forty years on I can discern an influence of the Kingston Trio. My closet is still full of striped, button-down collar shirts -- just like the Kingston Trio made mandatory for stylish college boys circa 1960. "Button down" describes the Trio: apolitical, un-serious, insouciant, a little naughty, but never vulgar.

It's hard to recall how revolutionary their music was at the time. "Folk music" suddenly became all the rage for the college crowd. How does their music hold up? Pretty well, although the sound is not fresh any longer. Generations of grittier folk musicians have made the Kingston Trio sound a little smooth, cocktail-loungy, and superficial. But their songs couldn't be better. "Tom Dooley" is the best murder ballad ever; "Scotch and Soda" and "Hard, Ain't it Hard" have never been equaled. "The Merry Minuet" ("They're rioting in Africa,") is an unforgettable example of 50s gallows humor.

This CD includes their first two albums: "The Kingston Trio" and "From the Hungry I" which was recorded live in San Francisco. The live album is a little better. The boundless energy of the Trio comes through on songs like "Shady Grove/Lonesome Traveler" and "Zombie Jamboree" and their politically incorrect patter between songs is of sociological interest. In one short concert, they insult Mexicans, French, Appalachian folk, Southern Californians, Chinese, Africans, and a few other groups. (Back in those days you could be secure in your superiority to non-University people from places other than San Francisco. Nowadays, such feelings have to be covered up by a veneer of multi-culturalism.)

The Kingston Trio were forerunners of Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys (who copied their shirts), and Peter, Paul, and Mary. They're important; the world would be a slightly different place if the Kingston Trio had never existed.

I was first introduced to this album nearly a decade ago by a friend who said his father was a big fan of the Kingston Trio. We would laugh and sing with the album while working together at the University. The intellectual humor and brilliant vocals were just the thing for us as college students eager to reject the popular music of our generation. Now, as a parent, I often think of my old friend and his father singing along with the album, as I sing my girls to bed with "Scotch and Soda", "Fast Freight", or "Shady Grove". The timeless lyrics about traveling to far off places and the spirited melodies are more recognizable to my daughters (1 and 3) than any tv character. Even my wife cannot get tired of this album, and since we met I have played it at least one or more times each week.

The CD is actually the first two LPs released by The Kingston Trio. The liner notes give much information about the band's popularity and widespread influence in the late 1950s early 1960s. About how Frank Sinatra would not record "Scotch and Soda" because it had already been "perfected" by Bob Shane. The 2nd album is recorded live from the infamous "Hungry i" cafe/bar in San Fransisco, I suspect favorite hang out of those interested in the "beat" generation. I imaginge I would have enjoyed traveling around North, Central, and South America researching colonial sea shanties and local traditionals in order to arrange music so classic that it will always transcend generational and cultural lines.

Although, there are some obvious clues as to the time in which the albums were produced (I believe it was recorded in mono, and the patter between songs on the live album is quaintly dated) it all comes together because some songs are modern and relevant while others are almost ancient. "Merry Minuet" is a humorous, satirical commentary on nuclear weapons. While the Bible is represented on "Dorie" from Song of Songs (Solomon) and a Zulu hunting chant is the inspiration for "Wimoweh". I don't know how long I will continue to get requests for "Scotch and Soda" maybe when my children are teenagers they will reject the music we raised them on; but hopefully they will come back to it when they have a real interest in quality music performances. Maybe then, they will remember some of these songs and sing them while they are working their way through college or maybe as they are driving home for vacations.

Note: The collector's edition of this double LP (on one CD) came out in 2001 with an extra song. It is slightly more expensive than this album - I recommend if you want to take a chance on the Kingston Trio take the less expensive one. If you have heard some of it and know you will like it, then it may be worth getting the collector's edition.

All the songs that made growing up in the Kingston Trio era a joyful experience. This album brought back so many memories. If you are my age (late 50's), and remember the Ivy League image, you have to have this!

Growing up listening to Kingston Trio is a fond memory of mine. I used to listen to this LP on the Hi-Fi and rollerskate madly in the basement to "Dorie" and "Wimoweh". Quieter tunes include "They Call the Wind Maria" and "South Coast". Many songs are sung in a foreign language. The comical interludes by the Trio add to the flavor of the performance and makes you feel like you know Nick, Dave and Bob. I still listen to it to this day, and so does my 9-month old daughter. A great collection of songs!

My father has an original LP version of "Live at the Hungry i" (which stands for Intellectual)and played the track "Zombie Jamboree" to us as a kids song. As I grew older, the lullabye "Gue Gue" and the Mission themed "South Coast" were my favorites. The interaction between the band and the crowd, literally on top of each other if the jacket photos were accurate, adds to the energy of the songs.

This album presents an excellent audio "hear" of the kind of cafe entertainment that was considered "hip" as well as popular in the mid-sixties. You will get the flavor of the kind of humor as well as folk music that was considered somewhat adult at the time but will seem tame by today's standards. The Hungry I in San Francisco was hugely popular and featured many performers on their way up such as singers Joan Baez and Barbra Streisand and comedienne Phyllis Diller. Also this album is a fun look at the lighter side of the decade.

In my college days, we literally wore out the grooves on this album. I know this recording so well that I know the picture you show is not the original cover of "Live from the Hungry I." It is, however, the cover of what I believe was their first album, "The Kingston Trio." Am I ordering the right album? We thought it the best.

This Collector's Choice CD brings together the first two albums by the Kingston Trio and gives you a perfect opportunity to see the difference between a studio album and a live album by one of the most celebrated groups of the folk revival at the very start of their recording careers. "The Kingston Trio" is the celebrated folk group's debut album from 1958 and the one that introduced the nation to "Tom Dooley." With that hit song, Dave Guard, Nick Reynolds, and Bob Shane suddenly made folk music popular with the mainstream listening audience. If you are used to listening to a Kingston Trio hits collection you will find the sound on this first album rather primitive and certainly not as polished as later efforts, but that is to be expected. Over the next five years the group would put out twenty albums, half of which would make it to the top three of the Billboard charts.

The most familiar song from the rest of the album is "Scotch and Soda," written by guard, who also the comic song "Coplas" and "Little Maggie" (these are the last three tracks on the album). Half the songs on the album are traditional, specifically the first three on each "side" of the album (an indication, to me at least, that the order represents what the Kingston Trio were doing in concert at that point). The most notable of these is "Saro Jane," although fans of the Beach Boys will recognize that the Trio gets the credit for turning an old Weavers song into the rock standard "Sloop John B."

The Kingston Trio recorded their second album live at the Hungry i in San Francisco on August 15-16, 1958, which was just a few days after the release of their debut album. This was significant because it explains why you have a live album from a group that includes absolutely nothing from their previous album. That means the song selection is not as strong, but this hardly matters because the boys are singing live, getting the crowd involved in the fun (e.g., introducing "Zombie Jamboree" as "the song that killed calypso"). Shane shines in singing, "They Call the Wind Maria" from "Paint Your Wagon," but my favorite is the medley of "Shady Grove/Lonesome Traveler."

Listening to this second album, which made it to #2 on the Billboard charts (guess what album was keeping it from becoming #1), I am struck by how small the gap is between what the Kingston Trio are doing and what the Smothers Brothers were doing on their first album, "Live at the Purple Onion." No wonder the mixture of folk songs and humor captivated so many listeners. The only complaint with this album is that it was recorded in Mono (not to worry, their next live recording would be in Stereo), but that can still strike us as being quaint and in its own way authentic. The main thing is that together these two albums explain why the Kingston Trio became the hottest group in the country essentially overnight.

I was a fan from the first moment I heard "Tom Dooley" when I was 13 in 1958, and it still is wonderful. I bought all their Capitol releases, the ones with founder Dave Guard and brilliant replacement John Stewart, and some of their LP's when they switched to Decca in the final years of the first incarnation. A reorganized group, The New Kingston Trio, later came around with Bob Shane, one of the originals, and it didn't stink either. Shane's vocal of "Scotch and Soda" is an enduring ballad in the Frank Sinatra "Set 'Em Up Joe, Give Me One for My Baby and One More for the Road" genre, unusual in a folk group context. The early Trio did a lot of novelty tunes and a lot of Calypso-flavored songs (Harry Belafonte was huge in 1958.) These are fun, but the harmonies are superb, the instruments in tune, and while some of the patter at the San Francisco nightclub is dated, the reissued LP's remind us of why the Kingston Trio has actually weathered the decades better than their rivals The Weavers, Peter, Paul and Mary, the Brothers Four, the Highwaymen, Chad Mitchell Trio and New Christy Minstrels. Shane, Guard and Nick Reynolds and Stewart just all clicked with each other and their material and their era. Most of the first nine reviews below are better than my critique, so read them if you are not convinced that any folk fan should own some Kingston Trio CD's.

I waited a long time to be able to get the original Kingston Trio songs I loved in the 60s. For a long time they were not available. This album is true to the original recordings and it is a great value with two albums on the same CD.