The Kingston Trio

[John_Carter_of_Mars]

@NDP

Didn’t “too 'authentic”" to many people (not including yourself) actually mean “too Red”? Many of the pre-KT folkies like Pete Seeger ended up being blacklisted during the early 50’s for their supposed left-leaning political sympathies. In their effort to be more commercial, the Kingston Trio (or, more likely, the record indsutry PTB) neutralized a lot of the more political aspects of folk music so it would be “safer” for mass audience consumption.

I can’t agree with this, or at least it didn’t seem that way to me. I found the music of Pete Seeger and the like to be boring while The Kingston Trio, Odetta and Peter, Paul, and Mary’s music was entertaining. If there was a music industry conspiracy against the Dirty Pinko Commies, I didn’t recognize it.

@NDP

]Since I wasn’t around then I’m only guessing at this but didn’t maturity play a role in the popularity of folk music c. 1960? It’s my impression that many of the kids who listened to the first wave of rock n’ roll in the 50’s shifted over to folk when they entered college because it seemed more sophisticated and adult. Rock n’ roll certainly had less respectability at the time but it was due less to its rawness and more toward it being viewed as merely “kid stuff” that you put away once you got out of high school. By the early 60’s, the “barbaric yawp” of rock n’ roll had become more polished and, due to a number of reasons (like, for example, Elvis being “tamed” by the Army and scandals derailing the careers of Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis, etc.), a lot less threatening to the cultural mainstream.

If I were to paint with a broad brush, I’d say that folk music at that time was more of a college kid’s thing, while the blue collar guys and girls were more into rock ‘n’ roll. (Understand, this is a very large generalization: Most groups liked some of both.)
Since I spent most of the '60’s working my way through college, I had a pretty good view of both sides of this.

I remember one great weekend in 1964 when I saw Odetta in a coffee house on Friday night and then The Coasters in a nightclub on Saturday night.
WOAH!

[ElvisL1ves]

@John Carter of Mars

If there was a music industry conspiracy against the Dirty Pinko Commies, I didn’t recognize it.

The blacklist period was over by that time, and it was safe for the folkies to come out of hiding. The newer groups all did seem happier, frothier, just more fun to sing along with somehow, without the bitterness and caution and anger that the older performers had learned, whether blacklisted or just in fear of it. IMHO.

I had the pleasure of sitting right up front at a Kingston Trio performance in 1977 in Cambridge (I had just learned “Charlie” as every Boston college kid must - you could get a free pitcher at Bette’s Rolls Royce if you could sing it all - but I digress). Bob Shane broke a guitar string during a song, and somehow kept playing the other strings (sporadically) while replacing it. Never missed a beat. Dunno who the other 2 were, but they weren’t Dave Guard and Nick Reynolds.
“I was part of the Great Folk Music Scare of the Sixties - when it almost caught on.” - Martin Mull

[Horatio_Hellpop]

@NDP

Many of the pre-KT folkies like Pete Seeger ended up being blacklisted during the early 50’s for their supposed left-leaning political sympathies.

“Supposed”? A couple of Pete Seeger quotes, courtesy of Wikipedia:

“My father, Charles Seeger, got me into the Communist movement. He backed out around '38. I drifted out in the '50s. I apologize [in his recent book] for following the party line so slavishly, for not seeing that Stalin was a supremely cruel misleader.”

“I still call myself a communist, because communism is no more what Russia made of it than Christianity is what the churches make of it. But if by some freak of history communism had caught up with this country, I would have been one of the first people thrown in jail.”

The rightness or wrongness of his political activities are subject to debate; the left-wing nature of them is not. He had a radio show in the 40s called “Larry the Lefty,” after all.

[Mister_Rik]

@Kizarvexius

So on many a family evening, not to mention many a long road trip, my parents, my sisters and I sang along with dad’s Kingston Trio collection. There was also some Peter, Paul & Mary, or the Brothers Four tossed into the mix, but these were all secondary. The Trio reigned supreme.

Wow, add in The New Christy Minstrels and you’ve described my mom’s record collection! Those folk albums are what I grew up listening to. The alternative was my dad’s 1960s country & western record collection. The only rock & roll on the shelf was a couple albums by The Ventures, and I think those were there only because my parents grew up 20 minutes from where The Ventures originated (and my dad’s brother played drums in a Ventures-like band, and sat in with The Ventures a few times when they performed locally).

Anyhow, the Kingston Trio were definitely my mom’s favorite, and she was tickled pink a few years ago when she found a KT greatest hits CD, because she hadn’t been able to listen to her albums in quite some time since her old turntable broke.

[RealityChuck]

I don’t think it was an issue of politics. The Kingston Trio were able to break out of the folk music ghetto (and create the folk music boom) because their songs were catchy and tuneful. They were just more accessible to the general music public than older groups.

After all, the Weavers were massively successful prior to the Kingston Trio, Pete Seeger and all. The blacklist cut them short, but most of their big hits were not particularly political (e.g., “Kisses Sweeter than Wine,” “Goodnight, Irene,” “On Top of Old Smokey”). They were successful despite their politics, and most listeners at the time probably never knew what they were.

But after the Weavers, folk music went back to its niche, and I don’t think folk musicians were thought of as any more subversive than jazz musicians.

The Kingston Trio just sang melodic and clever songs that the public wanted to hear. Politics wasn’t really an issue in their success.