Once Upon a Time (Kingston Trio album)
Encyclopedia
Once Upon a Time is a live album by the American
folk music
group The Kingston Trio
, recorded in 1966 and released in 1969 (see 1969 in music
). It was originally released as a double-LP
and reached number 163 on the Billboard
Pop Albums chart. The lead-off single was "One Too Many Mornings" b/w "Scotch and Soda
".
, the trio had decided to disband in one year after a tour and another album. Decca declined to release Once Upon a Time. It was offered to Capitol Records
and they too passed. It wasn't until 1969 that it was eventually released on Tetragrammaton Records
. By the time the album was released John Stewart had begun a solo career, Nick Reynolds
was retired from the music business and Bob Shane
had created a new group, The New Kingston Trio.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
group The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio
The Kingston Trio is an American folk and pop music group that helped launch the folk revival of the late 1950s to late 1960s. The group started as a San Francisco Bay Area nightclub act with an original lineup of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds...
, recorded in 1966 and released in 1969 (see 1969 in music
1969 in music
-Events:Perhaps the two most famous musical events of 1969 were concerts. At a Rolling Stones concert in Altamont, California, a fan was stabbed to death by Hells Angels, a biker gang that had been hired to provide security for the event...
). It was originally released as a double-LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...
and reached number 163 on the Billboard
Billboard charts
The Billboard charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs or albums in the United States. The results are published in Billboard magazine...
Pop Albums chart. The lead-off single was "One Too Many Mornings" b/w "Scotch and Soda
Scotch and Soda (song)
"Scotch and Soda" is a song recorded by The Kingston Trio in 1958 and first released on the album The Kingston Trio; it also appeared on the live album Once Upon a Time and on various compilations....
".
History
Prior to the release of Children of the MorningChildren of the Morning
Children of the Morning is an album by the American folk music group The Kingston Trio, released in 1966 . It was their last album on the Decca label. Three singles were released from the album and all were commercial flops, as was the album...
, the trio had decided to disband in one year after a tour and another album. Decca declined to release Once Upon a Time. It was offered to Capitol Records
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
and they too passed. It wasn't until 1969 that it was eventually released on Tetragrammaton Records
Tetragrammaton Records
Tetragrammaton Records was an American record label, founded by artist manager Roy Silver, Bruce Post Campbell, Marvin Deane, and comedian Bill Cosby in the late 1960s. The name references a term for the un-nameable name of God....
. By the time the album was released John Stewart had begun a solo career, Nick Reynolds
Nick Reynolds
Nick Reynolds was an American folk musician and recording artist. Reynolds was one of the founding members of The Kingston Trio, whose largely folk-based material captured international attention during the late fifties and early sixties.- Early life :Growing up in Coronado, California, his...
was retired from the music business and Bob Shane
Bob Shane
Bob Shane is an American singer and guitarist and, with Nick Reynolds' passing in October 2008, the only surviving founding member of The Kingston Trio. In that capacity, Shane became a seminal figure in the revival of folk and other acoustic music as a popular art form in the U.S...
had created a new group, The New Kingston Trio.
Reception
Allmusic critic Bruce Eder praised the live album, citing individual songs, and writing "Tetragrammaton folded in the early '70s, and the resulting double LP is one of the rarest in the Kingston Trio's output, which is sad -- the best of their concert recordings since those renowned live recordings of 1958, it captured the group ranging freely across its history and the folk landscape... If there is a flaw here... it is the result of a desire not to repeat too much material off of the group's earlier concert albums... In any case, the resulting 72-minute album runs circles around their last live album for Capitol (Back in Town), as well as most of their late Capitol work and a lot of their Decca sides, and it's worth tracking down."Reissues
- Once Upon a Time was reissued on CD in 2007 on the Collectors Choice label.
- Once Upon a Time was reissued on LP as On Stage on an unknown label.
- Once Upon a Time was reissued on LP as 20 Greatest Hits on the Black Tulip label.
Track listing
The tracks "Police Brutality", "A Day in Our Room", "Silicone Bust" and "Blind Date" are comedy interludes by John Stewart.Side one
- "Hard Travelin'" (Woody GuthrieWoody GuthrieWoodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie is best known as an American singer-songwriter and folk musician, whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works. He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his...
) – 2:11 - "Early Mornin' Rain" (Gordon LightfootGordon LightfootGordon Meredith Lightfoot, Jr. is a Canadian singer-songwriter who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music, and has been credited for helping define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s...
) – 2:40 - "The M.T.A. (The Boston Subway Song)" (Bess Lomax HawesBess Lomax HawesBess Lomax Hawes was an American folk musician, folklorist, and researcher. She was the daughter of John Avery Lomax and Bess Bauman-Brown Lomax, and the sister of Alan Lomax.-Early life and education:...
, Jacqueline SteinerJacqueline SteinerJacqueline Steiner is an American folk singer, songwriter and social activist. Steiner is known for having written the lyrics to the song "M.T.A.", about a man stuck on the Boston subway because he could not pay the exit fare...
) - 2:55 - "Tomorrow Is a Long TimeTomorrow Is a Long Time"Tomorrow Is a Long Time" is a song written and recorded by Bob Dylan. Dylan's version first appeared on the Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits Volume II compilation, released in 1971...
" (Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
) – 3:30 - "Rovin' Gambler/This Train" (Samuel F. Omar) – 1:45
Side two
- "Police Brutality" (Stewart) – 0:49
- "One Too Many MorningsOne Too Many Mornings"One Too Many Mornings" is a song by Bob Dylan, released on his third studio album The Times They Are a-Changin in 1964. The chords and vocal melody are in some places very similar to the song "The Times They Are A-Changin'". "One Too Many Mornings" is in the key of C Major and is fingerpicked...
" (Dylan) – 1:58 - "Colours" (DonovanDonovanDonovan Donovan Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch (born 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist. Emerging from the British folk scene, he developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music...
) – 3:16 - "A Day in Our Room" (Stewart) – 0:39
- "WimowehThe Lion Sleeps Tonight"The Lion Sleeps Tonight", also known as "Wimoweh" and originally as "Mbube", is a song recorded by Solomon Linda and his group The Evening Birds for the South African Gallo Record Company in 1939. It was covered internationally by many 1950s pop and folk revival artists, including The Weavers,...
" (Paul Campbell, Solomon LindaSolomon LindaSolomon Popoli Linda , also known as Solomon Ntsele , was a South African Zulu musician, singer and composer who wrote the song "Mbube" which later became the popular music success "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", and gave its name to the Mbube style of isicathamiya a cappella popularized later by...
) – 1:44 - "Tom DooleyTom Dooley (song)"Tom Dooley" is an old North Carolina folk song based on the 1866 murder of a woman named Laura Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina. It is best known today because of a hit version recorded in 1958 by The Kingston Trio. This version was a multi-format hit, reaching #1 in Billboard, the...
" (Alan LomaxAlan LomaxAlan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
, Frank Warner) – 2:50 - "Goodnight Irene" (LeadbellyLeadbellyHuddie William Ledbetter was an iconic American folk and blues musician, notable for his strong vocals, his virtuosity on the twelve-string guitar, and the songbook of folk standards he introduced....
, Alan LomaxAlan LomaxAlan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
) – 2:36
Side three
- "Hard, Ain't It Hard" (Guthrie) – 2:31
- "Get Away John" (Dave GuardDave GuardDonald David "Dave" Guard was an American folk singer, songwriter, arranger and recording artist. Along with Nick Reynolds and Bob Shane, he was one of the founding members of The Kingston Trio.Guard was educated in Honolulu, Hawaii, at Punahou School in what was then the pre-statehood U.S....
) – 2:25 - "The Ballad of the Shape of Things" (Sheldon Harnick) – 3:41
- "Greenback Dollar" (Hoyt AxtonHoyt AxtonHoyt Wayne Axton was an American country music singer-songwriter, and a film and television actor. He became prominent in the early 1960s, establishing himself on the West Coast as a folk singer with an earthy style and powerful voice. As he matured, some of his songwriting efforts became well...
, Kennard Ramsey) – 3:22 - "Babe, You've Been on My Mind (Mama, You've Been on My Mind)" (Dylan) – 2:10
Side four
- "Tijuana Jail" (Denny Thompson) – 2:10
- "Silicone Bust" (Stewart) – 1:12
- "I'm Going Home" (Fred Geis) – 1:19
- "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" is a folk song. The first three verses were written by Pete Seeger in 1955, and published in Sing Out! magazine...
" (Pete SeegerPete SeegerPeter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
, Joe HickersonJoe HickersonJoe Hickerson is a noted folk singer and songleader. For 35 years he was Librarian and Director of the Archive of Folk Song at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress...
) – 2:56 - "Scotch and SodaScotch and Soda (song)"Scotch and Soda" is a song recorded by The Kingston Trio in 1958 and first released on the album The Kingston Trio; it also appeared on the live album Once Upon a Time and on various compilations....
" (Guard) – 1:57 - "Blind Date" (Stewart) – 2:05
- "Saints Go Marching InWhen the Saints Go Marching In"When the Saints Go Marching In", often referred to as "The Saints", is an American gospel hymn that has taken on certain aspects of folk music. The precise origins of the song are not known. Though it originated as a spiritual, today people are more likely to hear it played by a jazz band...
" (Traditional) – 1:54
Personnel
- Bob ShaneBob ShaneBob Shane is an American singer and guitarist and, with Nick Reynolds' passing in October 2008, the only surviving founding member of The Kingston Trio. In that capacity, Shane became a seminal figure in the revival of folk and other acoustic music as a popular art form in the U.S...
– vocals, guitar - Nick ReynoldsNick ReynoldsNick Reynolds was an American folk musician and recording artist. Reynolds was one of the founding members of The Kingston Trio, whose largely folk-based material captured international attention during the late fifties and early sixties.- Early life :Growing up in Coronado, California, his...
– vocals, tenor guitar, conga - John Stewart – vocals, banjo, guitar
- Dean Reilly – bass
Production notes
- Frank Werber – producer
- Hank McGill – engineer
- George Horn – re-mix engineer
- Randy Steirling – assistant engineer
- Jon Sagen – assistant engineer
- George Yanok – assistant engineer
- Joaquin Bandersnatch – liner notes
- Fred Rubik – album design
- Jon Echevarieta – art direction
- Dennis Hodgson – photography
- Don Jim – photography
- Larry Korgan – cover design
Chart positions
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Billboard Pop Albums | 163 |