To Absent Friends - Bob Shane

Bob Shane

1934 - 2020

The Original Kingston Trio

Nick Guard, Shane, Nick Reynolds

(Guard died in 1991, Reynolds in 2008)

When my friend Dan told me about the passing of Bob Shane, 85, the last surviving member of the original Kingston Trio, he asked if this would deserve an Absent Friends post.  I was ambivalent at first, but I feel the need to do so after reading the lengthy obituary for Shane that appeared in the New York Times.  Have I even mentioned that the news obituaries in papers like the times and the Washington Post are often the most interesting reading in the papers?

Shane, along with Nick Reynolds and Nick Guard formed the original Kingston Trio in 1957 and for a period of about six or seven years, they were about as big as anybody in the world of popular music.  They had fourteen albums appear in Billboard Magazine's Top Ten, and five of them reached Number One status.

Record executives categorized them as "folk singers" although the Trio's breezy style was looked down upon but folk "purists" such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.  On the other hand, it can be said that the popularity of the Kingston Trio opened the doors and pave d the way for 1960's folk singers such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul, and Mary.  Shane always thought that the Trio was more than just folk, anyway, and wasn't all that comfortable with being pigeonholed as pure "folk singers."

Nevertheless, they rode their successes, and like many American pop music acts, the British Invasion led by The Beatles and other groups steamrolled over them, and the original Trio was pretty much out of business by 1967.

Here's a Fun Fact That I Did Not Know:  In 1961, a song writer named Ervin Drake wrote a song for the Trio called "It Was A Very Good Year", and the Trio, with Shane as lead vocalist, sang the song as a part of their act for many years, long before a guy named Sinatra had a big hit record when he recorded the same song.

Shane, who some called the "sex symbol" of the Trio, continued to perform, and he and various iterations of the Kingston Trio were always popping up here and there.  Shane took great pride when he said that he had probably performed live before over ten million people over the course of his long career.  As well he should have.

RIP Bob Shane.

For your listening pleasure, here's Shane performing one of my favorite Kingston Trio songs, "Scotch and Soda"...