Number 6's Blog

“Where have all the flowers gone” by The Kingston Trio was for me a revolution. Yes I know Pete Seeger wrote it but back then I never hear of him. To me The Kingston Trio was a revolution. Growing up in the Northern Midwest I was weaned on Lawerence Welk and the big band music from the top floor of the Hotel Blackhawk. Then The Kingston Trio came along with a couple guitars and lyrics with issues other than “teen anguish” – like “Tom Dooley” and “The MTA”

They were an early folk group I suppose although the they pre-Dated the folk music surge. From Hawaii and California they were also the first wave of alternative music from the west coast.

This is one of my songs on my “Peace” playlist which I listen to when the world gets me down (more on that in the next post)

To be fair another wind of change was blowing though our community at that time. My older brother, Jim, was into a different genre with artists like Bo Diddley and James Brown.

On the Pop stations yet another style was gaining popularity – pop music with songs like “A thousand stars in the sky” by Linda Scott and “Sherry Baby” by The Four Seasons. We called it “Pretty Rock” with a look of disgust.

This was al Pre-Bob-Dylan who totally, totally overturned the apple cart. He appeared at the perfect time in the sixties along with rioting in the streets, Vietnam protests, equal opportunity, cancer warnings on cigarettes, the pill, the Kennedy’s and Martin Luther King assassinations, and the list goes on and on