(No hockey content; it’ll come later. But bear with me.)
You know those songs that just don’t sound right out of context? How about the ones that only sound right in context?
There’s a Kingston Trio song called “The Wanderer,” not related to the Dion DiMucci song. On the collected Bear Family Records set, “The Guard Years,” the song falls between “A Worried Man” (brilliant) and “San Miguel” (ditto). It always sounded kind of flat in there.
Then I got my first CD burner. Out of that collection, burned my own copy of the actual 1959 album “Here We Go Again!” There, “The Wanderer” fell between “Haul Away” (which Dave Guard had played at his funeral, and which I probably wouldn’t mind at mine, either) and “‘Round About the Mountain” (which similarly sounds flat out of context).
Nick Reynolds’ lead stood out there. Deep, emotional, stark. Maybe you can argue the song needed to be in context. More likely, I just needed to put myself in context.
In addition to beltin’ out the high parts in harmony, Reynolds sang lead on “MTA,” did so on the raucous Cisco Houston/Lee Hays song “Bad Man Blunder,” performed a haunting version of the folky standard “Whistling Gypsy,” made the Trio’s version of “Jesse James” hyperenergetic, made “Oh Miss Mary” better than the Journeymen’s original, contributed “Hobo’s Lullaby” and “No One to Talk My Troubles To” to the somewhat-Kennedy-assassination-inspired “Time To Think,” and gave the spoken intro to the song, “Tom Dooley,” that launched the group to stardom 50 years ago. You may not know his voice, but you probably do, by accident.
Nick Reynolds died last night at age 75. In addition to his family, he leaves Bob Shane as the last man standing.