The Seekers - Kumbaya (1964)

Topic: Seminal Versions
Joan Baez and The Seekers were popular in the years between the assassinations of John Kennedy in 1963 and Martin Luther King in 1968, when it was still possible to believe the one was an anomaly. The first generation since the 1920s was affluent. All things seemed possible to children born in the years just after World War II.

The economy had recovered from war shortages, and automobile manufacturers were satisfying pent up demands. In England, car ownership increased from 40% to 60% of the population in the decade. [1] In Detroit, Lee Iacocca introduced the Mustang in 1964 as an inexpensive, stylish vehicle that could be individualized by unmarried women, like secretaries; young, small families, and larger ones that could afford second cars that gave the wives and older, adolescent drivers mobility. [2]

The popular music market was particularly broad in 1960. The same songs were heard by adolescents, their younger siblings, and their parents. The Seekers re-recorded "Kumbaya" in 1964 with orchestral backing. They replaced The Weavers’ instrumentation that relied on a banjo, with their own that used two guitars. And, for whatever reason, they dropped the one explicitly religious verse about praying.

The hegemony of the popular music market soon was disintegrating. When families began to accumulate a little money, they were able to buy transistor radios, and age-group taste preferences began to emerge. Each year, the oldest married and changed their spending habits. They were replaced by a new, younger group who had heard their music for as long they could remembere. [3] With the emergence of the Beatles, the young, screaming girls were recognized as a separate audience, the teeny boppers.

It wasn’t just the youngest who wanted their own music; the interests of the older ones matured. Symbolically, the Beatles replaced "I Want To Hold Your Hand" from 1963 with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967 as they too aged. Artists either changed or were replaced by new artists eager to extend or alter existing styles.

This natural evolution of cohorts unfolded against the political developments in the United States where politicians who had come of age in the Depression or one of the following wars thought the young should not be enjoying themselves, but serving in Vietnam.

At this point, the fundamental difference between Baez and The Seekers became obvious. She lived in the United States where the war meant death for many young men. They were living in England, which had freed young men from commitments to military service in 1960. [4]

There also was a deeper difference that went back to the stronger Calvinist strain in this country. Baez was heir to the tradition of Pete Seeger and earlier union organizers who used music as a tool to effect change. [5] Ultimately, it was utilitarian and serious.

Athol Guy, said the group deliberately did not emphasize political material, although they had included Bob Dylan’s "Blowin’ in the Wind" on the album that included the orchestral version of "Kumbaya." He told an interviewer:

"I think you either go out as a social-commentary group or you go out as an emotional commentary group, from that point of view, you know. Folk music can cut either way, can’t it. It either cuts to the heart or it cuts to the cerebral side and cuts when you want to go out and shout loudly, ah, and music never really wanted to shout. We found terrific musicality in all those Dylan songs and again the versatility of those songs lent themselves to certainly anger if you wanted to portray it that way but we wanted to portray the music in a sense that hits the spirit, hits the soul and moves people. I mean the main mission for us is to elevate the spirit." [6]

Durham made similar comments. She told her biographer:

"The importance of Bob Dylan’s lyrics never struck me at all. But then, I didn’t evaluate song lyrics much in those days. To me, the emotional content, melody and chord structure in the music was the most important thing and I didn’t take much notice of lyrics at all. Lyrics were a means of getting the notes out!" [7]

From an American perspective, Bruce Eder said, that aesthetic put them "on the wrong side of the musical divide" because "their upbeat pop sound seemed increasingly out of touch with the darkening mood in the United States." [8] From Down Under, Ian McFarlane concluded their concentration "on a bright, uptempo sound" made them "too pop to be considered strictly folk and too folk to be rock." [9]

Durham left The Seekers in 1968, while Baez’s contract with Vanguard Records ended in 1971. [10]

Performers
Vocal Soloist: Judith Durham
Vocal Group: Athol Guy, Keith Potger, Bruce Woodley

Instrumental Accompaniment: Woodley and Potger, guitars; Guy, string bass [11]; Bobby Richards and His Orchestra [12]

Rhythm Accompaniment: none

Credits
Arranged By [Orchestra] - Bobby Richards [13]
Arranged By [Seekers Arrangement] - The Seekers [14]

Notes on Lyrics
Changes from 1963 version: they dropped the praying verse, but otherwise kept the same verse order.

Notes on Music
Changes from 1963 version: they replaced the banjo with a guitar. The orchestra supplemented their sound, but did not change the solo-group or vocal-accompaniment dynamics.

Notes on Performance
They arrived in London just as the youth culture began to blossom. The men usually appeared in suits and ties, but Durham either wore short- or long-skirted dresses. The men kept their hair short, but she had long hair and bangs. Their public images signified the best of all that was available on Carnaby Street.

Audience Perceptions
A few made the comments on YouTube that one would expect from men who remembered themselves as adolescents. One wrote:

"i bought my first seekers album when i was 9 .im 41. i loved and lip synced kumbaya ..and morning town ...bruce judith atholl and the other one were great ....love the seekers.. get a feeling of wholeness." [15]

Another remembered in December 2016:

"Yes I remember well Judith’s back in the 60’s and as a young man I sure loved her singing and had a good teenage crush on her." [16]

Notes on Performers
Durham joined The Seekers in 1962 while she was working as a jazz singer in Melbourne. When the group was sailing to England in 1964 she said had "been a bit embarrassed about singing with The Seekers, at least in front of my jazz friends. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t the image I necessarily wanted people to have of me." She never lost the image of herself as soloist. [17]

In the years immediately following the groups’ demise, the three men also stayed active as performers. Bruce Woodley first produced material for children, then moved to the States to compose music. [18] Anthol Guy worked as a variety-show host on Australian television, then, in 1971, was elected to the Victoria state legislature as a Liberal. [19]

Keith Potger formed another group, the New Seekers, which appealed to the new, younger audience. [20] Their most important recording was "I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing." [21] He later produced advertising jingles. [22]

Availability
Album: Hide and Seekers. W & G WG-B-2362. 1964.

Reissues: See the general Discogs entry for The Seekers.

YouTube: several people have uploaded tapes made from the album.

End Notes
1. "The UK Economy in the 1960s." Economics Help website. 6 April 2016.

2. Lee Iacocca. Speech to press at New York World’s Fair, 13 April 1964. Reprinted by Mustangs and Fords website. 22 April 2013.

3. ICSRUT wrote on 28 January 2012, "Age wise I was only in single figures in the 1960s but became a fan of The Seekers due to albums bought by my parents." Comment posted to Amazon UK website for a DVD, The Seekers ~ 25 Year Reunion Celebration.

4. Wikipedia. "Swinging London."

5. The political use of music was mentioned briefly in the posts for 3 October 2017 and 5 October 2017.

6. Athol Guy. Quoted by Ian Horner. "Georgy Girl, The Musical: Celebrating The Seekers..." Hawksbury [Richmond, Australia] Gazette website. 28 April 2016. I corrected some errors that appeared to have been introduced by digitization.

7. Judith Durham. Quoted by Graham Simpson. Colours of My Life: The Judith Durham Story. Sydney: Random House Australia, 1994. 85

8. Bruce Eder. "The Seekers." Pandora website.

9. Ian McFarlane. "The Seekers." Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1999.

10. Wikipedia. "Joan Baez."

11. I could not confirm the identity of the people playing the instruments I heard. This was based on their usual configuration in 1964.

12. "The Seekers - Hide And Seekers." Discogs website.
13. Discogs.
14. Discogs.

15. peter sommerville. 2011. Comments posted on YouTube video "Tribute To The Seekers ~ Kumbaya." It was uploaded by mrtibbs6912 on 2 December 2007.

16. Robert Shrewsbury. December 2016. Comments on version of the 1993 Reunion Concert. It was uploaded to YouTube as "The Seekers - Kumbaya" by Judith Durham and The Seekers on 2 July 2009.

17. Durham. Quoted by Simpson, 51.
18. Wikipedia. "Bruce Woodley."
19. Wikipedia. "Athol Guy."
20. Simpson, 215.
21. Wikipedia. "I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)."
22. Wikipedia. "Keith Potger."