Topic: Commercial Folk Music Revival
Continued from previous post dated 13 October 2019
Performers
Vocal Soloist: male
Vocal Group: Scott McKenzie, tenor; John Phillips, baritone; Dick Weissman
Instrumental Accompaniment: guitar and banjo
Rhythm Accompaniment: none
Credits
McKenzie—Phillips—Weissman
Notes on Lyrics
Language: English
Pronunciation: KUM by ah
Verses: kumbaya, laughing, sleeping
Vocabulary
Pronoun: someone
Term for Deity: my Lordy
Special Terms: none
Basic Form: verse-burden
Verse Repetition Pattern: AxA1xA where A = two lines of kumbaya, and A1x = the full kumbaya verse
Ending: none
Unique Features: begins and ends with two-line verses
Influences: Pete Seeger
Notes on Music
Opening Phrase: 1-3-5
Tempo: upbeat
Basic Structure: soloist supported by group
Singing Style: one syllable to one note
Solo-Group Dynamics: soloist in sleeping and laughing verses, with group echoing "kumbaya"
Vocal-Instrumental Dynamics: First line of two-line introduction lets guitar play melody and rhythm; second line is played by banjo. After that, the guitar plays a simply, unvarying, arpeggio rhythm during the singing and in the one-measure breaks between sung verses.
Influences: Kingston Trio
Notes on Audience
The most vocal members of The Journeymen, Phillips and McKenzie, were raised in northern Virginia. Weissman noticed the group was particularly popular in that state, and the Southeast in general. They also attracted a following in Minneapolis, Minnesota. [1]
This preference turned into a curse in late 1963 when they were on a bus tour exploiting the popularity of the Hootenanny television show. [2] Most of the shows were in the Southeast, [3] where audiences were testy over African-American demands for equality. The tour was scheduled to perform in Jackson, Mississippi, in November where Medgar Evers had been murdered in June. [4]
They were greeted in Jackson with a message from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee telling them the city still practiced de facto segregation, and no African Americans would be allowed near the concert. The decision by the performers on the tour to boycott the city was relayed by the news media. When they got to their next stop, the singers were met by locals carrying baseball bats ready to beat anyone who got off the bus. [5]
Phillips recalled:
"The "Hoot Tour" was never conceived as a political event, but in the south during the end of 1963, if you were white, on a bus, and played guitar and sang for a living, it didn’t matter—you were political." [6]
The Journeymen already recognized their audience was declining, and life on the road without rewards no longer held any attractions. [7] They fulfilled their final commitments, and disbanded.
Audience Perceptions
Those who remembered The Journeymen, almost always commented on their harmonies. Nate told Amazon buyers their "music represents the finest vocal harmonies and arrangements from the early ‘modern folk’ days," [8] while someone calling herself Betsey Ross said:
"I always loved the Journeymen above most other groups. I loved the way their voices blended together. Their harmony was wonderful, such a great sound. I liked them better than the Kingston Trio. They were a little more cerebral." [9]
John Yoakum generalized from the music to the general small-group social life it represented when he noted "The harmonies, the songs, the cameraderie are all good." [10]
Notes on Performers
Phillips and Weissman were born in 1935, in the middle of the Depression, and McKenzie in 1939.
Phillips is the best known member of The Journeymen. After the trio disbanded in 1964, he organized The New Journeymen with his wife, Michelle Phillips, and Denny Doherty. With the addition of Cass Elliot, it was transformed into The Mamas and The Papas. Phillips wrote his autobiography in 1988, when he was trying to rehabilitate his image after an arrest for drug use. It appeared before his daughter’s memoir accused him of incest. [11]
Weissman joined The Journeymen as a way to earn enough money to study music. He moved to Colorado, where he has written a number of books on the music industry. He published his autobiography in 2016 to create an objective chronology of the past.
McKenzie is the least known. He was born Phillip Blondhein, but changed his name when The Smoothies were working their first job in Windsor, Ontario. [12] He enjoyed singing, but not performing. He told a friend of his mother that "I have stage fright - I’m comfortable in the studio, but not on the road." [13] Both Phillips and Weissman commented on his problems with the stress of performing every night. [14] Later, McKenzie made one successful record as a soloist, [15] sometimes worked with Phillips, and spent most of his time away from the limelight.
Phillips died in 2001 from heart failure. [16] McKenzie developed Guillain-Barré syndrome and died in 2012. [17]
Availability
Single: The Journeymen. "Soft Blow The Summer Winds" / "Kumbaya." Capitol Records 4678. 1962.
Single: The Journeymen. "Ja-Da" / "Kumbaya." Capitol Records 5031. 1963.
YouTube: The Journeymen. "Kumbaya." Uploaded by oldiesrnow on 27 March 2009.
End Notes
1. Dick Weissman. The Music Never Stops. Anaheim Hills, California: Centerstream Publishing, 2016. 47 and 51.
2. The Hootenanny television program is discussed in the post for 3 November 2019.
3. John Phillips. Papa John. With Jim Jerome. Garden City: Doubleday and Company, 1986. 116.
4. Wikipedia. "Medgar Evers."
5. Phillips, 116—118; and Weissman, 54–55.
6. Phillips. 116.
7. Phillips, 120; and Weissman, 55.
8. Nate. Comment posted 29 January 2014. Amazon website for The Very Best Of The Journeymen.
9. Betsey_Ross. Comment posted 4 May 2013. Amazon website for The Journeymen’s New Directions in Folk Music.
10. John M Yoakum. Comment posted 24 February 2013. Amazon website for The Journeymen’s Coming Attraction - Live.
11. Mackenzie Phillips. High on Arrival. New York: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2009.
12. "A Change of Name." Scott McKenzie website. Maintained by Gary Hartman. It must have been a cultural shock for the young man raised in the South to hear Canadian English.
13. Susan Fallon. Comment on Gaestbuch page, Scott McKenzie website.
14. Phillips, 113; and Weissman, 85.
15. Scott McKenzie. "San Francisco." Ode Records ZS7-103. 1967. [18]
16. Wikipedia. "John Phillips (Musician)."
17. Wikipedia. "Scott McKenzie.
18. "Scott McKenzie – San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)." Discogs website.
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