Kingston Trio Songs Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pete

"Desert Pete" was a single from Kingston Trio's 1963 album "Sunny Side!" and was released with "Ballad of the Thresher" on the B-side. The narrator of the song is traveling on a cattle run and is extremely thirsty when he discovers a water pump with a message from Desert Pete that serves as a metaphor for trusting in and helping others:

"You've got to prime the pump, you must have faith and believe
You've got to give of yourself 'fore you're worthy to receive
Drink all the water you can hold, wash your face, cool your feet
Leave the bottle full for others, thank you kindly, desert Pete."

Answer: The Reverend Mr. Black

This song tells the story of the Reverend Mr. Black, who "carried a Bible in a canvas sack" and was "poor as a beggar" but "rode like a king." He'd go about singing this song:

"I gotta walk that lonesome valley.
I got to walk it by myself.
Oh nobody else can walk it for me.
I got to walk it by myself."

One day, a lumberjack comes into church where the Reverend Mr. Black is preaching and cusses right in his face. Then he punches the Reverend. Mr. Black, however, doesn't fight back. Instead, he stands like a rock, lets the man hit him again, and then says the words that are the chorus of this song. In the end of the song, the narrator reveals that the man he is singing about, the Reverend Mr. Black, was his father, and he's learned his pacifist ways by heart, but now that his father is dead, he has to walk that lonesome valley by himself.

Answer: Tom Dooley

"Tom Dooley" is an old North Carolina folk song popularized by The Kingston Trio on their 1958 debut album. The single sold millions of copies and tells the story of the murder of Laura Foster in 1866 and the man, Tom Dula, who allegedly committed the crime:

"Throughout history there have been many songs
Written about the eternal triangle
This next one tells the story of a Mr. Grayson,
A beautiful woman, and a condemned man named Tom Dooley
When the sun rises tomorrow, Tom Dooley must hang."

Answer: a wailing song and a good guitar

"And I don't give a --- about a Greenback a-dollar
Spend it fast as I can
For a wailing* song and a good guitar
The only things that I understand, poor boy
The only things that I understand."

(* Some sources say whaling instead of wailing.)

The singer also says:

"I've learned that a bottle of brandy and a song
The only ones who ever cared, poor boy
The only ones who ever cared."

This song was recorded on The Kingston Trio's third album, "New Frontier," released in 1962. It was the lead single for the album, with "New Frontier" on the B-side.

Answer: The MTA

"Today a new crisis has arisen
The Metropolitan Transit Authority, better known as the MTA
Is attempting to levy a burdensome tax on the population
In the form of a subway fare increase
Citizens, hear me out, this could happen to you!"

This parody song tells the story of a man who gets on the subway in Boston but is never able to get off because he doesn't have the appropriate fare:

"Well, did he ever return?
No he never returned and his fate is still unlearned
(What a pity)
He may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston
And he's the man who never returned."

The song was written in 1949 by Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes. It was originally recorded as a campaign song for the Progressive Party's candidate for mayor, Walter A. O'Brien.

Answer: In an English tavern

"One, two, and three jolly coachmen sat at an English tavern
Three jolly coachmen sat at an English tavern,
And they decided, and they decided, and they decided to have another flagon."

"Three Jolly Coachmen" was the B-side to "Scarlet Ribbons," which along with "Tom Dooley" were the singles released from The Kingston Trio's debut album.

Answer: O'Hanlon

Dominic Behan wrote the lyrics to this Irish ballad, which was set to the melody of "The Merry Month of May". It tells the tale of Fergal O'Hanlon, who was a young IRA volunteer killed in January of 1957 in an attack on Brookeborough Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks. He was killed at the age of 20, though the song puts him as 16:

"My name is O'Hanlon, and I'm just gone sixteen
My home is in Monaghan, and where I was weaned
I've learned all my life, cruel England's to blame
And so I'm a part of the patriot game."

Bob Dylan later used this same melody for "With God On Our Side."

Answer: dust

These lyrics are from the song "Raspberries, Strawberries" from The Kingston Trio's 1960 album "Sold Out." The album stayed at number one on the Billboard Top 40 for an impressive 54 weeks.

"Raspberries, strawberries, the good wines we brew.
Here's to the girls of the countryside, the ones we drink 'em to."

Answer: Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

"Where Have All the Flowers Gone" was recorded as the B-side to The Kingston Trio's single "O Ken Karanga" and released in 1961. Although Pete Seeger wrote the first three verses in 1955, and published them in "Sing Out!" magazine, it was his 1964 release of the single that was eventually inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in the folk category.

Answer: Tess

"Away out here they've got a name
For rain and wind and fire
The rain is Tess,
The fire's Joe
And they call the wind Maria."

The lyrics of "They Call the Wind Maria" were written by Alan J. Lerner, and the song was set to music by Frederick Loewe for the 1951 musical "Paint Your Wagon." The Kingston Trio's live version was released on their 1959 album "...from the "Hungry i," which was recorded in 1958 at a San Francisco club.

Answer: El Matador

"Aye, To-re-ro, she is here,
Aye, Matador
I feel her eyes,
They are wide with excitement and fear
I feel her heart
For it cries when the horns are too near,
I will be bold,
Brave and swift will I be,
And I will be nu-mer-o u-no
To-re-ro fi-no
She'll dream tonight of me..."

This song was released as a single from the 1960 album "Sold Out" with "Home From the Hill" on the B-side.

In 1963, Johnny Cash recorded a similarly themed and titled song ("The Matador"), but with a twist in which the woman has taken up with a new lover:

"The crowd is waiting for the bullfight
Matador
My final fight the place is packed once more
But Anita won't throw me a rose this fight
The one she wears is not for me tonight
She's watching now with her new love I know
Walk proud and slow
Be strong and sure give the crowd a show
They want blood you know!"

Answer: Seasons in the Sun

"Adieu, Emile, my trusted friend,
we've known each other since we were nine or ten.
Together we climbed hills and trees,
learned of love and ABCs,
skinned our hearts and skinned our knees."

The song is an adaptation of "Le Moribond" by the Belgian songwriter Jacques Brel. The lyrics were rewritten by Rod McKuen, an American poet and songwriter. The chorus of the song runs:

"We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed
Were just seasons out of time."

In 1974, a version of "Seasons in the Sun" became a worldwide hit for Canadian singer Terry Jacks.

Answer: Woody Guthrie

One of the most famous patriotic folk songs, and a favorite of school children across the country, "This Land is Your Land" was written by Woody Guthrie in 1940 and used the tune from The Carter Family's song "When the World's on Fire." In addition to being recorded by The Kingston Trio, it's been covered by Bob Dylan, The New Christy Minstrals, and Peter, Paul, and Mary, among others.

Answer: Long Black Veil

"The judge said, 'Son, what is your alibi?
If you were somewhere else
Then you won't have to die
I spoke not a word though it meant my life
For I'd been in the arms of my best friend's wife."

Now that the narrator has been executed for the murder he didn't commit, his lover visits his grave:

"She walks these hills in a long black veil
She visits my grave when the night winds wail
Nobody knows
Nobody sees
Nobody knows but me."

The Kingston Trio covered the song on their 1962 album "New Frontier." The song was written by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin and was originally recorded in 1959 by Lefty Frizzell as a single with "When It Rains the Blues" on the B-side.

Johnny Cash further popularized the ballad with his version, which he first performed live on "The Johnny Cash Show" in 1969.

Answer: In the Long Island Cemetery

"Back to back, belly to belly
At the Zombie Jamboree
Zombie Jamboree took place in a New York cemetery (Where?)
Zombie Jamboree took place in Long Island cemetery
Zombies from all parts of the island (Where?)
Some of them are great Calypsonians
Hey, since the season was Carnivale
They got together in Bacchanal."

In their introduction to the song, The Kingston Trio credits "Lord Invader and his Twelve Penetrators," but it was Lord Intruder (a calypsonian from Tobago) who released the song, originally known as "Jumbie Jamberee," in 1953. However, credit is typically given to Conrad Eugene Mauge, Jr. for the authorship of the song.