John Stewart Passed Away On Saturday

[michelej1]

This is touching. I didn't know about the Alzheimer's. I'm glad to hear that Lindsey was going to be working with him on the last album. I hope that "I Can't Drive Anymore" gets released and that Lindsey is on guitar. I was disappointed that Lindsey had not worked with Warren Zevon near the end.

http://www.charlotte.com/local/story/458473.html

JOHN STEWART
Kingston Trio member had big hit `Gold'
Musician wrote `Daydream Believer' for the Monkees

JOEL SELVIN
San Francisco Chronicle

John Stewart, a member of the Kingston Trio who wrote "Daydream Believer" for the Monkees and recorded more than 40 albums of his own, died Saturday from a stroke surrounded by his family in the same San Diego hospital where he was born.

Stewart, 68, first emerged as a songwriter when the original Kingston Trio recorded a couple of his songs. In 1961, he joined the group, at the time one of the biggest selling acts in the world. He quit the group in 1967.

With folk singing partner Buffy Ford, whom he would marry in 1975, Stewart hit the 1968 campaign trail for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, appearing with him at campaign rallies up until the night of his assassination in Los Angeles. He released his classic "California Bloodlines" album in 1969, the first of seven solo albums to make the charts through 1980.

His biggest solo hit was "Gold," from the "Bombs Away Dream Babies" album, which also produced lesser hits "Midnight Wind" and "Lost Her in the Sun."

His songs were recorded by a number of artists, including Rosanne Cash, who scored a 1988 country hit with his "Runaway Train."

He continued to record over the years, releasing a number of recent albums on his own label and selling them through the Internet. He was working on a new album at the time of his death, with Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac playing guitar. Recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, Stewart wrote a song for the new album titled "I Can't Drive Anymore."

Since 2000, Stewart and fellow former Kingston Trio member Nick Reynolds have held the Trio Fantasy Camp, where campers practice their favorite Kingston Trio song and perform the number with the two former group members. Stewart was visiting Reynolds in San Diego when he was stricken last Thursday in his hotel room.

[SNLB]

Thanks for posting that article, michelej. I also didn't know about the Alzheimer's.

Today, I was listening to the cd Enjoy Every Sandwich, which is a tribute to Warren Zevon's music, with his songs sung by other artists. Would have been great to hear Lindsey on that cd doing his take on a Zevon song, or, as you say, on Warren's final album, The Wind. Happy Birthday to Warren Zevon.

[desertangel]

The day after John Stewart died, I was at Mattress World with a friend and whatever they had playing on the overhead speakers (I think it was KHITS), the announcer briefly mentioned John's passing and proceeded to play Daydream Believer and Gold. At the same time, a few of the store employees and myself paused for a moment. We all agreed he put out some great music and that his passing was sad for us.

[shackin'up]

Wow, that's news, Lindsey playing with Stewart again lately. It must have been very hard on LB that John passed away. Maybe we see something back from this death on Lindsey's new album.....if it's ever going to be there....

[bucklind17]

This was posted on YouTube today. Y'all have probably seen it, but I never had and I can't stop watching it!



They both sound wonderful and there's this mutual excitement that's radiating off of them. It's kind of like the time I saw Michael Stipe and Patti Smith perform together; Patti is the person that made Michael realize he wanted to be a singer, and Patti knew it, and seeing them on the same stage was magical. Get a similar vibe here, and it's more wonderful knowing that John appreciated Lindsey as a musician as much as well.

Does anyone know of audio from this?

[wondergirl9847]

I haven't seen that in a long time, and WOWZA. Stevie Nicks who? I think John was Lindsey's musical soulmate. Heh.

I would LOVE to have audio of this if anyone has it. Petty pease?

[#1LiddyBuckFan]

This was awesome! Love the harmonies. Thank you for posting!

[Maccafan5000]

Here's the Audio:

Kingston Trio & Friends Concert: Lindsey Buckingham and John Stewart- Spinning of the World
http://www.mediafire.com/?09ejgny2ykm

They do an amazing job, this is definitely a song to put on repeat!

[#1LiddyBuckFan]

Originally Posted by Maccafan5000

Here's the Audio:

Kingston Trio & Friends Concert: Lindsey Buckingham and John Stewart- Spinning of the World
http://www.mediafire.com/?09ejgny2ykm

They do an amazing job, this is definitely a song to put on repeat!

Thanks a lot MaccaFan!!

[bucklind17]

Originally Posted by Maccafan5000

Here's the Audio:

Kingston Trio & Friends Concert: Lindsey Buckingham and John Stewart- Spinning of the World
http://www.mediafire.com/?09ejgny2ykm

They do an amazing job, this is definitely a song to put on repeat!

Thanks SO much! I can't get enough of this song, I love Lindsey's voice on this kind of stuff and John sounds fabulous.

[shackin'up]

Originally Posted by Maccafan5000

Here's the Audio:

Kingston Trio & Friends Concert: Lindsey Buckingham and John Stewart- Spinning of the World
http://www.mediafire.com/?09ejgny2ykm

They do an amazing job, this is definitely a song to put on repeat!

Thanks a lot Maccafan5000, but....

Is it me or is this file just 28 seconds long? I downloaded it twice, but it's only there partial...

[Betsy]

'Tis one not to be missed ---

http://www.sendspace.com/file/j4rgr5

(Thanks Maccafan5000 for the song in the first place.)

[Maccafan5000]

Hmmmm....
Sorry about that, I have no idea what happened!!!

[BTFLCHLD]

[michelej1]

[Stewart on Lindsey's vision and brilliance]

Washington Post, May 30, 1979

HEADLINE:
Rock of Age: Singer John Stewart Draws His Second Wind

BYLINE:
By Eve Zibart

BODY:
Twelve years after the discreet "retirement" of the Kingston Trio, John Stewart - "aging rock 'n' roller," he says mockingly - is finally on the verge of that near impossibility: a comeback on his own terms.

"In the old days, clubs used to put up signs that said: Formerly of the Kinston Trio," he says, rolling a disposable lighter between his fingers like a worry stone. "People would drive in for miles and expect to hear "Tom Dooley'."

Twelve years is a whole generation in musical audiences, and after the Trio dissolved, Stewart found himself looking for listeners, grinding out nine albums on four labels and revolving through the club circuit that has supported so many aging cult favourites. "I was surviving, but not making it," he says simply.

Finally it came to the day when RSO, his label for the past two years, felt Stewart had to put up or shut up. "Al Coury [RSO president] basically said to me, 'Here's $60,000 - either get out a Top 10 record or get off the label'."

But against all odds, the new album - Stewart's 30th, all told - seems to be making it. The single, "Gold," has leapfrogged to No. 37 in its third week on the charts, propelling him into the rock radio mainstream.

"For the first time in 10 years," says Stewart with a rasp that is part I-told-you-so and part once-burned-twice-shy, "I have a chance at a Top 10 hit."

Already, Stewart says, the golden groveling has begun:

"All of a sudden it goes from, 'Whaddya want, Stewart?' to 'What can we do for you, Mr. Stewart' I mean, I'll play the game, but I gotta tell you, it's a little hard to take."

If the album does reach the Top 10, Stewart will become one of a bare handful of veterans of the early '60s to prosper, not merely survive, into the '80s. And unlike the rest - Mary Travers, John Denver, the Beach Boys etc. - Stewart is fighting a campaign of a wholly new tone.

He is out on the road for a fortnight, playing clubs like the Cellar Door (where he appeared Monday and Tuesday) to "break in" his band before moving out as an opening act for some bigger concerts over the summer.

Sitting in Clyde's, Stewart admits that the album, "Bombs Away Dream Babies" was a do-or-die creation. If it flopped, he was prepared figuratively to throw the guitar away and go into some behind-the-booth work like production. For the first time, he produced his own record, aided and abetted by Lindsay Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac (listed as "producer" at large"). He consciously struck from the album a couple of songs written as formula singles: "Now there isn't anything on the album I don't really like."

In the Los Angeles order of things, $60,000 is about half the average cost of an album. Stewart went way over budget, finally bringing it in after 8 months at $110,000 and personally going "on the cuff" to the studio for $10,000. "Al was out of the country," Stewart grins, both sly and sheepish. But now that it looks to have been a good investment, RSO has agreed to pay off the studio debt.

"Bombs Away" is a spare, restrained rock 'n' roll album, weighty with bass and straightforward guitar leads and Stewart's own gruff, Johnny Cash vocals. There is a resemblance to Fleetwood Mac's multimillion selling "Rumours" not only in Buckingham's guitar work and Stevie Nicks' wailing background vocals, but in what Stewart calls the "focused" quality of the production.

(Buckingham, whom Stewart calls "the Paul McCartney of Fleetwood Mac," has said he learned to play guitar as a child from studying Kingston Trio albums. Stewart claims he learned to play electric guitar "like a banjo, lots of melody," by listening repeatedly to Buckingham's work on Feetwood Mac albums.)

Not only has Stewart thrown in his lot with the rock 'n' roll minimalists, he believes that is the wave of the '80s.

"I have heard the future of rock 'n' roll, and it's devastating," he says of the forthcoming Fleetwood Mac album. "What Lindsay has done is unbelieveable. There's this one song - the closest I could come to describing it is a Scottish-African song with overtones of punk . . . and country."

"Seventies music was kind of faceless," he says, shrugging. "It was a kind of reaction to the '60s and all the turmoil we went through. But in the '80s music is going to be very focused. I think Lindsay is just ahead of the '80s the way Dylan was just ahead of the '60s movement. It's those guys - Dire Straits, Elvis Costello - who are going to be the '80s.

"I predict," he says, mocking again.