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Reviewer:
BlueMolly2001
The
Washington Squares were a deliberate throwback to the days of
earnest, politically oriented folk groups like Peter, Paul & Mary,
even though they formed 20 years after the peak of the folk boom.
The New York City based trio, comprising Lauren Agnelli, Tom Goodkind,
and Bruce Paskow, dressed in matching outfits reminiscent of the
days of the beat poets, including striped shirts, black berets,
and sunglasses, with Goodkind and Paskow affecting goatees. They
resurrected old folk songs and wrote new ones in the same vibrant
style, harmonizing on stirring anthems of social consciousness.
But because they appeared in the Reagan-dominated early '80s,
when there was no contemporary political movement within popular
music to speak of, because they adopted a retro style, and because
they laced their performances with humor, it was sometimes hard
to tell how seriously to take them. The answer was that they were
serious, albeit in a post-modern, ironic way.
The group was the brainchild of Goodkind, a former New York University
student who, in the early '80s, was booking new wave acts in the
Peppermint Lounge club in New York City and performing with his
own rock group, U.S. Ape. Goodkind brought his friend Paskow,
another N.Y.U. alumnus and a former member of the punk rock band
the Invaders, into the group as lead guitarist, joining keyboard
player Shauna Laurie and drummer Paul Richards. When Laurie quit,
Goodkind persuaded Agnelli, a former member of the band Nervus
Rex (and a former rock critic under the pseudonym Trixie A. Balm)
to join the band, which then took a different stylistic direction
and adopted a new name. After brainstorming for hours, Goodkind
and Paskow came up with what Goodkind calls "the Beatnik-folk
mix." There was only one problem. "We didn't know any folk songs,"
he admits. So, "I went to the store and picked up some Peter,
Paul & Mary, Weavers, and Library of Congress stuff. We pooled
our money, and I went down to the Library of Congress for research.
Then I started to call everyone." Goodkind called many veteran
folksingers and got their advice. As the group evolved, the role
of the drummer necessarily diminished and Richards quit, to be
followed by a succession of other percussionists until Billy Ficca
signed on as the trio's backup bongo player.
The Washington Squares quickly worked their way up the New York
club circuit in the mid-'80s, their polished act also earning
attention from New York-based television shows and national print
media. But from a recording standpoint, "no one knew what to do
with us," notes Goodkind. A deal with A&M Records fell through
at the last minute, but finally the band was signed to personal
manager/record executive Danny Goldberg's startup label, Gold
Castle Records, joining a roster dominated by veteran folkies
like Joan Baez and Peter, Paul & Mary. Even then, finding an approach
to making a record necessitated several false starts with producers
before Mitch Easter proved compatible with the group. The result
was 1987's The Washington Squares, which attracted favorable reviews
and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Recording,
but failed to reach the national charts (though it placed in some
alternative listings). Nevertheless, the Washington Squares were
able to begin touring nationally behind the album, opening for
the Beach Boys and Joan Jett, among others. Their second album,
Fair and Square, produced by Steve Soles, followed in 1989. Their
albums reportedly sold in excess of 150,000 copies each.
The Washington Squares toured extensively in the late '80s and
early '90s. But Gold Castle shuttered and Paskow fell ill. His
death caused the demise of the group. "I never felt the passion
to do the band without him," says Goodkind. Appropriately, the
Washington Squares played their final show in Greenwich Village,
at Bottom Line on July 28, 1994. Since the breakup, Agnelli has
been continued to be active musically, singing on several Brave
Combo albums and releasing a duo album with Dave Rave, 1999's
Heaven & Earth, among other efforts. Goodkind retired from the
music business. "I really felt that I had accomplished, via the
Squares and the Peppermint Lounge, all that I would ever want
in music," he said. In 1997, Razor & Tie released From Greenwich
Village, the Complete Washington Squares, which as its name suggests,
contains all of the group's recordings.
SOURCE:
Allmusic.com
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