The Escape of Old John Webb By The Kingston Trio

The original Kingston Trio of Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds perform the second cut from their fifth studio album, "String Along," which was also the fifth consecutive studio album by the Trio to hit #1 on the "Billboard" charts and to be awarded a gold record.

The song details the release of John Webb, a printer and mint-master, who with Bill Tenor was jailed in Massachusetts around 1730 for passing bad bank notes. Ironically, Webb's self-printed notes were for a time more trusted than Massachusetts Bay colony notes, which explains why Webb's jail break (accomplished when some of his friends sprang Tenor, who as the song reports used his massive strength to free Webb) was hailed in the colony as a kind of pre-Revolutionary blow for freedom.

There has long been confusion about the lyric of the song as performed here. Arranger Tom Drake substituted "Bill Tenor" for the original "Old Tenner," which was a nickname for Webb (based on his preference for older-issue ten pound notes). Alan Lomax and others have thus concluded that "Old Tenner" (Drake's "Bill Tenor") is a play on words and that the vigilantes freed only Webb; Drake's attempt to create a cohesive narrative with a "Bill Tenor" breaking locks and so on is thus supposed to be fictitious.

However - early Massachusetts birth records prove that there WAS a "William Tenor" living in Salem - Webb's home - in the 1730s, and the original broadside ballad about "Billy" freeing Webb may well be accurate.

An extended discussion of the song with other versions can be found on the blog associated with this YouTube channel, Comparative Video 101, here:

http://compvid101.blogspot.com/2010/0...