Washington Squares

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The Washington Squares were a 1980s neo-beatnik folk revival music group. Modeled after early 1960s groups like the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul and Mary (PP&M), the group was named after New York City's Washington Square Park, emblematic of Greenwich Village.^[1] The group, consisting of Bruce Jay Paskow, Tom Goodkind, and Lauren Agnelli,^[1] came up with their name over free drinks provided by Agnelli, who was a waitress at a Village club where Goodkind and Paskow were regulars. They began with the suggestion of "The Charlie Weavers to Block," then "The Hollywood Squares," and finally "The Washington Squares".^{[citation needed]}

Paskow, Goodkind, and Agnelli dressed, played, and sang in a style evocative of the idealistic, left-leaning folk revival groups of the Kennedy era, but added a layer of post-punk Reagan-era irony. Paskow had previously played in the punk band The Invaders; Agnelli had been in the Nervus Rex; Goodkind, the band's leader, had knocked around in U.S. Ape,^[1] and had been the founder of two NYC new music venues: Irving Plaza and the Peppermint Lounge.^{[citation needed]}

The revivalist concept preceded any real familiarity with this genre of music: to put together their repertoire, the band bought a bunch of records, picked the brains of veteran folksingers, and pooled their money to send Goodkind to Washington, DC to do research on folk songs at the Library of Congress.^[1]

They followed the Kingston Trio in covering Hoyt Axton's "Greenback Dollar" and PP&M in covering the traditional folk song that PP&M credit to Reverend Gary Davis about Samson, "If I Had My Way", and also performed a bittersweet Polish song associated with the union Solidarity; many of their own originals were powerfully political, but somewhat indirect; for example, "You Can't Kill Me" alludes to the assassination of gay San Francisco politician Harvey Milk without mentioning him by name.^[1]

The group broke up after Paskow's death in 1994. Agnelli has continued to perform on and off (she sings on some of Brave Combo's albums).^[1] Goodkind left the music business for some years,^[1] re-emerging as the conductor and arranger for the TriBattery Pops, an orchestra of volunteers who live near the former site of New York's World Trade Center.^[2]

[edit] Recordings

The Washington Squares (1987)
Fair and Square (1989)
From Greenwich Village, the Complete Washington Squares (1997)

[edit] Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Ruhlmann, William, Washington Squares biography at Yahoo. Accessed 19 November 2006.
^ TriBattery Pops official site.Accessed 19 November 2006.