Remembering Peter Yarrow
No, I didn’t watch the Inauguration. I had better things to do than great dragged into dystopia and listen to lies. There’s four years ahead to witness it and hopefully see it implode on its own venality, encircled by a better world.
And I had better things to do. Including this morning rectify a huge oversight. And that’s note the passing the other day of Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary, at the age of 87.
I never saw the trio perform in person, though did see Peter and Paul each perform separately during the few years they all had apart before reuniting for a long return. I saw Peter in Chicago in a large auditorium. And Paul, when I was working on the movie Pet Sematary in Ellsworth, Maine – he lived five miles down the road in Blue Hill, and gave a concert in town. (It was sold out, but a father and daughter had an extra ticket at the door.)
I also had sort of personal contact with the group, kind of. It’s a story I told at length here. The very short version is that when I was a little kid, about 11, our family too a Sunday to “visit O’Hare airport” and wander around. At one point, my older brother thought he saw a well-known basketball player (named Jerry Lucas), and he and I went off to track him down. (Imagine today parents letting their young kids wander off in an airport. It was a very different time…) My brother was right, it was Lucas, we got his autograph and, very excited, returned back to our parents. We all headed off to some chairs to rest and enjoy our treasure – and when we sat down, saw some musical instruments on them. On which were tags saying, “Peter, Paul and Mary”! (Imagine today professional musicians leaving their musical instruments in an airport. I was a very different time…) Needless-to-say, we all waited to see who would show up. And a few minutes later, Noel Paul Stookey and the group’s longtime bassist Dick Kniss came by. And my brother and I got some more autographs.
To honor Peter Yarrow, here are three videos.
To start with, this is a short video of Peter Yarrow talking about the group and also about his far-and-away most famous song, "Puff the Mag..." oh, you know.
Next, we have one of the songs that Peter Yarrow wrote when the group went its separate ways for a while -- but it was so clearly a perfect Peter, Paul and Mary song that when they reunited, it became part of their repertoire, "Day is Done."
But I include it here for another reason. He performed it at a memorial concert in 1976 for Phil Ochs (who I'd seen perform a year or two earlier). But what most stands out are the fellow-performers who join Yarrow on stage halfway through -- legends Pete Seeger, Odetta, Bob Gibson and Oscar Brand, along a few who I'm not as familiar with: Len Chandler, Jean Ray and Jim Glover.
And finally -- oh, of course you know what I have to end with.
There are so many wonderful versions of "Puff the Magic Dragon" on YouTube to pick from, but I've decided on this from one of the group's PBS specials, this their Holiday concert. What I like about it is the wide range of ages of people singing along, and with beatific joy on their faces.
I've often thought, if I had to write just one song, which one it might be. And the list is long. But for one song that would last an extremely long life, untouched by the culture of any particular time, and cut through being so affectionately loved and sung along with by as many generations as possible, it's very probably this.
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