Peter, Paul, and Mary

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Peter, Paul, and Mary

Peter, Paul, & Mary (PP&M) came together in Greenwich Village in 1961. Noel Paul Stookey (1937—) was working as a stand-up comic when he met Mary Travers (1937—). They formed a folksinging duo, but soon they were approached by Albert Grossman, producer for the Kingston Trio. He united them with Peter Yarrow (1938—), who had played at the 1960 Newport Folk Festival. Grossman debuted PP&M at the Bitter End coffeehouse, where the magic of their beautiful harmonies and the skillful, subtle interaction of their two guitars captivated audiences. Soon PP&M were touring across the country, bringing their positive vibes to young, hip audiences.

PP&M embraced many strains of folk music: political songs, love songs, traditional ballads, spirituals, humor, and children's songs. All these elements were featured on their first album, Peter, Paul and Mary (1962), which occupied the Billboard Top Ten for ten months. Their second album, Moving (1963), introduced their hit "Puff, the Magic Dragon" and the Woody Guthrie song, "This Land is Your Land." Their third album, In the Wind (1963), included three songs by Bob Dylan, notably "Blowin' in the Wind," and even featured a poem by Dylan on the back cover, thereby introducing their friend and inspiration to a wider audience. Their fourth production, Peter, Paul and Mary in Concert (1964) was a double album with plenty of original material, and included Paul's comedy routines. A Song Will Rise and See What Tomorrow Brings (both 1965) offered more of the PP&M magic, but little in the way of development at a time when the rest of the music world was in state of exciting flux. They acknowledged this on the back cover of See What Tomorrow Brings, noting that the "Beatles have gone folk, Bob Dylan has gone pop," but PP&M chose to stick to their roots.

With Album (1966) PP&M began to experiment with more instrumentation and a harder sound. Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and Al Kooper played on some tracks. "Norman Normal," with its electric guitar, proved to be their hardest rock song, with supercilious lyrics criticizing the "average" man, in imitation of the Beatles' "Nowhere Man." On Album 1700 (1967) they continued to experiment with other instruments, but were more at home singing about rock rather than imitating it: "I Dig Rock and Roll Music" is a classic commentary upon the music scene, praising the Mamas and Papas, the Beatles, and other bands who were influenced by folk and in turn enriched folk music.

Their next album, Late Again (1968), was another fine performance but again showed little development. Perhaps running out of ideas, PP&M then recorded a collection of children's songs, with the embarrassing title Peter, Paul and Mommy (1969). This is easily their worst album of the 1960s. The inclusion of "Puff" and "It's Raining," both of which had appeared on earlier studio albums as well as the live album, made Mommy all the more regrettable. The album, however, is valuable for the inclusion of two excellent songs, the folk ballad "Leatherwing Bat" and Gilbert and Sullivan's "I Have a Song to Sing, O!" These two beautiful performances, mercifully appearing back to back, make the album worth having.

In 1970, PP&M split to pursue solo projects. Peter and Mary continued their political activism, while Paul converted to Christianity. Their solo albums tended to fall in with the wishy-washy "singer/songwriter" trend that emerged in the early 1970s. The many charms that had made the original trio so spellbinding were gone on the solo albums. Special mention, however, should go to Paul's timeless classic "The Wedding Song (There Is Love)."

In 1978 Peter invited Paul and Mary to join him for an anti-nuclear benefit concert, and this was followed by the album Reunion (1978). This too lacked the quiet magic of their earlier folk tunes: there seemed to be no going back. Thereafter they produced an album every few years and appeared frequently on PBS to benefit membership drives. Highlights from the reunion period include A Holiday Celebration (1988), which found the trio once again drawing on traditional material, and Lifelines (1995), which featured an impressive gathering of the "folk family," including Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, and Richie Havens.

PP&M were often objects of ridicule for their smiley, sunshiny image. Their covers usually showed them skipping down a country lane arm-in-arm. This led even the Beatles (who also had a clean cut image in the early days) to call them "Pizza, Pooh and Magpie." Unfortunately, PP&M are often remembered by this G-rated image and dismissed as superficial family entertainment. Some wondered whether PP&M were genuine folk musicians or mere popularizers like the Kingston Trio. Folk purists found them too polished and wholesome, lacking the earthy ruggedness of Dylan or Guthrie. It should be remembered, however, that many of their lyrics dealt frankly and realistically with adult themes such as infidelity, loneliness, death, and the sorrows of growing old. Furthermore, PP&M showed their commitment to folk ideals time and again in many benefit concerts, demonstrations, and marches for civil rights and other causes.

Not least among PP&M's legacy is the recruitment of fans into other kinds of folk music, both contemporary and traditional. Besides introducing Dylan and Gordon Lightfoot, they brought Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and traditional ballads to a new generation, and bridged two eras of folk music when rock was stagnant. Half the fun of spending time with the "folk family" lies in recognizing different versions of songs, sometimes with different lyrics, arrangements, or titles. Anyone well-versed in PP&M and folk-rock will experience a shock of recognition when listening to the Anthology of American Folk Music (1952), a collection of recordings from the 1920s and 1930s which often contain the nucleus of songs popularized in the 1960s. For many people, the winding, dusty road back to that winding, dusty anthology begins with Peter, Paul, and Mary.

—Douglas Cooke