Spiral Earth acknowledges the passing of Peter Yarrow, the Peter in Peter, Paul & Mary, on January 7th, after a long battle with cancer during which he kept on touring and playing. Formed in the early 1960s by Bob Dylan’s manager Albert Grossman who saw the commercial potential in the coming folk boom for a modern answer to 50s folk pioneers The Weavers, Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey and Mary Travers formed in 1961. Clean, cut with suits, harmonies and acoustic guitars their repertoire was covers of protest and social consience writers like Grossman’s other artist Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger.
More of their songs came from the pens of Yarrow and Stookey, Yarrow adapting the words of a poem which gave them one of their biggest singles ‘Puff The Magic Dragon.’ Other sucesses were ‘If I Had A Hammer,’ ‘Lemon Tree,’ ‘Where Have All The Flowers Gone,’ and of course Dylan’s ‘Blowin’ In The Wind,’ which became an anthem for the Civil Rights movement. They sang along side Dr. Martin Luther King when he made his “I Have A Dream” speech marching on Washington in August 1963. They carried on through the remainder of the decade with varying levels of attention but always with a dedicated core audience for whom they represented a time and potential. By 1970 as the folk boom faded the trio split.
After a solo album, in time Yarrow married MaryBeth McCarthy and took part in several one off reunion gigs often supporting protest causes like anti nuclear power before the three officially got back together in the early 80s. More albums followed and concert tours took place almost annually until Mary Travers death in 2009, even then Yarrow and Stookey gigged as a duo ‘Peter & Paul Celebrate Mary.’
He’d also been very active on the folk circuit working behind the scenes at the Newport & Kerville Folk Festivals to encourage and support new artists and groups. A measure of pop success came his way when his co-composition ‘Torn Between Two Lovers,’ became a hit for Mary McGregor. In the early 2000s he joined his daughter Bethany in a new trio with Rufus Cappadocia releasing an album ‘Puff & Other Family Classics,’ in 2008 and hosting their own CBS TV show. He was also active in a campaign to end school bullying, Operation Respect which gave him focus for ten years.
On the Peter, Paul & Mary website, Yarrow’s children posted tributes to their father who had been given but a brief time to live, paying tribute by inviting people to post their stories and memories of him as a musician, social activist and generous heart. “There is Peter Yarrow the folk activist legend and then there is the man, a deeply compassionate man, who changed the lives of so many in very personal ways,” they wrote. Many of the trbiutes were shared with Peter before he died, one early responder was Mary Chapin Carpenter. See peterpaulandmary.com Peter Yarrow was a musician it’s true but he was so much, much more. Many will miss him.
