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Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary died yesterday: the premier US folk group. They were fine artists, and socially committed activists, who remained together, on and off, since 1961. Here's a link to a brief announcement with a YouTube featuring their 1960s video performance of Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer." There's also a link on the page to yet another performance, this time of "Puff the Magic Dragon," which was written by Noel "Paul" Stookey.

Enjoy.

They didn't mean much to me until I grew older, but they were a musically extremely proficient trio. None more parodied, though. They belonged in an era of hobbits, hippies and lighter thinking. To imagine that a band basically singing advanced versions of nursery songs could ride the top of the charts today is preposterous. Too bad that previous lifestyles seem to catch up with way too many of these people. 72 is no age to go. RIP.

Moonbiter wrote:To imagine that a band basically singing advanced versions of nursery songs could ride the top of the charts today is preposterous. Too bad that previous lifestyles seem to catch up with way too many of these people. 72 is no age to go. RIP.

How many of their albums have you heard? I'm genuinely curious. Most of what they sang were folksongs, old and modern, pop songs, vocal jazz; and while that's no longer in the mainstream of the US, does this really matter? Are we defined by the latest labeling on MTV?

As for the "previous lifestyles" comment--do you by any chance think they were hippies? Because they weren't, though they most certainly were social activists. They were arrested for protesting against conditions for the homeless in NYC. They gave all the money they made at many concerts over the years to specific charities, often to benefit starving children. And they joined the voting rights marches in Selma, Alabama, back when blacks couldn't vote, and when the police were joining the viewers in stoning (and killing) the blacks. Granted, all the clean cut apolitical groups who formed the norm of their period, such as the Kingston Trio, would agree that what they did was stupidly unselfish, but hey, some people refuse to grow up, and hoard. What can I say.

Now if you're referring to "Puff the Magic Dragon," in that nursery remark, it's a song about the loss of childhood's innocence, which is pretty universal, at least the last time I checked. To suggest that it is an advanced version of a nursery song would be like suggesting that Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier is just a complex bunch of waltzes strung together, or that Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is just an advanced fairytale about small people. There's a bit more to it than that.

fable wrote:Now if you're referring to "Puff the Magic Dragon," it's a song about the loss of childhood's innocence, which is pretty universal, at least the last time I checked.

I quite like that song. Haven't heard it in ages. And it took me equally long to figure out what it meant. Catchy tune though.

I dunno about you Fable, but I'm starting to feel the cold wind of age blowing around me. When your icons and girls you fancied as an adolescent schoolboy start dieing like this, it really bites home.

It might not feel so bad if so many of the dreams of our youth weren't lying shattered in our wake. The world seems just as cold and cynical as it ever did, kids are still dieing on foreign fields, and still no one quite knows why. Things have changed though, it just seems like they haven't, then we turn on the TV news and see an African American in the White House. I'm glad Mary at lest got to see some dreams that she fought for come true.

Loki[D.d.G] wrote:I quite like that song. Haven't heard it in ages. And it took me equally long to figure out what it meant. Catchy tune though.

It is. Far simpler than the usually complex sort of thing Stookey typically wrote, and deceptively so. It's a nursery style song that's the opposite of one. It's as though one were listening to Wendy talk of Neverland long after getting married and having kids, and being unwelcome any longer in the place that lay beyond the second star to the right. Something lost, something gained; both precious.

I dunno about you Fable, but I'm starting to feel the cold wind of age blowing around me. When your icons and girls you fancied as an adolescent schoolboy start dieing like this, it really bites home.

Mary was quite the looker, wasn't she? You weren't alone in fancying her.

It might not feel so bad if so many of the dreams of our youth weren't lying shattered in our wake. The world seems just as cold and cynical as it ever did, kids are still dieing on foreign fields, and still no one quite knows why. Things have changed though, it just seems like they haven't, then we turn on the TV news and see an African American in the White House. I'm glad Mary at lest got to see some dreams that she fought for come true.

That's nicely said. Not that I care for Obama as a president, but the fact that he is one does show how far we've come since the three of them walked down those Selma streets.

fable wrote:It is. Far simpler than the usually complex sort of thing Stookey typically wrote, and deceptively so. It's a nursery style song that's the opposite of one. It's as though one were listening to Wendy talk of Neverland long after getting married and having kids, and being unwelcome any longer in the place that lay beyond the second star to the right. Something lost, something gained; both precious.

It's exquisite. They don't make songs like this anymore, do they?

"Puff the Magic Dragon" has always been amongst my favourite songs, it evokes the bittersweet transition from innocence to experience in a way that never fails to touch me deep down.
RIP Mary...


For those who do not know the song, here are the lyrics:

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee

Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff,
and brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff. Oh

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee

Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail
Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puff's gigantic tail,
Noble kings and princes would bow whene'er they came,
Pirate ships would lower their flags when Puff roared out his name. Oh

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee

A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.

His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain,
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane.
Without his life-long friend, Puff could not be brave,
So Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave. Oh

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee

There's another really good video of them ("Blowin' in the Wind") that I found this morning on a site, DownWithTyranny. You can view it here. But what makes this link special is the thoughtful mini-micro-essay that's attached to it, explaining what makes PP&M, along with songs like these, pretty damn remarkable.

dragon wench wrote:"Puff the Magic Dragon" has always been amongst my favourite songs, it evokes the bittersweet transition from innocence to experience in a way that never fails to touch me deep down.
RIP Mary...


For those who do not know the song, here are the lyrics:

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee

Little Jackie Paper loved that rascal Puff,
and brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff. Oh

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee

Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail
Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puff's gigantic tail,
Noble kings and princes would bow whene'er they came,
Pirate ships would lower their flags when Puff roared out his name. Oh

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee

A dragon lives forever but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.
One grey night it happened, Jackie Paper came no more
And Puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.

His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain,
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane.
Without his life-long friend, Puff could not be brave,
So Puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave. Oh

Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honah Lee

Always made me cry. Done it again, just reading the words... at my age, too... damn...

None of you got any comment regarding the issue of who gets to be the next Mary? Gosh, you really are old - and like good wine, only getting better by the age.

If I had a phonograph, I would use it to play Dead End Street by The Kinks.