"Day Is Done" For Peter, Paul & Mary

Peter, Paul & Mary via last.fm

Singer Mary Travers has died at the age of 72, after having lived with leukemia for some time.  She was one-third of Peter, Paul and Mary, who for more than 40 years have helped to popularize folk music and to support various liberal causes.

To understand the success of PP&M, you have to remember that in the late 1950s and early 60s folk music was huge between the time Elvis Presley was in and out of the Army, and when the Beatles arrived in America.  It was music for people who were too cool for rock and roll, but were also too young to enjoy Perry Como and Frank Sinatra.

The group was created in 1961 by their manager Albert Grossman, who according to Wikipedia wanted to bring together "a tall blonde (Travers), a funny guy (Paul Stookey) and a good looking guy (Peter Yarrow)".  Soon they were performing at clubs in New York's Greenwich Village and had a record deal with Warner Brothers.

Then PP&M began to make their mark on the record charts:  "Blowin' In The Wind", "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" (both written by Bob Dylan), "Lemon Tree", "Puff the Magic Dragon" (I never thought the song was about marijuana), Pete Seeger's "If I Had a Hammer", "For Lovin' Me" (written by Gordon Lightfoot), and "Leaving On A Jet Plane" (their only Number One hit, written by John Denver).

Another side of PP&M was their activism.  They sang at the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King talked about having a dream.  They marched for civil rights, were against nuclear power and the apartheid policies of South Africa, and campaigned for Democrat George McGovern in the 1972 presidential election.

Peter, Paul & Mary were part of an era where they tried to help change the world through music, and in some ways, they succeeded.  In other ways, it became clear that wasn't enough.  But the important part was that they got people to listen.  Now that job falls to someone else.