RIP Mary Travers

When my sister left for college I inherited a few of her records. Some James Taylor and Simon and Garfunkle and an LP by Peter, Paul and Mary, Album. Peter, Paul and Mary are - unfortunately, to my way of thinking - best known for well-meaning heart-tugging mildly saccharine songs about people intending to depart on commercial aircraft, and dragons with abandonment issues. Album, though, was nothing of the sort. It's old-time-religion folk songs and weird synth experimentation and French ballads and laments about Death. People whose idea of Mary Travers' voice is the syrupy folk-pop stuff like Puff the Magic Dragon should hear Well, Well, Well, which I can set down from memory.

Well, well, well, who's that calling?
Well, well, well, hold my hand
Well, well, well, night is a-falling
The spirit is a-moving all over the land

Lord told Noah, build him an ark
Build it out of hickory bark
Old ark's a-moving and the waters start to climb
God will send a fire, not a flood next time

God said 'Fire coming, Judgment Day,''
He said 'Old Man Time gonna pass away''
Brothers and sisters, don't you know
you're gonna reap just what you sow

World's not waiting for the Lord's command
building a fire gonna sweep the land
Thunder out of heaven, coming Gabriel's call
and the sea's gonna boil, and the sky's gonna fall

Well, well, well, who's that calling?
Well, well, well, hold my hand
Well, well, well, night is a-falling
The spirit is a-moving all over the land

Mary whispers and groans and belts it out. She howls. When I was ten years old that song gave me the chills and it still can today. There aren't an awful lot of songs from when I was ten that I keep handy on a couple of playlists, and in fact two are songs that Mary recorded with Peter and Paul. Neither was particularly popular when Album was released, or are today, but I'll take great over popular any day and they're what I will always remember her for.
 
Sad Max said:
... and dragons with abandonment issues.
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Ha! Love it. Even though that's one of my favorites from growing up at summer camp, that is such a great description.

But yes, there's a huge depth to all three members of the trio, and if you look past the three or four most well-known songs they put out, there's lots of other stuff even on their more mainstream albums.

Call it a guilty pleasure, though... I'm a sucker for music from the folk movement of the 60s... saccharine or not, it's still good music to me. I wish that I'd taken the opportunities I had to see Peter, Paul, and Mary live in concert when I had them. I now regret that I did not.

I think the fact that I was exposed to the likes of Peter, Paul and Mary, and the Kingston Trio, and The Weavers, and so many more, explains why I have such a latitude in my music appreciations these days. Probably also explains why "A Mighty Wind" is one of my favorite films.
 
It's just that it's so close-on that I can't hear that kind of music without immediately thinking of the film.
 
Sad Max said:
It's just that it's so close-on that I can't hear that kind of music without immediately thinking of the film.
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Wasn't as much of a real question as it was a Fred Willard quote from the film.

But I figured it would be something like you can't listen to folk revival music anymore without thinking of Harry Shearer in drag.
 
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