It’s an unfortunate fact that I often get inspiration for this feature from the obituaries.
This time it’s Mary Travers, who died a couple of days ago. Mary is the Mary of Peter, Paul and Mary. It’s not easy to explain how important this folk group was for a few very critical years. They sort of bridged the period between 1960 and the Beatles. They were present at the creation, so to speak, introducing most of us to the music of Bob Dylan, from which they took the hard edge of his voice, replaced by their own sweet harmonies. By 1967 or so they had become somewhat anachronistic, having been swept away by the rock explosion of the late 60s.
They brought politics to the world of mainstream pop. They were there with the Civil Rights Marchers and they remained true to their principles, and active in support of them throughout their careers. Mary was beautiful, with a beautiful voice. I was a bit surprised at the paucity of decent video clips from early in their career. There’s nothing acceptable for their biggest hits-If I Had a Hammer, or Blowing in the Wind. But there are a few good ones of songs featuring Mary’s voice. The first song I thought of was 500 miles, since she’s pretty much solo in it. I picked this Japanese version because it has better audio than the same clip without the Japanese subtitles.
And here’s one that’s a bit more obscure, There is a Ship, again featuring Mary.
and finally, one from the whole group, the first version of The Times They are a Changin that most of us ever heard.
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