Death of Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary, the hit 60s folk trio

A figure in New York folk music from the early 1960s, he, with his trio, participated in the launch of Bob Dylan’s career. The co-author of “Puff the Magic Dragon” died on January 7, at the age of 86.

Lhe first rock’n’roll idols emerged, around King Elvis, in the 1950s, before being supplanted, in the mid-1960s, by mega pop stars, in the wake of the Beatles and Stones. But between the two, another variety of stars had their moment of glory: the heralds of folk, heirs of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger’s Weavers, of whom Bob Dylan quickly became the paragon. But its consecration will be preceded by that of a host of artists and groups springing from the clubs of Greenwich Village, with cheerful campfire activism – Peter, Paul and Mary in the lead. Two acoustic guitars for three mixed or alternating voices which will resonate successfully throughout the 60s. One of them has just fallen silent, Peter Yarrow having succumbed to pancreatic cancer on January 7, at the age of 86 years, fifteen years after the death, in 2009, from leukemia, of Mary Travers. Paul Stookey therefore remains the only survivor of the legendary trio.

A little forgotten by the young – and even less young – generations, Peter, Paul and Mary marked the history of US folk, through its popularization of repertoire standards, traditional 500 Miles (I hear the train whistle, by Richard Antony) at If I Had a Hammer des Surfs and Cloclo) or Where Have All the Flowers Gone by Seeger, which was their first major hit in 1962. They also had a huge success with the Blowin’in the Wind of the still unknown Bob Dylan, with whom they shared the same manager, Albert Grossman.

But Peter, Paul & Mary didn’t just cover each other’s songs, they wrote them too. Notably Yarrow, who signed the classic Puff the Magic Dragon, delicate nursery rhyme for children (but not only that) co-written in 1960 with the poet Leonard Lipton, then engraved in 1963. A classic about coming of age and the loss of innocence which resonated in many households, across the whole world. Including in France, through the voice of Claude François (Puff, the magic dragon). A song in which the psychedelic sixties will inevitably detect (but wrongly), in subtext, an ode to drugs, which Ben Stiller will remind an outraged De Niro, addicted to the song, in the film My father-in-law and me.

But Peter Yarrow did not only sing for the youngest, his songs and the repertoire of his group being essentially in the register of protest song. In addition to several Dylan covers (that of Don’t Think Twice It’s Allright even allowed the album The Freewheelin’ to finally find its audience), Yarrow signed The Great Mandella to the glory of a conscientious objector, or Day is Done, invitation for the next generation to build a better world.

The decline of folk in favor of the emergence of the lively quartet The Mamas and the Papas, and more generally of rock, was not the only reason for the gradual commercial decline of Peter, Paul and Mary. At a time when musicians were engaging in a riot of debauchery, it was Peter Yarrow who was caught in 1970. Welcoming a 14-year-old fan into his hotel room who just wanted to have his records signed, the singer, completely naked, attacked him. Yarrow was sentenced to three months in prison and, despite subsequently resuming his career and apologizing for his behavior “unforgivable”, he will always remain associated with this infamy.