Blowin' in the Wind

fins85258

Senior Insider
A sad day for Boomers everywhere.............

DANBURY -- Mary Travers, one-third of the iconic 1960s folk-music trio Peter Paul and Mary and for years a resident of Redding, died Wednesday at Danbury Hospital. She was 72.

"(Redding) is where she came to relax and be with friends," said former Redding First Selectman Mary Ann Guitar, who was a friend of Travers' mother and who attended the singer's first performance at the Village Vanguard in New York City.

Travers joined Peter Yarrow and Noel "Paul" Stookey in the early 1960s.

She and her husband, Ethan Robbins, lived on Lime Kiln Road for at least 30 years, Guitar said.

Travers had battled leukemia for several years, undergoing a successful bone marrow transplant in 2005 that allowed her to return to

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performing before her condition worsened earlier this year.

Travers was a longtime friend of noted artist Jimmy Grashow of Redding, and his wife, Guzzy.

"The world lost a treasure today, and we've lost an irreplaceable friend," Guzzy Grashow said. "Everybody knows she made incredible music, but she also made a loving home and magnificent gardens."

Peter, Paul and Mary was one of the seminal folk music groups of the 1960s and beyond, and its members were stewards of a folk music tradition of liberal activism.

They rose to fame with renditions of socially conscious songs such as "If I Had a Hammer" and Bob Dylan's "Blowin' In the Wind," but also scored hits with non-political numbers including "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and "Puff the Magic Dragon."

And they were vehement in their opposition to the Vietnam War, managing to stay true to their liberal beliefs while creating music that resonated in the American mainstream.

At one point in 1963, three of their albums were in the top six Billboard best-selling LPs as they became the biggest stars of the folk revival movement.

It was heady stuff for a trio that had formed in the early 1960s in Greenwich Village, running through simple tunes like "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

They debuted at the Bitter End in 1961, and their beatnik look -- a tall blonde flanked by a pair of goateed guitarists -- was a part of their initial appeal. As The New York Times critic Robert Shelton put it not long afterward, "Sex appeal as a keystone for a folk-song group was the idea of the group's manager, Albert B. Grossman, who searched for months for 'the girl' until he decided on Miss Travers."

Their debut album came out in 1962, and immediately scored a pair of hits with their versions of "If I Had a Hammer" and "Lemon Tree." The former won them Grammys for best folk recording, and best performance by a vocal group.

"Moving" was the follow-up, including the hit tale of innocence lost, "Puff (The Magic Dragon)" -- which reached No. 2 on the charts, and generated since-discounted reports that it was an ode to marijuana.

Album No. 3, "In the Wind," featured three songs by the 22-year-old Bob Dylan. "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "Blowin' in the Wind" both reached the top 10, bringing Dylan's material to a massive audience; the latter shipped 300,000 copies during one two-week period.

"It wasn't unexpected, but it's still incredibly sad," said Ridgefield selectman and folk music concert producer Barbara Manners of Travers' death. "She had such an incredible impact on young people and was really responsible for folk music flowering back in the '60s."

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.
 
fins85258 said:
It's for "Folks" how fall asleep in the recliner every night


Funny and that will do it for sure- but actually it's for pot smoking, long hair anti-war protesters who wear tie-dye shirts and drive VW buses. That was PP&M's audience when they were popular.
 
Whatever. Doesn't make their music any better tho. I'm sure Dylan would have been discovered sooner or later.
 
And they stayed popular for decades. My 20-30 something kids went to their concerts as recently as this past summer without Mary.
 
Andynap said:
fins85258 said:
It's for "Folks" how fall asleep in the recliner every night


Funny and that will do it for sure- but actually it's for pot smoking, long hair anti-war protesters who wear tie-dye shirts and drive VW buses. That was PP&M's audience when they were popular.

Sorry to burst the stereotype. I was in grade school and loved their music. Had a crew cut and thought maryjane was a type of shoe girls wore. Lived outside Philly and saw the soldiers coming and going from Ft. Dix.

In addition to their popular music PPM were icons of the sixties. They entertained at the Lincoln Memorial with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, et al, during the march on Washington (MLK "I Had A Dream" march). Mary Travers later also had a syndicated radio show and did the famous interview with Bob Dylan where he opened up for the first time about his iconic "Blood on the Tracks" album.

Eddie is right. Their legend is secure.
 
Andynap said:
fins85258 said:
It's for "Folks" how fall asleep in the recliner every night


Funny and that will do it for sure- but actually it's for pot smoking, long hair anti-war protesters who wear tie-dye shirts and drive VW buses. That was PP&M's audience when they were popular.

Andy,

I'll join Biscuit and JEK's kid as yet another exception to your stereotype. I loved PP&M AND the Beatles. And I've never been high in my life...

The good Sisters of Nazareth Academy kept me too busy with my head down in my school books.
 
Maybe it's an Andy-otype. He is entitled to his opinions, even if they are at loggerheads to the mainstream :)
 
First of all I never said I didn't like them- I didn't and second most of the posters were not born when PP&M first came on the scene- so what do they know- all after the fact. Maybe my opinion was formed while I was in the Army and they were attracting the protest groups, flag burners, and draft dodgers. Let's hear it for flower power. That's my opinion and it's not going to change now because Mary Travers died.
 
the real question is..was Puff the Magic Dragon about drugs??..or is it just a cute childs fable???
 
Hey, didn't they sing If I Had a Hammer? :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Now if we can link this thread to cupcakes and speedos, we will have gone full circle this summer! Missy? Fraz? Bev? Martin?
 
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