Bob Lefsetz: Welcome To My World - "Peter, Paul and Mary Primer"

500 MILES

Could be the first Peter, Paul and Mary track I ever heard. A staple at summer camp, it was emblematic of the folk boom, hell, we even had a folk TV show, "Hootenanny."

Everybody knew the lyrics and longhaired girls strummed the tune on acoustic guitars and this could have been the first moment I realized the power of music to get the hormones flowing.

I probably heard this sung before I heard the recording. That was the power of songs back then, when they could be sung. And we did.

IF I HAD A HAMMER

A Pete Seeger/Lee Hays composition, it's hard to overestimate the ubiquity and impact of this track. It went to number 10 and my mother bought the single and at this distance it stands out as a protest song, its lyrics are most meaningful, and even though this was only 1962, the youthquake had already begun, questioning authority and standing up for the rights of the underprivileged...we saw that on the news every day, the South was roiling, it was part of the conversation, no one ignored the issues of the day the way they do today, feeling helpless against the system. The system was just one more enemy to be confronted and defeated.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE

This was another summer camp staple, a song I knew by heart that I had no idea was on Peter, Paul and Mary's debut. It was written by Pete Seeger, there were numerous iterations, this was the era of songs being passed around and covers.

EARLY IN THE MORNING

If you'd asked me before I started writing this I would have had a hard time attaching this track to Peter, Paul and Mary, but the truth is it's the opening cut on their 1962 debut LP and its haunting sound always made an impression upon me. Not all of Peter, Paul and Mary's famous cuts were covers!

THIS TRAIN

Was written by Peter and Paul and it's my favorite on the debut LP. It sounds like a western, like people had decided to separate from the status quo and journey off on a train, were we gonna come along? That's how it was back then, you had to decide which side you were on.

Nothing like this could be a hit today. But this will probably outlast all the hits of today.

PUFF, THE MAGIC DRAGON

Forget whether it was a drug song, we didn't even contemplate that until the latter half of the decade, but this cut was such a monster it's hard to understand its omnipresence from the vantage point of today. It made it to number 2 on the chart, but that was when if it was on the radio, everybody was aware of it. And yes, children's entertainers glommed on to it, but the truth is, once again, it was something sung at summer camp, and probably still is! Written by Peter and the heretofore unknown and promptly forgotten Leonard Lipton.

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND

This Woody Guthrie song was also on Peter, Paul and Mary's second 1962 album, "Moving."

At this late date, Woody Guthrie is a cultural hero whose work is attached to him. But back then, he was the known writer only to those older than us.

BLOWIN' IN THE WIND

From 1963's "In The Wind," this was the monster, both the track and the LP.

You've got to know, most people had no idea who Bob Dylan was. He and Peter, Paul and Mary shared a manager, Albert Grossman, and it was this cover that ended up shining light upon the Minnesota bard, never mind lining his pockets.

One can truly track the ignition of the mainstream protest movement back to Peter, Paul and Mary's cover of "Blowin' In The Wind." We had our own anthem written by a denizen of the younger generation and this song gained its power over the wind, it was in the air, everybody knew it even though to this day I don't think I've ever heard it on the radio.

That's the power of a singable song, the public kept this alive, by performing it.

TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

Let me try to explain this. If you were Jewish you went to summer camp. There was always a counselor with a guitar. And he or she would sit by the campfire and strum and we'd all sing along.

But it wasn't only Jewish summer camp, the same ritual occurred at Boy Scout camp too. We knew a cornucopia of songs without realizing we'd learned them. Broadway infected me, but folk music sealed the deal, made me a music fan. It was the way the songs made me feel, especially when singing along. Alive. With possibilities.

STEWBALL

"Oh, Stewball was a racehorse..."

Some folk songs were fast, others were slow. But we knew them all.

It was about a horse, but really it was about holding hands and singing in unison.

DON'T THINK TWICE, IT'S ALL RIGHT

Neil Young still cannot get over this composition, that's what he said on Howard Stern this week, actually, none of us ever could.

This is how we learned it, via Peter, Paul and Mary's third album, 1963's "In The Wind."

Don't think twice, it's all right, while I sit here licking my wounds, trying to get the gumption to pick myself up and march forward, forgetting you while I still hope and pray that you come back.

THE TIMES THEY ARE A' CHANGIN'

From 1964's live album "In Concert," the one that everybody bought, before music was free and you waited until an act's popularity and influence were cemented and you could get all the hits in one place.

This collection was ubiquitous in a way their music had been previously, but no long player had been before. After all, it was still the singles era, the Beatles were just breaking, "Rubber Soul," "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper" were nonexistent, never mind unfathomable.

FOR LOVIN' ME

Written by Gordon Lightfoot long before we had any idea who he was.

This is from Peter, Paul and Mary's 1965 collection "A Song Will Rise," and even though it popularized this composition, the album had none of the impact of its predecessors, the British Invasion was in full swing, folk music was on the decline, and never forget acts have an arc, their popularity comes and goes, no matter how talented they might be. Sometimes it's got nothing to do with the quality of their music, rather the scene just changes.

EARLY MORNIN' RAIN

Another Lightfoot composition from an even more stiff follow-up LP, 1965's "See What Tomorrow Brings."

The band was fading fast, they no longer seemed relevant, we saw the LPs in the bin, but only diehards purchased them, they had very little cultural impact, both "See What Tomorrow Brings" and its follow-up, 1966's "Album."

I DIG ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC

And then came "Album 1700," owning that designation because that was its Warner Brothers catalog number, it was literally album 1700.

This was a hit on the radio when that meant everything. It was no longer about impacting the campfire, even though the old folk hits were still sung there, but creating something indelible for Top Forty radio.

And "I Dig Rock and Roll Music" delivered.

It seemed like a cheap shot, with the Beatles reference and the modernized sound, almost akin to the classic rockers going disco at the end of the seventies, but it didn't cross over into kitsch, "I Dig Rock and Roll Music" just sounded too good. You may not have sung it at camp, but you certainly wailed along in the car!

LEAVING ON A JET PLANE

hat's right, the album came out in 1967, but the track didn't go to number one until 1969!

Peter, Paul and Mary were back. Everybody who paid attention before anointed "Album 1700" a return. In the album era, it was one you owned and played and knew. But Top Forty didn't pick up on it. Back in the era when it didn't have to be on the radio to be a hit. All those Hendrix cuts you know by heart, Cream ones too, they got so little airplay. And yes, "Sunshine Of Your Love" eventually crossed over to Top Forty, and so did "Leaving On A Jet Plane," cementing its status as probably the most famous Peter, Paul and Mary song ever.

Written by John Denver, of course.

Everybody could relate. We'd experienced love and the disconnection therefrom.

A song that has outlived its era, and that's hard to do!

TOO MUCH OF NOTHING

Off "Album 1700"'s follow-up, "Late Again," which had no impact other than this, nor did its follow-up, "Peter, Paul and Mommy." We let you come back once, we love the pull of nostalgia, after that, you stand or fall based on the quality of your work.

Yet, there were really two comeback tracks, ironically the first one cut after the second, but released before it.

Well, "Too Much Of Nothing" was not the smash of "Leaving On A Jet Plane," but back before we knew chart numbers, when we gauged success based on a track's impact upon us, I was infected by "Too Much Of Nothing," it's the one Peter, Paul and Mary cut I still yearn to hear and therefore play, never mind spin in my mind and quote.

"Say hello to Valerie
Say hello to Marion
Send them all my salary
On the waters of oblivion"

Actually, in the original, it's "Vivian," not "Marion."

But at this point, no one had heard the original, it was part of the infamous "Basement Tapes" which did not see the light of day until 1975. Furthermore, although Dylan wrote it, Peter, Paul and Mary nailed the performance of it, their rendition was much more ear-pleasing, as was Al Kooper and Stephen Stills's rendition of "It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry," on "Super Session."

Heresy, I know. But although the lyrics are exquisite on both iterations of "Too Much Of Nothing," the arrangement and sound on Peter, Paul and Mary's shine so brightly you cannot help but wrap your brain around it.

And the hook is those lyrics above.

Too much of nothing... We thought about that back in 1968, when it was not about getting rich so much as contemplating one's place in society. There was no internet, no Netflix, all we had was our music. Which we spun incessantly, which we knew by heart. And even though they seem to have been forgotten to the sands of time, even though no one seems to mention them anymore, Peter, Paul and Mary's songs live on.

They're the ones we know by heart.