Published on Jun 20, 1998
Around a year ago, Andrew Thelen (the person who graciously
donated his own personal Web space for “The Daily Vault” to get its
start) wrote to us and asked us to review an album he had given his
son as a child –
Peter, Paul & Mommy from ’60s folk icons Peter, Paul
& Mary.
I remembered the album well – I had a copy when I was a boy, and
accidentally broke it after years of service. But for some reason,
I kept forgetting about his review request – until I received an
“anonymous” package in the mail containing a new cassette of the
album. (Subtle, Andrew… I got the hint.)
It had been well over 20 years since I last listened to
Peter, Paul & Mommy, and a lot of the songs sound
significantly different than the way I remembered them, but this
album has lost none of its magic, despite being released in
1969.
The theme of the album was supposed to be Peter Yarrow, Noel
“Paul” Stookey and Mary Travers singing children’s songs to
children who were in the studio with them – a move which was kind
of like playing catch with a live hand grenade. You never knew if
the kids were going to burst out in the middle of a performance
(which I’m sure happened, and was edited out), or if the kids were
going to sing off-key (which does happen on occasion, but kids
don’t have perfect pitch).
But I listen to
Peter, Paul & Mommy differently at the age of 27 than I
did at the age of five. For one thing, many of the songs on this
tape don’t seem like children’s songs. “Leatherwing Bat” sounds a
little complicated for young minds to grasp, but is a pretty song
with Irish overtones throughout the number. “Christmas Dinner” is
another song that I think would go right over little ones’ heads –
cripes, it took me over
20 years to figure out what this song was about. (What can I
say, I’m a slow learner.)
A couple of things now surprise me about
Peter, Paul & Mommy. First, the song order has been
shuffled. I distinctly remember the record ending with “Day Is
Done”; if anyone actually has the vinyl, I’d be interested in
re-discovering the exact order of songs. Second, the kids aren’t
really used that much – I counted five songs of the twelve on the
tape. Some of them, like “Puff (The Magic Dragon)” and “Going To
The Zoo” (hey, now
there’s an idea for what to do with my daughter on Father’s
Day!), make perfect sense, but especially if the kids weren’t on
every song, one wonders why they were used on “Day Is Done” and not
on “Mockingbird”. (For that matter, why
weren’t the kids used on all the songs?)
This all, however, is nitpicking to the nth degree. The
performances on
Peter, Paul & Mommy are incredible. “The Marvelous Toy,”
a song that occasionally sees airplay around Christmastime, is
still a beautiful song, while the performances of such cuts as “I
Have A Song To Sing, O!,” “It’s Raining” (another one that would
have been great for the kids) and “Puff (The Magic Dragon)”, if
heard at the right time, could bring tears to your eyes. No matter
what you thought of their politics (or if you bought into that
bullshit of “Puff” being a pro-drug song), Peter, Paul & Mary
were top-notch folkies.
In a sense, though, this album now sounds too polished. I don’t
remember the record sounding as crisp and flawless, or some
performances stretching as long as they do here. It might be a
strange thing to say, but I’d almost prefer this on vinyl, if only
to preserve a roughness that kids don’t realize will eventually
creep into their lives. (With the vast amount of vinyl in the
Pierce Archives, at least my daughter will know what a record once
was.)
Despite being almost 30 years old,
Peter, Paul & Mommy is still a great record to start
your kids out with, and is one that might instill a love of music
with them… that is, unless your toddler is listening to Puff
Daddy or Green Day instead.