RIP, Henry Gibson & Mary Travers

[howeird]

Henry Gibson was, IMHO, one of the most under-rated comedians of his era. I will miss his gentle, understated comedy and brilliant character creation talent.

Peter and Paul's Mary has passed away. I'd never thought of it before, but those are the names of the three most prominent disciples who did not write Gospels. Hmmm. I'm seeing a lot of homages to her which thank her for songs which she sang, and while I cherish her voice and her amazing harmonizings, I want to add some credit where credit is due, because almost all PP&M's songs, after all, were covers.

Blowin' in the Wind Bob Dylan
If I Had A Hammer Lee Hays & Pete Seeger
Where Have All The Flowers Gone? Pete Seeger
Leaving on a Jet Plane John Denver
Lemon Tree Will Holt
Stewball John Herald, Bob Yellen, Ralph Rinzler
500 Miles Hedy West
Early Morning Rain Gordon Lightfoot
This Land is Your Land Woody Guthrie
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face Ewan MacColl
I'm In Love With A Big Blue Frog Les Braunstein

Songs by Peter & Paul:
Day is Done Peter
I Dig Rock and Roll Music Paul, Jim Mason, Dave Dixon
Wedding Song (There is Love) Paul
Puff the Magic Dragon Peter

And credited to all three:
Cruel War PP&M

And an anecdote. When Album 1700 first came out I rushed out to buy the LP (yes, I am a child of vinyl) because I fell in love with Leaving on a Jet Plane. When I got it home and played it, there was a skip in the first line, on the word "bags". "All my b---acked, I'm ready to go" is what came out. I took the record back to the store and exchanged it for another one. Same skip. Apparently a manufacturer's defect. I looked but never found a LP without that skip, though I did find one which sounded like "All my bAAgs are packed". Of course I now have it on CD, sans skip, both Mary's version and John Denver's. Sad that they are both gone, the singer and the songwriter.

Comments

[vasilatos]

That is an excellent anecdote, thank you.