RIP Mary Travers

As I got older I became very conflicted by PPM.

As a child Puff The Magic Dragon was one of my favorite songs.

As a I became more aware of the world, I came to despise their politics.

Always got a kick out of those PBS PPM concerts - watching aging hippies grove to the sounds of their youth.

 

This one really hits me, I guess for the time and place she represents in my life. A dragon lives forever, but not so little girls. RIP.

 

Whether PPM wrote it about marijuana matters not. Most people took it to mean that it was about herb. Sometimes the meaning of a song is hijacked by those who listen to it.

 

Exactly what I found amusing about the "since-discounted reports."

 

Yeah, all that meddlin' in civil rights and crap in the Sixties was really loathesome.

 

Even before it became the story of my life, 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' was the one song that inevitably reduced me to tears every time I...hell, even now.

But only the PPM version. The John Denver rendition makes me want to hurl myself from a jet plane.

 

Oooh. Unfortunate image.

 

Always loved their stuff back when, and as a parent, I found a huge new measure of respect and fandom thanks to their ``Peter Paul and Mommy'' albums.

 

Here's the note Peter Yarrow sent to friends:

<i>"Surrounded by love with a spirit of quiet, grateful, celebration amongst many friends who had gathered to be with her, Mary chose to leave us a few minutes before 7:30 p.m.

"She was in no pain and was able to understand and respond to spoken words even up to some time late in the afternoon, just a few hours before her passing.

"I was able to convey the thoughts, messages of appreciation and love, from many of you who contacted me.

"It was an honor and a blessing to have been with Mary in this last, powerful chapter in her life. She was Mary to a 'T' until the end, nodding yesterday when asked if she wanted to go shopping with the girls at the Mall, gently (but clearly) slapping away the arm of a nurse who didn't stop doing something to Mary when she asked her not to (all this with her eyes unopened).

"I could sense her delight when I came to sit with her, massage her fingers as I always did on tour, and tell her all the things worth saying to express my love, for quite a long period of time during the day.

"She was a giant of a person, in spirit and heart, till the end. Missing her has only just begun."</i>

 

R.I.P. to one-third of one of the best vocal groups in rock. Speaking of Smasher's post, Jimmy Carter had one of the coolest pardons ever when he pardoned Yarrow.