Hearing the sad news on the passing of Peter Yarrow, founding member of Peter, Paul and Mary – but with the events of this week overshadowing so much else going on in the world – and for those of us in Southern California understandably distracted by the fires and nervously anticipating the worst, we’ve been preoccupied.
But Peter Yarrow was an important figure in Folk Music during the early 1960s and honoring his memory and his accomplishments is the least we can do. So I’m offering this complete Folknight concert from The Hollywood Bowl, exactly as it happened on August 3, 1963 – please be safe out there – or anywhere, for that matter.
Below is my original post from 2013 when I first ran the concert. Forgive the redundancies, we’re a teensy bit distracted.
This morning it’s the whole 2-hour concert featuring Odetta, Bud & Travis and the wildly popular Peter Paul & Mary, in concert at The Hollywood Bowl during Folk Night 1963, recorded on August 2, 1963.
It’s interesting to consider how much of a pivotal year 1963 was for music. Folk Music was at the crest of a popularity wave. One that would only diminish and fully transform itself into an avenue of protest months later. Folk as Pop Music, as parts of it had been since the late 1950s, thanks to The Kingston Trio, Brothers Four and Peter, Paul & Mary, slowly gave way to Folk-Rock, after being somewhat buried in an avalanche of British Invasion the following year. Interesting too, to consider a few weeks later we’d have YMCA Day at The Bowl, featuring The Beach Boys and how that seeming innocent time quickly evaporated with the events in Dallas only a few weeks after that.
It was a genre in transition, but Folk Music was still popular and accessible to many during this time. And one of the more popular exponents of Folk Music during this time were Peter, Paul and Mary.
Lately, we’ve been experiencing a lot of retrospective looks at the Folk movement, and many new takes and interpretations of it from the latest crop of musicians. From a period that lacked any defining moment (since, aside from Bob Dylan going Electric at Newport, they were all subject to witness observation and varying interpretations), here is another element that played an important role in the development and acceptance at the time.
Enjoy.
