"When They Sang People listened." (Assignment 2)

Peter paul and Mary are my favorite band. No contest! Hands down my favorite (Sorry Bruce). Peter and Paul were both saints and impeccable guitarists and singers, Mary was a Goddess, an angel, and a total hot-tie! Together they formed a unit of perfect harmony. Songs such as "If I had a hammer", by Pete Seeger, were made into anthems-even though Seeger himself thought the song wasn't that good! Peter, Paul, and Mary sung all across the countries, stood with Dr. Martin Luther King in Salem, Demonstrated against the War in Vietnam, organized and sung in the march on Washington with John Lewis, and sung out against so many other important injustices going on in their time.

The songs that Peter, Paul, or Mary wrote and sung were what we would consider the technical definition of a broadside ballad; songs intended to be sung by masses and motivate social change. They were topical and always for a cause; such as a song called "Don't laugh at me" that I remember was sent to my elementary school music teacher by the office in hopes to stop bullying at my school. We sung it for a concert in front of everyone...and even though I would have said I thought it was stupid at the time, (I was a punk) I teared up and was very touched at our performance when the big night finally came. (Many of our parents and teachers cried).

Moments like those are why Broadside Ballads are so important. For our parents and teachers to understand and really feel what it is like for a kid to be laughed at by his peers at school, is a huge achievement for an elementary school choir concert! The other song we sung that night was "This Land is your Land" by Woody Guthrie...taking this Music 300 class, and hearing these songs again really brings me back to that concert and how it felt to sing those songs.

It is ironic to me however, that I felt as though I had to contain my enthusiasm while singing "Don't laugh at me", for fear of being laughed at myself!---but I digress....


Peter, Paul and Mary were even more famous for singing their own arrangements of traditional folk songs and songs by the visionary songwriters of the time such as Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger. Many songwriters would even write songs for Peter, Paul, and Mary in hopes that they would make their song into a hit. (Much like the Temptations, the Supremes, or Jackson 5 did for Motown). "It's not a popular form that will go out of style." says Peter Yarrow- "It will always be there in the summer camps, it will always be there in the churches and the synagogues, and it will always be there in the classrooms, linking the idea of music with the efforts to create a better, more just world."





The song "If I had a Hammer" is so powerful because it challenges the listener to use the literal and metaphorical tools that we are born with,  that enable us to; "hammer out justice", "ring the bell of freedom," and "sing songs of love between the brothers and sisters, all over this land." In my opinion, Peter, Paul, and Mary took the Broadside ballad to a whole new level of both power and popularity.
In the video I posted entitled "Blue", they do a hilarious bit on their own career of playing and modifying other peoples songs. (a trend that became popular when the Beatles did it in America).



If you have time, I suggest watching any live song from of the BBC Four concert (or any of the black and white ones on youtube). They are all excellent. Some are so good I don't even believe they are real.