Peter Yarrow — one third of the beloved folks trio Peter, Paul and Mary, whose anthems epitomized the Nineteen Sixties protest motion — died Tuesday in New York. He was 86 years outdated.
His longtime publicist advised AFP in an announcement that Yarrow, the songwriter behind hits like “Puff the Magic Dragon,” had been battling bladder most cancers for 4 years.
“Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life,” Yarrow’s daughter Bethany stated within the assertion.
“The world knows Peter Yarrow the iconic folk activist, but the human being behind the legend is every bit as generous, creative, passionate, playful, and wise as his lyrics suggest,” she continued. “He always believed, with his whole heart, that singing together could change the world.”
Yarrow and his band mates Mary Travers and Noel “Paul” Stookey burst onto the American folks music scene in 1961 with an influential type punctuated by wealthy three-part harmonies and progressive activist politics.
Born May 31, 1938 in Manhattan to Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, Yarrow studied portray earlier than turning to singing and guitar as a pupil at Cornell University.
After graduating he moved to New York and have become an everyday on Greenwich Village’s burgeoning folks scene.
The band blended folks roots and business success: their self-titled 1962 debut reigned over the US charts and offered greater than two million copies.
Their rendition of “Blowin’ in the Wind” turned a preferred interpretation of fellow folks singer Bob Dylan’s anti-war anthem; Peter, Paul and Mary carried out the track on the 1963 civil rights March on Washington, cementing its place within the folks activist canon.
Their model of the progressive protest track “If I Had a Hammer” — written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays — earned the trio two of their 5 Grammy wins.
Their different hits included “Day Is Done” and “The Great Mandala.” The band additionally lined John Denver’s “Leavin’ on a Jet Plane” to chart-topping success.
But they broke up in 1970, shortly after the track’s launch, partly to pursue solo work and partly as a result of Yarrow was accused of creating sexual advances towards a 14-year-old lady who got here to his dressing room whereas looking for an autograph along with her teenage sister.
Yarrow served three months of a jail sentence after pleading responsible to taking “indecent liberties” with the kid.
The artist was controversially pardoned in 1981 by then-President Jimmy Carter.
The incident trailed him, nevertheless: in 2019, because the #MeToo motion gained traction, he was as a result of carry out at a New York arts pageant, however the set was canceled as a result of protests.
In an announcement on the time, Yarrow voiced regret: “I do not seek to minimize or excuse what I have done and I cannot adequately express my apologies and sorrow for the pain and injury I have caused.”
Neither he nor his band mates achieved the celebrity as solo artists as they did collectively, and reunited for one-off exhibits earlier than touring usually all through the late twentieth century, till Travers was identified with most cancers from which she finally died.
The group performed their last efficiency collectively in May 2009 in New Jersey.
In an announcement, the final dwelling band mate, Stookey, known as Yarrow his his “creative, irrepressible, spontaneous and musical younger brother — yet at the same time, I grew to be grateful for, and to love, the mature-beyond-his-years wisdom and inspiring guidance he shared with me like an older brother.”
“Politically astute and emotionally vulnerable, perhaps Peter was both of the brothers I never had,” Stookey stated. “I shall deeply miss both of him.”
© 2025 AFP