... & Mary

[NanceGreggs]

“My sorrow song now must just break through, that brave new dawn now, long overdue. So hurry, sundown, be on your way … and hurry me a sun-up from this beat-up sundown day. Weave me tomorrow out of today.”

SHE didn’t write the words – SHE merely sang them – and, in the doing, gave them meaning.

“If I had my way in this wicked world, I would tear this building down.”

SHE never tore down a building, not so far as I remember. But she had a sense of what the “wicked world” could do – and was determined to halt that wickedness in any way she could.

“One word more, a signal token, a whistle of the marching tune – with your pike upon your shoulder at the risin’ of the moon.”

SHE didn’t hesitate – nor wait for the risin’ of the moon. She stood shoulder-to-shoulder with those whose voice was raised in the cause of freedom. “Yet, thank God, while hearts are beating, each man bears a burning wound. We shall follow in their footsteps,” and she did. With passion – and then some.

“All equal and the same, when the Lord he calls your name. Mankind was made of clay, each of us in the very same way. Get ready, brothers, for that day.”

SHE had a grasp of what was real – not defined by religious ideology, but framed in what we, as a people, instinctively know what is just, what is right, what is fair. “All equal and the same.” Words to live by, words a nation was built on – words SHE gave voice to in a time when such words were not popular, nor readily accepted.

“Come gather ‘round people, wherever you roam. And the losers now will be later to win, for the times they are a changing’.”

And they are a changin’. And she was a part of that change. She lent her voice to it; she gave her passion to it. She epitomized what it was to stand up for your ideals, and bow down to NO ONE in your determination to be heard.

“I’d hammer out danger, I’d hammer out warning, I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land.”

And SHE hammered it out, time and again – without hesitation.

“And when I die, when I’d dead, dead and gone, there’ll be one child born and the world to carry on.”

I hope that child “born to carry on” at HER passing sings as sweetly as SHE did, and contributes to the world a fraction of what SHE had to offer – free for the takin’, free for the listening, free to those whose hearts were open to the message that one voice could change the world for the better.

And SHE was such a voice.

“So I’d best be on my way, in the early morning rain.”

Yes, Sweet Mary, best be on your way. Godspeed to your destination – a place where voices such as yours are appreciated not only for how they delight the ear, but for how they inspire the heart.

Godspeed.

[babylonsister]

1. Very lovely. Mary Travers was one of my first influences as a child.

Her music filled our home. :cry:

[MyOwnPeace]

2. Absolutely............

the most brilliant tribute to a most brilliant lady.O8) O8)

[Divine Discontent]

3. amen

:hug:

[kentuck]

4. Very nice Nancy.

Another voice of our generation has left us.

[NecklyTyler]

5. K&R

[Historic NY]

6. K&R

[road2000]

7. Another day, more tears.

Without our lifelong friend, we've got to be braver than that magic dragon. She showed us the way. Godspeed indeed, and thank you.

[RagAss]

8. A beautiful tribute.....n/t

[malaise]

9. Nice post

Welcome back :hi:

[The Wizard]

10. Thanks for this tribute

to a heroic voice that opened minds and made the world better than it was before she sang.

[Hepburn]

11. ...

Rip, Mary...:cry:

[gratefultobelib]

21. What a touching picture. Thank you for it.

[avaistheone1]

61. Here is the other part of that photo

Posting this especially for Hepburn,Nance and gratefultobelib

[DailyGrind51]

12. During the '60s, "PP&M" were the nation's conscience expressed in song.

[trusty elf]

13. Touching tribute, thanks.

No matter how often I watch this, I cry every time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUKB3PxG-0E

[Are_grits_groceries]

14. Thank you!

I called her a "Strongbird" because she was courageous enough to sing so forcefully and so beautifully truths that everybody needed to hear.

I think her sweet voice pierced through anybody who heard it whether thay would admit it or not.

She taught me how and why to sing even though I can't carry a tune. I can carry a hammer and ring a bell too.

Bye Mary.........Say hi to Stewball...

[ElsewheresDaughter]

15. Godspeed Mary...your songs blessed generations ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV_7PqoxtVM

[omega minimo]

16. Really nice, Nance. Thanks.

[madamesilverspurs]

17. Some voices will ever attend

the sweetest and most profound memories of my life. Mary's is one of them.

[Jackpine Radical]

18. Aw, jeez, Nance. Now you've gone and done it.

I'm crying.

I've been haunted by thoughts and memories since I heard about her passing. Thank you for this beautiful and moving memorial.

[immoderate]

19. Thanks, Nance.

--imm

[SalviaBlue]

20. Godspeed Mary.

Thanks Nance

[Irishonly]

22. Thank you

Your tribute is one of the most beautiful I have read. Mary was one of the strongest voices of my youth. Godspeed Mary.

[loudsue]

23. That's a beautiful tribute to a great human being.

Mary Travers was a huge influence on my life...Peter, Paul & Mary's music sang to my patriotic, humanitarian soul, and pushed me to march with my "brothers & sisters, all over this land", on more than one occasion.

Rest in PEACE, Mary. You have surely earned it.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

24. My dear Nance...

She did indeed sing...

But she was not alone, not by a long shot...


Your words sing today...

As they always do.


Godspeed, Mary!

And thank you so much, my sweet Nance!

:hug:

K&R

[Dystopian]

25. Nance, my heartfelt thanks...

Thank you for your beautiful tribute to a beautiful soul with the voice of an angel.
She shall be missed...yet her song goes on.

Rest in Peace, Mary




peace~

[graywarrior]

26. & Mary was the first perfomer I saw when I was a kid and she stood out from her

singing partners. To me, she was a goddess.

[Fire1]

41. Those were the days, gray, when songs had real substance

and meaning. PP&M were part of the movement. Mary will always be remembered.

[graywarrior]

44. Even though they were a created band, she still stood out.

[Fire1]

45. It was Mary who "made" the group! n/t

[graywarrior]

46. Agreed.

[grantcart]

27. sweet just sweet

[Bluerthanblue]

28. beautiful Nance

thank you for this.

She was a treasure- IS a treasure.

:grouphug:

[spanone]

29. i saw the trio live twice...mary was a powerful force....

:cry: :hug:

[DFW]

30. Nance, I took the liberty of sending this on to Peter Yarrow.

I hope that is OK with you. I know him slightly. I already heard back from his assistant when I had sent my own note of condolence, and also was sent a note that Peter sent out to what must have been thousands of people he has known over the years. He and Noel (Paul) had told me that Mary was very ill last June, but not that they all knew that end was coming soon. It was, as you might imagine, not their favorite subject.

Your voice, as mine, will be one of a great number, but it deserved being added.

[NanceGreggs]

31. Thanks so much for doing that, DFW. n/t

[classof56]

32. Nance, what a lovely tribute!

I saw PP&M when they first "hit the scene" back in 1963 in Newark, NJ while I was visiting friends who'd moved there from Colorado. I was blown away by this amazing trio, but especially impressed with Mary, whose voice a music reviewer had referred to as "the cream in the coffee". I could not get enough of them, and still have several of their LPs. To my everlasting good fortune, I saw them one more time in Denver a year or two later. A couple-three years ago, during a PBS fund-raising special featuring PP&M, Peter Yarrow, who has a son in Portland, not far from where I now live, joined the pledge breaks and was clowning it up with the hosts and call-takers. I promptly called and pledged more than I really could afford so I could get PP&M's CD "Ten Years Together". Have played that one over and over and will keep on playing it. Won't bore anyone with the emotions these songs evoke, but just want to say how blessed I am that I was here on this earth when three such amazing musicians blended their voices to lift our hearts and spirits.

One more thing--during that PBS special, Mary sang a song to her granddaughter and as a grandmother, it wrenched my heart and moved me to tears. Can't recall the name of that tune, but it's a few moments in time this old gal will cherish forever.

We'll miss you, Mary. I'm honored to have heard you as well as see you in person a couple of times, and Nance, thanks again for paying Mary such homage with your words.

[NanceGreggs]

57. The song she sang to her granddaughter ...

... was "For Baby (For Bobbie)" by John Denver.

"And the wind will whisper your name to me
Little birds will sing along in time
Leaves will bow down when you walk by
And morning bells will chime ..."

[BlueMTexpat]

33. Thank you, Nance!

Mary was a a big and meaningful influence in my youth. She was young when I was. And now, I too am much older, almost as old as she was when she left us this past week.

"Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing ... gone to soldiers every one ... when will we ever learn?" :cry:

[BlooInBloo]

34. I don't know much of her/their music, but a lot of people loved them - that's good enough for me.

[Blue_In_AK]

35. Very nice tribute, Nance.

:thumbsup:

[Mad_Dem_X]

36. What a lovely tribute. n/t

[mzmolly]

37. RIP good lady.

eom

[AnotherMother4Peace]

38. Nance, you are a wordsmith - I so enjoy your writing - a very nice tribute. nt

[sabrina 1]

39. Lovely trubute, thank you

It made me cry ~ :cry:

[Highway61]

40. Thank you

Thank you for this beautiful tribute. I felt so sad. I emailed my daughter when Mary passed. She said to me..."They were the very first concert you and daddy took us to, I will never forget it."
They don't come any better. She sang with such conviction...I will miss her.

[Jakes Progress]

42. Now the sparrow has wings and can fly.

She was a force.

[zeemike]

43. It is all personal to me because she was the sound of my youth

At a time when the music industry was cranking out silly songs they were singing songs that had meaning.
And it is kind of sad to see those voices dieing off one by one....but we still have the music.

[asdjrocky]

47. Nance-

Your words made me a bigger fan. I'm going to take another look, and that's saying a lot for me where matters of music are concerned.

I do remember a warm and open voice with powers to stir, thanks for reminding me.

[defendandprotect]

48. Sad loss but warm memories --

[vincenzoesq]

49. Mary

Thank you Nance. Mary's voice defined my college years. I still cry at "Cruel War." My friends were dying in Vietnam, and I had no way to understand
how those who made it home would suffer. Her voice inspired the Peace movement, and my small part in it.

[Capn Sunshine]

50. Thank you, Nance

I was hoping someone would put something up about Mary Travers. Even Later Boomers kind of missed the "folk" scene. PP&M has a place in my life soundtrack.

[nofurylike]

51. rip goddess..........

[solara]

52. Wow.. the tears finally came, thank you once again for your beautiful writing

Farewell Mary

You were my first musical influence.. what a woman! What a singer! What a consciousness!

[blaze]

53. I could sing along with all but one of those quotes

Thanks Nance.

See What Tomorrow Brings was the first album I ever bought.

What a powerful spirit we have lost.

One of my favorites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPbB5n-OW8Q&feature=PlayList&p=34D162398F85F8A5&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=44

[DesertDiamond]

54. Oh Nance! It's so great to read that others were as moved by her voice as I was!

They were my first favorite group, and just the sound of her voice made me want to take action for justice. Mary and the songs they sang were a powerful influence in making me who I am today.

[saltpoint]

55. A tribute from the true heart and mind to a woman who lent hers

to the crucial fights of our time.

A song shall rise indeed.

Thanks, Nance. Beautiful.

[saltpoint]

56. "So you speak to me of sadness / and the coming of the winter..."

- - -
So you speak to me of sadness and the coming of the winter
Of fear that is within you now that seems to never end
And the dreams that have escaped you
And the hope that you've forgotten
And you tell me that you need me now
And you want to be my friend

And you wonder where we're going,
Where's the rhyme and where's the reason,
And it's you who cannot accept, it is here we must begin
To seek the wisdom of the children
And the graceful way of flowers in the wind

For the children and the flowers are my sisters and my brothers
Their laughter and their loveliness would clear a cloudy day
Like the music of the mountains and the colors of the rainbow
They're a promise of the future and a blessing for today.

'Tho the cities start to crumble and the towers fall around us
The sun is slowly fading and it's colder than the sea
It is written from the desert to the mountains they shall lead us
By the hand and by the heart they will comfort you and me
In their innocence and trusting they will teach us to be free

For the children and the flowers are my sisters and my brothers
Their laughter and their loveliness would clear a cloudy day
And the song that I am singing is a prayer for non-believers
Come and stand beside us, we can find a better way

- - -

"Rhymes and Reasons," words and music by
John Denver, sung by Mary Travers on her first
solo album, MARY.


And what was that about 'towers' there in the fourth stanza? The words need her voice to frame the problem, to convey the urgency. I'm tossing them up there for people to read on a flat computer screen but I think they were first designed to penetrate the heart and are best absorbed from Travers' own recordings. Barnes & Noble offered the three first solo albums of all three members of Peter, Paul, and Mary a short while back.

If you have some extra pocket change in the cookie jar, it would be pocket change very well spent.

Nance, your post is ritual to our rag-taggedness. Thank you.

[ChazInAz]

58. There is a huge hole in my life, now.

"Lemon Tree" was the first song of theirs that I ever heard in my early teens. They were the voice of my soul throughout the Sixties. Mary's amazing voice gave me goose-bumps and moved me to tears. God, I loved her.
I had the privilege of meeting the lady in the early Eighties. She was doing a fundraiser for Russian refuseniks at my neighborhood synagogue. The time was a few minutes after I finished work, so I bicycled there. (Poor and car-less in Tucson: the sort of person she'd sing about!) No bike racks at Temple Anshei, so I chained my trusty steed to a window grating.
She sang full-bore, and knocked out the sound system, then carried on un-amplified. The sheer power of her voice, close-up, amazed me. I'd never seen her that intimately before, and hadn't realized how tall and broad-shouldered she was. She had a singer's build that I hadn't noticed in the past.
As I left, I was unchaining my wheels from the now-lighted window. It slid up, and she was on the other side regarding me with a smile. I introduced myself. After a few pleasantries she said "There's always someone who bikes to one of these. Thank you."
Over twenty-five years later, that's still one of my fondest memories.

[LuckyLib]

59. What a lovely memory and a wonderful story. Thank you! And welcome to DU!

:hi:

[JeffR]

60. I r'd this morning

but forgot to K until now.

D'oh!

[avaistheone1]

62. Mary has been on my mind very much tonight.

Thanks for posting this thread.

[saltpoint]

63. Nance, your subject line is one of the best on DU ever.

[Cetacea]

64. Thank you. nt

[saltpoint]

65. Here's a commoner's kick for the rarest of voices & a fine post.

[saltpoint]

66. It is the first day of Autumn. I'd like to rec this post again but the

software forbids it.

So a kick then, in hopes that many younger folk on this site will allow themselves to be prompted by the original post to give Mary Travers a proper listen.