Why Peter, Paul and Mary Broke Up, the Truth Is Hard to Swallow

[@FactsVerse]

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[@topologyrob]

Please don't burn the subtitles onto the video - let the user decide to turn on captions or not

[@mrcalcat]

Like no other, PP&M is the music of my life. I first heard them at a Unitarian Church summer camp. One of the camper's father was a DJ in Chicago, and he brought along several pre-release records, including PP&M. It was played on the first night during dinner. I do not think we ever listened to the other LPs because we played PP&M at every gathering. I saw them in concert 4 times, the last on the beach in Naples, Florida. My preschool daughter had a doll named Mary, who she carried everywhere. When we arrived at the beach, the trio came on stage for a sound check. My little girl shrieked “MARY”, ran up on stage, and presented her doll to its namesake. Mary kissed it and handed it back. My wife and I had no idea that Mary Travers was THE Mary. Now her daughter loves to hear me play “Puff.” There has been no one like them. Now kids have Taylor Swift. Not bad, but not the same.

[@greenbeagle13]

Their harmonies were untouchable. I loved "Puff the Magic Dragon"... To me it was a song that described the transition from being a playful child, to an adult and it's complexities. It had nothing to do with drugs.

[@FactsVerse]

Well said, we strongly concur! Thank you for watching our content and for sharing your thoughts. What other types of video would you like to see?

[@Mary-rv5kc]

I was lucky enough to see them in concert twice. What talents!

[@manndrew]

Even though Bob Dylan wrote it PP& M’s version of “Don’t Think Twice….” Was my favorite song of theirs and started me playing guitar. I still have all their LP’s from their early years. Loved them.

[@gpk1027]

Hearing a Peter , Paul and Mary song takes me back to childhood days - simpler times in a house on Oldham Street in Pembroke.

[@brianschwartz5357]

My Mom played that record in 1963 in our apartment in Jackson Hgts …Queens NY. The songs and vocals still resonate in my head.

[@brianschwartz5357]

I was 5

[@patrickryan1515]

Fav. Song ; "500 Miles". No better version ever heard by me.

[@jimfigurel3274]

My parents took me to their show in Pgh in '69, when I was 10. Paul signed an autograph for us that night, using the top of my head as a desk! A great memory.

[@FactsVerse]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing! What other types of video would you like to see?

[@CyndisKrist]

Personal and professional differences are common to most bands, as is the growing apart of band members and the desire to move on to other projects at some point. It's best to enjoy the good times while they're happening and cherish the memories of them later.

[@FactsVerse]

Well said, we strongly concur! Thank you for watching our content and for sharing your thoughts. What other types of video would you like to see?

[@thefamouspeopleus]

Peter, Paul, and Mary were not just a folk trio; they were cultural icons whose music resonated deeply with the social movements of their time.

[@linjicakonikon7666]

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@linjicakonikon7666]

The bowel movements of their time.

[@scoutandastir]

Pop group created to take advantage of a trend. Nothing more.

[@beerybill]

Legends in their own minds.

[@jstarks123]

@@beerybilland yet here you are commenting more than 60 years later.

[@752brickie]

Saw them in Pittsburgh back in I believe '92 ??? They were amazing and got to talk with Paul ! Out of the corner of my eye I saw someone standing beside me to my to my right and it was Peter !!! He was checking the sound out. I was probably one of the very few Republicans at the concert but it was absolutely beautiful !!! They were always one of my favorite groups !! RIP Mary and Peter !

[@bryanhenderson8807]

My favorite Peter Paul and Mary song is Puff The Magic Dragon. Mom and dad gave me the 45 when I was a child. It was one of my favorite songs and I played it frequently.

[@FactsVerse]

One of our favorites too, you've got fine taste! What other types of video would you like to see?

[@mrbill9248]

My stepdad would sing that really loud outside my bedroom door while i smoked pot at age 13 .

[@es330td]

Age 53 I have seen some pretty big names in rock and roll and country music including Garth Brooks, Willie Nelson, Billy Joel and Eric Clapton. To this day, my most lasting concert memory is the night at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX when PP&M stopped playing, bowed their heads and let the audience sing "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?" to them.

[@FactsVerse]

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[@davidbwa]

I got to see them in person once in the 90s in a fairly intimate theater (several hundred). It was nice. And they stayed at the front of the stage after the show for the folks who wanted to come up and talk / ask questions and such

[@FactsVerse]

Fun stuff, thanks for sharing! What other types of video would you like to see?

[@wardelliaenoch8936]

We need Peter, Paul and Mary today 😅😊

[@FactsVerse]

We absolutely agree! Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. Be safe and have a great evening!☺

[@davidanthonystone5165]

I saw them from their beginning in 1963 and all the way until Mary’s passing Wow. They were best in live venue.

[@FactsVerse]

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[@timlacy2284]

I saw Peter Paul and Mary in summer of 1980 when I was stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma..Great Show.

[@FactsVerse]

Fun stuff, thanks for sharing! We're happy to know that you had a chance to see Peter, Paul and Mary. Which of their songs appealed to you the most?

[@timlacy2284]

@@FactsVerse I like all of them Puff The Magic Dragon if I had to pick one.

[@tonyryan43]

At age 82. I have an accurate recollection of all the musical events and songs that topped the charts from 1954, so I think it is stretching things a little to imagine this group was installing an epiphony in peoples aura of perception. This was, after all, music for both types of children: actual children and also the grown-up kind, people whose musical tastes cannot grasp anything with more depth and resonance than folk music. But at least they are a rung above those who groove on the tuba in Polkas.

[@maestromike91971]

I liked Peter, Paul and Mary. They we’re not my favorite kind of band. But I can I appreciate all kinds of music and being musician, singer songwriter, trying to make it in the business.

[@FactsVerse]

Glad to know that you're a fan! Which of their songs appealed to you the most?

[@chriscodrington5464]

Great Mandala!

[@FactsVerse]

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[@tamdsms]

I'm 71 now. When I hear "Puff the Magic Dragon", it brings a tear to my eyes for my own lost innocence. "Memories, . . . Light the corners of my mind, . . . Misty water-colored memories, . . . Of the way we were"

[@tedtimothy9074]

In one of their songs, they said , " If I really say it , the radio won't play it unless I lay between the lines". I hope "Puff the Magic Dragon" was not about smoking Marijuana.

[@terr777]

Woody Guthrie's "Car Car" live is hilarious.

[@imikey535]

They didn’t break up. Mary passed away. That pretty much was the end of the group.

[@LarryWhite-kw5mj]

True,blood disease

[@FactsVerse]

Thanks for the info! What is your favorite song of the group?

[@imikey535]

@@FactsVerse OMG. I don’t know if I can just pick one. Puff the Magic Dragon, of course. Inside. Right Field. The Marvelous Toy. Garden Song.

[@geraldscott4302]

@@imikey535 Without a doubt, Blowing in the Wind.

[@mrbill9248]

​@@imikey535when i was 13 my stepdad would sing that song outside my bedroom door when he would smell my grass .

[@staff4thecat]

"Danny's Downs" and "Right Field" are wonderful personal songs to check out if you haven't heard them.

[@nonrepublicrat]

Peter, Paul, and Mary kicked ass!!

[@figmo397]

Peter Yarrow publicly denied that "Puff the Magic Dragon" had anything to do with drugs because it wouldn't have made it past the censors if it officially did. However, when the trio received a gold record for Puff the Magic Dragon, they gave their vocal coach a gold bong! She was later my vocal coach, which is where I learned the story.

[@FactsVerse]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing! What other types of video would you like to see?

[@jstarks123]

Peter Yarrow was adamant for the remaining decades of his life about it not being about drugs. He said if he wanted to write a song about smoking marijuana, he would’ve and certainly had plenty of opportunities. The song was written in the late ‘50’s, a marijuana reference at that time wouldn’t have even made sense.

[@davidanthonystone5165]

I saw them from their beginning in 1963 and all the way until Mary’s passing Wow.

[@FactsVerse]

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[@shawnhuff3920]

Leaving on a jet plane was written by John Denver 😊

[@FactsVerse]

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[@shawnhuff3920]

@@FactsVerse a facts verse about the history of nascar

[@JonathanAmesPhD]

Might help to include some of their singing...

[@nicolewarner277]

😢I like all their songs, at least the ones I know they sang.

[@chrisvickers7928]

My favourite is their cover of Dylan's 'Blowin' in the Wind'.

[@davehopping7212]

Saw them once, in 1964.Breathtaking tunes, vocals, everything. At the time their activism wasn't front and center, so the whole experience was musical rather than political. Later on they were more closely aligned with some pretty sketchy ideologies, and I recall Yarrow being quoted as not understanding why people would picket their appearances carrying signs that read "If I had a sickle".

[@frankethomas1248]

I’m from their (P,P,& M) generation, and was working as a DJ while attending college. This is what I heard at the time. We heard lots of rumors: some true, more not. So I don’t know-I’m just relaying what college kids were saying. Peter was a committed leftist, and desperately wanted to push that message and those ideals through the music. In other words, he wanted to indoctrinate, but wrap it in pleasant enough music that people would listen. Paul just wanted to make good music. If, while focusing on the music, a good message came through, well, that was just gravy. That made the good music even better. For Peter, the activism was the point. For Paul, the music, the singing & playing were the point. It’s like going to movies today. One movie focuses on shoving a woke idealogy on you, while the other focuses on the story & the acting. And Mary was caught between these different emphases in what seemed to be a maddening, unending conflict. As I said, I’m not an expert on their lives (or anyone else’s), but *_IF IT’S TRUE,_* it would explain a lot...

[@DeborahManiscalco]

Hi facts verse I wish we had these people back and you did a great job with this video but there’s a special request that I would like to make of you. I would love if you could do a story on the man who does post 10 for KZbin. I would greatly appreciate it, thanks for the upload you guys and love from all of us on Staten Island, New York, and God bless

[@davidmenzd5544]

they san beautifully, and chose beautiful songs composed by Bob Dylan and Gordon Lightfoot

[@FactsVerse]

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[@EdgarCamacho-hc6dj]

No PPM without MARY TRAVERS!

[@powerpup97]

You failed to mention Mary Travers' death in 2009, which basically marked the end for the band. Also, Peter Yarrow passed away less than six months after this video was uploaded.

[@danielfarmer2026]

Puff the magic dragon 🐉

[@FactsVerse]

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[@colleenhenry8022]

Now Peter Yarrow has passed, just a few days ago

[@Scottwilkie18]

R I p Peter and mary

[@DoubleMrE]

I remember back in the day, Mary totally outshone Peter & Paul. Everybody knew Mary Travers name, but maybe only 1 in 10 people knew Peter & Paul’s last names. Even today, that’s still pretty much true 😐

[@FactsVerse]

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[@DoubleMrE]

@@FactsVerse How about something about Hawaii (I was born & raised there). Hawaii is the most unique state so it has a lot of unique facts about it. Aloha! 😊🤙🏽

[@michellegolden5127]

Leaving on a jet plane- 1967

[@taun856]

I really loved their music though I never really paid attention to the politics of the lyrics. I just accepted the songs as songs. Favorite song is a toss up between "Puff The Magic Dragon" and "Leaving on a Jet Plane", though "550 Miles" is an honorable mention.

[@FactsVerse]

Us too! What other types of video would you like to see on our channel?

[@elliedogify]

The Great Mandela, greatest war protest song !

[@LLewis-vu9qf]

Their song 'Don't Go Down to the Quarry' was in no way a protest song, at least their version wasn't. Their arrangement was definitely done in a humorous, light-hearted fashion. 😊

[@maxbialystock254]

Always thought Stewball was their best.

[@davidanthonystone5165]

Everything they sang was just wonderful

[@bar9973]

As I understand, the mother of the 14 year-old girl somehow contacted Yarrow and asked if her daughter could visit him in his room. To me this seemed like a strange and suspicious request. Since it was between shows, Yarrow was likely under the influence of drugs or alcohol, consequently agreeing for the girl to come up to his room. Maybe he didn’t even realize she was that young. The mother probably knew of Yarrow’s impaired judgement and perhaps this was a setup instigated by the political right. In 1970 Nixon was of course the POTUS and this incident took place at a DC hotel. My wife and I have enjoyed many Peter, Paul & Mary concerts in the Twin Cities since 1964. I was born in DC back in 1944 but we moved to Minnesota from Maryland in 1956.

[@rainbowranddy]

The guys kept Mary on a nearly impossible diet.

[@FactsVerse]

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[@brucethomas5123]

And the result was awesome

[@jgatkinson744]

I remember their hits and liked all of them, but like a lot of people they let their political views and protest take a toll on their career. If you’re going to be a successful entertainer, you should leave politics along.

[@FactsVerse]

Fun stuff, thanks for sharing! What other types of video would you like to see on our channel?

[@brucesmith9206]

Favorite song? Do I have to choose?

[@Easts101]

Their history sounds like the Everly Brothers. Close harmony over a long time. All just had to have a break.

[@LilXaee]

Why i thought this was an update from the spiderman comics before clicking😂 Mary Jane got stuck in an alternate dimension or something and got with a dude named Paul and adopted a kid and Peter obviously being Spiderman 😂

[@FactsVerse]

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[@kensmith8152]

Like a lot of the great bands of the sixties, they were lightning in a bottle, but the bottle was destroyed by success!

[@christopherwilson3442]

Favourite song :- The Cruel War."

[@maestromike91971]

Did they sing, Puff, the magic dragon ? I’m pretty sure, almost positive they did?

[@daisynieves1644]

Yes, it was them😊.

[@rainbowranddy]

@@daisynieves1644 Indeed they did.

[@FactsVerse]

Yes!

[@maestromike91971]

@@daisynieves1644 thank you. I was 99% thinking it was. I googled it earlier.. 😆

[@debbiemetke5938]

Their song "El Salvador"

[@GregoryHawkins-d2p]

Don't call people by their last names. Call them by their first names.

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[@oldfogey4679]

And one of their bass players was the awesome Ed Coleman! Peter told Ed if the gitek they'd booked refused Ed for being black then the group wouldn't stay there! Peter kept his word luckily the times they were a changing!

[@Rojo1044]

Your timeline concerning the breakup of Peter, Paul and Mary is incorrect. First let me say that I revered PP&M and their music, and they literally changed my life. I saw them perform every time they had a concert in Columbus Ohio (a close to spiritual experience). My friends and I had tickets to see them in concert at the “Veterans Memorial Auditorium” in downtown Columbus before the news broke that Peter had “taken improper liberties” with an underage girl and the concert was cancelled. So it was that event that solidified the advancing breakup.

[@FactsVerse]

Fun stuff, thanks for sharing. What other types of video would you like to see?

[@allanfifield8256]

Peter had one little problem.

[@irishledden4924]

They made a lot of money but they never grew up.

[@FactsVerse]

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[@reneearkin7285]

Where have all their hair gone?

[@denp54z]

Peter just died last week ?

[@tomhubbard1900]

Is no one going to mention Peter's arrest for statutory rape? He was caught with a 14-year-old girl in his hotel room. Many other girls testified in his trial at the time. My recollection was that his sentence included being forbidden to perform in public, which forced the group to stop doing shows. Mary died many years *after* they'd broken up. I realize they did occasional reunion concerts, I've always assumed there was a time limit on Peter's sentence. But the breakup happened long before Mary passed, and at the time, the general opinion was that it was because of Peter's arrest.

[@FactsVerse]

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[@ThomasNoonan-qc8vp]

I recall the news item that President Carter granted pardon. That meant no restrictions on him.

[@tomhubbard1900]

@@ThomasNoonan-qc8vp Oh, sure. But President Carter became President in 1976, and left office in 1980. This was long after PPM had broken up. Again, the trio stopped performing when Peter was arrested, not when Mary passed.

[@LLewis-vu9qf]

Tomhubbard1900. -- Sorry Tom. Some of your 'facts' are not quite correct. Peter was never arrested or convicted of rape. As reported in the video, he was arrested for taking indecent liberties, but never for rape. He only served three months. He would have served longer with a rape conviction. The group got back together in the late 70s or early 80s and performed some of their best songs as well as releasing several albums/CDs. They remained performing thru Mary's illness until she sadly passed away in 2009. She insisted on continuing to perform as long as she could. She would appear onstage with her cane and would sit on a stool. Her death was indeed the end of the group.

[@TitanicHorseRacingLover]

​@LLewis-vu9qf That is what I thought. I have a hard time believing forbidding someone to perform, thus ending his career, would be a legit sentence

[@oldfogey4679]

That's hotel

[@johnpastore7685]

I met marry

[@FactsVerse]

How was Mary personally?

[@johnpastore7685]

@@FactsVerseShe was so down to earth. Great lady

[@davidanthonystone5165]

@@johnpastore7685. A real person hip and cool but not full of herself

[@davidanthonystone5165]

@@FactsVersehip girl who grew up in Greenwich Village Cool girl

[@davidanthonystone5165]

@@FactsVersecool and hip

[@glennpittman7325]

puff the magic dragon

[@FactsVerse]

One of our favorites too, you've got fine taste! Which song comes in at second place?

[@glennpittman7325]

@@FactsVerse blowin in the wind.

[@beerybill]

Which one was busted for messing around with a 14-year-old and pardoned by Carter?

[@twatmunro]

So, Kiddy Fiddler, Paul and Mary?

[@allanbriggs9007]

For goodness sake. In the 60's & 70's pop groups and underage girls were a common "issue". Usually a blind eye was turned. (rightly or wrongly) Nothing to do with "Kiddy Fiddler" which has quite a different meaning.

[@David53D]

In their final years Mary had become the oppressive elite intolerant they had became famous for singing about Peter became a convicted sex offender and Paul, well I don't know about him.

[@FactsVerse]

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[@sandramorey2529]

I was never a fan. I was singng traditional songs and rounds & ballads which I found on obscure recordings & books in my college library in the late 1950's. Before PP&M, the Kingston Trio was put together for the same reasons PP&M were and I hated them. I was listening and learning from Jean Ritchie, Oscar Brand, Pete Seeger and the Weavers, Harry Belefante & many others who, unlike them, were not as popular widely. But I do agree that these trios had a place because of the Music Industry. It is and always has been a business and about making money. As I grew older, I began to appreciate that they used good songs & had good, progressive values. I think of them as Pop stylists, who changed words or music so it fitted a more pop audience. I have always remained with artists like Odetta, Ralph Stanley, Jeanne Redpath, Peggy Seeger, Ewan MacCall, The Watersons, the Carter Family, Cynthia Gooding, Sam Hinton and the slack key guitarist/singers of Hawaii.

[@allanbriggs9007]

So, you were a fan of Pete Seeger but not of PP&M. I can't understand that, unless you think popularity, in itself, is a problem. Dylan, PP&M, The Byrds, and Fairport Convention, Pentangle and Steeleye Span (in England) really popularised folk and/or protest music. That was a good thing. That music set a tone for our family's moral & ethical code. (and many other families). Great music.

[@lkmsl]

😴

[@FactsVerse]

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[@philipbuckley759]

as usual....way too much non essential information.....The trio broke up in 1970 to pursue solo careers.

[@alg11297]

So they were the creation of a schrewd producer and their "activism" was in futherance of money. With no one interested in folk music anymore its no wonder they broke up.

[@FactsVerse]

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[@davidanthonystone5165]

They were together through the years to packed house The harmony was just fantastic

[@walterellman3246]

Please My Friends! Turn To Christ! Please My Friends! Please! John 3:16

[@mrbill9248]

Truth is Peter was screwin Paul and Paul was screwin Mary . It became madness on the road .

[@FactsVerse]

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