Peter Yarrow | |
|---|---|
_2.JPG) Yarrow in 1970 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | (1938-05-31)May 31, 1938 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | January 7, 2025(2025-01-07) (aged 86) New York City, U.S. |
| Genres | Folk |
| Occupations |
|
| Instruments |
|
| Years active | 1950s–2024 |
| Formerly of |
|
| Signature | |
 | |
Peter Yarrow (May 31, 1938 – January 7, 2025) was an American singer and songwriter who found fame as a member of the 1960sfolk trioPeter, Paul and Mary along withPaul Stookey andMary Travers.
Born inManhattan in 1938, he attended New York'sHigh School of Music and Art as a teenager and was then accepted atCornell University. During his last year at Cornell in 1959, he began his music career as a student guitar instructor there, and after graduating, met the manager and impresiaroAlbert Grossman. Grossman's idea of a musical trio eventually led to Yarrow forming a folk band with Stookey and Travers.
Peter, Paul and Mary's early hits included "Lemon Tree" and "If I Had a Hammer", which was followed by theirself-titled debut studio album in 1962. Yarrow co-wrote (withLenny Lipton) one of the group's best known hits, "Puff, the Magic Dragon" (1963). He was also involved in thecivil rights movement, performing for theMarch on Washington andSelma to Montgomery marches.
In 1970, Yarrow was convicted of sexually molesting 14-year-old Barbara Winter, and sentenced to "one-to-three years" imprisonment, of which he only served three months after the term was suspended. He further received afederal pardon by presidentJimmy Carter in 1981. Initially claiming that the act was consensual, Yarrow later apologized for the incident. Other allegations of sexual assault were made against him in 2021.
Yarrow pursued a solo career in the 1970s, releasing his debut albumPeter in 1972. He received awards for his continued activism. In the 2000s, he engaged in anti-bullying efforts in schools, for which helped startOperation Respect. He died at hisUpper West Side apartment at the age of 86.
Peter Yarrow was born inManhattan on May 31, 1938, the son of Vera Wisebrode (née Vira Burtakoff) and Bernard Yarrow. His parents were educatedUkrainian Jewish immigrants whose families had settled inProvidence, Rhode Island.[1]
Bernard Yarrow (1899–1973) attended theJagiellonian University (Kraków) and theOdesa University (Odesa) before emigrating to the United States in 1922 at age 23.[2] He anglicized his surname from Yaroshevitz to Yarrow, obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in 1925 fromColumbia University, where he joinedPhi Sigma Delta fraternity,[3] and graduated fromColumbia Law School in 1928. He then maintained a private law practice in New York City until 1938, when he was appointed an assistant district attorney underThomas E. Dewey. He was recruited into theOffice of Strategic Services, where he served with distinction, in 1944.[4]
After the war, Bernard joinedSullivan & Cromwell, theDullesbrothers' law firm.[5] He was a founding board member of theNational Committee for a Free Europe, an anti-Communist organization. He became a senior vice-president of theCIA-fundedRadio Free Europe, an organization he helped found, in 1952.[6]
Yarrow's mother, Vera (1904–1991), who had come to the United States at the age of three, became a speech and drama teacher at New York City'sJulia Richman Education Complex for girls. She and Bernard divorced in 1943, when Peter was five. Vera subsequently married Harold Wisebrode, the executive director of theCentral Synagogue inManhattan.[7] Bernard married his wartime London OSS partner Silvia Tim and converted to Protestantism.[8]
Peter spent the summers of 1951 and 1952 atInterlochen's Music camp. He graduated second in his class among male students from New York City'sHigh School of Music and Art, where he had studied painting and received a physics prize. He was accepted atCornell University, where he began as a physics major but soon switched topsychology, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1959.[1] Among his Cornell classmates wereLenny Lipton[9] andRichard Fariña.[10]
Yarrow began singing in public during his last year at Cornell while participating inHarold Thompson's popular American Folk Literature course, colloquially known on campus as "Romp-n-Stomp". The course was "a highlight of late-1950s student life at Cornell," Yarrow later recalled, and singing and guitar-playing skills were prerequisites for enrollment.[11] Thompson would lecture on a given topic for 20 or 30 minutes and afterwards a student would sing songs related to his theme. Yarrow served as a student instructor for the class and was paid a stipend of $500 (equivalent to about 20% of his tuition fees), leading students in the songs.[12] These included traditional folk songs andmurder ballads,Dust Bowl songs made popular byWoody Guthrie, and songs associated with thecivil rights movement.[11]
Upon graduation, Yarrow played in New York City folk clubs, appeared on the CBS television showFolk Sound USA, and performed at theNewport Folk Festival, where he met manager and musical impresarioAlbert Grossman.[13] One day, the two were atIsrael Young's Folklore Center inGreenwich Village discussing Grossman's idea for a new group that would be "an updated version ofthe Weavers for the baby-boom generation ... with the crossover appeal ofThe Kingston Trio." Yarrow noticed a picture ofMary Travers on the wall and asked Grossman who she was. "That's Mary Travers," Grossman said. "She'd be good if you could get her to work."[14] The lanky, blonde Kentucky-born Travers was well connected in Greenwich Village folk circles. While still a student at the progressiveElizabeth Irwin High School, she had been selected by Elizabeth Irwin's chorus leader,Robert De Cormier, to join "The Song Swappers" trio in backing upPete Seeger in the 1955Folkways LP reissue of The Almanac Singers'Talking Union and two other albums. In addition to performing twice with Seeger at Carnegie Hall, Travers had performed the role of a folksinger inThe Next President, a short-lived Broadway play, starring satiristMort Sahl, but she was known to be painfully introverted and loath to sing professionally.[15]
To draw Travers out, Yarrow went to her apartment onMacDougal Street, across fromThe Gaslight Cafe, one of the principal folk clubs. They harmonized on 'Miner's Lifeguard,' a union song, and decided that their voices blended well. To fill out the trio, Travers suggested Noel Stookey, a friend doing folk music and stand-up comedy at the Gaslight. They chose the catchy "Peter, Paul and Mary" as the name for their group, sinceNoel Stookey's middle name was Paul, and rehearsed intensively for six months, touring outside New York before debuting in 1961 as a polished act atThe Bitter End nightclub in Greenwich Village. There, the singers quickly developed a following and signed a contract withWarner Bros.[15]
Warner released Peter, Paul and Mary's "Lemon Tree" as a single in early 1962.[16] The trio then released "If I Had a Hammer", a 1949 song byPete Seeger andLee Hays, written to protest the imprisonment of Harlem City CouncilmanBenjamin J. Davis Jr. under theSmith Act. "If I had a Hammer" garnered two Grammy Awards in 1962. The trio's first album, the eponymousPeter, Paul & Mary, remained in the Top 10 for ten months and in the Top 20 for two years; it sold more than two million copies. The group toured extensively and recorded numerous albums, both live and in the studio.[17][18]
In June 1963, Peter, Paul and Mary released a 7" single of "Blowin' in the Wind" by the then-relatively unknownBob Dylan, who was also managed by Grossman. "Blowin' in the Wind" sold 300,000 copies in the first week of release; by August 17, it was number two on the Billboard pop chart, with sales exceeding one million copies. Yarrow recalled that when he told Dylan he would make more than $5,000 (equivalent to $51,000 in 2024[19]) from the publishing rights, Dylan was speechless.[20] On August 28, 1963, Peter, Paul and Mary appeared on stage with the ReverendMartin Luther King Jr. at his historicMarch on Washington where their performance of "Blowin' in the Wind" established it as a civil rights anthem.[21] Their version also spent weeks onBillboard's easy listening chart. By 1964 the 26-year-old Yarrow had joined the Board of the Newport Folk Festival, where he had performed as an unknown just four years earlier.[22]
Yarrow's songwriting helped to create some of Peter, Paul and Mary's best-known songs, including "Puff, the Magic Dragon", "Day Is Done", "Light One Candle", and "The Great Mandala". As a member of the trio, he earned a 1996Emmy nomination for theGreat Performances specialLifeLines Live, a highly acclaimed celebration of folk music, with their musical mentors, contemporaries, and a new generation of singer-songwriters.[23]
Yarrow was instrumental in founding the New Folks Concert series at both theNewport Folk Festival and theKerrville Folk Festival.[24] His work at Kerrville has been called his "most important achievement in this arena".[25]
Yarrow co-wrote and produced "Torn Between Two Lovers", a number one hit forMary MacGregor. He also produced threeCBS TV specials based on "Puff the Magic Dragon", which earned anEmmy nomination for him. In 1978 Yarrow organized Survival Sunday, an antinuclear benefit, and after a period of separation, he was once again joined by Stookey and Travers.[26]
Yarrow and his daughter, Bethany Yarrow, often performed together. Together with cellistRufus Cappadocia, they formed the trio Peter, Bethany, and Rufus.[27] They released the CDPuff & Other Family Classics. In 2008, the musical specialPeter, Bethany & Rufus: Spirit of Woodstock, featuring a live performance of the band, aired onpublic television.[28]
Yarrow portrayed leftist intellectual Ira Mandelstam in the 2015 filmWhile We're Young.[29] In the 2024 Bob DylanbiopicA Complete Unknown, Yarrow is portrayed by Nick Pupo.[30]
In 1970, Yarrow was convicted of taking "immoral and improper liberties" with 14-year-old Barbara Winter. The incident occurred on August 31, 1969, when Winter and her 17-year-old sister, Kathie Berkel, visited Yarrow's room at theShoreham Hotel inWashington, D.C., seeking an autograph. According to Winter's sworn testimony, Yarrowanswered the door naked and made hermanually stimulate him until he ejaculated. During his sentencing hearing in September 1970, Yarrow asserted that the act was consensual, but Winter has repeatedly denied this claim. Yarrow's attorney further argued that "the sisters were 'groupies' whom he defined as young women and girls who deliberately provoke sexual relationships with music stars".[31]
The judge sentenced Yarrow to "one-to-three years" imprisonment, but suspended the term except for three months.[31] Yarrow later expressed regret for the incident, stating: "It was an era of real indiscretion and mistakes by categorically male performers. I was one of them. I got nailed. I was wrong. I'm sorry for it."[32]
Yarrow was granted a presidential pardon byJimmy Carter on January 19, 1981, the day before Carter's presidency ended.[31][32][33] For decades, Yarrow avoided mention of the conviction, but in the early 2000s, it became a campaign issue for politicians he supported.[34][35][36] In 2004, U.S. RepresentativeMartin Frost of Texas, a Democrat, canceled a fundraising appearance with Yarrow after his opponent aired a radio advertisement about Yarrow's offense.[34] Similar calls from Republicans urged Democratic candidate Martha Robertson to cancel a fundraiser with Yarrow in 2013.[35][37] In 2019, Yarrow was disinvited from the Colorscape Arts Festival inChenango County, New York, when the organizers became aware of his conviction.[38]
In 2021,The Washington Post revealed additional allegations of sexual assault made against Yarrow, including the allegedrape of a teenage girl in the same year that he assaulted Winter.[31]
Yarrow had long been an activist for social and political causes. What he did was not always popular. According toThe New York Times:
As their fame grew, Peter, Paul and Mary mixed music with political and social activism. The trio marched withMartin Luther King Jr. inWashington, D.C., in 1963 and inSelma, Alabama, in 1965. The three participated in countless demonstrations against the war in Vietnam. They sang at the 1969 March on Washington, which Mr. Yarrow helped to organize. Though their activism provoked a steady stream of death threats, they were never harmed. "But for years, I used to bite my fingernails on stage," [Mary] Travers says. "There you are and look like the back porch light, and stare out at 12,000 or 15,000 people. Any one of whom could have had a gun."[39]
In 2000, in an effort to combat school bullying, Yarrow helped start Operation Respect,[40] a nonprofit organization that brings to children, in schools and camps, a curriculum of tolerance and respect for each other's differences. The project began as a result of Yarrow and his daughter Bethany and his son Christopher having heard the song "Don't Laugh at Me" (written bySteve Seskin andAllen Shamblin) at the Kerrville Folk Festival.[41][42][43]
In March 2008, Yarrow toldReuters:
Operation Respect has been my main and all-consuming work for the past 10 years. My perception is that the kind of bullying, humiliation that goes on in children's schools leads to high rates ofdepression that was virtually unknown when I was young and the highsuicide rate of teenagers which we know is almost inevitably caused by bullying or mean-spiritedness. It is a reflection of the role models that young people observe on TV shows like a lot of the reality shows. It is also part and parcel of the characteristics in the adult world of America.[44]
Yarrow's leadership in the campaign to freeSoviet Jewry inspired another generation. Of the song "Light One Candle", Rabbi Allison Bergman Vann wrote:
Peter Yarrow's now famous song, which was written in 1983, became a defining song for my generation of high school and college students to become activists, to make the world a better place. I heard Peter Yarrow singing that song on the steps of the Capitol, in 1987, twenty years ago next week, during the march to free Soviet Jews. Listening to him sing, surrounded by literally thousands of like-minded individuals, I learned of my obligation to change the world; to engage in tikkun olam, repair of our broken world. And, during that incredible day, I knew that we could, indeed, change the world.[45]
Yarrow performed inHo Chi Minh City at a concert to benefit the Vietnam Association of Victims ofAgent Orange in 2005; Yarrow pleaded with theVietnamese for forgiveness of the United States.[46]
Yarrow served on the board of directors of the Connecticut Hospice.[25][47]
Yarrow performed across New York City for volunteers who worked for thepresidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama on November 1, 2008.[48]
Yarrow, his son and his daughter made an appearance atZuccotti Park during theOccupy Wall Street protests on October 3, 2011, playing songs such as "We Shall Not Be Moved" and a variation of "Puff the Magic Dragon".[49][50]
Yarrow was a member ofBraver Angels.[51]
Yarrow cited Judaism as one of the roots of hisliberal views.[52] To him, "Jewishness means to live according to justice and that's a burden, it means we have to form our own set of morality and values and live by them."[53]
While campaigning for 1968 presidential candidateEugene McCarthy, Yarrow met McCarthy's niece, Mary Beth McCarthy, inWisconsin. He was 31 at the time and she was 20.[54][55] They were married in October 1969[52] inWillmar, Minnesota. Paul Stookey wrote "Wedding Song (There Is Love)" as his gift for their wedding and first performed it at St. Mary's Church in Willmar. Yarrow and McCarthy had two children, daughter Bethany and son Christopher.[56][57] They later divorced in 1981.[58][59] They remarried in 2022 and were together until his death in 2025.[58][56][60]
Yarrow'sLarrivée acoustic guitar was stolen on an airplane flight in December 2000. Fans spotted the guitar oneBay in early 2005. TheFBI recovered it inSunny Isles Beach, Florida and returned it to Yarrow. He did not press charges since the person it was recovered from was not the person who had stolen it.[61]
Yarrow acknowledged being an alcoholic and sought treatment for the disease. He considered himself in recovery.[62]
A longtime resident of New York City, Yarrow had also owned a vacation home inTelluride, Colorado. His son Christopher is a visual artist who, in the late 2000s, owned an emporium inPortland, Oregon called The Monkey & The Rat.[63]
Yarrow died frombladder cancer at hisUpper West Side apartment, on January 7, 2025, after a month in hospice care. He was 86, and was diagnosed with the illness four years prior.[1]
Yarrow received theAllard K. Lowenstein Award in 1982 for his "remarkable efforts in advancing the causes of human rights, peace, and freedom".[64] In 1995 the Miami Jewish Federation recognized Yarrow's continual efforts by awarding itsTikkun olam Award for his part in helping to "repair the world".[64][65]
Yarrow was awarded the Kate Wolf Memorial Award by theWorld Folk Music Association in 1993.[66]
In 2003 a congressional resolution recognized Yarrow's achievements and those of Operation Respect.[52][67]
Yarrow spent parts of several days in the final run up to the election at the Obama phone banks, singing for the workers and giving them a historical perspective on what they were doing. "In a way, this is a continuation of the march on Washington in 1963, when Peter, Paul and Mary performed," he said.
This afternoon, Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul and Mary set up on a makeshift bandstand and played a set with some friends, serenading the occupiers with "Puff, the Magic Dragon", "If I Had a Hammer", and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?"
One example: the arrival Monday of a grinning, white-haired Peter Yarrow, who mined antiquities from his Peter, Paul and Mary songbook, including the civil-rights anthem "We Shall Not Be Moved".
