LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥� Peter Yarrow, best known as one-third of Peter, Paul and Mary, the folk-music trio whose impassioned harmonies transfixed millions as they lifted their voices in favor of civil rights and against war, has died. He was 86.
Yarrow, who also co-wrote the group's most enduring song, 鈥淧uff the Magic Dragon,鈥� died Tuesday in New York, publicist Ken Sunshine said. Yarrow had bladder cancer for the past four years.
鈥淥ur fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life. 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,鈥� his daughter Bethany said in a statement.
During an incredible run of success spanning the 1960s, Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey and Mary Travers released six Billboard Top 10 singles, two No. 1 albums and won five Grammys.
They also brought by turning two of his songs, 鈥淒on't Think Twice, It's All Right鈥� and 鈥淏lowin' in the Wind,鈥� into Billboard Top 10 hits as they helped lead an American renaissance in folk music. They performed 鈥淏lowin鈥� in the Wind鈥� at the at which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous 鈥淚 Have a Dream鈥� speech.
Yarrow played roles onstage and offstage at the iconic when Dylan went electric. Yarrow was on the festival board and emceed the show, begged Dylan to go back on to play another song after his blistering set, a scene captured in the 2024 biopic Dylan took Yarrow's acoustic guitar and played 鈥淚t鈥檚 All Over Now, Baby Blue.鈥�
After an eight-year hiatus to pursue solo careers, the trio reunited in 1978 for a 鈥淪urvival Sunday,鈥� an anti-nuclear-power concert that Yarrow had organized in Los Angeles. They would remain together until Travers' death in 2009. Yarrow and Stookey continued to perform both separately and together.
After recording their last No. 1 hit, a 1969 cover of John Denver鈥檚 鈥淟eaving on a Jet Plane,鈥� the trio split up the following year to pursue solo careers.
That same year Yarrow had pleaded guilty to taking indecent liberties with a 14-year-old girl who had come to his hotel room with her older sister to ask for autographs. The pair found him naked when he answered the door and let them in. Yarrow, who resumed his career after serving three months in jail, was pardoned by in 1981. Over the decades, he apologized repeatedly.
鈥淚 fully support the current movements demanding equal rights for all and refusing to allow continued abuse and injury 鈥� most particularly of a sexual nature, of which I am, with great sorrow, guilty,鈥� he told The New York Times in 2019 after being
Born May 31, 1938, in New York, Yarrow was raised in an upper middle class family he said placed high value on art and scholarship. He took violin lessons as a child, later switching to guitar as he came to embrace the work of such folk-music icons as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger.
Upon graduating from Cornell University in 1959, he returned to New York, where he worked as a struggling Greenwich Village musician until connecting with Stookey and Travers. Although his degree was in psychology, he had found his true calling in folk music at Cornell when he worked as a teaching assistant for a class in American folklore his senior year.
鈥淚 did it for the money because I wanted to wash dishes less and play guitar more,鈥� he told the late record company executive Joe Smith. But as he led the class in song, he began to discover the emotional impact music could have on an audience.
鈥淚 saw these young people at Cornell who were basically very conservative in their backgrounds opening their hearts up and singing with an emotionality and a concern through this vehicle called folk music,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t gave me a clue that the world was on its way to a certain kind of movement, and that folk music might play a part in it and that I might play a part in folk music.鈥�
Soon after returning to New York, he met impresario Albert Grossman, who would go on to manage Dylan, Janis Joplin and others and who at the time was looking to put together a group that would rival the Kingston Trio, which in 1958 had a hit version of the traditional folk ballad 鈥淭om Dooley.鈥�
But Grossman wanted a trio with a female singer and a member who could be funny enough to keep an audience engaged with comic patter. For the latter, Yarrow suggested a guitar-strumming Greenwich Village comic he鈥檇 seen named Noel Stookey.
Stookey, who would use his middle name as a member of the group, happened to be a friend of Travers, who as a teenager had performed and recorded with Pete Seeger and others. Gripped by stage fright, she was reluctant to join the pair at first, changing her mind after she heard how well her contralto voice melded with Yarrow鈥檚 tenor and Stookey鈥檚 baritone.
鈥淲e called Noel up. He was there,鈥� Yarrow said, recalling the first time the three performed together. 鈥淲e mentioned a bunch of folk songs, which he didn鈥檛 know because he didn鈥檛 have a real folk-music background, and wound up singing 鈥楳ary Had a Little Lamb.鈥� And it was immediately great, was just as clear as a bell, and we started working.鈥�
After months of rehearsal the three became an overnight sensation when their first album, 1962鈥檚 eponymous 鈥淧eter, Paul and Mary,鈥� reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart. Their second, 鈥淚n the Wind,鈥� reached No. 4 and their third, 鈥淢oving,鈥� put them back at No. 1.
From their earliest albums, the trio sang out against war and injustice in songs like Seeger鈥檚 鈥淚f I Had a Hammer鈥� and 鈥淲here Have all the Flowers Gone,鈥� Dylan鈥檚 鈥淏lowin鈥� in the Wind鈥� and 鈥淲hen the Ship Comes In鈥� and Yarrow鈥檚 own 鈥淒ay is Done.鈥�
They could also show a soft and poignant side, particularly on 鈥淧uff the Magic Dragon,鈥� which Yarrow had written during his Cornell years with college friend Leonard Lipton.
It tells the tale of Jackie Paper, a young boy who embarks on countless adventures with his make-believe dragon friend until he outgrows such childhood fantasies and leaves a sobbing, heartbroken Puff behind. As Yarrow explains: 鈥淎 dragon lives forever, but not so little boys.鈥�
Some insisted they heard drug references in the song, a contention at the heart of a famous scene in the film 鈥淢eet the Parents,鈥� when Ben Stiller angers his girlfriend鈥檚 tightly wound father (Robert De Niro) by saying 鈥減uff鈥� refers to marijuana smoke. Yarrow maintained it reflected the loss of childhood innocence and nothing more.
Over the years, Yarrow continued to write and co-write songs, including the 1976 hit 鈥淭orn Between Two Lovers鈥� for Mary MacGregor. He received an Emmy nomination in 1979 for the animated film 鈥淧uff the Magic Dragon.鈥�
Later songs include the civil rights anthem 鈥淣o Easy Walk to Freedom,鈥� co-written with Margery Tabankin, and 鈥淟ight One Candle,鈥� calling for peace in Lebanon.
Yarrow, who with Travers and Stookey had supported Democratic Sen. Eugene McCarthy鈥檚 1968 presidential bid, met the Minnesota senator鈥檚 niece, Mary Beth McCarthy, at a campaign event. The couple married the following year. They had two children before divorcing. They remarried in 2022.
In addition to his wife and daughter, he is survived by a son, Christopher, and a granddaughter, Valentina.
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AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy contributed reporting from New York. Rogers, the principal writer of this obituary, retired from The Associated Press in 2021.
John Rogers, The Associated Press
