Peter Yarrow, an icon of the '60s folk explosion best known for his guitar, vocal, and songwriting contributions to the era-defining trio, Peter, Paul & Mary, has died at the age of 86, his publicist confirmed. He had been suffering from bladder cancer.
“Our fearless dragon is tired and has entered the last chapter of his magnificent life,” Yarrow's daughter, Bethany, said in a statement. “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.”
As one-third of Peter, Paul & Mary – alongside Paul Stookey and the late Mary Travers – Peter Yarrow was a huge figure in the '60s folk scene that produced the likes of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.
Through songs like Puff the Magic Dragon – which Yarrow co-wrote with his college friend, Leonard Lipton – alongside renditions of folk standards of the past, such as If I Had a Hammer, and the future (Bob Dylan tunes like Blowin' in the Wind), Peter, Paul, & Mary deftly walked a tightrope between commercial accessibility and strident political activism.
The trio, which came together in 1961, were rewarded with a remarkable run of commercial success – two chart-topping albums, a number of Top 10 hits, and millions of albums sold in total.
Aside from their commercial success, Peter, Paul & Mary had tremendous cultural impact.
Their third album, In the Wind, contained three songs by a then-mostly-unknown Bob Dylan. Two of those covers, Blowin' in the Wind and Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, became hits for the trio, and helped establish Dylan in the public eye as a songwriter to be reckoned with.
Alongside other folk stars of the day, like Dylan and Joan Baez, Peter, Paul & Mary were active in the civil rights movement, performing at the 1963 March on Washington, at which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
Activism remained a constant throughout Yarrow's life and career. His anti-war original, Day Is Done, was one of the group's last hits before their dissolution in 1970.
On his own, Yarrow remained a consistent progressive voice and prolific musician, releasing four solo albums from the early- through mid-'70s.
It was in that decade, though, that Yarrow's career was permanently tainted by his conviction on, and guilty plea to, charges of taking “immoral and improper liberties” with a minor.
Though Yarrow was later pardoned by President Jimmy Carter after serving three months in prison the decade before, further accusations of sexual impropriety towards minors would be levied at Yarrow over the years.
In 2019, Yarrow admitted to committing acts of sexual abuse over the course of his career, writing in a statement, “I fully support the current movements demanding equal rights for all and refusing to allow continued abuse and injury – most particularly of a sexual nature, of which I am, with great sorrow, guilty.”
Nevertheless, Yarrow cast a large shadow in folk circles for the rest of his life, both with Peter, Paul & Mary – who reformed in the late '70s and remained together until Travers' death in 2009 – and in his own right.
In a tribute to Yarrow, Paul Stookey said, “I was five months older than Peter – who became my 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 – and I shall deeply miss both of him.”
In a message to Yarrow recorded shortly before the artist's death, Jared Polis, the Governor of Colorado, said, “Peter, you've been an inspiration to so many, and will continue to be for centuries, for millennia, to come. You are magic, and everything that you've touched has become magic as well.”
