Last night, September 16th, Mary Travers of the 1960s folk revival powerhouse, Peter, Paul & Mary lost her long battle with Leukemia. She was 72 and passed away near her Connecticut home. Travers possessed one of the most distinctive female voices of the 1960s. Sometimes you couldn’t tell Peter Yarrow and Paul Stookey’s vocals apart, but you always heard Mary. She not only added sex appeal to the ’60 folk movement (Joan Baez didn’t hurt either), but her voice sweetened the three-part harmony that made her group famous.

Their interpretations of other people’s songs; “Blowing In The Wind” (Dylan), “Early Morning Rain” (Lightfoot), “If I Had A Hammer” (Seger) and the #1 pop smash “Leaving On A Jet Plane” (Denver) defined folk music in the 1960s. Their original songs, such as “Stewball”, “Day Is Done” and “Puff The Magic Dragon” have become folk standards. Generally praised for remaining more “true” to the folk movement than many of their contemporaries (Dylan), Peter, Paul & Mary still managed to sell millions of records for Warner Brothers. They were also not above a sonic “poke” at their peers. In the Paul Stookey original, “I Dig Rock And Roll Music”, the group shows that they can sing in any style and even make fun of The Mamas & The Papas and Donovan while doing so.

Peter, Paul & Mary were also passionate civil rights activists, having participated in the 1963 March On Washington, where they sang “Blowing In The Wind” and “If I Had A Hammer”.

Mary’s lead vocal on the classic “500 Miles” gets me every time. I can hear the sorrow and the longing in her voice. You can tell that songs touched her very deeply and she projected that depth in her desire just to be “home” and safe.

The real topper though will always be “Leaving On A Jet Plane”. John Denver wrote one amazing tune, but it was Mary Travers’ lead that made that song an instant classic. I remember being introduced to that song while at summer camp in VT when I was seven years old. All the girls from the girls’ side of the lake would gather around the campfire and sing “Jet Plane”. Needless to say, that sound and image have remained in my mind ever since. The music of Peter, Paul & Mary is dyed in the fabric of American Popular Music and it’s always sad when we loose someone special. Mary Travers was someone very special. Rest in peace, Mary. I hope you made your connection and got to where you were going.

-Matt The Cat

PS- Dig this great clip of Peter, Paul & Mary performing “Leaving On A Jet Plane” with the song’s author, John Denver in 1969, the year it topped the charts.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90Ucr9fxTGc]

…Remind Me Of You

Summer

Obit

Tribute Show

This week, The Friday Night Cat Fight Podcast focuses on those who left us during the past couple of months. I’ve prepared little 2 song tributes to Billy Lee Riley, Johnny Carter, Sam Butera, Koko Taylor, Ellie Greenwich and Les Paul. You can read my written obits for all these great artist by clicking on my “Prowlin’ With Matt The Cat” Blog.

Since we’re saying goodbye to some “oldies but goodies”, I decided to feature the classic tune from 1961 as this week’s Cat Fight. Please decide whether you’re in the West Coast camp with Little Caesar & The Romans or the East Coast brigade with Nino & The Ebb Tides and then vote at FridayNightCatFight.com.

Tenor Johnny Carter was inducted into the Rock n’ Roll Hall Of Fame twice. He was a member of two of the most important rhythm & blues groups of all time; The Flamingos and The Dells and both groups rightfully grace the storied Hall.

John Edward Carter was raised on Chicago’s South Side and that’s where he met Jake and Zeke Carey and along with Paul Wilson and Earl Lewis formed The Flamingos back in 1952. The Careys had just relocated from Baltimore and the new group decided to call themselves The Swallows. They quickly changed their name when they learned of another group using the same name (King Recording artists). Looking to choose another bird name (bird names were all the rage with every young R&B; group wanting to sound like The Orioles or The Ravens), they settled on The Flamingos.

Lewis was soon replaced by the amazing Sollie McElroy and the group was off and running, recording for the Chance label. Our boy, Johnny Carter wrote the classic doo wop tune, “Golden Teardrops” and his tenor voice echoes in the background as Sollie McElroy handles the lead. “Golden Teardrops” is considered by many to be doo wop at its finest. It just might be “the perfect record”. It was the Flamingos third release for Chance Records. Johnny Carter sang lead on only a few tunes and for my money, you can’t beat his voice on “Listen To My Plea” from 1954.

Chance was not capable of giving the group the success that they so rightfully deserved and so they left the label in late 1954 and signed to Chicago disc jockey, Al Benson’s Parrot label. They also had a new member as Sollie McElroy departed and was replaced by Nate Nelson. Nelson and Carter sang together on their last release for Parrot, their version of the much covered “Ko Ko Mo”.

The Flamingos signed with Chess Records’ subsidiary, Checker and in February of 1956 scored the hit they’d been waiting for when “I’ll Be Home” shot to #5 on the Billboard R&B; Charts. In late 1956, Johnny Carter was called up for military duty and left the group. When he was released from service in 1958, he returned home only to find that he had been replaced in The Flamingos by Terry Johnson. In 1960, he joined another great Chicago group, The Dells. They had just lost Johnny Funches on lead tenor and the sweet voice of Johnny Carter fit right in.

Carter toured and recorded with The Dells for almost fifty years and enjoyed their great success in the late 1960s with chart-topping remakes of “Stay In My Corner” and “Oh, What A Night”. He only recently took a leave from the group when his cancer was diagnosed during the summer of 2008.

Johnny Carter, one of the greatest R&B; tenors of all-time passed away late Thursday, August 20th, 2009 of lung cancer. He was 74 and the last living member of the Flamingos’ original line-up.