Folk singer Mary Travers died yesterday from leukemia at age 72. Peter, Paul and Mary should not have been at all my thing: a group of completely earnest folk icons of the ’60s is probably as close to the opposite of my usual taste as is possible. But there was always something entrancing about Travers, who was anything but the sterotype of the wan-voiced, waifish folkie: she was a stunning blond with a freight train of a voice.
I know this isn’t exactly a TV story, but the beauty of a TV blog is that it’s about everything. And last season Mad Men used Peter, Paul and Mary’s “Early in the Morning” to gorgeous effect, closing out the episode “A Night to Remember.” Here’s a clip of them performing it on TV. (The show, I believe from the similarity to the set in this clip, is from the BBC’s Tonight in Person—correct me if you know otherwise.) Her harmonies give me chills every time:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE8NSvD7LSE]