For popular music to hit the heart and stay there, people have to hear the words. Eric Clapton figured that out with "Tears in Heaven," when he turned off the fuzz and distortion and moved the world to tears. Bob Dylan knew it, forgot it for a couple of electric albums, then remembered it again.
But Peter, Paul and Mary? They've known it all along. And Thursday night at Abravanel Hall as the trio ran out stage holding hands, the audience remembered, too. "The words don't get in the way."Words are the way.
True, the times have been changin' for PP&M. The boys have lost hair, Mary's gained weight, but inside - where the meanings are - they haven't changed. They're still reaching out. Their songs are still topical, though the topics these days are more spiritual and emotional than social and political. In an interview earlier in the week Noel Paul Stookey said this would be a '90s show - no flowers behind the ears. And it was. There's was more new material than old material.
Of course some old favorites had to put in an appearance - or else people would burn the hall down. And "Puff the Magic Dragon," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" "If I Had a Hammer" and "Leavin' on a Jet Plane" showed up with all their verses intact. But it was the new stuff that caught the ear.
Mary's poignant look at tolerance in "Home is Where the Heart Is" and an original song each about love from Peter and Paul were the true defining moments of the show.
Stookey said the crowds on tour had been cutting across all ages and incomes. That was true Thursday. The audience looked like a church congregation with young, old, poor and wealthy side by side. And the threesome on stage made the most of it by relaxing into a coffee house atmosphere.
It was the Bitter End, 1963. Peter proposed to a woman in the audience on behalf of her boyfriend, Mary told tales about her grandchildren asking if she really helped free the slaves. Paul, more a of philosopher-jester than philospher-king, had a lot to sing and say about spiritual matters. (His daughter, who was there, is currently touring the country writing up the religious experiences of ordinary people.) As a former stand-up comedian, Stookey also got some belly-laughs on "There Was an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly" when he slowly - to the amazement of the crowd and his buddy Peter - evolved into Elvis.
There was an instrumental or two with bassist Dick Kniss (who played with the three of them 33 years ago at Lagoon). Dylan's "Don't Think Twice" was scrapped in favor of a tightly harmonized version of Dylan's "It Ain't Me, Babe." Woody Guthrie had a couple of numbers in the show, including "This Land Is Your Land." Then the trio brought things home with the clincher: "Blowin' in the Wind."
A few roses, some handshakes, a couple of gulps of water and they were gone.
In the end, popular music is not like fashion. In fashion even the junk comes back into vogue. But in music only the good stuff gets another shot. And the folk music boom of the '60s was one of the healthiest and meatiest moments in American music.
Because they did it right the first time, Peter, Paul and Mary - probably looking and feeling like their own parents did in the '60s - are getting another shot.
And they're making the most of it.