Farewell to a wonderful singer

One of the first concerts I ever saw was Peter, Paul and Mary performing in January 1968 at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.

I took the lovely Cheryl Newman, who I was far more interested in than the music itself, but I still remember the incredible voice of Mary Travers. So many of the songs she sang as part of PP&M's soaring three-part harmony were about peace in the world.

It was an amazing decade for what were known as "protest songs." Singers ranged from Peter, Paul and Mary and the Kingston Trio to Bob DylanBob Dylan and Phil Ochs, and the messages ranged from the sublime (songs like "Where Have All the Flowers Gone") to the hilarious (Ochs' "Love Me I'm a Liberal").

It was a decade when we really believed we would change the world, and in some ways we succeeded. At the beginning of the '60s, black people couldn't even vote in many Southern states. By the end, hundreds of thousands of Americans were protesting against the war in Vietnam.

At the beginning of the decade, President Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. Eisenhower warned America of the dangers of what he called the "military-industrial complex." Later we would learn about Dow Chemical and napalm and about the intricate system of campaign contributions that kept legislators in both parties on the side of more and more military spending.

In the end, of course, we couldn't really change the world. Military spending is greater than ever before, to the point where the United States spends more money on its military than almost all the other advanced nations combined. Because American military might made it easier for American economic might to hold sway around the world.

The world changed us.

Dylan stopped writing protest songs, and Ochs died in the mid '70s as a complete burnout. Peter, Paul and Mary kept singing, kept performing. They protested against nuclear energy and they sang for peace in Central America. Almost alone among the '60s folksingers, they kept fighting for peace and social justice until Mary Travers died this week from leukemia.

They would never have called themselves "liberals." Liberals were people, according to Ochs' song, who were all in favor of social justice unless it affected them personally.

They were radicals in the tradition of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and proud of it.

It has been more than 40 years since I dated the lovely Miss Newman, but I still remember that concert.

Rest in peace, Mary Travers.