Peter, Paul & Mary: Carry It On - Disc 1 of 4 CD Track Listing

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Peter, Paul & Mary Carry It On - Disc 1 of 4 (2004)
Originally Released February 24, 2004\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Peter, Paul & Mary's multi-decade career is for the most part well summarized, and certainly extremely well packaged, on this four-CD, 90-track box set. As with many such boxes, there's too much on here if you're not a devoted fan, and too much in particular from their post-early-'70s recordings, which take up all of disc four. But it does, of course, have all of their '60s hits, along with many of their better album tracks. Not all of those album tracks are good, but at the very least these show their willingness to take on an extraordinarily wide range of material, from traditional folk songs and children's tunes to covers of emerging songwriters like Bob Dylan, Fred Neil, Laura Nyro, John Denver, Gordon Lightfoot, and Tom Paxton, sometimes venturing into soft folk-rock. You could, in fact, make something of a secondary greatest-hits CD from the best of those tracks that would be almost as good as their actual greatest-hits CD, some of those standout songs being Nyro's "And When I Die" (released in mid-1966, when Nyro was virtually unknown), "Early in the Morning," "500 Miles," "The Song Is Love," Rev. Gary Davis' "If I Had My Way," Pete Seeger's "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," "Because All Men Are Brothers" (recorded with Dave Brubeck), and Ewan MacColl's "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." Others, unfortunately, are only likely to be appreciated by completists, like Noel Paul Stookey's long comedy routine "Paultalk." As far as the kind of rarities routinely thrown on box sets to entice collectors, there are a fair number, most of them worth hearing, though none of them are among their more essential work. These include a previously unreleased cover of Dylan's "When the Ship Comes In," from the 1965 Newport Folk Festival; a previously unissued version of the traditional tune "Come and Go With Me," recorded live at the White House in 1964; a single-only 1966 version of "The Cruel War," with strings; "Il Faut Qu'il Vienne le Temps (If I Were Free)," from a French EP; the single version of "Hurry Sundown," minus the horn overdubs of the LP version; three tracks from a 1967 Japanese live album; the live single version of "Day Is Done"; and a few early-'70s solo cuts by Peter Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers, the standout among these being Travers' orchestrated art song-ish "Conscientious Objector (I Shall Die)." There are also four bonus tracks -- placed, annoyingly, as songs that precede the official first songs of each CD, meaning you have to go to the beginning of song one and press the reverse button to access them -- predating the trio's recording deal. None of these are that good, but they have considerable historical interest, including a 1960 audition tape of Travers doing "Single Girl" (to be re-recorded by Peter, Paul & Mary on In Concert a few years later); Yarrow doing "Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?" live in 1958; Noel Stookey & the Corsairs on their 1956 single "Goodbye Baby," where it sounds like they can't decide whether they're playing rock & roll or jazz; and a 1960 tape of Peter, Paul & Mary singing "Canaan Land," recorded at Stookey's apartment. The biggest extra, though, is a bonus DVD disc included with the box, featuring eight songs from various phases of their career. The first five of those clips, spanning 1963-1970, are quite good, including the group singing "If I Had a Hammer" during their famous appearance at the 1963 March on Washington; a 1966 TV clip of "Jane, Jane"; a vibrant 1969 rendition of "If I Had My Way," from The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour; and a 1969 broadcast of "Leaving on a Jet Plane," on which they're joined by the song's author, John Denver. (The three other DVD clips, spanning 1986-2002, are unfortunately not nearly as fun.) The 86-page bound-in booklet is mighty impressive too, jam-packed with vintage photos, historical essays, and appreciative tributes from numerous celebrities, from John Kerry and Bill Cosby to Studs Terkel and Coretta Scott King. ~ Richie Unterberger\n\nAmazon.com Editorial Review\nPeter, Paul and Mary weren't the first folk group to scale the music charts in the early 1960s, but they were far and away the most commercially successful. Carry It On is a four-CD (plus one DVD) box set that gathers all of their hits, along with generous helpings of rarities, B-sides, and previously unreleased songs. Although they had a magical vocal sound, a camera-ready image, and strong songwriting chops of their own, perhaps the trio's greatest strength was their ability to recognize outstanding songs from then-unknown composers. They were the first major group to cover songs by Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot, Laura Nyro, John Denver, and Tom Paxton, which helped introduce the work of these songwriters to a wider audience. Carry It On is a worthy testament to the legendary group that proved you could make a career out of singing songs of social protest, ancient ballads, modern heartbreak, and even magic dragons, as long as you did so with sincerity, humor, and gorgeous three-part harmonies. --Michael John Simmons \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nGood, but omits several Major Songs, August 20, 2004 \nReviewer: Marc Wielage (Northridge, CA USA) - See all my reviews \nIn addition to the other reviews, there's two important things to add: first, the sound quality throughout the CD is very good. However, note that most of them are new mixes done in the 1990s. They're cleaner-sounding than the ones on their 1960s albums, but not necessarily the same sound. \n\nThe bad news is that this collection omits more than a half-dozen major hits, including "Big Boat," "Settle Down (Goin' Down That Highway)," "Tell It On the Mountain," "The Other Side of This Life," "Love City (Postcards to Duluth)," Yarrow's "Don't Ever Take Away My Freedom," and the hit version of "The Other Side of This Life." Given that they had 22 charted U.S. hits (plus another 5 singles as solo performers), those would have easily fit on a single CD. \n\nThe fact that people are having trouble playing the CDs on computers, plus the bit about the "hidden tracks" being hard to access, tells me that not enough thought was put into this collection. There's way too much live stuff for my tastes, though in a 4-disc boxed set, one live disc would've been fine. \n\nIn short, it's a mish-mash. The 3-disc Readers Digest boxed set is not a lot better, and also omits several of the above songs. To me, this is yet another example of a "Best of" collection that purports to give you everything you'd ever want, but falls considerably short. For a $60+ deluxe boxed set, this is inexcusable. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nWho mastered this evil piece of guano? Performance ruined., June 1, 2004 \nReviewer: A music fan (Newton MA USA) \n \nWhat a steaming pile of skit! No, not the performances -- I'm sure they're pretty good. I wish I could hear them. But the boxed set itself is pure evil.\n\nI listen to CDs while using the computer. I use the CD-RW drive to listen to CDs. I even use the CD-RW drive to (gasp! arrest me!) make "car copies" of new CDs, because they get scratched to bits in the minivan. So when this one came in, my wife asked me to immediately make a car copy for her.\n\nMerely inserting this disk into the CD-RW crashes Windows. Poof, just like that. EVEN WITH THE SHIFT KEY DOWN it crashes Windows! The CD drive goes into an endless loop, hanging the system. The eject button is locked and the 3-finger salute is blocked. Nothing but the Reset button can end it.\n\nUsing Linux, I was able, eventually, to play it a little. I was able to make a car copy using k3b in paranoia mode 3 (full error correction). The 48X drive, a Sony that is amazingly good at reading through scratches that other players can't cope with, read the disk at between 1x and 2x. Obviously it was having a lot of trouble reading the disk. This wasn't in "clone" mode, just "normal" mode, yet the car copy was still able to crash Windows same as the original.\n\nIn the car, btw, the disks do not play right -- they play the first track, but don't allow tracks to be normally selected. Car drives are, of course, often based on CD-ROM drives, not cheaper "entertainment" CD drives, so crappy copy-protection hacks that let $49 dormroom stereos play a disk will block performance on car drives and many high-end systems. Note that the boxed set does not contain the "CDDA" marque, which normally ensures playability. But who sees that on Amazon?\n\nI may send this back to Amazon. Time Warner has proven that they are either blazingly incompetent, evil, or both. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nThis review is about the Bonus Tracks, May 12, 2004 \nReviewer: A music fan (Illinois) \nPeter Paul and Mary are my favorite group. I rate their music 5 stars; some people do, some don't. 'Nuff said about that. What I want to address is the bonus tracks. Another review mentions that one must cue them up in a not-obvious way. Let me elaborate on that review: You cue up a bonus track at the beginning of each of the 4 cds (the 5th, bonus disk is dvd) by cueing up song one, then pressing reverse until you come to the bonus track. \n\nWell! This method is totally bizarre (if it is not bizarre enough to provide bonus tracks that are hard to figure out how to play in the first place--and the directions as to how to play bonus tracks are in tiny, obscure print within the printed book that accompanies the 5 disk set.) This backtracking-from-song-one method of cueing up a song works better or worse on various cd players. On mine, it is virtually impossible to hear the bonus tracks in completion, because pushing the reverse button "scrolls through" the song quickly. It is impossible to lift your finger from the button exactly at the beginning moment of the bonus song. If you don't stop pushing the button at exactly that magical moment, you either hear only a portion of the bonus track, or you have pushed too long and don't hear any of it and you must start a second effort at pushing the button until the perfect moment. Like I say, bizarro.\n\nI suppose it is some marketing exec's idea of a cutesy gimmick. Peter, Paul and Mary, I hope you read this review. You have enough sense that you should have caught this dumb idea and nixed it. It's dumb and offensive. How fun is it, really, to sit over your cd player trying to push a button effectively. Come on, you guys!! Why don't you three write a meaningful song about the lunacy of this aspect of modern button-pushing life. (Ha!) Okay, I've spoken my piece on that! Except for the bonus tracks, it's a nice boxed set. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nAlbum Credits\nPaul T. Gillcrist, Producer\nPeter, Producer\nPeter, Paul & Mary, Producer\n\nAlbum Notes\nThis release includes a bonus DVD featuring interview footage and live concert footage of "If I Had A Hammer" from the 1963 Civil Rights March On Washington, "Leaving On Jet Plane" with John Denver, and clips from a 1970 PBS documentary.\n\nEach Audio disc has a hidden track at the beginning of the program. To play one of these selections, cute track #1 and press "reverse" on your player unti you reach the starting point.\n\nPeter, Paul & Mary: Peter Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey, Mary Travers.\n\nAdditional personnel includes: Paul Prestopino (guitar, banjo, dobro, mandolin, harmonica); Richard Kniss, Edgar DeHaas (bass); \n\nProducers include: Albert B. Grossman, John Court, Jacques Wolfson, Milton Okun, Phil Ramone.\n\nCompilation producers: Peter Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey, Mary Travers, Patrick Milligan.\n\nIncludes liner notes by Barry Alfonso, David Halberstam, and Ronnie Gilbert.
This folk cd contains 21 tracks and runs 77min 6sec.
Freedb: 44119b15

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