A Remembrance of Peter

Both the Brothers I Never Had

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Being an only child, growing up without siblings may have afforded me the full attention of my parents, but with the formation of Peter, Paul and Mary, I suddenly had a brother named Peter Yarrow. He was best man at my wedding and I at his. He was a loving ‘uncle’ to my three daughters. And, while his comfort in the city and my love of the country tended to keep us apart geographically, our different perspectives were celebrated often in our friendship and our music. I was five months older than Peter - who became my creative, irrepressible, spontaneous and musical younger brother - yet at the same time, I grew to be grateful for, and to love, the mature-beyond-his-years wisdom and inspiring guidance he shared with me like an older brother. Politically astute and emotionally vulnerable, perhaps Peter was both of the brothers I never had…and I shall deeply miss both of him.

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In the late sixties our family lived in Rye, NY, in a house large enough for me to build a recording studio for myself as well as for other performers, including saxophonist and composer Paul Winter, for whom I produced three albums. To record “Mr. Bojangles” for the Paul Winter Consort’s album Something in the Wind, Paul brought in tap dancer Chuck Green to provide the rhythm track. We spread sand on our living room floor and recorded him dancing to the sound track. Paul also came down to my basement studio to oversee the recording of Peter and me doing “Et Misericordia” fom Johann Sebastian Bach’s Magnificat. The recording was challenging because Peter had a sore throat and had to sing almost the entire part in falsetto.

Guided by Paul Winter who, along with the consort had created the backing tracks and the multi-track capacity to be able to punch in and record sections at a time, Peter insisted on giving a complete performance which now, since his passing, seems particularly poignant AND so ‘perfectly Peter’ - insofar as he always gave himself to so many causes - regardless of personal cost.

Vibrations:

Listen to the recording of “Et Misericordia” from Noel’s album Something New and Fresh here:

Latin Text

Et misericordia a progenie in progenies timentibus eum.

English Translation

And [his] mercy [is] on those who fear him, from generation to generation.

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