Apr 14 2008
Peter Paul & Mary: If I Had My Way
The way I heard it was that Mary Travers’ family, when she was young, lived in an apartment building in New York and the tenant downstairs from them was a blind itinerant street preacher and musician named Rev. Gary Davis. Supposedly Travers learned this song from Davis, hanging around the apartment. I don’t know about this. Certainly by the time Travers was a member of Peter Paul and Mary, Gary Davis was well known in folk music circles in New York and there was plenty of opportunity for PP&M to learn the song from him.
Davis’ arrangement of the song depended on a complex finger picked guitar accompaniment. I used to be able to play it, but not sing at the same time. PP&M simplified the guitar part and added three part harmony. Their version of the song is much like a gospel choir in an AME or African American Baptist church.
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[…] I had posted a video of Peter Paul and Mary singing this song. Here is the man that they learned it from. Reverend Gary Davis, born in Laurens […]