Album 1700

Album 1700

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Peter, Paul & Mary were viewed as a legendary folk act in 1967--but everything pop ruled in '67 (this was, after all, the year of Sgt. Pepper's and the Summer Of Love), so the trio decided to do a "pop" album. And it mostly works. "Leaving on a Jet Plane" was a huge hit single--their only No. 1--and it probably gave its composer John Denver his first Colorado Rocky Mountain high, at least from a financial standpoint. Peter, Paul & Mary, of course, draw on their initial connection with Bob Dylan, this being '67 and all, even covering "Bob Dylan's Dream" here, and utilizing sometimes "electric" Dylan cronies like Paul Butterfield and Harvey Brooks. Originals like "Weep for Jamie" and "No Other Name" shine, but it's "I Dig Rock 'n' Roll Music" that takes PP&M into the pantheon of popdom, as they name check and imitate some of the biggest popsters of the day--the Mamas & the Papas, Donovan, and the Beatles--in a song that is the very definition of cultural ambivalence. --Bill Holdship

Amazon.com
By 1967, Peter, Paul & Mary were fighting to stay relevant. Toward that end, Album 1700 was not unsuccessful, yielding not only their final hit single (and only No. 1), "Leaving on a Jet Plane," but graceful folk-rock trappings for their repertoire of originals and covers by, among others, Bob Dylan and Eric Anderson. Elsewhere, the strain is showing, down to the ersatz Dylan poetics that serve as liner notes, and especially "I Dig Rock and Roll Music." At once pandering and sarcastic, Peter Paul & Mary name-check (and imitate!) their idea of rock's pantheon: the Beatles (naturally), Donovan, and the Mamas & the Papas. --David Wolf

Album 1700,Peter Paul & Mary,Warner Bros / Wea,Folk,Folk & Traditional,Pop

Average customer rating:

Just as Fresh as in Childhood!

Making a Statement

My favorite PP&M album

The greatest PPM album

Patchy

Album 1700
Peter Paul & Mary
Manufacturer: Warner Bros / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Contemporary Folk | Folk | Styles | Music
General | Folk | Styles | Music
Traditional Folk | Folk | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

In the Wind

Peter, Paul And Mary (1st LP)

A Song Will Rise

The Peter, Paul & Mary Album

Moving

ASIN: B000002KAI
Release Date: 1991-07-23

Tracks:

Rolling Home
Leaving On A Jet Plane
Weep For Jamie
No Other Name
The House Song
The Great Mandella (The Wheel Of Life)
I Dig Rock And Roll Music
If I Had Wings
I'm In Love With A Big Blue Frog
Whatshername
Bob Dylan's Dream
The Song Is Love

Amazon.com essential recording

Peter, Paul & Mary were viewed as a legendary folk act in 1967--but everything pop ruled in '67 (this was, after all, the year of Sgt. Pepper's and the Summer Of Love), so the trio decided to do a "pop" album. And it mostly works. "Leaving on a Jet Plane" was a huge hit single--their only No. 1--and it probably gave its composer John Denver his first Colorado Rocky Mountain high, at least from a financial standpoint. Peter, Paul & Mary, of course, draw on their initial connection with Bob Dylan, this being '67 and all, even covering "Bob Dylan's Dream" here, and utilizing sometimes "electric" Dylan cronies like Paul Butterfield and Harvey Brooks. Originals like "Weep for Jamie" and "No Other Name" shine, but it's "I Dig Rock 'n' Roll Music" that takes PP&M into the pantheon of popdom, as they name check and imitate some of the biggest popsters of the day--the Mamas & the Papas, Donovan, and the Beatles--in a song that is the very definition of cultural ambivalence. --Bill Holdship

Amazon.com

By 1967, Peter, Paul & Mary were fighting to stay relevant. Toward that end, Album 1700 was not unsuccessful, yielding not only their final hit single (and only No. 1), "Leaving on a Jet Plane," but graceful folk-rock trappings for their repertoire of originals and covers by, among others, Bob Dylan and Eric Anderson. Elsewhere, the strain is showing, down to the ersatz Dylan poetics that serve as liner notes, and especially "I Dig Rock and Roll Music." At once pandering and sarcastic, Peter Paul & Mary name-check (and imitate!) their idea of rock's pantheon: the Beatles (naturally), Donovan, and the Mamas & the Papas. --David Wolf

Customer Reviews:

Just as Fresh as in Childhood!.......2005-06-07

This is a great CD. It's just as fresh as when I listened to it 35 years ago in childhood. PP and M, a much greater influence on me than I ever realized! :)

Making a Statement.......2002-08-30

This is my favorite Peter, Paul & Mary album; it's one I've listened to my whole life, many, many times. I want to respond to those reviewers who classified Big Blue Frog as a "silly children's song." I hear it as a very clear commentary on inter-racial marriage. "The neighbors are against it and it's clear to me, and it's probably clear to you -- they think value on their property will go right down, if the family next door is blue." As in The Great Mandela (an anti-war song), and I Dig Rock & Roll Music (a parody), PP&M are making a statement, as they did with many of their songs. Another reviewer said they were pop more than folk. While folk music became popular music when the album first came out, they certainly carry on the folk tradition of telling it like it is and taking a stand on issues.

My favorite PP&M album.......2002-05-03

"The House Song" is my all time favorite song by them, yes they wrote it. What makes it great is the complete lack of any frivoluos songs. This is the second must have album, along with "Live", in the entire PP&M catalogue. 'I Dig Rock and Roll' and 'Big Blue Frog' are probably the best "pop" songs they sang, but this album is as close as you are going to get to their best studio album.

The greatest PPM album.......2001-09-02

At one point in time, American folk music crossed over from the time-frozen traditional--then sold mass-market by Burl Ives--to the more iconoclastic as represented by icon-in-his-own-right Bob Dylan. After awhile, given America's 20th century social upheaval, it was no longer as easy as it once was to care whether or not Jimmy cracked any corn. Peter Paul and Mary lived during both eras and managed to survive in both. This album more than any other represents their "border crossing"--and it contained two of their most popular songs: a faithful rendition of John Denver's "Leaving On a Jet Plane" which I heard years before Denver's own version and "I Dig Rock & Roll Music", a tribute to the Mamas and the Papas, the most successful mixed-gender folk rock group of all time. Despite these two powerful radio hits, however, the most powerful song in here is the antiwar anthem "The Great Mandella", a simple yet dynamic tune about the head-on collision between the World War II generation and the Boomer generation over the Vietnam issue. The beauty of this song is that none of the three verses is "in the voice" of the protester himself as was usually the case with an antiwar song. Verse one is from the viewpoint of his infuriated father, the other two are quasi-journalistic views by society in general of his imprisonment and hunger strike. As Tom Brokaw rhapsodises over "The Greatest Generation", it is easy to forget that this particular generation saw no other practical use for their male issue than as cannon fodder. Very practical--neither we nor the Vietnamese they had sent us over to fight were seen as being worth the powder to blow us to Kingdom Come. And thanks to sound recording (invented well before the birth of either generation), this album with this song on it are still available to set the record straight, Brokaw's efforts notwithstanding.

Patchy.......2001-09-02

As with most of PP&M's original albums, save their debut album, this is an extremely uneven release. Album 1700 feels that way even moreso than some of their previous albums, if one takes into account that this was released in 1967 and was therefore almost entirely out of step with the musical trends of that time.

The good songs recall earlier PP&M: The smash hit version of John Denver's "Leavin' On A Jet Plane" is, of course, a simple, melodic folk tune with guitar accompaniment, in the vein of their earlier songs. "Bob Dylan's Dream" is a great version of that song from Dylan's Freewheelin' album, and again it sounds like it could have fit on PP&M's debut album.

Most of the other songs sit uncomfortably between PP&M's seeming desire to hold onto old styles while gaining a grudging recognition that the times, indeed, *were* changing. So, you have pseudo-hippie-philosophy clinkers like "The Great Mandala" in the mix. Maudlin downers like "Weep for Jamie" don't help much either.

The grudging recognition of changing times is also represented in a petty attack on rock and roll, "I Dig Rock and Roll Music," which has lyrics that lash out at what they perceived as rock's shallowness, and the way that the rock lyrics of the time sometimes coyly couched their meanings in elliptical or mystical language -- "laying it between the lines." It was presented as almost a parody of the Mamas and the Papas, and now especially in hindsight, it feels like a very misguided move by people that were being dragged kicking and screaming into the new age, and just didn't "get it."

Finally...there is what PP&M must have felt was an obligatory gesture to children, the absolutely embarrassing "I'm In Love With A Big Blue Frog." Puh-leeeeze!

In short: As with other PP&M albums, there are a few classics mixed in with a lot of filler. But even compared with their other albums, Album 1700 has more than its share of dated, embarrassing filler. The good songs are really good, but overall the album is about a 2.5-star effort.

Music Review:

Music Review

music review

Recommended Music:

Roll on [Import]

Australian Guitar Quartet [Import]

A Portrait of a Russian Singer: Nadezhda Obukhova, Volume 1

Southern Exposure

Best Bands Ever 2004 [Import]

Ain't Nothing Wrong

A Playdate With Blue [Enhanced]

A Portrait of Britten

11/12/13: Live from Melbourne, Australia [Live]

20 Exitos Gigantes

2 a.m. Orchestra

Afrijazzy

101% Progressive 2004 [Import]

Glory Hallelujah!!

Vesta 4 U