Album 1700

Peter, Paul & Mary

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 23, 1991)
• Original Release Date: 1967
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Warner Bros / Wea
• ASIN: B000002KAI
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #49,455 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless Trio-Timeless Music, January 17, 2000

By	Phyllis Fisher "brazilian music lover" (Houston, Texas United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have worn out my old vinyl recording of this album. It was always playing on someone's record player in the dorm when I was in college in the '60s. It is an essential album for those in college now to hear, to know that 'The '60s' wasn't ALL about the Beatles. The harmonies of these three extraordinary performers has always held me spellbound i.e. "Rolling Home". The plaintive melody and lyric combination of "Jet Plane" is lovingly handled by the trio. "I Dig" is a marvelous example of PP&M's ability to take a poke at Rock's biggies of the era. My favorite, though, and one of my all-time favorite songs is "Great Mandela". The simplicity of the opening guitar work contrasts strikingly with the opening lyrics which quickly draw you in to this deep, dark song. The trio's harmony becomes jarring as the the song escalates and drives home its emphatic message. Then there is a quiet, almost eery, denouement that leaves you vaguely unsettled afterwards. For those who want to know what living through the controversial era of the Vietnam War was like, this song and its masterful handling by Peter, Paul & Mary is powerful listening.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The greatest PPM album, September 1, 2001

By	R. L. MILLER (FT LAUDERDALE FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Making a Statement, August 30, 2002

By	"cara-mm" (Lexington, MA United States) - See all my reviews

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.