The group was created by manager Albert Grossman, who sought to create a folk "supergroup" by bringing together "a tall blonde (Travers), a funny guy (Stookey), and a good looking guy (Yarrow)." He launched the group in 1961, booking them into the Bitter End, a coffee house in New York City's Greenwich Village that was a favorite place to hear folk artists.
The group recorded their first album, Peter, Paul and Mary, the following year. It included "500 Miles," "Lemon Tree","Where Have All the Flowers Gone," and the hit Pete Seeger tune "If I Had a Hammer," ("The Hammer Song"). The album was listed on Billboard Magazine Top Ten list for ten months and in the Top One Hundred for over three years.
By 1963 they had recorded three albums; released the now-famous song "Puff the Magic Dragon", which Yarrow and fellow Cornell student Leonard Lipton originally wrote in 1959 and was on the charts in 1963; and performed "If I Had a Hammer" at the 1963 March on Washington, best remembered for Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. Their biggest single hit came with the Bob Dylan song, "Blowin' in the Wind," which was an international #1 hit. It was the fastest selling single ever cut by Warner Brothers Records. For many years after, the group was at the forefront of the civil rights movement and other causes promoting social justice. Their later hit "Leaving on a Jet Plane" was actually written by the then unknown John Denver.
The trio broke up in 1970 to pursue separate solo careers, but found little of the success they did as a group, although Stookey's "The Wedding Song (There Is Love)" (written for Yarrow's marriage to Marybeth McCarthy, the niece of senator Eugene McCarthy) was a hit and has become a wedding standard since its 1971 release.
In 1978, they reunited for a concert to protest nuclear energy, and have recorded albums together and toured since. They currently play around 25 shows a year.[1]
The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 1999.
In 2005, Travers was diagnosed with leukemia, leading to the cancellation of the remaining tour dates for that year. She received a bone marrow transplant and She and the rest of the trio resumed their concert tour on December 9, 2005 with a holiday performance at Carnegie Hall and were scheduled for several additional concerts in 2006.Sadly she passed away in Sept 2009.
Peter, Paul and Mary received in 2006 the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievment Award from Songwriters Hall of Fame.
There but for Fortune
Peter Paul & Mary Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Show me the prisoner whose face is growin' pale
And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I.
Show me the alley, show me the train
Show me the hobo who sleeps out in the rain
There but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I.
Show me the famine, show me the frail
Eyes with no future, that show how we fail
And I'll show you the children with so many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I.
Show me the country where bombs had to fall
Show me the ruins of buildings once so tall
And I'll show you a young land with many reasons why
There but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I.
You and I.
There but for fortune, go you or go I
You and I.
The song "There but for Fortune" by Peter Paul and Mary is a call to attention to the unchanging injustices and struggles present in the world. Each verse takes the listener to a different scene – the prison, the alley, the famine, and the aftermath of war – and highlights the fact that the people in these situations are not there because of anything inherent in them as individuals, but because of larger societal forces. In the first verse, for example, the singer tells us that if we showed him a prisoner, he would show us "a young man with so many reasons why." This implies that we must look beyond the individual to understand the societal factors that contribute to these circumstances. The chorus reminds us that we are all vulnerable to these forces: "There but for fortune, go you or go I."
The song's second verse takes us to an alley where a homeless man is sleeping in the rain. Here, the same message is brought home: the singer tells us that this man has "many reasons why" he is in the situation he is in. In the third verse, the focus is on famine and the profound shame that comes with having "eyes with no future." Once again, the chorus reminds us that these people are no different from us: "There but for fortune, go you or go I." Finally, in the last verse, the song shifts to the aftermath of war, showing us a "young land with many reasons why" it has been destroyed.
Throughout, the song is marked by a deep sense of empathy and a desire to understand the forces that create hardship in people's lives. In this way, "There but for Fortune" is more than just a song – it is a call to action that encourages listeners to reflect on their own privilege and to work towards a world where poverty, famine, and war no longer exist.
Line by Line Meaning
Show me the prison, show me the jail
If you show me a prison or a jail, I will show you a prisoner who is scared of his future.
Show me the prisoner whose face is growin' pale
If you show me a prisoner whose face is turning pale, I will show you a person who is afraid of his life.
And I'll show you a young man with so many reasons why
I will show you a young man who has so many reasons for his imprisonment.
There but for fortune, go you or go I
There is no difference between you and me and the person in prison, we all are humans and anything can happen to anyone.
You and I.
We are no different from each other.
Show me the alley, show me the train
If you show me an alley or a train, I will show you a homeless person.
Show me the hobo who sleeps out in the rain
If you show me a hobo who sleeps in the rain, I will show you a person who is without a home.
And I'll show you a young man with many reasons why
I will show you a young man who has so many reasons to live like a hobo.
There but for fortune, go you or go I
There is no difference between you and me and the homeless person, we all are humans and anything can become anyone's fate.
You and I.
We are no different from each other.
Show me the famine, show me the frail
If you show me famine or frailty, I will show you people who are without basic necessities.
Eyes with no future, that show how we fail
The people who have lost their hope, it shows that we have failed as a society.
And I'll show you the children with so many reasons why
I will show you the kids who have so many reasons to cry for basic needs.
There but for fortune, go you or go I
There is no difference between you and me and the children who are suffering, we all are humans and fate can take a toll on anyone.
You and I.
We are no different from each other.
Show me the country where bombs had to fall
If you show me a country that has faced bombings, I will show you the ruins of a once-thriving community.
Show me the ruins of buildings once so tall
If you show me the ruins of once-tall buildings, I will show you how humans destroy.
And I'll show you a young land with many reasons why
I will show you a land where children are losing their life because of human wars and greed.
There but for fortune, go you or go I
There is no difference between you and me and the people who are living in wartorn land, we all are humans and anything can become anyone's fate.
You and I.
We are no different from each other.
There but for fortune, go you or go I
We all are equally vulnerable to fate.
You and I.
We all are humans.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: PHIL OCHS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind