Album 1700 by Peter, Paul and Mary (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: Album 1700

Group name: Peter, Paul and Mary

Year: 1967

Number of discs: one

Label: Warner Bros. Records

Collection: Brenner / Gessner

Distinguishing characteristics:

“Brenner” written on top right of album, indicating that my mother owned it

“Brenner” written on record, indicating that my mother owned it

Buy it on Amazon: $3.63

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I’ve never listened to this Peter, Paul and Mary record before, but I recognize a few of the songs on it, and I’ve previously reviewed two of their other records:

Peter, Paul and Mary In Concert (1964): 4/5

(Ten) Years Together: The Best of Peter, Paul and Mary (1970): 5/5

What I expected

Folk hits from the 1960s.

What it was actually like

I was surprised at how much of the music on this record was boring and uninteresting, and at how little of it that I actually enjoyed, and I’m not sure if that had anything to do Yarrow and Stookey both appearing on the album cover in van dykes, the official facial hair style of Young Republicans. Probably not, though. Right?

At any rate, Whatshername was especially boring, with barely any singing and barely any musical accompaniment to go along with the singing, and a bunch of the other songs were similar. Maybe they had just run out of good ideas for songs by 1967?

When reviewing Peter, Paul and Mary In Concert last summer, I wrote:

… they do a lot of children’s songs, and I’m not a child so I’m much less into those.

I’m in Love with a Big Blue Frog was an example of that from Album 1700, and I would definitely not be interested in hearing that song again.

Weep for Jamie was the most WTF song on the record, which lyrics like: “For the bones that tear at her flesh inside…”

On the other hand, I loved their version of Bob Dylan’s Dream from The Freewheelin’ (1963), a very cool reinterpretation of it that I was pretty sure I had never heard before, and that made me love the original even more.

When reviewing John Denver’s Greatest Hits (1973) last month, I wrote:

I enjoyed Denver’s Leaving on a Jet Plane, but I think the Peter, Paul and Mary version will remain canonical (for me).

After listening to it again on Album 1700, I still think that.

And when reviewing (Ten) Years Together last spring, I wrote:

… it was great to hear I Dig Rock and Roll Music for maybe the first time in decades.

And it was still great today.

The Song Is Love was also strong and consistent with the style I expected most of the record to be.