Welcome back to the ninth installment of the Golden Nuggets series, where I take a look at the number one song fom the Billboard charts of 50 years ago and reflect on the listening taste of a past America. This time, I'll be taking alisten to 'Leaving on a Jet Plane' by the group Peter, Paul & Mary. If you've never heard the song, or need a refresher, you can take a listen here.
This song was originally written by John Denver, but its most popularly known rendition is the one by Peter, Paul & Mary. The group mixes pretty traditional folk music with a little bit of pop, but I can't say I'm too much of a fan outisde of their take on 'Puff the Magic Dragon'. They try to mix Pete Seeger with stuff like the Mamas and the Papas, but to me it sounds a little bit too much like the New Christy Minstrels for my taste. It's just a little too clean for me, and older folk revival stuff like Joan Baez and the like suffer from this too. I'm super into Neil Young, Bob Dylan and even Joni Mitchell, but this stuff is just too squeaky clean.
It doesn't hurt that this song is incredibly underwritten. I listened to the John Denver version as well, to see whether or not the group was butchering it, but his is even more boring to me. Apart from the unintended irony of John Denver singing about leaving on a plane, which is just morbid and cringey, I don't get a whole lot out of it. It's just a silly little love song that's far too wholesome for its own good. At least Peter, Paul & Mary tried to add some harmonies and depth to the arrangement, not that it did much good in my eyes.
I guess this is one of the more negative reflections I've done in this series, and I really don't mean to be so harsh, but I feel like there was so much better music and folk music in particular coming out in 1969 (Crosby, Stills & Nash's debut immediately comes to mind) that I can't just give this middle of the road song a pass. I guess this goes to show that music always looks better in hindsight. What our parents said was the best generation for music had good stuff, yes, but that's not always what the American public made the most popular. Some things never change.
Stay tuned for the next installment of the Golden Nuggets series, 'Someday We'll be Together' by Diana Ross & The Supremes, along with a series of 2019 year end lists.
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