Friday, December 30, 2022

It is the 30th of December 2022. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org. I’m Dan van Voorhis.

I love finding new stories- and this one is new to me- a delightful story that links Contemporary Christian Music, Bob Dylan, the Jesus People, and Puff the Magic Dragon.

A very happy 85th birthday to Noel Paul Stookey, who was born on this, the 30th of December in 1937- today, he goes by Noel but had a career in folk music as Paul of Peter, Paul, and Mary fame.

As a young man, he moved from his hometown of Baltimore to Michigan, he attended Michigan State University and then moved to New York, where he worked in stand-up comedy in Greenwich Village, where he met Peter Yarrow and Mary Travers. The group was perhaps the most famous of the 60s folk scene- they popularized songs like Pete Seeger’s “If I had a Hammer,” Bob Dylan’s “Blowin' in the Wind,” and John Denver’s “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” Puff the Magic Dragon was an original composition with lyrics from a friend of Peter’s. Despite the claim to the contrary, it is not a song about drugs. But it was so believed to be that there is little light between the song and the legend. Later, after his conversion, Noel would record a track that was a mock trial of Puff for his supposedly suggestive lyrics.

The group would perform at the March on Washington, where they would perform as an opening act for Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have A Dream” Speech.

Although many of the Peter Paul and Mary songs had explicitly religious lyrics, Noel/Paul admitted he himself was not any believer. He said in an interview about songs such as “Jesus met the Woman at the Well” that “maybe God used me, But I was certainly not a willing servant then. I just went for all the cliches. I didn’t know God was alive.”

In the late 60s, he began to search spiritually, and he was led to the New York apartment of his friend Bob Dylan. Dylan advised Stookey to walk in nature and read the scriptures. In 1968, backstage at a concert, Stookey believed he was led to approach a young man and ask him, “what do you want to talk to me about?”- the young man responded, “I want to talk to you about the Lord”- the two went back to his hotel and after praying Stookey came to faith. When the band soon broke up, there were rumors that it was Paul’s faith that led to their demise- but they have all since maintained it was more complicated than that.

In 1971 Stookey released a solo album called “Paul, and”- after Peter and Mary both recorded similarly self-titled albums. On that album, Stookey recorded his “Wedding Song,” a song he says was given to him by God when former bandmate Peter asked him to write a song for his wedding. On account of this, Stookey refused to take the royalties himself and has instead funneled some 2 million in proceeds to charities.

It caused quite a stir when the nascent CCM movement had itself a bona fide star, but Stookey lived a quiet life- he moved with his wife and children to Maine, where they joined the Congregational church, and he sang in the choir. He did help record some Christian albums and recorded a few of his own. The Encyclopedia of Contemporary Christian music suggests that being his own producer may have allowed him to indulge his more experimental urges. Thus, he has not had the post-Peter Paul and Mary success.

The folk group did regroup in 1978, and in 1979 Stookey joined the band Star Song, which changed its name to Bodyworks, where Stookey goes by his first name Noel. He has continued to tour and produce. He has been actively involved in charities and children's causes since the 1960s. Fun fact: his wife was the chaplain for a time at Northfield Mount Hermon School- that might sound familiar as the school that came about from a merging of D.L. Moody’s girls and boys schools.

A very happy birthday today to Noel Paul Stookey, born on this day in 1937. He is 85 years old.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary- from 2 Corinthians 4:

 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 30th of December 2022, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man for whom, in his part of the world, CCM is more hockey than Maranatha- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who always wanted to frolic in the autumn mist of a land called Honah Lee- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.