Don't be Cruel - RIP Peter Yarrow
Once in an Iowa City bar frequented by Writer's Workshop people I was feeling sorry for myself and used a quarter in the box to play "Don't be Cruel." Some drunken guy (presumably a writer) lit into me saying that Elvis was a mean redneck s-o-b and we should never support anything he did for any reason. I totally and heartily disagreed but kept my mouth shut and fortunately came out of that bar alive.So you can tell that I am in the "separate the art from the artist" crowd, which I freely admit, but the Peter Yarrow story is a little more complex, because he was a leader and important figure in making the Kerville Festival what it is.
The "separate the art from the artist" crowd, including me, argues that an artist's morality is separate from his/her art, so that it is possible to be a good artist and a lousy person, or fallible may be a better word. As a musician there were some songs I wanted to hear and enjoy regardless of the moral culpability of the performer; in other words, the sum total of musical skill should all be available to me just on principle. If you start refusing to support Elvis, or Peter, or anyone, then where does it end? Do you stop listening to all his band's music? Or that from the festival he helped make famous? And what if the crime is questionable (not sure about Peter's), or he was sorry and genuinely repentant (again, not sure; I believe he was)? Does that make it ok to listen to his music now?
Apparently in the history of the Kerrville festival, it was Yarrow who befriended Rod Kennedy, a conservative old Texas rancher, to make it what it was. He opened up Kennedy and convinced him that the folk music culture was a good one to propagate and invest in, and Kerrville became the Woodstock of Texas, a refuge from the very cruel world of south Texas. I experienced it and love the place. But the founders and long-time administrators of the festival all acknowledge the pivotal role Yarrow played in making it what it was. And those who will never forgive him for what he did, will never forgive him, it's that simple. Like maybe he was using his stardom, and his association with the festival, to pick up groupies? That's possible. And he may have done it more than once, with some who were underage.
I never had trouble with Clinton being a sex addict, as his victims seemed to be at least willing and of age, though it's possible I didn't know them all. I had a little more trouble with Trump, who was actually a predator (assaulted the unwilling) and probably did a young 13-year-old knowing full well she wasn't of age. Their morality can be separate from their effect as a leader or at least it could in the case of Clinton, and perhaps JFK. We "separate the..." advocates say simply that they are separate things and it's possible to be a good leader and morally corrupt at the same time (for another example, look into MLK Jr.). But in the art field we would have to refuse to partake in a wide swath of good art if we were to be serious about simply rejecting the morally corrupt. And the odd thing is, they seem to go together, good art and moral corruption, like priests and altar boys. The cross between them is remarkably common, frequent, even ubiquitous.
I have to admit that there is some sense for the other side. If someone is really bad, the less you glorify them, praise them, put them in the spotlight, etc., the better. You can see people wince when other people praise Yarrow for his music or whatever - how does that make his victims feel? How can I say "let's not think about that" or even write paragraphs about his greatness while omitting his crimes? You can't. Much of this will be forgotten and to his victims, the sooner the better.
But Kerrville was historic in that the alliance between Yarrow and Kennedy was apparently similar to the general alliance between Texas longhairs and rednecks (longhair + redneck = longneck?) which produced Willie Nelson and made Austin the music capital of the nation. It wasn't just that they opened Kerrville up to be what it was; it became what it was because Texas needed it. It was a fantastic place in the same way Woodstock was fantastic - historically fantastic. And still is. I tip my hat to it and to Peter Yarrow - not to sweep under the rug all that terrible stuff he did, whatever it was. I'm with the "separate the artist..." crowd.
posted by tom @ 3:10 PM
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