MUSIC
GIVING BACK AND GIVING A DAMN Noel Paul Stookey Carries on the Revolution, One By One
BY LEE VALENTINE SMITH
H
E’S BEST KNOWN AS THE TALL, wisecracking middleman of iconic ’60s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. But Noel “Paul” Stookey is also a busy solo singer-songwriter, international human rights advocate and community benefactor. Beginning with Paul And, his first solo release in 1970, Stookey’s material has consistently highlighted his devotion to faith, family and social justice. His latest album is an independently released non-profit project called Just Causes. Culling from over fifty years of material, the genteel troubadour paired some of his favorite songs with a selection of choice charitable foundations, with all proceeds evenly divided to fifteen worthy causes. With daughter Elizabeth Stookey Sunde, he founded the Music to Life Foundation in 2001, utilizing music and education to inform and motivate likeminded revolutionists dedicated to societal and civic action. The Maine-based performer recently spoke with INsite by phone from California about the new album, his half-century-plus canon of compassionate (and occasionally divinely inspired) material and various altruistic pursuits. Stookey also previewed his new “crinkle factor” movement. It’s catching on. How are you handling the pandemic? Well, virtually. But right now, I’m out here on the West Coast and it’s been the strangest trip we’ve ever taken. We came out three months ago to see our daughter in Los Angeles. We’ve only seen her twice in the time we’ve been here. But the whole Just Causes thing happened because I was looking for a way to do something in the downtime. It’s been a wonderful experience, I’ve gotta tell you. The story behind it is pretty unique. Not many albums are inspired by pizza boxes. That’s true but I’d also ran across a track I’d recorded in 1971, I think. It’s called “Tom Quick.” When I originally recorded it, I felt that it was a sort of harbinger of change. Then I was standing in the frozen foods section of the grocery store and I saw the Newman’s Own Pizza box and it said that 100 percent of the profits from it were going to charity. I thought, ‘Wow, what a great thing to do during a pandemic.’ I’ve earned a great deal of money as a performer; it’s put my kids through school. I’ve been able to earn money as a songwriter, publisher and even as a record manufacturer. So I thought, why don’t I look back through songs like “Tom Quick,” spanning nearly fifty years of material I’ve recorded, and decided which of them speaks to an issue. And then assign that song to a non-profit to benefit, to basically give back everything above my manufacturing costs. That’s how it all began. By and large the response has been great. I’m getting a lot of ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ from my peers. So with fifteen tracks, the nonprofits are sharing a fifteenth of the net profits but that can add up fairly quickly. You have so many songs in the catalog, selecting the tracks and charities must’ve been quite a challenge. You’re kind to say that I have such a swath of tunes. But not all of them are politically or socially pertinent. They all have a spiritual nature, at least the ones I’ve written since 1970, but I had maybe twenty-two tunes to connect with the various non-profits. Some
were pretty self-evident. Like for “America The Beautiful,” I’d worked with the People For The American Way and they’re fantastic. The song “Jean Claude,” about the two boys from the Holocaust, so I assigned that to the Dallas Holocaust Museum.
Did they all fall into place so easily? Some were oddballs. Like, where do you go with a song called “The Connection?” It’s not so much about addiction but the political fact that addicts probably aren’t thinking they could be funding the Taliban, for example. Curiously, I made a call to the Partnership To End Addiction and they said that their theme for this year’s fundraising is called The Connection. They’re talking about connecting addicts to their loved ones, to their community and building back help in that way. But they saw the opportunity to pivot on the term. When little things like that show up, it’s kind of a cosmic thumbs-up. You’ve been giving back since “The Wedding Song” on the Paul And album. But I had no choice on that one. It was a prayed-for song and that’s beyond the normal songwriter saying ‘the muse’ moved him or her to write a particular song. For this one I wanted God to bless my partner Peter Yarrow’s wedding. I said, ‘How would You manifest yourself at Peter’s wedding?’ The song was the answer. When it came time to put it on a record, I wasn’t sure what to do. I couldn’t put ‘G_d’ as the writer and if I didn’t put anything, the money would just go into the pockets of the record company. Warner Brothers had enough money at that time. You could say that, yes. I felt the best compromise was to create a foundation to
hold the money and disperse it. An agency my daughter created from it is called Music To Life. They’re one of the beneficiaries of one of the songs on the album, the homage to Pete Seeger called “Not That Kind Of Music.” There’s also a new album out from Music To Life, called Hope Rises. My daughter created it and it’s basically an introduction to fifteen new activist-artists. It’s pretty powerful stuff. When Peter, Paul and Mary first came on the scene, it was relatively easy to rally a considerable slice of the population with an activist anthem - or a good ol’ protest song. Is it possible now to ‘rally the people’ in this segmented world? Segmented is an interesting choice of word. We are definitely separated by individual choice of what particular concern to support. We’re diffracted, if you will, by the choices. There doesn’t seem to be a universal march for human rights, anti-war, environmental or non-nuclear proliferation that we expected to see from the ‘60s. Historically, music that expressed social concerns was relatively new to the scene in 1963, say, when Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech. Radio had been the domain of pop music. To introduce those causes that we hold in common was relatively new then. Pop music was mostly a platform for romance. Not to say romance has gone away. What did McCartney say? The world will never tire of ‘silly love songs.’ It makes everything go ‘round. But I don’t know if there’s gonna be any sort of galvanizing cause that’s going to pull us all together, except for love with a capital L. If that ever gets off the ground as a concept, we can treat our fellow human beings as a family of the heart. Then we can finally join together in celebrating this gift we call life. Peace on Earth begins with each of us, as the song says,
and then the ripples will spread. That’s what the song “Revolution 1 x 1” is all about. One by one. Right and you can’t preach at people, either. They’ll tune right out. Some wise-guy once said you “have to lay it between the lines.” I can’t recall his name at the moment. (Laughs) Sometimes those lines come back to surprise me. But when they stand the test of time the way those ones on this album seem to do, I’m really pleased that a message is still out there. I’m blessed that these songs have a way of reminding people of their responsibility to one another. People have to care about each other. We mentioned the Paul And album. One of my favorite tracks from it was always “Give A Damn” because it references another song with the same title. That’s right. Well, there was also a movement in New York City called Give A Damn. It wasn’t a real popular one because of the hesitance of people to use what they felt might have been, you know, ‘naughty language.’ I did that talking blues tune based on a radio station playing - or not playing -that other song. Sometimes people just need to be reminded that they do care. It’s built into the human heart to care. But turning it into action, that’s the stumbling block for most of us. Sometimes it’s a big step. Yeah but you know what I’ve found? I like to call it the “crinkle factor.” It really didn’t exist before the pandemic. I mean, the amount of crinkles around the eyes tend to increase when people smile. I’ve noticed that with our masks on, maybe you’re going too fast around the corner of an isle in the supermarket or wherever, and you almost bump into somebody. They stop for a second with this fearful look on their face. But then you crinkle them! Usually, they’ll crinkle you right back. It could be a new movement - what do you think? For music and more information, visit noelpaulstookey.com, musictolife.org and revolution1x1.org. insiteatlanta.com • May 2021 • PG 13
