Peter La Farge (born Oliver
Albee La Farge, April 30, 1931 - October 27, 1965) was a New York
-based
folksinger and songwriter of the 1950s and 1960s. He is
known best for his affiliations with
Bob
Dylan and
Johnny Cash.
According to anecdotal sources, he was descended from the nearly
extinct
Narragansett Indian
tribe and was raised on a ranch in Fountain, CO by his mother
Wanden LaFarge Kane. He was the biological son of the
Pulitzer Prize winning novelist
Oliver La Farge. Oliver and Peter shared a
love and respect for the traditions and history of Native
Americans. As a teenager he competed as a
rodeo rider and worked as a singer. As a young
musician he worked with
Big Bill
Broonzy,
Josh White, and
Cisco Houston; Houston became La Farge's
mentor, in songwriting and in life. La Farge served in the
United States Navy during the
Korean War. After the war, he worked again as a
rodeo cowboy, where an accident nearly cost
him a leg.
Following
his recuperation, he studied acting at the Goodman Theater School of
Drama
in Chicago
.
He then
relocated to New York
City, where he became increasingly interested in
music. As a singer-songwriter, he became well-known as
a folk music singer in Greenwich
Village
, along with Bob Dylan,
Ramblin' Jack Elliott,
Dave Van Ronk, and veteran Pete Seeger. He was contracted briefly
with
Columbia Records.His
performances in Greenwich Village convinced
Folkways Records' initiator
Moses Asch to contract La Farge to his music
company.La Farge's five Folkways albums (1962-1965) were dedicated
to Native American themes as well as blues, cowboy and love songs.
His most
famous song, "The Ballad of Ira Hayes," is
the story of a Pima Indian who became a hero as
one of five United States
Marines who raised the U.S. flag on Iwo Jima
, but who
then experienced prejudice and became an alcoholic after his return
to civilian life. This song was covered successfully by
Johnny Cash in his
1964 album
Bitter Tears:
Ballads of the American Indian, and reached number 3 on
the
Billboard country music chart.
During 1965, La Farge was becoming known as an artist and painter.
He lived
with the Danish
singer
Inger Nielsen, and the pair had a
daughter. Largely as a result of Johnny Cash's success, he
was signed to
MGM Records and was in the
planning stages for a new album. However, he also had serious (and
largely undisclosed) medical problems. On
October 27,
1965, Peter La
Farge was found in his apartment, dead from a probable
stroke. However,
Howard Sounes revealed during 2001 that
Liam Clancy had informed him that La
Farge had committed
suicide by slitting his
wrists in the shower stall of his apartment, which was next door to
where Clancy was living. Clancy's account conflicts with the police
report and the reports in the New York City newspapers, which note
that Inger Nielsen found La Farge in their apartment dead from a
stroke or overdose. He is buried in Fountain, Colorado and survived
by his sister, half brother, daughter and a granddaughter.
Selected Discography
- 1962: Iron Mountain and Other Songs
- 1963: As Long as the Grass Shall Grow: Peter La Farge Sings
of the Indians
- 1963: Peter La Farge Sings of the Cowboys: Cowboy, Ranch
and Rodeo Songs, and Cattle Calls
- 1964: Peter La Farge Sings Women Blues: Peter La Farge
Sings Love Songs
- 1965: Peter LaFarge on the Warpath
See also
References
The Ballad of Peter LaFarge - 2007 documentary by Sandra Hale
Schulman
- Howard Sounes. Down the
Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan. Doubleday 2001 ISBN
0-552-99929-6
External links
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