Joan Baez

(Translated from my original Italian text by Ornella Grannis)

Joan Baez (pronounced buy-ez) is not so much a musician (although she is the most important folk singer of her generation) as a political icon. The artistry of her music came always second to her political conscience.

Baez was the first female artist able to entice the public not only with her voice but also with her personality. In practice, Baez is the "mother" of all the female singer songwriters who followed.

Her first album, Joan Baez (Vanguard, 1960), was released after the success of her performance at the Newport Festival in 1959, although in those days she was still an obscure singer.

Joan Baez 2 (Vanguard, 1961) established her, thanks to a crystal-clear soprano voice that reinterpreted traditional folk tunes with the elegance of classical music, accompanied only by an acoustic guitar. Baez's roots were more British than American. Her translucent voice had none of the Appalachian dust of Woody Guthrie, and all the green of an English meadow. The album got high marks on the best seller list and made Baez a small celebrity. Folk music, nearly forgotten by the masses who had discovered Nashville Country, was back.

Baez, who could have lived a life of comfort, chose to perfect a highly personal style, employing a free approach to tradition while focusing attention on civil matters. In the years that followed, Baez used her popularity to defend noble causes. Gradually she became involved with the pacifist movement and with Bob Dylan, whom she joined in the peace demonstrations and the sit-ins of the times. She sang at the Washington March led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in August 1963. We Shall Overcome (by Pete Seeger) will forever remain her signature piece.

Joan Baez 5 (Vanguard, 1964) is the album with which she converted to the message of the Greenwich Village Movement. The album signals a withdrawal from traditional folk tunes in favor of more contemporary ones. From that moment on, Baez would become the most requested interpreter of songs of protest.

Her career during those turbulent times of rebellion is more a sequence of political events (often resulting in arrest) than musical ones.

Baez protected an emerging Bob Dylan and kept him close (in every sense) at least in the beginning. But unlike her friend, who, carried away by his musical-poetic genius and by his own mythology, soon forgot peace marches and sit-ins, Joan Baez continued to immerse herself in the political life of her country, even after the peace marches were not longer necessary, and ultimately became the living symbol of civil disobedience

Always faithful to her image, she preserved her acoustic style until 1974. Musically her importance is barely noticeable: she was a great interpreter of other people's songs (Dylan's Farewell Angelina is perhaps the most famous), yet closer to pop than to rock. Baez's importance in the history of music is due to the fact that she made it possible for a whole generation of singer songwriters to be heard by an audience who wouldn't otherwise have known them.

First Ten Years (Vanguard, 1970) is a synopsis of the golden era.

In the 70s Baez discovered country music, much like Dylan (and most everybody else). Although she came back to the themes of her youth, she did so in a very creative way. On Where Are You Now My Son (A&M, 1973), the title track is the entire side of the album, recorded in Hanoi while American bombs were being dropped. The album also contains A Young Gypsy, one of the first and best Baez penned songs.

Baez began writing later in her career. The autobiographic Diamonds And Rust (A&M, 1975), brought her back at a time when it seem everyone had forgotten about her. The album was arranged electrically and sported a section of violins. This season as intellectual composer ended with Gulf Winds (A&M, 1976), an album entirely written by Baez. Honest Lullaby (Portrait, 1979) is a rather pompous production of pop music. It would take eight more years for Baez to release another album, Recently (1987).