Joan Baez - Joan Baez
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Free Music Notes for Joan Baez
Free Music Review: A Slightly Different View
Hit: 5 Stars
As a lifelong fan of Joan Baez the singer AND Joan Baez the activist, I will admit right off that I am so into her that I'm sure I lost all of my objectivity long ago. It's not that I love absolutely everything she sings, or that I don't appreciate many other singers as much or better. Perhaps I can state it best through a personal experience. When I was seven years old (1960), I heard "East Virginia" coming through the single speaker in my parents' hi-fi console. The song was not coming from the grooves of a vinyl disc, but over the airwaves, during a period when college radio stations were playing folk music, rather than rock 'n' roll. Anyway, that voice and that melody haunted me for years afterwards, and now I must blame Joan Baez for having turned me into a music junkie for the rest of my life. When I was in the fifth grade, a friend's sister put Joan's first LP on her portable record player. "Silver Dagger" knocked me right out of my seat, and when "East Virginia" started to play, it all became clear when and where I had heard that voice before.
JOAN BAEZ became one of the first LP's I ever owned, but I did not buy it until I was a couple of years older and had enough of my own money to spend. I used the word "blame" earlier, because I swear that if I had never bought an album, cassette or CD, I would be a rich man today. Buying music has kept me financially poor, but I can't say I'm too sorry, because it has made me feel spiritually rich. So, because of this early connection to music, I can still revisit and enjoy this essential record; and yet I have not frozen Joan into this period, as others seem to have done. I like songs of hers throughout her incredibly long career and she has made several albums that remain among my favorites. The first of five times that I've gone to see and hear Joan Baez live didn't come until 1983, and by then she was doing almost every type of song one could imagine. A recent CD, DARK CHORDS ON A BIG GUITAR, serves as a reminder that Joan is still a vital, restless talent who has never stopped growing. Her singing may not have the purity it did when she made this first record for Vanguard, and I won't say that her voice isn't finally beginning to show the ravages of time, but over the years she has made up for the loss of range with a greater depth of feeling, shaded no doubt by experience and life itself, and has added colors to her box of vocal tones (she may have lost the high end, but the low end is better than ever). So some of Joan's old, folkie fans dumped her when she went country, or later, when she started in with the pop music, or still later when she tried to rock out, but I've found her evolution to be rewarding and fascinating at every turn. It could not be so without that voice; but for me, as my story illustrates, it goes deeper.
Free Music Review: A Lovely Album
Hit: 4 Stars
This is an outstanding reissue. I owned the original Vanguard recording, recorded over 45 years ago, and it was a favorite. Discarded years ago, I've occasionally wondered if my fondness for this album had more to with nostalgia than the quality of the music. The answer is a resounding no. Baez sings a superb selection of material in an unaffected, natural manner. At this stage of her career, she had a lovely voice, and one whose quality seems to be suited perfectly to the material. The aural quality of this reissue is excellent and adjusted for inflation, this may be a lower price than the cost of the album when first issued. Free Music Review: A Rare Treat
Hit: 5 Stars
The recent PBS American Masters presentation of Martin Scorsese's "Bob Dylan: No Direction Home" made one thing clear: rather than history being unkind to Baez, the opposite is true. On a stage filled with luminaries, her voice transcended, rising above humbler vocal talents like a temple bell at a PTA meeting squabble.
When Joan sings "All My Trials," and hits the word "cold" in the line "The river Jordan is muddy and cold ..." she creates another language altogether - something simultaneously sinuous, tender, and bitter. You may only have one life. Do yourself a favor - somewhere along the way see the Alhambra in May, sip champagne in an Epernay cellar, turn out the lights and catch a Myrna Loy & William Powell flick, and listen to early Baez. Only a critical tendency to disparage perfection - passing over the Raphael to enthuse about Hieronymus Bosch - can account for any characterization of that voice as "removed". If removed, then why the goosebumps? Some prefer the sow's ear of homey folk to the silk purse of Baez. That's fine. Just don't attribute that bias to history. History will be the one in the corner with the headphones, playing "Silver Dagger" for the thousandth time.
Free Music Review: Correction to Peter Caldwell review
Hit: 5 Stars
Contrary to Peter Caldwell's posting below, the character of "Joanie Phoanie," a Joan Baez look-alike in bare feet and love beads, was the creation not of "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau but of "Li'l Abner" cartoonist Al Capp, a former liberal turned '60s pro-Vietnam war rightwinger. Capp also came up with Students Wildly Indignant about Nearly Everything (SWINE), a parody of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Capp was invited to numerous campuses by prowar groups till multiple allegations of sexual improprieties surfaced, after which he withdrew. Online sources say Ms. Baez successfully sued Capp for libel. Capp's cartoon strip satirizing "hillbillies" died more than 30 years ago. Joan Baez has continued a distinguished career, both in politics and music, though she never surpassed her first albums for artistry and purity. But I say that just because I prefer the old ballads to anything modern, except early Dylan. Just me: an unreconstructed old fogie from the great folk song scare of the early 60s.
Of course, it goes without saying that Joan's first three albums are essential. Others have said this better so I won't add more.
Free Music Review: Joan Baez at her best
Hit: 5 Stars
This album and Volume 2 are Joan Baez at her best. The cool soprano voice and the clearly understood verse are evident here. Great emotion is achieved with her ability to balance the timbre of her voice to the story of the ballad. The accompaning guitar is fitting. The choice of the songs and the order of their presentation are perfect. The quality of the re-engineering is very good considering the original is over forty years old. All in all a masterpiece.