# I Find Myself Ignorant of Joan Baez's Music - Educate Me **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 22, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771 "2009-10-22T19:12:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/1 "2009-10-22T19:12:26Z")
I just watched the PBS “American Masters” documentary about Joan Baez and realized I know almost nothing about her music. Strange because I was about weaned on Bob Dylan (literally! We sang “Blowing in the Wind” in kindergarten song time!). I like Dylan, Leonard Cohen, John Denver, and old-timey material (Alison Kraus, etc). She seems like she’d be right up my alley. All I know is that I love “Catch the Wind.” So… where to start? ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/2 "2009-10-22T19:19:20Z")
You might start with her older stuff, [Joan Baez, Vol 2](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Baez,_Vol._2) and [Joan Baez in Concert, Part 2](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Baez_in_Concert,_Part_2) are both excellent. It’s probably a good idea to listen to some song snippets and see if you like her very pronounced vibrato, though. Not everybody does. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/3 "2009-10-22T19:27:30Z")
Joan’s 'Diamond & Rust" CD is a masterpiece. You might also want to check out the works of Richard & Mimi Farina. Mimi is Joanne’s younger sister, and Richard Farina was a genius who sadly died way too young. A good reference book on Joan, Bob, Richard & Mimi is David Hajdu’s [Positively 4th Street](http://www.amazon.com/Positively-4th-Street-Farina-Richard/dp/0374281998) ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/4 "2009-10-22T20:06:40Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > You might start with her older stuff, [Joan Baez, Vol 2](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Baez,_Vol._2) and [Joan Baez in Concert, Part 2](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Baez_in_Concert,_Part_2) are both excellent. It’s probably a good idea to listen to some song snippets and see if you like her very pronounced vibrato, though. Not everybody does. Seconded. What I say is, I sez: If you can listen to “Joan Baez in Concert, Part 2” and still not understand why she was such a big deal back then – you ain’t ever gonna know. You might also enjoy the album “Any Day Now”, which consists entirely of Dylan songs, some of them relatively obscure. The backing band consists of some of Nashville’s finest session musicians. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Any\_Day\_Now\_(Joan\_Baez\_album)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Any_Day_Now_(Joan_Baez_album)) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2009, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/5 "2009-10-22T23:23:53Z")
Ah, Joanie and that piercing soprano weapon she wielded. It was almost more power than my young ears could tolerate. Judy Collins (Suite: Judy Blue Eyes anybody?) was another of those great voices, along with Buffy Ste. Marie and Ian & Sylvia, the Canadian duo (Four Strong Winds was written by Ian Tyson). ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2009, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/6 "2009-10-28T21:41:03Z")
I was away from my computer for a bit so I just wanted to say thanks for the suggestions!! ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/7 "2009-10-28T23:54:46Z")
I’m only familiar with one Joan Baez album, the one where she sings in Spanish. It’s called _Gracias a la Vida_. I love it, but I think it’s pretty different from most of her other stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/8 "2009-10-29T03:31:18Z")
Joan Baez was (and still is) a staggeringly beautiful woman with an equally staggeringly beautiful voice. She might have achieved her success without the looks – her voice was (and, again, still is) good enough, but the looks didn’t hurt. She wasn’t much of a musician, though. She couldn’t hold a candle, as a musician (not just a singer) to contemporaries like Joni Mitchell, but oh my God, she had that voice. Genetic luck, a God-given gift, however you want to see it. And in her later years as a singer, she seems to have learned how to tone down the vibrato a bit, which to my ear only makes it more effective. You don’t bring out the big guns for every shot, right? ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/9 "2009-10-29T03:33:09Z")
Odd addendum. I grew up in a household headed by my father, who was a Barry Goldwater conservative. And yet he had every album Joan Baez ever recorded, and listened to them all the time. That’s how I know her work. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/10 "2009-10-29T07:45:45Z")
As a kid I listened to a cassette recording my mom had made from a record she’d borrowed from the library. I totally fell in love with the lady singing about gypsy boys and the sad wind blowing and riders passing by. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized it had been a Joan Baez album: _Where Are You Now, My Son?_ One of her more obscure albums but the songs are beautiful, if you like the kinds of songs that tell stories. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/11 "2009-10-29T13:44:23Z")
We saw Joan in concert back in her heyday, and though she annoyed me when she said “you all look so proper” (it was in a brand new auditorium and people were, you know, dressed up, sitting in seats, applauding - I guess she was too used to singing for drugged out naked hippies rolling in the mud!) - yeah, as Chefguy put it so nicely, her voice was just thrilling to hear. She always sang “Joe Hill” acapella, and it was positively enthralling. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/12 "2009-10-29T16:38:18Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > Joan Baez was (and still is) a staggeringly beautiful woman with an equally staggeringly beautiful voice. She might have achieved her success without the looks – her voice was (and, again, still is) good enough, but the looks didn’t hurt. She wasn’t much of a musician, though. She couldn’t hold a candle, as a musician (not just a singer) to contemporaries like Joni Mitchell, but oh my God, she had that voice. Genetic luck, a God-given gift, however you want to see it. > > And in her later years as a singer, she seems to have learned how to tone down the vibrato a bit, which to my ear only makes it more effective. You don’t bring out the big guns for every shot, right? I disagree that she was beautiful: striking, absolutely, but not beautiful. Still, her look became popular and through her singing was associated with a certain type of woman. My girlfriend in college in 1965 looked just like her, right down to the hooked beak and being from NYC. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/13 "2009-10-29T17:26:12Z")
Joan Baez is still stunning, and has the purest soprano I’ve ever heard. Judy Collins, while still sounding good, looks like the baby boom’s answer to Phillis Diller. _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/14 "2009-10-29T18:03:58Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Judy Collins, while still sounding good, looks like the baby boom’s answer to Phillis Diller. _shudder_ Not to hijack, but I haven’t felt the same about Judy Collins since hearing her sing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” on a documentary of music in the Civil War. She changed the line “Let us die to make men free,” to “Let us live to make men free.” It really pissed me off. I realize the sentiment is noble, but it just smacked of the politically correct revisioning of history which I abhor. Kck, thuh, and other miffed noises. Anyway, back to Joan Baez. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/15 "2009-10-29T18:20:47Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > . My girlfriend in college in 1965 looked just like her, right down to the hooked beak and being from NYC. Joan Baez was not “from” NYC although she was born in Staten Island. She moved constantly as a child (even living in Bagdad, Iraq once) and got her start in Boston after her father took a position at MIT. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/16 "2009-10-29T20:57:45Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Joan Baez was not “from” NYC although she was born in Staten Island. She moved constantly as a child (even living in Bagdad, Iraq once) and got her start in Boston after her father took a position at MIT. Yeah, I saw the documentary also. We saw Judy Collins in Anchorage (where all washed up acts go to perform)\*, where she did a Christmas concert. She can still put asses in the seats and gave a good performance. \*Our standing joke when the PAC sent out their annual flyer for tickets to the coming season in Anchorage was: well, let’s see which crypts they’ve raided for this year’s lineup. To be fair, they also booked some world-class acts. Unfortunately, they had no concept of what the definition of “jazz” is. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/17 "2009-10-29T20:58:21Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > Not to hijack, but I haven’t felt the same about Judy Collins since hearing her sing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” on a documentary of music in the Civil War. She changed the line “Let us die to make men free,” to “Let us live to make men free.” It really pissed me off. I realize the sentiment is noble, but it just smacked of the politically correct revisioning of history which I abhor. > > Kck, thuh, and other miffed noises. Anyway, back to Joan Baez. Judy Collins didn’t invent the [alternate lyrics](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_Hymn_of_the_Republic). > [@](#): > > In later years, when this song was sung in a non-military environment, the clause “let us die to make men free” was sometimes changed to “let us live to make men free”. This change can be seen in most modern hymnals. In elementary school, we had Christmas Pageants every year. All the kids in that school were Christian back then, so it was OK. (I graduated High School in 1966; you do the math.) One year our music teacher had us sing the last verse of the Battle Hymn as Recessional–& she told us it was about Civil Rights. Don’t know that it was explained to all the parents. We lived in an unincorporated area, but our school district “belonged to” a small Texas city with “Sundown” policies. (Things have gotten much more diverse there, thankfully.) We sang “live to make men free.” Joan Baez had once looked down on the South; seeing what she’d seen there in the 60’s, I can understand. When she recorded “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” it meant she’d broadened her perspective. I saw her live in a very small venue. Yes, she has the amazing voice. But she also has a healthy sense of humor. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2009, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/18 "2009-10-29T21:52:28Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > I saw her live in a very small venue. Yes, she has the amazing voice. But she also has a healthy sense of humor. On this one [Joan Baez - Joan Baez - Greatest Hits - Amazon.com Music](http://www.amazon.com/Joan-Baez-Greatest-Hits/dp/B000002G50/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1256852848&sr=1-1) she does one of the verses in Simple Twist of Fate in a Bob Dylan voice–funny. And OP, you may enjoy Ring Them Bells, a concert album with duets with folks like Indigo Girls, Dar Williams, the McGarrigle Sisters. > **[Joan Baez - Ring Them Bells - Amazon.com Music](https://www.amazon.com/Ring-Them-Bells-Joan-Baez/dp/B001URRHE4)** > > Originally released in 1995, RING THEM BELLS features live duets with Indigo Girls, Dar Williams, Janis Ian, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Mary Black, Mimi Farina and Tish Hinojosa. This Collectors Edition 2-CD package includes six... She turned round the corner with music around her, She gave me the language that keeps me alive, she said: "I’m so glad that you finally made it here With the things you know now, that only time could tell Looking back, seeing far, landing right where we are And you’re aging, and I am aging, **aren’t we aging well?"** ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/19 "2009-12-12T02:38:41Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > And OP, you may enjoy Ring Them Bells, a concert album with duets with folks like Indigo Girls, Dar Williams, the McGarrigle Sisters. Thank you for the recommendation **gigi**! I am seriously enjoying this album. ---
**Author:** ![Docta\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Docta\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Docta_G)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771/20 "2009-12-12T05:19:10Z")
You’re better off staying ignorant. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-find-myself-ignorant-of-joan-baezs-music-educate-me/514771.md?page=2)