joan didion's '60s profile of her is good, mostly for the clash of sensibilities. (i haven't read it in a while, but my recollection is that didion is deeply skeptical but also sort of charmed.)
― would you ask tom petty that? (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 27 May 2009 14:14 (fourteen years ago) link
I like her country-folk period the best, say 1968 to her first album for A&M. She used a lot of the same Nashville musicians that appeared on John Wesley Harding, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, Bradley's Barn and so on.
― QuantumNoise, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 14:18 (fourteen years ago) link
To tipsy mothra: I agree. Both her voice and looks have aged REALLY well.
― QuantumNoise, Wednesday, 27 May 2009 14:19 (fourteen years ago) link
a pretty haunting Joan Baez tune imo
(w/ commentary from Bob who calls her "staggering")
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOAAHlYMKYc
― lukevalentine, Monday, 15 February 2010 02:49 (fourteen years ago) link
as a folk fan, I would call Joan Baez a "classic" in the American folk cannonbut with a few reservations. I typically can't listen to more than one album without tiring of her singing style.
my favorite record of hers is
http://decibelmagazine.com/admin/assets/uploads/karl_noel1.jpg
in which she sings trad. xmas ballads
― lukevalentine, Monday, 15 February 2010 02:54 (fourteen years ago) link
more like Joan BADASS:
http://i.imgur.com/IbSyvxn.png
― niels, Saturday, 22 April 2017 17:18 (seven years ago) link
very cool
― Treeship, Saturday, 22 April 2017 17:25 (seven years ago) link
to be honest she takes it back shortly after
http://i.imgur.com/3vLzMGT.png
― niels, Saturday, 22 April 2017 17:59 (seven years ago) link
So I picked tonight to get into Joan Baez. I'm running through the A&M albums at the moment because the little I'd heard before was a) from the 60s the timbre of her voice had a quality I didn't exactly love and b) A&M records made everyone sound brilliant from about 1970-75.
My instincts were right. This shit totally works for me.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 17 April 2020 04:01 (four years ago) link
Diamonds and Rust is my only exposure to her 70s output ... what else?
― that's not my post, Friday, 17 April 2020 04:10 (four years ago) link
I started with Come From The Shadows, which was her first for A&M in 1972, and so far I've loved all of them. I'll branch out either backwards or forwards soon. Gulf Winds, despite its corny cover art, has some delightfully funky-smooth arranging.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 17 April 2020 04:17 (four years ago) link
The earliest album that I remember best (and still enjoy hearing in my head) is Joan Baez 5 (1964)---good presentation here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Baez/5 (says Top 12 alb Us, Phil Ochs' "There But For Fortune" Top 10 UK, move over Merseybeat!) Also points out this was her first evenly split between trad and originals---although the originals incl. some settings or elements of trad, hell they prob all do---from Cash and Dylan and R. Farina ( his incisive "Birmingham Sunday," re still-recent, notorious event) to deep UK, African-American and Latin ballads, Villa-Lobos for that matter, but it all works. Her more genteel, high-flown tendencies have to mix w earthy eloquence, deeper singing. Overall, kinda cosmic.
On One Day At A Time (1970) she's waiting out her husband's prison time for draft resistance, mixing w A-list Nashville cats, title track then a fresh sentiment and well=written by then mostly unknown-beyond-Nashville Willie Nelson, frequently in duet w Jeffrey Shurtleff, who was fervent but didn't get in the way, also got "No Expectations," killer "Seven Bridges Road," reissue, which I haven't heard, adds two of Merle Haggard's best (this of course from when he was still best known for trying to cash in on "Oakie From Muskogee" w worse shit: why these were left off, or they just ram out of optimum LP room?)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Day_at_a_Time_(album) Soulful, sensible, lyrical, goes against bummers-to-horrors of that year.
― dow, Friday, 17 April 2020 15:11 (four years ago) link
Also liked this 2005 set, well-produced by Steve Earle, whose writing and maybe suggested selections take her in some unexpected directions at times ("God ain't me/God ain't you.")https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_After_Tomorrow_(Joan_Baez_album)
― dow, Friday, 17 April 2020 15:23 (four years ago) link
New doc is pretty good.
― Smike and Pmith (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 20 October 2023 05:14 (six months ago) link
Lots of interesting family stuff
― Smike and Pmith (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 20 October 2023 12:26 (six months ago) link
Don’t really want to be that guy but, while I kind of admire her technical abilities and find her interesting as a person or personality, something about her performance still doesn’t quite compel me. Do like the song “Diamonds and Rust” at least.
― Smike and Pmith (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 20 October 2023 14:51 (six months ago) link