Joan Baez - Iconic Singer and Activist

Joan Baez - Iconic Singer and Activist

Joan Baez - Iconic Singer and Activist

Joan Baez is not just a musician she is also a political icon. The artistry of her music comes second to her political conscience. Joan Baez uses songs to relate and encourage fundamental political ideas. She could possibly be referred to as the mother of female singer songwriters she was one of the first females to have the songs which she composed taken seriously and used by her peers.

Her very first lp called simply Joan Baez was launched on the Vanguard recording label in 1960. It was released after her fantastic performance at the Newport Folk Festiva the previous year. Surprisingly, it took just 4 days to record that lp with some tracks being put down in just a single take.

It is interesting that Joan Baez chose to release her 1st lp on the less well known Vanguard recording label. It is rumoured that Columbia, who at the time was a huge record label, had previously offered her a contract. Joan instead chose the much smaller independent recording label and got the artistic licence she desired to truly express herself and to play the songs she believed should be heard.

Joan Baez Vol 2, released in 1961, was the album that definitely lit a fire under her career. On that lp her crystal-clear soprano voice reinterpreted typical folk melodies accompanied only by an acoustic guitar. The lp got onto the best seller list and made Baez a small celebrity; it climbed to No. 13 on the Billboard album chart. It was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Contemporary Folk Performance category. The Greenbriar Boys played on 2 of the tracks on the album.

Joan Baez used her newly found popularity to defend a diverse range of significant causes. She grew to be heavily involved with the pacifist movement. Her work for this movement resulted in her spending a lot of time with Bob Dylan, whom she also recorded a lot of songs with. Joan Baez sang We Shall Overcome at the Washington March led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963. The passion with which she sang on that occasion still sends shivers down the spine of a number of people not just fans or Joan Baez or folk songs.

Joan Baez 5 (1965) is the Lp with which she publicised the message of the Greenwich Village Movement. The lp had far less traditional folk tunes on it than her earlier albums. At this point Joan Baez grew to become the poster girl for protest melodies, sad to say this lead to her writing very little non-protest related work during the following years. However, when you consider that folk music has for centuries documented the challenges of ordinary people Joan Baez during that time was being faithful to the origins of folk music.

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