Tracks: 1) Silver Dagger; 2) East Virginia; 3) Fare Thee Well; 4) House Of The Rising Sun; 5) All My Trials; 6) Wildwood Flower; 7) Donna Donna; 8) John Riley; 9) Rake And Rambling Boy; 10) Little Moses; 11) Mary Hamilton; 12) Henry Martin; 13) El Preso Numero Nueve.
I love her. I mean, I've always thought of Joan as a serious, dramatic singer. Yes, a bit too perfect, right? And it's fine, as you say there's moments when that's the exact vibe you need. I believe this House of The Rising Sun is so, so intense, no one can touch the Animals version but if electric guitars wouldn't exist, this is probably the one. All My Trials is the song Elvis tacked on to the end of American Trilogy? :o God I've had those words in my head ever since I first heard that song in the 80s. PS: You almost killed me with her AI-generated EW-style romance with Jobs. This could trend.
Assuming Fare Thee Well and House of the Rising Sun are representative: Baez' problem is controlling the volume of her voice when hitting the high notes. Mostly she sings them way too loud, simply because she can - completely drowning her acoustic guitar, always a quiet instrument. The few times she does control the volume (end of the third verse of Fare Thee Well, "not to do what I have done") she sounds way and way more convincing in my ears. So I don't think she was indifferent; she needed professional training to properly learn what classical music calls "expression".
That is a well-known issue with Joan, but I was making a completely different point about her singing, and I never said she was indifferent (clearly she wasn't, or she would never have gone into that profession in the first place), mainly that her lack of variation throughout the course of the song makes it FEEL as if she were indifferent.
Her version of Donna Donna is a bit weak, she just casts it as another tragic ballad, when the song has its origins in the theater. It's not a traditional, it was written after she was born. When I was a getting guitar lessons as a child my book also had a song called Donna Donna marked "traditional" and I always just assumed it was some ancient Eastern European folk tune.
Compare it with another version I recently became acquainted with by this artist named Chava Alberstein. Finding information on her is a bit of a nightmare, since a lot of it is in Hebrew, but I'm guessing her version is from the late 60's. It sounds a lot more like a theater song, it's a lot more exciting. Also check out the version of Rabbi Tam she did which has some of the most expressive vocals I've heard in a folk song.
But I guess those type of versions couldn't have a resonance for the civil rights and the anti-war movement (the calf going to the slaughter), which just goes to show that mass movements, good politics and good music don't necessarily mix.
Only quasi-related to this review, but I still find it to be the height of hilarity that Joan once wrote a (perfectly earnest, 100% sincere) song about satanic ritual abuse. 😆. It is low-key a bop, though.
On holiday, no time to go into details, but you've absolutely nailed her, George. What more can be said? She's one of those artists of whom you really can't have a different opinion than the one you've expressed, the one by now carved in marble. She was an ephemeral shooting star, who provided countless musicians with the link to the by then tired folk heritage. An earful or not, we owe her a huge debt, as you rightly point out. Luckily, the one she was singing to/for (Dylan) was able to resist her charms.
"Resist her charms"? In what way, musically or romantically? I don't think it was so much a matter of resistance as of inborn differences in style. Their duets are a true "song of ice and fire" if there ever was one.
Both, actually. As I understand it, she was all over him from the start, trying to recruit him for her politically-oriented Folk Crusade. He was flattered, but quickly saw the quicksand she was drawing him into. By all accounts there was a brief romance and then he was out of there, he clearly wasn't going to be used to advance Joan's political agenda. Or anyone else's, for that matter.
I love her. I mean, I've always thought of Joan as a serious, dramatic singer. Yes, a bit too perfect, right? And it's fine, as you say there's moments when that's the exact vibe you need. I believe this House of The Rising Sun is so, so intense, no one can touch the Animals version but if electric guitars wouldn't exist, this is probably the one. All My Trials is the song Elvis tacked on to the end of American Trilogy? :o God I've had those words in my head ever since I first heard that song in the 80s. PS: You almost killed me with her AI-generated EW-style romance with Jobs. This could trend.
Assuming Fare Thee Well and House of the Rising Sun are representative: Baez' problem is controlling the volume of her voice when hitting the high notes. Mostly she sings them way too loud, simply because she can - completely drowning her acoustic guitar, always a quiet instrument. The few times she does control the volume (end of the third verse of Fare Thee Well, "not to do what I have done") she sounds way and way more convincing in my ears. So I don't think she was indifferent; she needed professional training to properly learn what classical music calls "expression".
That is a well-known issue with Joan, but I was making a completely different point about her singing, and I never said she was indifferent (clearly she wasn't, or she would never have gone into that profession in the first place), mainly that her lack of variation throughout the course of the song makes it FEEL as if she were indifferent.
Her version of Donna Donna is a bit weak, she just casts it as another tragic ballad, when the song has its origins in the theater. It's not a traditional, it was written after she was born. When I was a getting guitar lessons as a child my book also had a song called Donna Donna marked "traditional" and I always just assumed it was some ancient Eastern European folk tune.
Compare it with another version I recently became acquainted with by this artist named Chava Alberstein. Finding information on her is a bit of a nightmare, since a lot of it is in Hebrew, but I'm guessing her version is from the late 60's. It sounds a lot more like a theater song, it's a lot more exciting. Also check out the version of Rabbi Tam she did which has some of the most expressive vocals I've heard in a folk song.
But I guess those type of versions couldn't have a resonance for the civil rights and the anti-war movement (the calf going to the slaughter), which just goes to show that mass movements, good politics and good music don't necessarily mix.
Only quasi-related to this review, but I still find it to be the height of hilarity that Joan once wrote a (perfectly earnest, 100% sincere) song about satanic ritual abuse. 😆. It is low-key a bop, though.
https://youtu.be/WC4BaYgGJ8Y
On holiday, no time to go into details, but you've absolutely nailed her, George. What more can be said? She's one of those artists of whom you really can't have a different opinion than the one you've expressed, the one by now carved in marble. She was an ephemeral shooting star, who provided countless musicians with the link to the by then tired folk heritage. An earful or not, we owe her a huge debt, as you rightly point out. Luckily, the one she was singing to/for (Dylan) was able to resist her charms.
"Resist her charms"? In what way, musically or romantically? I don't think it was so much a matter of resistance as of inborn differences in style. Their duets are a true "song of ice and fire" if there ever was one.
Both, actually. As I understand it, she was all over him from the start, trying to recruit him for her politically-oriented Folk Crusade. He was flattered, but quickly saw the quicksand she was drawing him into. By all accounts there was a brief romance and then he was out of there, he clearly wasn't going to be used to advance Joan's political agenda. Or anyone else's, for that matter.