Joan Baez #

Since 1959—when she first appeared, at age eighteen, at the Newport Folk Festival, singing alongside the banjo player and guitarist Bob Gibson—Joan Baez has been electrifying eager crowds with her elegance and ferocity. Baez was central to both the folk revival and the civil-rights movement of the nineteen-sixties; her protest songs, delivered in a vivid, warbly soprano, felt both defiant and gently maternal. (Baez’s stunning 1963 performance of the century-old gospel song “We Shall Overcome,” at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, remains one of the crucial musical artifacts of the era.)

Baez has also continued her political advocacy. Her strongest protests were against the war in Vietnam and Lyndon Johnston and Richard Nixon’s ignorant pursuit of total victory which turned out a complete rout and humiliating retreat. Many times she was arrested, but as soon as she was released, she went straight back to the lines of protest.

J.F. Kennedy made excellent progress in attempting to work toward peace. See:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNOQLkp0E5w

Joan, is very good at singing other people’s songs, while self-effacing about writing her own songs; I never thought they were terrific—I think some of them are very good. “Diamonds and Rust” is in a class of its own.

Baez and Bob Dylan became an item briefly in the 1960’s but slowly and amicably drifted apart.

Jarvis Cocker writes:

I’m very fond of Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right – it’s a great break-up song: he’s making light of it, but one or two little digs show that he is actually a bit upset. My favourite verse goes:

“I wish there was something you would do or say / To try and make me change my mind and stay / But we never did too much talking anyway /Don’t think twice, it’s all right.”

I think Dylan’s sense of humour is often overlooked. This is his farewell to Joan Baez.

Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right #

Well, it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
If’n you don’t know by now
And it ain’t no use to sit and wonder why, babe
It’ll never do somehow
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I’ll be gone
You’re the reason I’m a-traveling on
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

And it ain’t no use in a-turning on your light, babe
The light I never knowed
And it ain’t no use in turning on your light, babe
I’m on the dark side of the road
But I wish there was something you would do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
But we never did too much talking anyway
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

So it ain’t no use in calling out my name, gal
Like you never done before
And it ain’t no use in calling out my name, gal
I can’t hear you anymore
I’m a-thinking and a-wondering, walking down the road
I once loved a woman, a child, I’m told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

So long, honey babe
Where I’m bound, I can’t tell
Goodbye’s too good a word, babe
So I’ll just say, “Fare thee well”
I ain’t a-saying you treated me unkind
You could’ve done better, but I don’t mind
You just kinda wasted my precious time
But don’t think twice, it’s all right

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iHhWh9FtsQ

Here is Joan Baez’s response to Dylan

Diamonds and Rust #

Well, I’ll be damned
Here comes your ghost again
But that’s not unusual
It’s just that the moon is full
And you happened to call
And here I sit
Hand on the telephone
Hearing a voice I’d known
A couple of light years ago
Heading straight for a fall
As I remember your eyes
Were bluer than robin’s eggs
My poetry was lousy you said
Where are you calling from?
A booth in the midwest

Ten years ago
I bought you some cufflinks
You brought me something
We both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust
Well, you burst on the scene
Already a legend
The unwashed phenomenon
The original vagabond
You strayed into my arms
And there you stayed
Temporarily lost at sea
The Madonna was yours for free
Yes, the girl on the half-shell Could keep you unharmed
Now I see you standing
With brown leaves falling all around
And snow in your hair
Now you’re smiling out the window
Of that crummy hotel
Over Washington Square
Our breath comes out white clouds
Mingles and hangs in the air
Speaking strictly for me
We both could have died then and there
Now you’re telling me
You’re not nostalgic
Then give me another word for it
You who are so good with words
And at keeping things vague
‘Cause I need some of that vagueness now
It’s all come back too clearly
Yes, I loved you dearly
And if you’re offering me diamonds and rust
I’ve already paid.

Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ST9TZBb9v8