Happy Birthday, Joan Baez

 

80 years ago Joan Baez was born on this day in Staten Island. As all who are familiar with her music know, she was born with liquid silver vocal chords. That is to say, she has a beautiful, beautiful voice.

I like the way she acknowledges her voice as something she doesn't take credit for in the opening line of her memoir. (A whole blog post could be written about great opening lines of memoirs and books. I am thinking here o U.S. Grant's autobiography, and the opening sentence in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.) 

Several thoughts and memories came to mind when I imagined what I would write here today, the first being that both she and Bob Dylan, whose life intersected hers at numerous junctures, were both born the same year. 

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Her interest in social justice stems from her family background. Her grandfather left the Catholic church to become a Methodist minister. He came to the U.S. when Joan's father was two years old. Her grandfather preached to and advocated for a Spanish-speaking population. Though her father considered the ministry he instead pursued a math and physics career, obtaining his PhD at Stanford in 1950. Joan's mother was born in Scotland, second daughter of an Anglican priest, and lived to be 100 years old, passing in April 2013.

Joan Baez at the March on Washington 1963. (Public domain)

For many of us, the most memorable image in our minds is her performance during Dr. Martin Luther King's March on Washington in 1963. Few people knew she knew Dr. King personally and had met him years earlier before she ever became a recording artist/folk singer. That was a milestone introduction to the wider world for Bob Dylan, who sang three songs including "Only A Pawn In Their Game."

Or maybe the most memorable is of Joan singing with Bob on the Rolling Thunder Revue. Or maybe it's that photo of her and Bob from the Newport Folk Festival.

As if that weren't enough Joan and Bob stuff, she (like so many others since) recorded an album of Dylan's songs suitably titled Baez Sings Dylan.

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One of my memories that is not included in the Wikipedia account of her life and career (where much of this info comes from) was the 25th Anniversary for the Dylan-themed show on KUMD hosted by John Bushey. A local notable, the late John Bushey was in the middle of his third bout with cancer and the anniversary became a good occasion to have a fund raising event to alleviate his rising medical bills. A silent auction was held and items from both the Dylan camp and from Ms. Baez were contributed. In addition, John received a phone call from Joan during which they spoke for about 20 minutes.

My Favorite album by Joan is not even listed in the Wikipedia listing hotlinked above. The album is titled Ring Them Bells, a collaboration recorded live in 1995 with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Mimi Farina and others. The album features a number of Dylan classics but Joan's heartbreaking rendition of "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" elevates this to another level. 

Of course anything Joan interprets in song gets elevated to a new level. And much more can be said, but for now I really only wanted to say Happy Birthday, Joan. 

Here's the lyrics to a classic folk song from her earliest years. Her song selection through the years has been impeccable. 

All My Trials

Hush, little baby, don't you cry

You know your mama was born to die
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

River of Jordan is muddy and cold
Well, it chills the body, but not the soul
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

I've got a little book with pages three
And every page spells, "Liberty"
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

Too late, my brothers
Too late, but never mind
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

If living were a thing that money could buy
You know the rich would live and the poor would die
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

There grows a tree in Paradise
And the pilgrims call it the Tree of Life
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

Too late, my brothers
Too late, but never mind
All my trials, Lord, soon be over
All my trials, Lord, soon be over

 
Relate Link
Three Versions of "Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You." 

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Happy Anniversary, Happy Birthday, Congratulations, Boom!

Greetings cards @ J Skylark in Canal Park, Duluth

Cool source of Baby Shower gifts and gifts for infants:

Picture Book Boutique on Etsy

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Duluth Does Dylan Birthday Bash at the Rex

Scenes from the Duluth Does Dylan  Birthday Bash at the Rex, May 24

Friends, Romans, Countrymen... Lend us your ears.

Fans from near and afar all gathered together to celebrate this special occasion... 

@ the CD release party, Bringing It All Back Home To Duluth.

The Players

Happy Birthday, Bob

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Here's where you can purchase Duluth Does Dylan IV

And if you need further convincing that this is a Must Add to your collection, 

here's my review of this very fine offering.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Get into it.

Throwback Thursday: A Shout Out to Dan Hansen

From the journals of Dr. Comstock

The other day I got an email from Dan Hansen in which he shared another one of his daily Drivel Chats. It began like this:

Today is 3-7 at 1:54 AM. I will be turning 37 on Thursday the 10th. 3+7 = 10. 1+5+4 = 10. What strange omen could this be? 10 is completion of a cycle. Extracting meaning out of a meaningless moment brought me the spark of inspiration needed to write my next entry. Yes I am turning 37. This was the year van Gogh shot himself in the chest and died shortly after. This was the 3rd milestone I've reached. The first milestone was 27. I beat the 27 club.

Today is the tenth, and it is his 37th birthday. Indeed. Rather than select just one blog entry for Throwback Thursday today, I thought I'd share several. We met as a result of our mutual interest in the arts and later began a friendship that deepened when we discovered many other mutual interests.

This is a link to his 2012 art exhibition at the PRØVE Gallery here.

In January 2015 we did a follow up.

Here's a blog post from a visit last year around this time.

This past December I was granted permission to share a dream/nightmare that he had written down, or rather, dictated.

Dan created the illustrations on this page to accompany a film treatment we were working on, attempting to adapt my Young Adult novel The Red Scorpion into a film. Even if nothing comes of it, we had tremendous fun developing characters and potential storylines.

Meantime, this is my shout out to Dan.... You're a great guy and you are much appreciated. Happy Birthday, mon. And here's a tip: the secret to long life is to keep having more birthdays.

The Red Scorpion and the Journals of Dr. Comstock are fictional creations.

Another Big Day

"Old age isn't so bad when you consider the alternative." ~Maurice Chevalier

The day we've been waiting for has arrived. Hard to believe it. Tonight we're honoring my father-in-law with a party to celebrate his 90th birthday, something one doesn't get to do every day. Hopefully some of us will be fortunate enough to have the experience. Ninety is a milestone for anyone, but especially for those veterans who left so many of their young friends on battlefields in Europe and the South Pacific.

My father-in-law W. A. "Bud" Wagner was the second Minnesotan drafted into the war. Cook, machine gunner and company agent, Wagner had the privilege of being on the first convoy to make its way across the Atlantic for the European theater. And the good fortune of having survived the duration of the war without becoming one of its casualties, in North Africa and Italy, which included beachheads at Anzio and Salerno.

A lifelong journal keeper, Bud finally set about at age 79 to assemble the book he'd been mentally writing all his life. With the help of his son Lloyd, who lives now and Laos and no doubt wishes he could be here tonight, Bud completed his 186,000 word war memories and reflections titled And There Shall Be Wars, which amounted to 535 pages.

Bud had several motivations for writing the book, primarily to put his diaries into a concise form for his family. When citing the value of diaries Bud frequently quotes the Chinese proverb, "The faintest ink is stronger than the strongest memory."

The big birthday's are pretty special. Last year while gardening out here on our property he said he was looking forward to this one. He made it a goal to be here when it happened.

Congratulations, Bud, for marking another milestone.

The older the fiddler, the sweeter the tune. -- English Proverb