# Baez



## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

I've been listening to Joan Baez thing folk music. I love it now as much as I did nearly a half-century ago.

"Mary Hamilton". Beautiful; painful, for us sentimental old fools.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

Never liked Baez. too pretentious to me.

my women are Joni Mitchell, Ricky Lee Jones and Peggy Lee.

love 'em.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Her song _*Halleluja*_ has made me emotional, actually cry. Don't know why but it's that feeling of people coming together and being united. A kind of innocence of that "flower power" era which is kind of now vanished, replaced by the guys and gals in suits, who of course know better than that kind of religious rubbish. We just need to buy more and spend more to be happy, that's the message today. In the post-war decades there was a certain coming together and optimism to improve things like social justice, which has been replaced by a kind of deadened apathy and materialism. A bit of a rose-tinted glasses view maybe of the "good old days," but I think there is at least some validity to what I'm saying...


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Sid James said:


> Her song _*Halleluja*_ has made me emotional, actually cry. Don't know why but it's that feeling of people coming together and being united. A kind of innocence of that "flower power" era which is kind of now vanished, replaced by the guys and gals in suits, who of course know better than that kind of religious rubbish. We just need to buy more and spend more to be happy, that's the message today. In the post-war decades there was a certain coming together and optimism to improve things like social justice, which has been replaced by a kind of deadened apathy and materialism. A bit of a rose-tinted glasses view maybe of the "good old days," but I think there is at least some validity to what I'm saying...


That's the later Baez, after she got politicized, and came under the influence of Hanoi Jane. Not the singer I loved to listen to at all.


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

I have "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" on my iPod and it's lovely. After I've caught up on my own music library listening, I intend to listen to more of her music. Is there a particular album recommendation?


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Sonata said:


> I have "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" on my iPod and it's lovely. After I've caught up on my own music library listening, I intend to listen to more of her music. Is there a particular album recommendation?


Any of them before 'flower power' took over. Her voice was too good for the 'protest' songs, and she emulated some accents unconvincingly.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

Despite having weird wibbly synth noises Diamonds and Rust is a top 10 song for me, such beautifully intricate songwriting. I only know her earlier music patchily, i'll have to take another listen. Female folkies that sing Waltzing Matilda sweeten it too much I think, The Pogues is the version that really cuts me.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Baez could control the 'shaping' of her voice very well, to suit the music she was singing; e.g. 'The Silkie' and 'Lady Hamilton' are voiced differently than the Appalachian songs. 'Atmosphere' to burn in both modes.


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