The one and only. :-)
Joan Baez was and remains the high priestess of folk music in the United States. As a singer, she's best known for her covers of songs from her old boyfriend Bob Dylan; among the Dylan songs she's recorded are "Farewell, Angelina," "Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word," "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," and "It Ain't Me Babe." But she's also covered many traditional songs like "House of the Rising Sun" (four years before the Animals covered it), "Donna Donna," and "When You Hear Them Cuckoos Hollerin'," as well as covers of tunes from Donovan, John Prine and her late brother-in-law Richard Fariña. She's also written some of her own songs, including "Sweet Sir Galahad."
Ms. Baez began recording for Vanguard Records in 1960, before Dylan got his recording contract with Columbia. (She would later record for both Columbia and A&M.) Her covers of his tunes helped get him attention; that is, Dylan wouldn't have a career if not for his old girlfriend.
Ms. Baez's activism is as legendary as her music. She's campaigned for civil rights, environmental protection and gay rights, and she's campaigned against the death penalty and every war the U.S. has been in since Korea. She became legendary for trying to get soldiers at draft boards to desert rather than go to Vietnam. After the Communists took over all of Vietnam, she campaigned against the Hanoi government for its human rights abuses, making clear her belief that leftist oppression is as inexcusable as rightist oppression. Her stand against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam actually earned her respect from conservatives who had always been against her.
Still active and vibrant, Joan Baez has come a long way, having been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2017. But she still has the same sparkle as that same lovely young lady that Dylan fell in love with so many years ago.
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