DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21216#0100
painting of Baez commissioned by Time and done by that excellant writer Rus-
sell Huban (whose novels are in my opinion far superior to this painting). Even
as a twenty-four-year-old Baez distanced herseif from the image which she feit the
Time cover story tried to convey. In explaining why it was the "rational sensible
decent" part of her that was repulsed by the idea of being on the cover of Time
she told the Interviewer on the Creative Person T.V. program in '65:
Joan: They wanted to make some image of me and they succeeded.
Interviewer: The girl with the long hair and bare feet.
Joan: Sure, I mean as far as most people are concerned I still wear nothing
but sandals if anything on my feet and I have long ratty hair and that's what
Time magazine wanted to establish. And no matter how you change or how
fast you change it takes people years to catch up.
Interviewer: You are probably identified with a crowd that drinks, that
smokes, that smokes pot, that's beatnik. You don't do any of these things do
you?
Joan: No [said with a laugh] And it's really stränge. Well 'cause there's noth-
ing I could say to convince people, 'cause I did go around looking pretty aw-
ful for about four years, I lived down in Big Sur in 'um just in a dumpy little
house and I just kind of, I reached the point where I'd just sort of leave the
nightgown on all day, a big granny gown and put boots on and stomped a-
round in the mud, because you just couldn't fight it Irving in a place like that.
So I looked the part. But I never smoked pot. I don't smoke regulär cigar-
ettes. I don't drink. I don't even drive fast any more. Cause it's sort of dumb I
think. I didn't even enjoy it, I realize now, when I used to drive fast. When
you've reached the point when you're driving that you can see your head
splattered on every telephone pole as you go by, then you obviously know
you're driving too fast!
3) Driving fast and living hard. As the quote above testifies, Baez did for a time
race at high speeds along the highways. The Time cover story reports her buying
an XE sports car on the spot, bewildering the salesman who had "looked down
his nose at the scruffily dressed customer". (p. 56). This is Baez the rebel who
will not dress like the wealthy but who is nevertheless well-to-do. The same
scene, or one very similar to it, has been reported about other stars, (For ex-
ample, Grace Slick. But she bought an Austin Martin, was dressed in "hippie
sleek", was ignored by the salesman and paid cash: see Katherine Orloff, 1974
p. 149). The story is important because it shows the smger (be it Baez or Slick)
as nonconformist who has the monetary power to do what she pleases. This is, I
think, an image that would be very attractive to quite a few young people. The
message is: these special "rebels" are free from restrictive norms (for example,
codes of dress, which were in the sixties often a bone of contention between
95
sell Huban (whose novels are in my opinion far superior to this painting). Even
as a twenty-four-year-old Baez distanced herseif from the image which she feit the
Time cover story tried to convey. In explaining why it was the "rational sensible
decent" part of her that was repulsed by the idea of being on the cover of Time
she told the Interviewer on the Creative Person T.V. program in '65:
Joan: They wanted to make some image of me and they succeeded.
Interviewer: The girl with the long hair and bare feet.
Joan: Sure, I mean as far as most people are concerned I still wear nothing
but sandals if anything on my feet and I have long ratty hair and that's what
Time magazine wanted to establish. And no matter how you change or how
fast you change it takes people years to catch up.
Interviewer: You are probably identified with a crowd that drinks, that
smokes, that smokes pot, that's beatnik. You don't do any of these things do
you?
Joan: No [said with a laugh] And it's really stränge. Well 'cause there's noth-
ing I could say to convince people, 'cause I did go around looking pretty aw-
ful for about four years, I lived down in Big Sur in 'um just in a dumpy little
house and I just kind of, I reached the point where I'd just sort of leave the
nightgown on all day, a big granny gown and put boots on and stomped a-
round in the mud, because you just couldn't fight it Irving in a place like that.
So I looked the part. But I never smoked pot. I don't smoke regulär cigar-
ettes. I don't drink. I don't even drive fast any more. Cause it's sort of dumb I
think. I didn't even enjoy it, I realize now, when I used to drive fast. When
you've reached the point when you're driving that you can see your head
splattered on every telephone pole as you go by, then you obviously know
you're driving too fast!
3) Driving fast and living hard. As the quote above testifies, Baez did for a time
race at high speeds along the highways. The Time cover story reports her buying
an XE sports car on the spot, bewildering the salesman who had "looked down
his nose at the scruffily dressed customer". (p. 56). This is Baez the rebel who
will not dress like the wealthy but who is nevertheless well-to-do. The same
scene, or one very similar to it, has been reported about other stars, (For ex-
ample, Grace Slick. But she bought an Austin Martin, was dressed in "hippie
sleek", was ignored by the salesman and paid cash: see Katherine Orloff, 1974
p. 149). The story is important because it shows the smger (be it Baez or Slick)
as nonconformist who has the monetary power to do what she pleases. This is, I
think, an image that would be very attractive to quite a few young people. The
message is: these special "rebels" are free from restrictive norms (for example,
codes of dress, which were in the sixties often a bone of contention between
95