DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21216#0114
trickery on kids who never favored me", when she was in school. His reaction
underlines the Baez honesty as a central part of her character:
"Trickery" is probably the last word anyone, critic or cohort, would use to
describe Joan Baez' passionate commitment to the human rights struggle.
He says that the lines of the song "are characteristic of her honesty in general".
In hundreds of reviews and articles no one entertains the idea that Baez does not
mean what she propogates". She may be accused of naivite, or simplification of
a Situation, but she is taken to be sincere in her beliefs.
The one characteristic that apparently everyone who has met Joan Baez
agrees on, even the most skeptical reporters, is her honesty. (Finn, 1968
p. 455)
And just this sincerity is sometimes offered as proof that she is different from
the normal singing star. This is part of an equation: Joan Baez the star = star.
Joan Baez is seen as an anomaly of star dorn! Already in the beginning of her
career this was commented upon by one journalist:
If music journalists could interview Joan Baez every so often they'd probably
stay sane, sober and serene for the rest of their lives. In the image building
personality faking artifical world of pop music Joan Baez is something of a
phenomonon but then she doesn't really belone to that world at all. (Melody
Maker, May 22, 1965)
A profile covering the years from 1959-73 under the sub heading "No need for
a "star", Claims: »
Joan Baez retains her no nonsense attitude to the show business establish-
ment. She still sees no need for the trappings of the "star" Status, which
many artists less talented and less successful eagerly claim. (Radio One Story
of Pop, part 15 undated issues p. 399)
Another interviewer is more effusive. The key word is "committment", a word
which often crops up in articles on Baez:
She spoke with an arresting clarity of thought, moving from music to philo-
sophy with casual ease. In a voice rieh in overtones she exuded a warmth of
spirit, a mature idealism, and, predictably, an absolutely screaming sense of
humour. She was unquestionably a woman of international stature whose
every movement, thought and gesture authenticated inseperable committ-
ments to her art and to nonviolence. (Rolling Stone, Dec. 7, 1968 p. 12)
The interviewer John Grissim Jr. sees music as being secondary to politics in
Baez' life where,
"her role in recent history has not been that of pop heroine, but rather as
a purveyor of an enjoined social consciousness and responsibility. (ibid)
109
underlines the Baez honesty as a central part of her character:
"Trickery" is probably the last word anyone, critic or cohort, would use to
describe Joan Baez' passionate commitment to the human rights struggle.
He says that the lines of the song "are characteristic of her honesty in general".
In hundreds of reviews and articles no one entertains the idea that Baez does not
mean what she propogates". She may be accused of naivite, or simplification of
a Situation, but she is taken to be sincere in her beliefs.
The one characteristic that apparently everyone who has met Joan Baez
agrees on, even the most skeptical reporters, is her honesty. (Finn, 1968
p. 455)
And just this sincerity is sometimes offered as proof that she is different from
the normal singing star. This is part of an equation: Joan Baez the star = star.
Joan Baez is seen as an anomaly of star dorn! Already in the beginning of her
career this was commented upon by one journalist:
If music journalists could interview Joan Baez every so often they'd probably
stay sane, sober and serene for the rest of their lives. In the image building
personality faking artifical world of pop music Joan Baez is something of a
phenomonon but then she doesn't really belone to that world at all. (Melody
Maker, May 22, 1965)
A profile covering the years from 1959-73 under the sub heading "No need for
a "star", Claims: »
Joan Baez retains her no nonsense attitude to the show business establish-
ment. She still sees no need for the trappings of the "star" Status, which
many artists less talented and less successful eagerly claim. (Radio One Story
of Pop, part 15 undated issues p. 399)
Another interviewer is more effusive. The key word is "committment", a word
which often crops up in articles on Baez:
She spoke with an arresting clarity of thought, moving from music to philo-
sophy with casual ease. In a voice rieh in overtones she exuded a warmth of
spirit, a mature idealism, and, predictably, an absolutely screaming sense of
humour. She was unquestionably a woman of international stature whose
every movement, thought and gesture authenticated inseperable committ-
ments to her art and to nonviolence. (Rolling Stone, Dec. 7, 1968 p. 12)
The interviewer John Grissim Jr. sees music as being secondary to politics in
Baez' life where,
"her role in recent history has not been that of pop heroine, but rather as
a purveyor of an enjoined social consciousness and responsibility. (ibid)
109