...I just read the book "Positively 4th Street", a fairly even-handed look at the intersecting lives and careers of Dylan, Baez, Richard Farina and Mimi Baez Farina up to the mid-60's.

For what its worth, the only member of that quartet who doesn't seem to get somewhat of a bruising in the book is Mimi Farina. The points it explores about Joan Baez are that she could really sing, was very ambitious, (with a bit of a ruthless edge, in the then-competitive folk music scene) but after she grew tired of the trad-folk repertoire, didn't really have a musical path of her own to strike off on--and after she had been a "star" for a few years, she was really more interested in the social issues of the day than anything else.

It was the age of singer-songwriters, and despite all her talents, she was a better song interpreter than writer.

But she was never a fraud.

Mind you, Dylan and R Farina get a far rougher ride in the book. Particularly Farina. Apparently he provoked Carolyn Hester, when they were married, to the point where she pulled his own gun on him once and he had to use his silver tongue to talk her out of blowing him into the next world. (Memo: never criticize a Texas girl's appearance in public.) That's an image I found rather startling when I think of the extremely friendly and gracious Carolyn Hester, whom I met at Kerrville a few years back.

Willie-O