Joan Baez's birthday (9 January 1941)

Subject: Joan Baez's birthday
From: The Shambles
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 08:03 PM

Joan Baez was born this day (9 January) in 1941.

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 08:45 PM

Didn't Max send you to your room without supper?

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday
From: GUEST,Sixteen Candles
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 09:05 PM

Happy Birthday, Joanie! Thanks for the heads-up, Shambles--

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday
From: Genie
Date: 08 Jan 07 - 10:33 PM

Happy birthday, Joan!   You were my first female folk singer love!

Genie

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday (9 January 1941)
From: jaze
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 07:56 PM

And still going strong.

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday (9 January 1941)
From: Chris in Portland
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 09:16 PM

I saw Joanie at Georgetown Univ (DC) at a Friday afternoon concert in April, '64. If I remember correctly, she had just come out with her first cd - she came on the stage barefoot, and did a great job of doing the songs solo. That semester I also saw Mississippi John and Rambling Jack. But my favorites were Ian and Sylvia. Pretty good time for music.
Glad that Joanie just keeps getting better. Happy Birthday --
Chris in Portland

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday (9 January 1941)
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 09:47 PM

Bet it wasn't a CD in 1964.

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday (9 January 1941)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 09:57 PM

It most definitely was not. I think her first album was out a bit earlier than that. Her first recorded work officially released was 2 songs on a Newport Folk Festival live album from Newport 1959, and I think her first solo album was released in '60 or '61.

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday (9 January 1941)
From: Don Firth
Date: 09 Jan 07 - 11:26 PM

Other than the two cuts with Bob Gibson on the 1959 Newport Folk Festival recording, Joan's first record (12" LP) came out in 1960. Then she put out one LP a year on the Vanguard label for several years running. I've heard that there was actually an earlier one, on some small label, where there were several singers, and she had a cut or two, but I've never heard it.

I first saw her live during the 1962 Seattle World's Fair when she sang an concert in the brand new Seattle Center Opera House to a full house of 3,100. A friend of mine got a wild idea and went backstage during intermission. He managed to thread his way through the crowd backstage and asked her if she would be interested in going to a small party, composed of a few Seattle folksingers, after her concert. He was sure she would turn him down, but she surprised him and said, "Yes." It seems she'd been in town for a couple of days, didn't know anybody here, and was feeling kind of lonesome. So Dave and I picked her up at the stage door and drove up to Dotty Broxon's house on Capitol Hill, where we knew a party was going on. The party had been going for awhile, but Dottie knew there was going to be an influx of people who had gone to the concert. Needless to say, walking into the party with Joan Baez was a bit of a coup!

She didn't sing at the party because she had already sung for nearly two hours and she felt like she might be on the verge of a cold, with more concerts to go, so she took it easy, but a lot of singing did go on.

Bob (Deckman) Nelson was there also (he, too, had gone to the concert), and after clearing it with his wife, he invited Joan to stay at the Nelson maison. At the time, he lived in Seattle's south end, and that would save her a long cab or shuttle-ride out to the Seattle-Tacoma airport in the morning. She checked out of her hotel and stayed the night with Bob and Norma, then Bob drove her to the airport and saw her onto the plane.

Then in 1964, at the Berkeley Folk Festival, after taking in one of the morning workshops, I was heading downstairs to go out for lunch when I bumped into (almost literally) a dark-haired young woman wearing a T-shirt, cut-offs, and sandals, coming up the stairs. It was Joan, on her way in to check on the arrangements for her concert that night. Darned if she didn't remember me from two years before. We chatted for a few minutes, then both went on our way.

Nice gal! Happy birthday, Joan!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday (9 January 1941)
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 11:18 AM

Wasn't there an early limited release of Joan and two other (male) singers from the Boston area, later released as "Early Joan"?

I think one of the guys was named Ted A...

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday (9 January 1941)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 11:23 AM

Ha! I worshipped her so much at that time that I'd have fallen down dead if I'd met her. I'm 7 years younger than she is, so I was just a kid in 1959-64.

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday (9 January 1941)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 11:33 AM

Actually, come to think of it, I'm closer to 8 years younger than she is...

My, my, those were the days.

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday (9 January 1941)
From: Don Firth
Date: 10 Jan 07 - 01:43 PM

On that first recording, HERE's the pertinent poop!

THIS is a good, comprehensive article. Also, there is her autobiography, And A Voice to Sing With. Good read.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday (9 January 1941)
From: GUEST,Bill the Collie
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 09:59 AM

In the mid-60's, I said hello to her at a party.
She said hi.


Er, that was it. God, I must've been a groover in my youth.

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday (9 January 1941)
From: Wesley S
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 11:09 AM

"Too bad you're a communist"

Handwritten on the inside of her Martin 0-45 guitar by a repairman. Discovered many years later during another repair job.

Subject: RE: Joan Baez's birthday (9 January 1941)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jan 07 - 07:40 PM

LOL! Yeah, anyone who doesn't support an America war must be a Communist, right?