I found this book in Pune, and somehow found it interesting based on the cover and the blurb without really knowing how impressive Joan Baez's life had been. I had never heard her sing, so when i checked out her songs I was wondering at 'We shall overcome' which is the tune on which 'Hum Honge Kamyaab' seems based on. And so many more songs with powerful lyrics demanding justice, equality, peace and all things right. Joan put together 30 albums and was a super star in her own right and in many ways.
Born January 9, 1941 to a Scottish mother and a Mexican father who would be a scientist, Joan and her two sisters travelled around with their parents. She had a penchant for drawing, singing, learned to play the ukelele, fell in love easily (something she continued to do all her life). Impressed by Gandhi's non-violent approach to protest she became a life long advocate for non-violence, followed Martin Luther King and performed at the Civil Rights March on August 28, 1963 at 22. Normally barefoot, bohemian, a guitar strapped to her shoulder, Joan Baez wrote songs, joined protests left right and centre, fell in and out of love. She discovered Bob Dylan and promoted him, fell in love, and describes one moment as the time when she most felt love - a moment when she had a mom like feeling. Anyway Bob grew bigger and left her, treated her badly during a Europe trip and she left him. But both seem to have been the love of each others lives from what I gathered, never getting over each other.
Joan married an activist David Harris and they had a child Gabriel (Gabe) to whom the book is dedicated and who completely stole he attention. In between all this she protested against the war in Vietnam, tourned Vietnam during the infamous Christmas bombing of Vietnam, composed and released an album 'Where are you my son?' with bits of dialogue and music and sound of bombs. Joan, as someone rightly said was Zelig-like, being present on so many great events - she performed 14 songs at Woodstock, opened the show at Live Aid's American wing (where she flirted outrageously with Don Johnson and several others and was, along with The Who, Crosby Stills and Nash and Santana, the only survivor from Woodstock to perform at Live Aid), sang at the Civil Rights movement, was featured on the cover of Time Magazine, went to Poland to support Solidarity party. Joan is unapologetic about her choices and loves (including one girlfriend when she was 22 which seemed to have got her into some trouble. Joan was a big one to seek help from therapy from a young age.
Overall, gutsy, spontaneous, living life with convictions and courage and love, Joan Baez is certainly someone who lived a life I envy. They don't make people like that anymore and I am so glad I read the book. I listened to a few of her songs and loved them. I cannot help but think that spending five minutes listening to her and her life philosophies would be such a wonderful thing. (One nice thing about these old books is stuff we find in them - I found a passport pic of a smiling man with a mustache - wonder who he was and why his pic was in the book and what he is up to now).
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