January 6, 2011. Copyright 2011, Graphic News. All rights reserved

Joan Baez: Queen of folk turns 70
By Joanna Griffin

LONDON, January 6, Graphic News:  Half a century after Joan Baez first swept to fame singing protest songs against the Vietnam War, the years have dimmed neither her devotion to music nor her passion for social justice. Baez will be 70 on January 9.

To children of the 60s, her heyday remains forever her partnership with Bob Dylan, who was briefly a lover and whose songs (including Farewell, Angelina and Blowin' in the Wind) she helped to make famous. But Baez has never stopped making music or campaigning for causes including pacifism and human rights in a more than 50-year career legendary for its social activism.

That's why she still made headlines when she endorsed President Barack Obama for U.S. president as recently as 2008 and why she prompted an audience walkout when she hit out at his predecessor George W Bush. The unsmiling girl with the long, dark hair and severe manner might have mellowed over time, but her message has not.

Born in 1941 in Staten Island, New York, Baez's Mexican father was a physics professor whose work took his three girls and Scottish wife -- known as "Big Joan" -- all over the world. After he took a job at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Joan studied theatre and sang at bars and cafes around Boston. Her breakthrough came at the Newport Folk Festival in 1959 and performances including her rendition of We Shall Overcome, at Martin Luther King's 1963 March on Washington, and her gig at Woodstock 1969 cemented her status as the "queen of folk".

Though she is generally better known as an interpreter of others' music, Baez had a huge hit in 1975 with her own composition, Diamonds & Rust. As well as Dylan, the greats whose songs she has recorded include Woody Guthrie, Stevie Wonder and the Beatles. More recently, she has stayed in touch with younger audiences through collaboration with songwriters Natalie Merchant and Steve Earle. In all, Baez has released more than 30 albums and notched up numerous awards, including the 2007 Grammy for Lifetime Achievement.

Some of her better-known compositions, such as A Song for David, and Fifteen Months, are about a period in which her then husband David Harris was jailed for refusing the military draft. In 1969 the couple had a son, Gabriel, who is also a musician. But it is her relationship with Dylan -- the "folk king" to her queen -- that has continued to fascinate fans: they still argue about which of his songs are about her and who was jealous of whose fame, but most agree Baez came out of the rock 'n' roll 70s in better shape than many of her contemporaries. Her social conscience, too, stayed intact -- in the 80s and 90s she continued to speak out for global peace and human rights, as well as for an end to the death penalty and, controversially, against the Iraq war.

"All of us are survivors," Baez once wrote, "but how many of us transcend survival?" That may be true but even those who disagree with her views or are unmoved by her haunting, soprano voice would surely admire her sheer staying power.
/ENDS