Photos by Debra Rothenberg
Without preamble or fuss, Joan Baez strode alone onto the Beacon stage and started the evening off with “Don’t Think Twice,” one of the many Dylan songs she had made famous and vice-versa. Segueing directly into her own “Honest Lullaby,” she skipped over to Phil Ochs’ much-covered “There But for Fortune” before her bandmates entered the stage and she addressed the audience.
Accompanied by Dirk Powell (stunning on fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar, accordion, keyboards) and her son, Gabe Harris (percussion), we had attended another “Farewell Concert Tour,” last fall, and while the set list didn’t change much, Baez’s attitude may have improved over the winter. Rather than somewhat melancholy and lobbing digs at her former lover Bob Dylan, this time she seemed very upbeat and only once or twice threw a jab, one being a change in the last line of “Diamonds and Rust,” where she sang “Well, I’ll take the diamonds.”
That said, the setlist contained a disproportionate number of death-and-downer songs, including Dylan’s “Lily of the West” (murder, betrayal), “Birmingham Sunday,” by her late brother-in-law Richard Farina (blood, assassination in a church), Woody Guthrie’s “Deportees” (plane crash, the anonymity and devaluation of immigrants’ lives), and Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” (loneliness, a Dreamer’s pain), and a host of others you might want at your wake, but not necessarily at your wedding.
Interestingly, the biggest applause of the night went to “Gracias A La Vida” sung in Spanish so probably only ten percent of the audience understood the words, and “The Boxer,” a relatively new song for the veteran folkie, as was her pal Mary Chapin Carpenter’s tender and melancholy “The Things That We Are Made Of.”
Soon to push 80, Baez is as youthful, beautiful and vibrant as ever. Her famed upper register may have slipped, but her voice now exhibits a richness that more than makes up for it; new silver is bright and shiny, but can’t compare to the beauty of patina and detail that takes years to develop, and that’s Baez today. Maybe this tour and today’s political climate, which she referred to often without preaching, will re-galvanize her, and we’ll be treated to “Farewell Tour II.”
—Suzanne Cadgène
I enjoyed reading most of your review as I was fortunate enough to be at the Beacon for that show. I gather you are relatively new to the Baez scene as there is nothing unusual about most of setlist containing songs that could be interpreted as sad or down or at least about serious topics. Nobody who follows Joan has ever gone to one of her shows expecting a bunch of fluff and “upbeat numbers”. The main reason I am commenting on you review is to tell you that the song you referred to as “Flora” , a Dylan song, is not. It is called “Lily of the West”, it is a traditional folk song which Joan recorded for her second lp Joan Baez Volume 2, released in 1961. That was long before Bob Dylan was known at all.
Barry Lay (huge Baez fan)
Hi Barry, thanks for commenting, appreciate your input. I’m not new to Joan Baez–I’m writing for those who know her and those who don’t, and I think the tone of her set list is important.
You’re right, I did call it “Flora, Lily of the West,” when it is in fact just “Lily of the West,” my apologies. The song is often attributed to Dylan, but you’re probably right, I suspect it is traditional. I would not say, however, that 1961 was “long before Bob Dylan was known at all.” He’d been playing music in clubs for at least a couple of years, and began playing hot Village clubs in January of 1961 (when Joan Baez saw him for the first time), barely three months after she’d released her first album. Four years later, his career eclipsed hers. (Today, I’d rather see her.) -Suzanne C
You can find The Boxer on Joan Baez live album “European Tour” from 1980, so she has played that song for nearly 40 years.