By the time Robert Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan, arrived in New York City, Joan Baez had already been announced as the “Queen of Folks.” Many things took him to the burgeoning folk scene there, but Baez was a siren who called young Dylan through his TV set long before he met her. He got hooked. He’ll write it a long time later Chronicles, vol. 1she “had a voice that expelled the evil spirits… she sang straight to God… she did nothing.”
And for a few years they became collaborators, partners, lovers, folk royalty. It was Baez who introduced the then unknown Dylan to the crowd at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival. But soon, destiny changed. Dylan will become an unstoppable cultural force, and Baez will be on the receiver of some betrayal, including artistic.
Excerpt from an Earl Scruggs Documentarythe cute video above, filmed by David Hoffman and posted to him. YouTube Channelshows that she is imitating Dylan after singing the poem “It’s not my baby”. (She does this while holding the baby in her arms and trying to get her to drink from the pitcher.) 16-year-old Ricky Scuggs doesn’t look like a teenager and is accompanied by her on the guitar.
For one thing, she gives the impression of a well-cracked Dylan. Another thing is seeing the emotions behind that impression. There is a lot of history there, a bit of sadness, a bit of nostalgia, no bitterness or meaning, but there is evidence of the once-existing shared life.
By this time in 1972, Dylan’s voice was mature. Cruiser Nashville Skyline He was a different person from the man Blonde blondeall these rough corners have been polished and registration has deepened. But when someone mimics Dylan, they go back to the mid-’60s album, “Bray Beatnik,” where writer Rob Jones calls him. (Jones assumes Dylan had it Eight specific voices in his career. )
Remember it as Carl Wilson of Slate I’ll point it outwhen Dylan first began, he was praised for his voice and considered “one of the most persuasive white blues singers ever recorded.” He came from both the traditions of both Woody Guthrie and Howlin Wolf, as well as several other singular singers who didn’t sound like Frank Sinatra. (Dylan’s last few projects are covers of the Great American Songbook.)
Dylan himself, 2015 Award Acceptance Speechdirected his anger towards critics of his voice:
Critics have been giving me hard work from day one. Critics say I can’t sing. I’m squealing. Sounds like a frog. Why don’t critics say the same thing about Tom Waits? Critics say my voice was shot. There’s no voice. [Why] Are they saying them about Leonard Cohen? Why am I receiving special treatment? Critics say I can’t bring songs, and I tell my way through songs. Really? I’ve never heard anything about Lou Reid. Why can he go to Scott Free? …Draw into my words, there is no dictionary. Have you heard of Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson, or Muddy Waters? … “Why Lord?” I would say it to myself.
Fast forward to the present, Dylan’s voice shows years of performance and years of wear on dul. It’s gravel, distorted, smoky and soaked in whiskey, but Wilson points out:
Note: Previous versions of this post were published on our site in 2018.
Related content:
Compare the “it’s not my baby” scene The complete unknown To the performance of real Bob Dylan and Joan Baez at the Newport Folk Festival
Joan Baez Lives in 1965: Full Concert
Bob Dylan explains why music is getting worse
17-year-old Joan Baez will perform at the famous “Club 47” in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1958)
Bob Dylan’s famous televised press conference made him electric (1965)
Ted Mills is a freelance writer in the arts.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
