Crawdaddy! The Magazine of Rock

Originally published in The Guardian, 22 June 1984

In 1959 Joan Baez walked out on stage at the Newport Folk Festival and touched off a wave of adulation that was to reach almost religious proportions. She became the first post-rock ‘n’ roll youth idol, the patron saint of the new folk music: Time magazine ran a rather bemused cover story on the Baez phenomenon, fans would ask for locks of her hair.

She joined the civil rights marches in the South, walking beside Martin Luther King, turned down vast financial offers, and presented a public image that was a fusion of purity and rebellion. As the ‘60s passed her music went out of fashion, but she remained venerated as a symbol of the anti-war movement. Now, 25 years later, she can’t get a record deal in America: both the music and the social conscience are out of fashion.

read more