August 24, 2024 • 24 mins
Joan Baez, iconic folk singer, songwriter, and activist discusses her early musical influences and career, social and cultural activism, and her recent induction into the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is What's at Risk with Mike Christian on WBZ,
Boston's news radio. Hi, Mike Christian. Here of What's at Risk.
First up on tonight's show, we present an encore edition
of What's at Risk with a very special guest. Joe Bias,
iconic folk singer, songwriter and activist, discusses her early musical
(00:25):
influences and career social and cultural activism, and her recent
induction into the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame. And
in our second segment, we're honored to speak with actor
Jamie Hector and four of the current participants in Moving Mountains,
a nonprofit, theater based youth organization that Jamie founded in
(00:47):
two thousand and seven. He is best known for his
prominent roles on A Wire and Bosh. As we continue
to showcase Boston's Folk Americana Ross Hall of Fame, Far
Off for Short, and its inaugural class of inductees. Our
guest tonight is Joan Bias. The following is from the
(01:09):
Kennedy Center website, honoring Joan's storied career. Joan Bias has
long been a musical force of nature of incalculable influence,
starting in the turbulent nineteen sixties. She marched on the
front line of the civil rights movement with doctor Martin
Luther King Junior China, spotlight on the free speech movement,
(01:32):
took to the fields with Caesar Chavez, and organized resistance
to the Vietnam War. Over the decades, she inspired the
fight for a Czech Republic, saluted the Dixie Chicks for
their courage to protest the Iraq War, and stood with
old friend Nelson Mandela in London's Hyde Park as the
world celebrated his ninetieth birthday. Joan's earliest albums fed a
(01:57):
host of traditional ballads into the rock vernack before she
unself consciously introduced Bob Dylan to the world in nineteen
sixty three. Thus began a tradition of mutual mentoring of
songwriters that continued throughout the career of Joan Bias, whose
lifetime of recordings and memorable concert performances will reverberate long
(02:20):
into the future. Hello everyone, it's nice to have you
with us and tonight our very very special guest is
Joan Bias. John, Thank you so much for spending some
time with us.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
It's absolutely my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Thank you and Joan, we're talking a little bit about
the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame here tonight, of
which you were just named as one of the inaugural
inductees into the Hall of Fame. So just wondering what
your thoughts were about that. And first off, congratulations for that,
by the way, Oh.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Thank you very much. Oh. I want to say folk
music roots for me. The roots are for me. The
roots aside from the official roots are My roots were
in Cambridge, you know, with the people some of them
listed here who played in the little club I played
in just passing through is where I learned a lot
(03:15):
of the names of the ones who had already passed
on and heard the ones who were living and learned
from them.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah. And when you you you played a club forty seven,
I know a lot. And you knew Betsy Segonds, who's
also an inductee in the on musical category. But what
was what was that like.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
When when I knew Betsy she sang as well.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
No, I didn't realize that.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Utu, it was what we did sing together.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah, that's great all I told you, Well, she'll be
at the induction ceremony, so maybe maybe I will. But
how was How was it working with Betsy? Because I've
met her she's just the sweetest person, and you know
it's but I didn't know her back in those days,
in the early sixties Cambridge.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I wouldn't say sweet. She cursed constantly. That's one of
the reasons we got along so well. And she was tough.
But as you see now and her later life has
done such wonderful things. I mean, when something like Club
forty seven is going to close or change, and I
think it's going to turn into a you know, a laundromat,
(04:25):
and so somebody has to rejuvenate it. And that's what
she did. Moved it, changed the name, but kept what
it does, which is really show every level of folk music.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, And was that when you when you would play
there in those days, was that a special place, a
high energy place, or was it just a folk club
getting going?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Well?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
You know what it was that the two women whose
names I can't remember at the moment had run it
as a jazz club for many years and when they
were smart enough that when they saw the folk music
beginning to rise at a rapid rate, they would take
one night a week and devote it to folk music.
And that's how those are my first jobs. I got
(05:11):
paid ten bucks a night, and I felt absolutely like
the wealthy woman. And so I think it was Tuesdays
and then that was going so well that we added
Fridays and went up to fifteen bucks. So I was
really I was high on the hog. But they, you know,
they had the smarts to run the place, and eventually
(05:32):
it was just all folk music because that's what happened, you.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Know, right what. I'm sure you've been asked this question
a million times, but what did you listen to when
you were young, when you were getting into music? What
inspired you to move toward folk music.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, it's sort of an interesting story because I was
steeped in rhythm and blues and that's all I listened
to was at fourteen fifteen, and my parents were sort
of at wits end because they wanted me to not
just be listening to rhythm and blues on my little
in my little plastic radio at one o'clock in the morning.
(06:10):
So my aunt had the smart to take me to
Peach Seer show. And I don't remember that show, but
I've heard the story many times that when I saw him,
it was like a vaccine, A good vaccine that took,
because that swerved me over into folk music and I
listened to first to Bellefonte and then to Odetta and
(06:36):
Peach Seger, and that was then I was off and
running in that direction of folk music and politics. You know.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I ran across a quote as I was getting ready
for all these interviews I've been doing for Farhof, and
it's actually by Nietzsche. Folk music is the original melody
of man. It's the musical mirror of the world. And
I never saw Nietzsche talking about folk music before we're
I'm not sure if you've ever heard that quote, But
what do you think?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
What a lovely quote. Yeah, I couldn't have thought of
it myself. Usually back then when I was sixteen or
so and people said asked me if I wanted to
go into opera, but I wasn't comfortable in that genre
because it was something too elite about it. And I
(07:23):
think that was another feeling about folk music that I
just had my feet on the ground bare feet as well.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, when you recorded your first album, was there was
it really sort of that roots music that in folk
music that maybe was sung by a lot of the
first the inductees that are going in with you in
the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
No, the very first album I made with these rascals
when I was sixteen years old, who said, you know,
come on, little girl, let's make an album. And I
went at the studio and I sang everything I knew.
Fifty percent of it was Harry Bellefonte. As far as
real roots, I had no clue at that moment, you know,
and I just moved and I would say, the first
(08:06):
thing comes to my mind is the tents at Newport,
where you could find anything, find the blues, find the
blue grass. And that'd be the first place that I
started hearing roots, real roots music.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
A house in big about inside that isn't mean Oh
menopoor girl, Oh god.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Oh And when you first played there, didn't you play
with Bob Gibson?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I did? I did. Yeah, he was a folk musician
and I met him at the Gate of Horn when
he was I was an opener there. Yeah, it was.
He was an interesting combination because he was a real entertainer,
but he was also rooted in folk music.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah. So you've lived an amazing life, not only an
amazing musical life, but an amazing life of activity and
working through social and cultural issues and disparities and lack
of diversity and all the things, all the passion, the
things you've had passion about. What where did that come from?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Joe?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And the music? I can I can see that, but
that seems like almost as important as the music for
my perception of you.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, I guess I would start with my family. They
were pacifists, and I learned early. I heard discussions about
nonviolence in the house, violence, nonviolence, the analyst discussions. They
were the first people i'd seen do action. You know.
My father took us to a march. I can't remember
(10:07):
exactly which one it was. Is all anti nuclear back then,
and so that was my background. And then I met
a couple of people who really helped me understand and
sort of steered me in the direction of political action.
And I was really very comfortable there. And I know,
(10:28):
and I was in I was fifteen. We had an
air raid drill. We're all supposed to run home and
hid from the nuclear weapon, which was atomic Question be
on its way from Russia, and I knew it was
a force. So I just stayed in school. That began
my politically active life. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Well, that certainly served as a springboard for all the
activities in the action that you've taken since then. You know,
I read something about the fact that you had met
with Thomas Martin and maybe talked about some of this action.
He was more on the contemplative side. I think he
wrote something called Contemplative Citizenship. How was that experience meeting
(11:13):
Thomas Martin? It was really long for a long time.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, he was a wonderful man. He really wanted to
get out in the world. You know, he was very
an outspoken pacifist and really sort of steeped in the
issues of the world, but was not allowed to leave
the order and go and talk about it. But the
day I saw him, I was with my mentor, Iris Sandpill,
(11:40):
and I have to tell you it was a fun day.
You know. Martin got out to go have lunch and
I thought, oh, we're going to have something like dark
bread and old cheese or something. He wanted a hamber
and a milkshake. We sat out in a field somewhere
and he just had the most delightful time burgers and
(12:02):
milkshakes and sort of unabashedly and no, he was just
a sweet regular guy.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah, he had a great sense of humor. I can
tell from the books on tape that I listened to
with him. He was a funny guy.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
He was funny. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
So when you when you think about this class of
inductees into the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame far
half Hall of Fame, a lot of them were involved
in action, and not just from the lyrics of their songs,
but actually getting involved. And I don't think it was
actually it was a criteria for induction, but I do
(12:39):
you think it was a discussion around induction. What are
your thoughts about your contemporaries back in the sixties and
the work that you all did, maybe either together separately.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
I think it's something that people quote nowadays wish they
had their version of it. It was it was really
you felt you had neighbors, You felt you had a
community that was just with the singing and playing, and
then when it moved into politics, then you really depended
(13:11):
on each other for the next move that you were
going to make. And it was really a sense of
community that's really hard to find now we're up such
such an avalanche of horrors that where do you really
really begin on What I think is missing. Is that
sense of a sixteen year old once said, you know,
(13:34):
you guys had everything, and you had the glue, and
what's missing now seems to be the glue where you
really are in touch with your fellow singers and fellow
activists and feel you have a community. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
I think having grown up also in the sixties, I
think back about there were heady days, you know, and
a lot of and days of hope on a lot
of levels. Why do you think we lost that over time?
And there's a million reasons, but you know, look at
what you just described as the days that are so
difficult and challenging. Now what happened to that optimism and
(14:13):
hope from the sixties.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
First thought that comes to mind is that it really
does swing back and forth. So that was a huge moment,
and the long moment of the things that we were
facing were clear. There was civil rights, and there was
basically the anti war movement. And then when it got
(14:37):
the war was over, civil rights had had the March
on Washington, and it really had its moment, and I
think people were kind of lost. I know I was,
you know, I fortunately had a basis in non violence,
non violent actions, so I held on to that and
moved on to whatever was going to be next. But
(14:59):
if you didn't have that foundation, it was very hard
to figure out what to do at the you know,
and all that really the big activities died down, and
I think that people sort of went off into their
own thing, which is understandable.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
The following is a short audio clip from The Boys
Who Said No film where Joan Bias talks about the
influence of doctor Martin Luther King Junior and the civil
rights movement on her nonviolent activism.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Well, the first I would talk about King's influence on me,
which started when I was sixteen. That was the beginning
of that era in my life. And I was at
a Ceila Mark conference, which was a big conference of
kids from all over the country, and we talked about
political issues, social issues, and that year doctor King was
the guest speaker, and I was dissolved in tears for
(15:59):
the whole speech because I'd read about nonviolence and I
knew about nonviolence, and they were doing it, you know,
they were walking in the streets and they were walking
to their freedom basically, and I was just I was
a mess. And before I'll be a slave, I'll be
buried in my grave.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
And go home.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
To my lord and be free.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Now back to our interview with Joan Bias, I don't
know that regaining it would be the right word. Do
you think we can evolve back into an era that's
more similar to that? And maybe the community aspects the
most important part we have to.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Evolve into the future. We can't evolve back to that
because it's never going to happen again, you know, especially
the music. It was such a bombshell of ten years
of talent, you know, from Dylan, Joni Mitchell, the Beatles,
Rolling Stones, et cetera. It was an enormous amount of
(17:08):
talent that came out of that. And and you know,
you can't repeat that. And I think about among the
things that we're trying to have now but don't have
yet is some kind of anthem, and an anthem we
shall overcome is impossible to sit out. And I'm going
(17:29):
to write an anthem probably the hardest thing to do.
So maybe it means that when there's enough cohesive political
action that an anthem will come out of that. I
really don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
You're the chairperson of far HAFF also the honorary chairperson.
What what was appealing to you about that You're in
the rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There's a lot
of Hall of Fames obviously, but what was appealing to
you to get involved with Farhof in the organization?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Oh, all the people who are in it as a
star studded group of solid people. You know, there's nothing
foo foo about it. It's you know, it's been my
lifetime with all the people I see and on the
page there, so it's kind of a natural. And then
Woody Guthrie, you can't get any you can't get any
(19:09):
deeper in soul wise and his brand of music. It's
very appealing to a barefoot girl like me, no question.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
So in terms of the Far Off mission, part of
it is education. A big part of it is education
for the next generation, for the young people to look
at how music has been so reflective of our culture,
so reflective of what our history has been. How can
we learn through music to see maybe that brighter future
(19:43):
that we all aspire to. What are your thoughts there?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
You know, I'm just thinking of my granddaughter who's twenty,
who's a songwriter, singer, songwriter, and I kind of try
to figure out where her head is and you know
who she listens to. I don't spend a lot of
time researching early kids music right now. I don't know how.
(20:08):
I know there are a lot of kids who are
politically aware, and then there are a lot of kids
like Jasmine knows things, but she doesn't speak out. It's
not where her head is. And that's a part of
all of this that we When somebody says, what can
you do to educate the young people? You know, I
would say to Greta read her book. You know, that's
(20:34):
a young person who took life and death and especially
of other people very seriously, and she's still doing it.
And there's something really rewarding to find that out. And
also some you know, encouragement to young people who feel
like speaking out.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, no question, and I do. I'm encouraged by some
of the younger musicians that I see today. They're not
maybe the iconic ones that you reference, the ones that
are going into Farhoff now is the first class. But
there is a feeling in this new generation of using music,
maybe much in the way you and your contemporaries used
(21:13):
it to be a point of change.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Also, well, there are no dummies, you know, for sure. Yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I have to thank you so much for participating in this.
I really appreciate it, and thank you so much. Okay,
And here are a few things you probably didn't know
about Joan Baez. She was a teen star in the
folk music world. Joan was only eighteen when she first
performed at the Newport Folk Festival. A year later, she
(21:44):
recorded her first solo LP for Vanguard Records, the beginning
of a prolific fourteen album twelve year association with the label.
Her earliest records, with their mix of traditional ballads, blues lullabies,
Carter family weavers, and Woody Guthrie songs, among others, won
strong followings in the US and abroad. She was only
(22:07):
twenty two when she led the crowd at the March
on Washington with We Shall Overcome. Joan Biez sang about
freedom and civil rights everywhere, from the backs of flatbed
trucks in Mississippi to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
at the Doctor Martin Luther King's March on Washington in
nineteen sixty three. In fact, doctor King visited her in
(22:29):
prison once. A two thousand and two interview with Joan
Biez revealed that doctor King visited Biez, who was imprisoned
for blocking the entrance to the Armed Forces Induction Center
in Oakland at Santa Rita Prison. He spent about an
hour with the singer and gave an impromptu speech later
to a group of demonstrators outside the prison. On top
(22:52):
of being the queen of folk music, she was and
remains a very serious activist. In nineteen sixty four, she
withheld sixty percent of her income tax from the RS
to protest military spending and participated in the birth of
the free speech movement at the University of California in Berkeley.
A year later, she co founded the Institute for the
(23:14):
Study of Nonviolence near her home in Carmel Valley. In
nineteen sixty six, Joan stood in the fields alongside Caesar
Chavez and migrant farm workers striking for fair wages and
opposed capital punishment at San Quentin during a Christmas vigil.
She is perfectly bilingual and even produced an album in Spanish.
(23:35):
Joan dedicated her first album, sung entirely in Spanish, to
those suffering in Chile under the rule of Augusto Pinochet,
a record that inspired Linda Ronstaid later in the eighties
to begin recording the Spanish songs of her heritage. She
was also prominent in the struggle for LGBTQ wrights. In
(23:56):
nineteen seventy eight, she appeared at rallies on behalf of
the Nuclear Freeze movement and performed at benefit concerts to
defeat California's Proposition six legislation that would have banned openly
gay teachers from the public schools. She also participated in
the memorial march for assassinated San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk,
(24:19):
who was openly gay. We'll be right back after the
news at the bottom of the hour.
This is What's at Risk with Mike Christian on WBZ,
Boston's news radio. Hi, Mike Christian. Here of What's at Risk.
First up on tonight's show, we present an encore edition
of What's at Risk with a very special guest. Joe Bias,
iconic folk singer, songwriter and activist, discusses her early musical
(00:25):
influences and career social and cultural activism, and her recent
induction into the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame. And
in our second segment, we're honored to speak with actor
Jamie Hector and four of the current participants in Moving Mountains,
a nonprofit, theater based youth organization that Jamie founded in
(00:47):
two thousand and seven. He is best known for his
prominent roles on A Wire and Bosh. As we continue
to showcase Boston's Folk Americana Ross Hall of Fame, Far
Off for Short, and its inaugural class of inductees. Our
guest tonight is Joan Bias. The following is from the
(01:09):
Kennedy Center website, honoring Joan's storied career. Joan Bias has
long been a musical force of nature of incalculable influence,
starting in the turbulent nineteen sixties. She marched on the
front line of the civil rights movement with doctor Martin
Luther King Junior China, spotlight on the free speech movement,
(01:32):
took to the fields with Caesar Chavez, and organized resistance
to the Vietnam War. Over the decades, she inspired the
fight for a Czech Republic, saluted the Dixie Chicks for
their courage to protest the Iraq War, and stood with
old friend Nelson Mandela in London's Hyde Park as the
world celebrated his ninetieth birthday. Joan's earliest albums fed a
(01:57):
host of traditional ballads into the rock vernack before she
unself consciously introduced Bob Dylan to the world in nineteen
sixty three. Thus began a tradition of mutual mentoring of
songwriters that continued throughout the career of Joan Bias, whose
lifetime of recordings and memorable concert performances will reverberate long
(02:20):
into the future. Hello everyone, it's nice to have you
with us and tonight our very very special guest is
Joan Bias. John, Thank you so much for spending some
time with us.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
It's absolutely my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Thank you and Joan, we're talking a little bit about
the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame here tonight, of
which you were just named as one of the inaugural
inductees into the Hall of Fame. So just wondering what
your thoughts were about that. And first off, congratulations for that,
by the way, Oh.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Thank you very much. Oh. I want to say folk
music roots for me. The roots are for me. The
roots aside from the official roots are My roots were
in Cambridge, you know, with the people some of them
listed here who played in the little club I played
in just passing through is where I learned a lot
(03:15):
of the names of the ones who had already passed
on and heard the ones who were living and learned
from them.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah. And when you you you played a club forty seven,
I know a lot. And you knew Betsy Segonds, who's
also an inductee in the on musical category. But what
was what was that like.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
When when I knew Betsy she sang as well.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
No, I didn't realize that.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Utu, it was what we did sing together.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah, that's great all I told you, Well, she'll be
at the induction ceremony, so maybe maybe I will. But
how was How was it working with Betsy? Because I've
met her she's just the sweetest person, and you know
it's but I didn't know her back in those days,
in the early sixties Cambridge.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I wouldn't say sweet. She cursed constantly. That's one of
the reasons we got along so well. And she was tough.
But as you see now and her later life has
done such wonderful things. I mean, when something like Club
forty seven is going to close or change, and I
think it's going to turn into a you know, a laundromat,
(04:25):
and so somebody has to rejuvenate it. And that's what
she did. Moved it, changed the name, but kept what
it does, which is really show every level of folk music.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Yeah, And was that when you when you would play
there in those days, was that a special place, a
high energy place, or was it just a folk club
getting going?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
Well?
Speaker 2 (04:49):
You know what it was that the two women whose
names I can't remember at the moment had run it
as a jazz club for many years and when they
were smart enough that when they saw the folk music
beginning to rise at a rapid rate, they would take
one night a week and devote it to folk music.
And that's how those are my first jobs. I got
(05:11):
paid ten bucks a night, and I felt absolutely like
the wealthy woman. And so I think it was Tuesdays
and then that was going so well that we added
Fridays and went up to fifteen bucks. So I was
really I was high on the hog. But they, you know,
they had the smarts to run the place, and eventually
(05:32):
it was just all folk music because that's what happened, you.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Know, right what. I'm sure you've been asked this question
a million times, but what did you listen to when
you were young, when you were getting into music? What
inspired you to move toward folk music.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, it's sort of an interesting story because I was
steeped in rhythm and blues and that's all I listened
to was at fourteen fifteen, and my parents were sort
of at wits end because they wanted me to not
just be listening to rhythm and blues on my little
in my little plastic radio at one o'clock in the morning.
(06:10):
So my aunt had the smart to take me to
Peach Seer show. And I don't remember that show, but
I've heard the story many times that when I saw him,
it was like a vaccine, A good vaccine that took,
because that swerved me over into folk music and I
listened to first to Bellefonte and then to Odetta and
(06:36):
Peach Seger, and that was then I was off and
running in that direction of folk music and politics. You know.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
I ran across a quote as I was getting ready
for all these interviews I've been doing for Farhof, and
it's actually by Nietzsche. Folk music is the original melody
of man. It's the musical mirror of the world. And
I never saw Nietzsche talking about folk music before we're
I'm not sure if you've ever heard that quote, But
what do you think?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
What a lovely quote. Yeah, I couldn't have thought of
it myself. Usually back then when I was sixteen or
so and people said asked me if I wanted to
go into opera, but I wasn't comfortable in that genre
because it was something too elite about it. And I
(07:23):
think that was another feeling about folk music that I
just had my feet on the ground bare feet as well.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, when you recorded your first album, was there was
it really sort of that roots music that in folk
music that maybe was sung by a lot of the
first the inductees that are going in with you in
the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
No, the very first album I made with these rascals
when I was sixteen years old, who said, you know,
come on, little girl, let's make an album. And I
went at the studio and I sang everything I knew.
Fifty percent of it was Harry Bellefonte. As far as
real roots, I had no clue at that moment, you know,
and I just moved and I would say, the first
(08:06):
thing comes to my mind is the tents at Newport,
where you could find anything, find the blues, find the
blue grass. And that'd be the first place that I
started hearing roots, real roots music.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
A house in big about inside that isn't mean Oh
menopoor girl, Oh god.
Speaker 1 (08:48):
Oh And when you first played there, didn't you play
with Bob Gibson?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
I did? I did. Yeah, he was a folk musician
and I met him at the Gate of Horn when
he was I was an opener there. Yeah, it was.
He was an interesting combination because he was a real entertainer,
but he was also rooted in folk music.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah. So you've lived an amazing life, not only an
amazing musical life, but an amazing life of activity and
working through social and cultural issues and disparities and lack
of diversity and all the things, all the passion, the
things you've had passion about. What where did that come from?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Joe?
Speaker 1 (09:35):
And the music? I can I can see that, but
that seems like almost as important as the music for
my perception of you.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, I guess I would start with my family. They
were pacifists, and I learned early. I heard discussions about
nonviolence in the house, violence, nonviolence, the analyst discussions. They
were the first people i'd seen do action. You know.
My father took us to a march. I can't remember
(10:07):
exactly which one it was. Is all anti nuclear back then,
and so that was my background. And then I met
a couple of people who really helped me understand and
sort of steered me in the direction of political action.
And I was really very comfortable there. And I know,
(10:28):
and I was in I was fifteen. We had an
air raid drill. We're all supposed to run home and
hid from the nuclear weapon, which was atomic Question be
on its way from Russia, and I knew it was
a force. So I just stayed in school. That began
my politically active life. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Well, that certainly served as a springboard for all the
activities in the action that you've taken since then. You know,
I read something about the fact that you had met
with Thomas Martin and maybe talked about some of this action.
He was more on the contemplative side. I think he
wrote something called Contemplative Citizenship. How was that experience meeting
(11:13):
Thomas Martin? It was really long for a long time.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah, he was a wonderful man. He really wanted to
get out in the world. You know, he was very
an outspoken pacifist and really sort of steeped in the
issues of the world, but was not allowed to leave
the order and go and talk about it. But the
day I saw him, I was with my mentor, Iris Sandpill,
(11:40):
and I have to tell you it was a fun day.
You know. Martin got out to go have lunch and
I thought, oh, we're going to have something like dark
bread and old cheese or something. He wanted a hamber
and a milkshake. We sat out in a field somewhere
and he just had the most delightful time burgers and
(12:02):
milkshakes and sort of unabashedly and no, he was just
a sweet regular guy.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
Yeah, he had a great sense of humor. I can
tell from the books on tape that I listened to
with him. He was a funny guy.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
He was funny. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
So when you when you think about this class of
inductees into the Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame far
half Hall of Fame, a lot of them were involved
in action, and not just from the lyrics of their songs,
but actually getting involved. And I don't think it was
actually it was a criteria for induction, but I do
(12:39):
you think it was a discussion around induction. What are
your thoughts about your contemporaries back in the sixties and
the work that you all did, maybe either together separately.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
I think it's something that people quote nowadays wish they
had their version of it. It was it was really
you felt you had neighbors, You felt you had a
community that was just with the singing and playing, and
then when it moved into politics, then you really depended
(13:11):
on each other for the next move that you were
going to make. And it was really a sense of
community that's really hard to find now we're up such
such an avalanche of horrors that where do you really
really begin on What I think is missing. Is that
sense of a sixteen year old once said, you know,
(13:34):
you guys had everything, and you had the glue, and
what's missing now seems to be the glue where you
really are in touch with your fellow singers and fellow
activists and feel you have a community. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
I think having grown up also in the sixties, I
think back about there were heady days, you know, and
a lot of and days of hope on a lot
of levels. Why do you think we lost that over time?
And there's a million reasons, but you know, look at
what you just described as the days that are so
difficult and challenging. Now what happened to that optimism and
(14:13):
hope from the sixties.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
First thought that comes to mind is that it really
does swing back and forth. So that was a huge moment,
and the long moment of the things that we were
facing were clear. There was civil rights, and there was
basically the anti war movement. And then when it got
(14:37):
the war was over, civil rights had had the March
on Washington, and it really had its moment, and I
think people were kind of lost. I know I was,
you know, I fortunately had a basis in non violence,
non violent actions, so I held on to that and
moved on to whatever was going to be next. But
(14:59):
if you didn't have that foundation, it was very hard
to figure out what to do at the you know,
and all that really the big activities died down, and
I think that people sort of went off into their
own thing, which is understandable.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
The following is a short audio clip from The Boys
Who Said No film where Joan Bias talks about the
influence of doctor Martin Luther King Junior and the civil
rights movement on her nonviolent activism.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
Well, the first I would talk about King's influence on me,
which started when I was sixteen. That was the beginning
of that era in my life. And I was at
a Ceila Mark conference, which was a big conference of
kids from all over the country, and we talked about
political issues, social issues, and that year doctor King was
the guest speaker, and I was dissolved in tears for
(15:59):
the whole speech because I'd read about nonviolence and I
knew about nonviolence, and they were doing it, you know,
they were walking in the streets and they were walking
to their freedom basically, and I was just I was
a mess. And before I'll be a slave, I'll be
buried in my grave.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
And go home.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
To my lord and be free.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Now back to our interview with Joan Bias, I don't
know that regaining it would be the right word. Do
you think we can evolve back into an era that's
more similar to that? And maybe the community aspects the
most important part we have to.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Evolve into the future. We can't evolve back to that
because it's never going to happen again, you know, especially
the music. It was such a bombshell of ten years
of talent, you know, from Dylan, Joni Mitchell, the Beatles,
Rolling Stones, et cetera. It was an enormous amount of
(17:08):
talent that came out of that. And and you know,
you can't repeat that. And I think about among the
things that we're trying to have now but don't have
yet is some kind of anthem, and an anthem we
shall overcome is impossible to sit out. And I'm going
(17:29):
to write an anthem probably the hardest thing to do.
So maybe it means that when there's enough cohesive political
action that an anthem will come out of that. I
really don't know.
Speaker 1 (18:29):
You're the chairperson of far HAFF also the honorary chairperson.
What what was appealing to you about that You're in
the rock and Roll Hall of Fame. There's a lot
of Hall of Fames obviously, but what was appealing to
you to get involved with Farhof in the organization?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Oh, all the people who are in it as a
star studded group of solid people. You know, there's nothing
foo foo about it. It's you know, it's been my
lifetime with all the people I see and on the
page there, so it's kind of a natural. And then
Woody Guthrie, you can't get any you can't get any
(19:09):
deeper in soul wise and his brand of music. It's
very appealing to a barefoot girl like me, no question.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
So in terms of the Far Off mission, part of
it is education. A big part of it is education
for the next generation, for the young people to look
at how music has been so reflective of our culture,
so reflective of what our history has been. How can
we learn through music to see maybe that brighter future
(19:43):
that we all aspire to. What are your thoughts there?
Speaker 2 (19:47):
You know, I'm just thinking of my granddaughter who's twenty,
who's a songwriter, singer, songwriter, and I kind of try
to figure out where her head is and you know
who she listens to. I don't spend a lot of
time researching early kids music right now. I don't know how.
(20:08):
I know there are a lot of kids who are
politically aware, and then there are a lot of kids
like Jasmine knows things, but she doesn't speak out. It's
not where her head is. And that's a part of
all of this that we When somebody says, what can
you do to educate the young people? You know, I
would say to Greta read her book. You know, that's
(20:34):
a young person who took life and death and especially
of other people very seriously, and she's still doing it.
And there's something really rewarding to find that out. And
also some you know, encouragement to young people who feel
like speaking out.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah, no question, and I do. I'm encouraged by some
of the younger musicians that I see today. They're not
maybe the iconic ones that you reference, the ones that
are going into Farhoff now is the first class. But
there is a feeling in this new generation of using music,
maybe much in the way you and your contemporaries used
(21:13):
it to be a point of change.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
Also, well, there are no dummies, you know, for sure. Yeah,
for sure.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
I have to thank you so much for participating in this.
I really appreciate it, and thank you so much. Okay,
And here are a few things you probably didn't know
about Joan Baez. She was a teen star in the
folk music world. Joan was only eighteen when she first
performed at the Newport Folk Festival. A year later, she
(21:44):
recorded her first solo LP for Vanguard Records, the beginning
of a prolific fourteen album twelve year association with the label.
Her earliest records, with their mix of traditional ballads, blues lullabies,
Carter family weavers, and Woody Guthrie songs, among others, won
strong followings in the US and abroad. She was only
(22:07):
twenty two when she led the crowd at the March
on Washington with We Shall Overcome. Joan Biez sang about
freedom and civil rights everywhere, from the backs of flatbed
trucks in Mississippi to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
at the Doctor Martin Luther King's March on Washington in
nineteen sixty three. In fact, doctor King visited her in
(22:29):
prison once. A two thousand and two interview with Joan
Biez revealed that doctor King visited Biez, who was imprisoned
for blocking the entrance to the Armed Forces Induction Center
in Oakland at Santa Rita Prison. He spent about an
hour with the singer and gave an impromptu speech later
to a group of demonstrators outside the prison. On top
(22:52):
of being the queen of folk music, she was and
remains a very serious activist. In nineteen sixty four, she
withheld sixty percent of her income tax from the RS
to protest military spending and participated in the birth of
the free speech movement at the University of California in Berkeley.
A year later, she co founded the Institute for the
(23:14):
Study of Nonviolence near her home in Carmel Valley. In
nineteen sixty six, Joan stood in the fields alongside Caesar
Chavez and migrant farm workers striking for fair wages and
opposed capital punishment at San Quentin during a Christmas vigil.
She is perfectly bilingual and even produced an album in Spanish.
(23:35):
Joan dedicated her first album, sung entirely in Spanish, to
those suffering in Chile under the rule of Augusto Pinochet,
a record that inspired Linda Ronstaid later in the eighties
to begin recording the Spanish songs of her heritage. She
was also prominent in the struggle for LGBTQ wrights. In
(23:56):
nineteen seventy eight, she appeared at rallies on behalf of
the Nuclear Freeze movement and performed at benefit concerts to
defeat California's Proposition six legislation that would have banned openly
gay teachers from the public schools. She also participated in
the memorial march for assassinated San Francisco City Supervisor Harvey Milk,
(24:19):
who was openly gay. We'll be right back after the
news at the bottom of the hour.
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