Friday, August 3, 2012

Joan Baez - the well-lit goddess of Woodstock: Diamonds & Rust...


Joan Baez - the goddess of Woodstock: Diamonds & Rust...The female counterpart to Bob Dylan, folksinger and anti-war protester Joan Baez, was the last act on Friday evening. She started at about 1:00 am. Appropriately, she wished everybody agood morning.  Her perfectly arranged set combined with her beautiful and skillful voice was a fine finish for a chaotic and exhausting first day.  During her performance it was drizzling, and then after her she finished it started to rain heavily.  The setlist is based upon information from from Arthur Levy and Michael Lang's book The Road to Woodstock. Not everything listed was recorded or recordings are missing.  Inbetween Joan Baez told the audience how her husband, David Harris, was arrested. He was imprisoned for three years because he didn't follow his draft notice (he founded an organization which encouraged men to refuse their military draft).  The gospel song "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" was performed a capella by Joan Baez alone.  Together with Jeffrey Shurtleff and Richard Festinger (members from the Draft Resistance organization founded by Baez husband David Harris) she played "Drug Store Truck Driving Man", a song composed by Roger McGuinn and Gram Parsons from The Byrds. The lyrics address a Ku Klux Clan member. It was devoted to the governor of California, Ronald Reagan (pronounced as ray-gun), by Shurtleff. He added an additional verse to involve Reagan's person.

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