The greatest protest songs of the 1960s, according to Joan Baez
If there is one person who truly and wholeheartedly believes in the world of a protest song, it’s Joan Baez. That passionate belief became the foundation of her career as the Barefoot Madonna burst onto the scene with an angelic voice that could bring a tear to the eye and a determination to use it to say something important.
It’s a noble mission. From early on, Baez realised that people would listen to. She realised she had a gift for singing and that her voice could make people stop and pay attention. She was also raised in a family of activists, taught from a very young age that if you’d got people’s attention, you better use it for good.
In many ways, Baez was raised for this; her legacy now feels like an inevitability. As a child, her family converted to Quakerism, driven by a belief in pacifism and a commitment to peace and acceptance. Both of her sisters were also activists who used art and music to shine a light on social injustices. Baez grew up with the conviction that these things mattered, that art held real power. But above all, justice remained her priority. Early in her career, she said it herself: it was “looming larger than music.”
In short, Baez saw herself as a servant working for a cause, and she fell in with a crowd who felt the same, or at least did at the time.
Obviously, here, we’re talking about Bob Dylan. The duo met and grew close exactly because of that shared mission and their shared passion for the power music could hold. It was during this period, before Dylan abandoned his post, that Baez saw him release what she believed to be some of the best protest songs ever written, let alone the best of their decade.
In particular, ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’ stood out. “The message in this is universal,” she said of the song, which is exactly what a message of peace, justice and brotherhood should be, with Dylan proving how far a protest song could go.
She added, “I’ve heard German Boy Scouts singing it at a fire. It’s an anthem.”
But from a broad pick to a niche one, Baez’s second option is a more focused one or one that demands context. “You could consider this a protest song even though Paul Simon wasn’t a political person,” she said, picking out Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The Boxer’ as another vital track.
Simon wrote the song in slight protest against the music industry. “I’m telling you now I’m going to go away if you don’t stop,” he said of the meaning of the track, warning the music world of how much it was impacting its artists. But as the lyrics are more storytelling, capturing a narrative about poverty and strife, Baez sees it as a broader track. “This song is just so singable,” she said, “I’ll sing it at my concert right after ‘Imagine’ and it becomes a protest song too. It takes on a whole new meaning,” putting it in a protest context alongside John Lennon’s song calling for equality, fairness and peace for all.
