The one song Joan Baez wants to be remembered for
Even though she wasn’t responsible for writing many of her biggest hits, many of Joan Baez’s contributions to the history of folk music and her interpretations of standards are likely to live on through history as having been the strongest versions of these classics.
Having had moderate success throughout her career covering the works of songwriters such as Phil Ochs, Robbie Robertson, and her sometimes-on, sometimes-off romantic interest of Bob Dylan, Baez is often unfairly treated by critics on account of the fact that she wasn’t considered to be as strong a songwriter as many of her contemporaries.
However, leaning on the works of others is not necessarily a sign of artistic weakness, and her versions of songs such as ‘The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down’ and ‘It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue’ are arguably just as powerful when performed by Baez as they are the original artists, which goes to show that being a songwriter is not the be-all and end-all of becoming a successful musician.
What Baez does possess in large amounts is a warmth and sense of charisma that other performers fail to see the importance of, and while some of her contemporaries were good at writing socially conscious songs of protest, they weren’t able to deliver them with the same gravitas as Baez could.
For example, her interpretation of ‘We Shall Overcome’ feels more impactful in its message supporting the civil rights movement in the US, despite other artists such as Dylan and Pete Seeger having also performed the song around the same time. Her political activism has always been a strong suit of hers, and her efforts to visit countries experiencing humanitarian crises in order to offer messages of solidarity and hope are something other musicians look at as a template for how to be supportive of such issues.
All that being said, Baez was, in fact, a talented songwriter in her own right, and whether writing about her perceptions of global affairs or her own personal experiences, she was able to deliver messages in a succinct way that was able to match her peers.
However, if there’s one song that will likely live on for eternity as the major marker of her songwriting talents, and one that she hopes she’ll be remembered for, it’s her 1975 hit, ‘Diamonds & Rust’, which she wrote about her fractious relationship with Dylan.
Speaking to Sue Lawley on Desert Island Discs during her appearance on the radio show in 1993, this was the one song that she picked out from her own back catalogue as having been the highlight of her career. While she didn’t go into great detail about why she picked this song in particular, it’s the relatable aspect of recounting an experience of hearing from an old lover and being transported back to their time together that makes it stand out as such an evergreen song.
While it was often speculated as to whether it was ever about Dylan in the first place, with her having allegedly told him during the Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1975 that it was actually about her husband, he would eventually learn of the reference, and still proclaimed his love for it. It’s undeniably the greatest song that Baez has ever penned, and her hopes of it living on forever are likely to be served.
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