Joan Baez: we need songs that talk about this time

“First of all, I want to say that I tried to be elegant For this meeting with the press “: Joan Baez begins by contacting Italian journalists, ready to listen to it. Yet, even with a simple pair of jeans, a black shirt and a large blue shawl to break the tones, it cannot be said that the elegance is missing in Baez.
The opportunity that reports the legendary American singer -songwriter and activist in Milan is the presentation of her new book “When you see my mother, ask them to dance“, published in Italy by La Nave di Teseo. Six years after his farewell tour, and while the new generations have recently discovered his music and his commitment thanks to the biopic” at Complete Unknown “on Bob Dylan, the 84 -year -old artist has certainly not care to stop making his voice heard through songs and writing. So much so that at a certain point of the press conference, Suddenly, he starts singing The recent song written by Janis Ian, “One in A Million“. The possibility of returning to Tournée, however, is a completely different question.

Guest of the XXVI edition of the AC Milan, a review conceived and directed by Elisabetta Sgarbi on May 26, Joan Baez immediately Another clarification Before leaving room for the questions: “By now, Every time I say something, I feel the need to contextualize it: The context is the disaster in which my country is facing, which in my opinion leaves little hope. Having said that, we can talk about anything“. Wearing the book, a collection of memories and reflections in poetic form that tell her life, her passions and people dear to her, adds:” I wrote the book in a period in which I was very busy politically and I made activism, but I did not write it with that intention. I want to explain one thing: they had diagnosed me with a multiple personality disorder, and some of these personalities were writers. So many poems in the book, at least for me, seemed to come from someone else. Because of this The book is very personal and not political. Although, we are experiencing a very political moment. In the United States it is something that nobody could have imagined, so we are trying to understand how to move in this situation. “Then remembering the Italian journalist and his great friend Furio Colombo, who passed away last January, he continues:” Every time I came to Italy I have never missed an opportunity to see Furio. The last time we talked about fascism and on the global situation. He said to me: ‘Joni, I was born in fascism and I will die in fascism’. This was furium, and I miss a lot“.

How are you?

I am fine. I have some problems to sleep, because the news is more disgusting every day, and it is something that wakes you up in the middle of the night. You ask yourself: “Is it really happening?”. But in general, my health and my spirit are fine.

This time he chose to tell your story through poems: why?

They are poems written even long ago. I recovered them around anywhere: drawers, attic, my assistant’s office. Some no longer found them. One day my assistant found an old 40 -year -old computer with some poems inside, but he couldn’t recover them, so he had to transcribe them by hand. The poems were already written. I just did a little editing.

What kind of freedom did you find in writing poems compared to writing songs or anything else?

Inside there are many people, even younger people than me. Writing poems gave me great freedom. It is a free form, without structure, and I am not good with the structures.

At the beginning of the book he writes to suffer from multiple personalities. Why? What happened? And do you think that poetry can be the sister of music and activism?

As a child, through the drawing I found my identity and calmed me. Then I suffered a childhood trauma: sexual, physical abuse. For all my life I had phobias, anxieties, without understanding why. I had good therapists, they helped me work in the world. But the deep problems remained. One day I understood: “I know that the resolution is inside me, I have to get there”. It is a different, very deep therapy.
On the connection between poetry and activism: I started writing poems to post on social media. Different from those of the book: they are all political.

In the book, he talks about three people very dear to her, musically speaking: Jimi Hendrix, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. And in the poetry on the singer -songwriter of Duluth a verse I play: “And what I would like to know is who is who writes that type of stuff today”. How was this thought born?

I think there has been an excess of talent for a period. It was the era of civil rights, of the war in Vietnam, and so on. All this has influenced us, whether we were aware of it or not. Somehow he “influenced” our writing. I was lucky enough to know and sing with great personalities. And now people ask: “When someone will write ‘Blowin’ again in the Wind ‘or another’ Imagine ‘?”. And I reply: it won’t happen. There must be something else, the son of our time, but I don’t know who. There are many beautiful songs today, but what we want is a hymn. A protest song that became a powerful hymn was “We shall overcome”. Everyone could sing it, and gave the feeling of being united and powerful. Some tried. Some are valid. But we will never have those years of great talent again, in my opinion.

“Like a cursed volcano”: thus talks about Jimi Hendrix in the poetry dedicated to him. Did he have the pleasure of knowing him, or has he only crossed him to some festivals, as in Woodstock?

I didn’t know him well. One day, my son comes out asking me: “Mom, have you ever met Jimi Hendrix?”. Me: “I don’t think”. And he shows me a photomontage found on the Internet of me with Jimi, and a large marijuana seedling. “Mom, you were in the dressing room with him smoking!”, So my son asks me, I answer: “It’s a photoshoppata photo! But it’s a nice photo”.
The reference to the volcano essentially derives from its execution of the United States National National National “The Star-Spangled Banner” at the end of his set in Woodstock, at six in the morning.

Are poetry and music still tools of struggle and liberation? Or is that season over?

That season has just begun. We need songs that talk about this time. I don’t know how it can happen: perhaps a deep talent is needed like that of Bob, Jimi, Joni. In the meantime, we use what we have. Even the very young demonstrators for the control of weapons in Florida sing old Dylan songs, because there is nothing that replaced them. They are great songs.

At the end of the book He writes: “The last farewell is the beginning of acceptance. “Which means?

When someone says “goodbye” definitively, it means that it is over. You have to accept that it is over.

But he hasn’t said goodbye to music yet, right?

No, he was not referring to music. But to my partner.

His music has always been a window on the world: he has always embraced his activism and social and political commitment: in your opinion, the artists still should take on a political or social role today?

I’ve always thought it. Some great works arise from those who are not political, but for me the two have always been linked.

The Carried the Flame “, written for her by Josh Ritter, recently sang: how was it to sing a protest song again?

Josh Ritter is a good songwriter and I asked him if he could write a song capable of being a hymn that everyone manages to sing. “I Carried the Flame” is the first song that someone has been writing for some time and that I believe can be defined as a hymn, which everyone can immediately sing together. I only tried it once live: the public immediately learned the text. There is also another beautiful song that I recently played, written by Janis Ian: “One in A Million”. (Sing): “We are one / we are one in a Million / We are one in A Million Strong / When all Hope Is Gone / We Will Dream Beylond / We are one in Million Strong”.

Will he still sing in public, perhaps exceptionally, for a good cause?

I have already done a couple of beneficial events. If two or three songs ask me, it’s not a problem. I no longer have the same voice extension. If it is the right situation, I don’t have to take buses and get too tired of me, and there is a guitarist with me – because I don’t play the guitar anymore -, I do it. I like to sing, but don’t travel. We will see. If something interesting arrives, I don’t go back.

A few months ago the film “A Complete Unknown” was released, in which Monica Barbaro played just her. Did you talk to Bob Dylan? Or did he ever think about contacting him?

Rolling Stone Us asked me the same question in an interview and I replied: “Work on ‘Rolling Stone’ for enough time to know the answer”. No, he didn’t contact anyone and I didn’t contact him. I contacted Monica and Edward Norton, who played Pete Seger. We talked for a long time. I told her to contact me if I had been useful.

Did you like the film “A Complete Unknown”?

Yes, as long as you remember that it is a movie. My friends make me Fact-Checking. And I say: “It’s a film, not a documentary”. Some parts are beautiful. The music was beautiful. And I believe that Monica and Timothée Chalamet in the role of Dylan have played well. He was just a little too “clean”.

Exactly 40 years ago, he participated in the Live Aid, an initiative that at the time wanted to pay attention to the fact that there were people who died of hunger in the world. Can you imagine many great artists today unite to do something similar?

There is certainly no shortage of reasons to do it. At the time with the live AID I joked that the only risk that was ran was not to be invited. So it was not something highly political. I realized, however, that for many young people at Live Aid it was the first time that they discovered that there were people who hungry in the world. I thought they were already aware of it. The United States are too rich a country: we are spoiled.

He sang in Italian “there was a boy who like me loved the Beatles and Rolling Stones”. What is your link with this song?

It was a revelation. And the discovery of that song was always thanks to Furio. Once I came to Italy, I didn’t know any Italian song and I asked him what I could sing. And he suggested to me “there was a boy”. When he performed in Italy, it was impossible not to sing it, otherwise the audience got angry. It is a beautiful song.

What do you think of your songs today for the film “Sacco & Vanzetti”?

The story behind it is once again thanks to Furio, who came to my hotel room with Morricone and said to me: “Here’s what you need to do: write three ballads”. I’ve never accepted money for those songs. It was simply a special occasion: I was working with Morricone. He was a gentleman.

Do you think art or beauty will save the world?

Somehow, in part, they have already done it for us, because they are an anchor of salvation. They fill a part of us who can fill anything else. So, in this sense, they save us. But save the world from tyranny? I don’t know what he can succeed.

The concept of “peace” It was central in the sixties. Do you still value for her?

I never liked the word “peace”. It is a static word: the army also fights “for peace”. For me, nonviolent activism is something in motion, it is action. “Peace” is a deceptive word. Everyone thinks it’s a nice concept. But perhaps peace, in the end, is also boring. We don’t know. It’s not my favorite word.