See other Activism Articles
Title: Baez is Back! Takes Camp Casey by Storm
Source:
Texas Iconoclast
URL Source: http://198.65.14.85/News/2005/31-40/34news01.htm
Published: Aug 22, 2005
Author: Gene Ellis
Post Date: 2005-08-23 15:34:56 by Lod
Keywords: Back!, Takes, Casey
Views: 431
Comments: 77
CRAWFORD — Shortly after Joan Baez arrived Sunday afternoon at Camp Casey II, she gave a press conference with the Gold Star Families, all of whom have lost loved ones in the war. She talked with them, and she cried with them. Ms. Baez returned to the trailer to prepare for her performance, speaking only in whispers when it was necessary to speak at all, saving her voice. She gave a moving performance, peppered with energy, emotion, humor, and humanity. She even showed compassion for President Bush, although she disagrees with him. She said she doesn’t make Bush jokes any more because they often offend more conservative folks, and that isn’t helping anything. At one point, she laughingly forgot the line “keeping things vague” in the song “Diamonds and Rust,” and the audience helped her out. When she consulted a paper during the performance, holding it at arm’s length, she joked, “I get these brilliant ideas and then they fade from my mind, plus I can’t read any more.” Despite her good humor about aging, time has been very kind to Joan Baez. She is a lovely, compelling woman. Ms. Baez told the crowd that she had only picked up the guitar again a week and a half ago and will go on tour in September. She claimed her fingers were like spaghetti, and that she didn’t remember words. “My mother says, ‘Did I take my ginko balboa today?’ and I say, ‘I don’t remember!’” She sang “Joe Hill” in response to a request. Saying that the phrase “in harm’s way” was a euphemism for “sitting ducks,” she put down her guitar and sang “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” without accompaniment. Her voice rang sweet and true. Ms. Baez suggested that if the mothers really wanted catharsis, they could sing along with her “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” Emotions ran high as many in the crowd of perhaps five or six hundred wept openly. At the end of the song, she said, “You know, I have to manage to get through it, too.” Ms. Baez sang “Gracias a la Vida” and several favorites from her long career. She thanked the group for having her here, then admitted she purchased her ticket to Texas before the invitation arrived. After her performance, she graciously talked with several individuals in a dark area near her trailer. Three of these were veterans. Two were mothers who had lost their sons in Iraq. She hugged them and cried with them. Camp bugler and Iraq war veteran Jeff Key, in an unplanned and completely spontaneous moment, took Ms. Baez’s hand. He led her to a spot before the many crosses that have been placed at the front of the camp. She was beside him, a diminutive woman beside a tall, strong young man, as he blew taps in the moonlight to a large, respectful crowd. He saluted. They hugged. And there was complete and total silence. When Ms. Baez returned to her private area behind the trailer, she sat down at a table, dropped her head into her folded arms, and wept. +++++ Be sure and visit the source for pictures.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 65.
#10. To: lodwick (#0)
look here...the group appears to be mostly middle aged average Americans..
I love this song.
Trivia time - do you know who she is talking to in that song? No fair googling.
no, tell us. lodwick and i were wondering.
My understanding is she wrote it about Bob Dylan. They were dating/couple at some point. He wrote her back with "You've got a lot of nerve"
Unless she was mis-leading us about the blue eyes, it was NOT Dylan. Hell, most all of us were "dating" back then...if only for a couple of hours or so. More research is required here.
Are you calling William Ruhlmann a LIAR? :)
I don't even know Bill. All I know is that all the pics I've ever seen of Dylan do NOT reveal blue eyes - nor should they, or will they ever. Daks, I am in a very pissy mood this evening, apologies up...I'd just like to know who laid to her the Norwegian Wood that she wrote so beautifully about. But if the "blue eyes" line is true, then Dylan was not the one, and we must search further. Cheers, friend.
Call me a kook, but I'm thinking Lennon.
she says as i remember..maybe she forgot his eye color? this part is apropos to dylan--Well, you burst on the scene, already a legend The unwashed phenomenon The original vagabond
As I remember your eyes
Were bluer than robin's eggs
My poetry was lousy you said
Where are you calling from?
A booth in the Midwest
Ten years ago I bought you some cufflinks
You brought me something
We both know what memories can bring
They bring diamonds and rust
Well, you burst on the scene, already a legend
The unwashed phenomenon
The original vagabond
You strayed into my arms
And there you stayed
Temporarily lost at sea
The Madonna was yours for free
Yes, the girl on the half-shell
Could keep you unharmed
Now I see you standing with brown leaves falling around
And snow in your hair
Now you're smiling out the window of that crummy hotel
Over Washington Square
Our breath comes out white clouds
Mingles and hangs in the air
Speaking strictly for me
We both could have died then and there
Now you're telling me you're not nostalgic
Then give me another word for it
You who are so good with words
And at keeping things vague
'Cause I need some of that vagueness now
It's all come back too clearly
Yes, I loved you dearly
And if you're offering me diamonds and rust
I've already paid
I was thinking of changing my screen name to UnwashedPhenomenon, but it'd no doubt trip me up eventually. Too many letters for one thing.
I'm going to be The UnwashedPheromone
Completely illogical. I'm taking my campaign war chest home and retiring. Dakmar4Senate.2006! Cash only, please.
I think my cat is constipated.
Addendum to J4JP Release - October 13, 2003* You've got a lot of nerve When I was down you just stood there grinning. You've got a lot of nerve You say I let you down, You say you've lost your faith, You have no faith to lose, and you know it. I know the reason that Do you take me for such a fool You see me on the street. You say, how are you, good luck, but you don't mean it. Now don't I feel that good And though I know you're dissatisfied Don't you understand, it's not my problem. I wish that for just one time,
#68. To: Dakmar (#65)
Did you know Fat Freddy had a cat? I think it was pretty regular though, so maybe thid falls outside the current discussion.
Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, "In some future time, there will be a continent called "The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings And he showed himself in his true form of A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the His left paw in the Mudra of Comradely Display -- indicating Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the West, symbolic of With a halo of smoke and flame behind, the forest fires Round-bellied to show his kind nature and that the great Indicating the Task: his followers, becoming free of cars, Wrathful but Calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will HE WILL PUT THEM OUT. Thus his great Mantra: Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana "I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND And he will protect those who love woods and rivers, And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television, DROWN THEIR BUTTS And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out Now those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it in AND IN THE END WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT thus have we heard. ~ Gary Snyder
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#11. To: All (#10)
#38. To: christine (#11)
Diamonds and Rust
#39. To: Dakmar, Lodwick (#38)
#41. To: christine, lodwick (#39)
#42. To: Dakmar (#41)
#43. To: lodwick, christine (#42)
But the real hit was the title track, a self-penned masterpiece on the singer's favorite subject, her relationship with Bob Dylan. Outdoing the current crop of confessional singer/songwriters at soul baring, Baez sang to Dylan, reminiscing about her '60s love affair with him intensely, affectionately, and unsentimentally. It was her finest moment as a songwriter and one of her finest performances, period, and when A&M finally released it on 45, it made the Top 40, propelling the album to gold status. But those who bought the disc for "Diamonds & Rust" also got to hear "Winds of the Old Days," in which Baez forgave Dylan for abandoning the protest movement, as well as the jazzy "Children and All That Jazz," a delightful song about motherhood, and the wordless vocals of "Dida," a duet with Joni Mitchell accompanied by Mitchell's backup band...
#44. To: Dakmar (#43)
#46. To: lodwick (#44)
I'd just like to know who laid to her the Norwegian Wood
#49. To: Dakmar, Lodwick (#46)
Well, I'll be damned
Here comes your ghost again
But that's not unusual
It's just that the moon is full
And you happened to call
And here I sit
Hand on the telephone
Hearing a voice I'd known
A couple of light years ago
Heading straight for a fall
#50. To: christine (#49)
#58. To: Dakmar (#50)
The UnwashedPhenomenon
#61. To: crack monkey (#58)
I'm going to be The UnwashedPheromone
#64. To: Dakmar (#61)
#65. To: crack monkey, christine, lodwick (#64)
Lyrics: Positively 4th Street by Bob Dylan
To say you are my friend.
To say you've got a helping hand to lend.
You just want to be on the side that's winning.
You know it's not like that.
If you're so hurt, why then don't you show it?
But that's not where it's at.
You talk behind my back.
I used to be among the crowd you're in with.
To think I'd make contact
With the one who tries to hide what he don't know to begin with?
You always act surprised.
When you know as well as me,
You'd rather see me paralyzed
Why don't you just come out once and scream it!
When I see the heartaches you embrace
If I were a master thief perhaps I'd rob them.
With your position and your place,
You could stand inside my shoes,
And just for that one moment I could be you.
Yes, I wish that for just one time
You could stand inside my shoes,
You'd know what a drag it is to see you.
Replies to Comment # 65.
#76. To: Dakmar (#65)
Smokey the Bear Sutra.
the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite
Void gave a Discourse to all the assembled elements
and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings,
the flying beings, and the sitting beings -- even grasses,
to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from a
seed, assembled there: a Discourse concerning
Enlightenment on the planet Earth.
America. It will have great centers of power called
such as Pyramid Lake, Walden Pond, Mt. Rainier, Big Sur,
Everglades, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels
such as Columbia River, Mississippi River, and Grand Canyon
The human race in that era will get into troubles all over
its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of
its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature."
of volcanoes are my love burning deep in the earth.
My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and
granite, to be mountains, to bring down the rain. In that
future American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure
the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger:
and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it."
SMOKEY THE BEAR
hind legs, showing that he is aroused and watchful.
truth beneath appearances; cuts the roots of useless attach-
ments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;
that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits
and that deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions,
and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma;
laborers, the countless men oppressed by a civilization
that claims to save but often destroys;
the forces that guard the Wilderness, which is the Natural
State of the Dharma and the True Path of man on earth:
all true paths lead through mountains --
of the kali-yuga, fires caused by the stupidity of those
who think things can be gained and lost whereas in truth all
is contained vast and free in the Blue Sky and Green Earth
of One Mind;
earth has food enough for everyone who loves her and trusts her;
Trampling underfoot wasteful freeways and needless
suburbs; smashing the worms of capitalism and totalitarianism;
houses, canned foods, universities, and shoes; master the
Three Mysteries of their own Body, Speech, and Mind; and
fearlessly chop down the rotten trees and prune out the
sick limbs of this country America and then burn the leftover trash.
Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or
slander him,
Sphataya hum traks ham nam
BE THIS RAGING FURY DESTROYED"
Gods and animals, hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick
people, musicians, playful women, and hopeful children:
or the police, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WAR SPELL:
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
with his vajra-shovel.
practice willl accumulate merit as countless as the sands
of Arizona and Nevada.
Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.
Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.
Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and
beasts.
Will always have ripe blackberries to eat and a sunny spot
under a pine tree to sit at.
ENLIGHTENMENT.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 65.