Transcript
David Remnick (0:01)
From one World Trade center in Manhattan. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co production of the New Yorker and WNYC Studios.
Joan Baez (0:12)
Don't sing love songs. You'll wake my mother. She's sleeping here right by my side.
Interviewer (likely David Remnick) (0:24)
That voice, that ringing, remarkable voice belongs to Joan Baez, circa 1960, singing the first song on her first album. Baez was just 19 at the time, and she would soon become one of the defining voices of folk music as it gained a much wider audience. In the 1960s, she performed with Pete Seeger, she sang We Shall Overcome at the March on Washington. She played woodstock. And in 1972, she joined a peace delegation to North Vietnam, where she was caught in the bombing of Hanoi. Baez is 77 years old now, and earlier this year she released a new album called Whistle down the Wind. And she said it might be her last album, but you never know. She joined me at the studio at wnyc. Tell me a little bit about Whistle down the Wind, how this album came to be what you want it to be. It seems to mirror in some way your very first record. In some ways, in a very conscious way, it does.
Joan Baez (1:22)
I mean, the very first thought about it was of some kind of bookend. Cause I'd already started thinking about pretty much winding down. It's like the first album. It's simple. There is certainly a hint of social consciousness in it. They're pretty songs. A couple of them were written for me. I think the depth of it comes from the two songs which actually I'll sing today. One of them is Another World and the other is the President Sang Amazing Grace. Those are the powerhouses of songs. And without those, it would have been a really beautiful album, but wouldn't have the depth that it has.
Interviewer (likely David Remnick) (2:03)
How do you feel about songwriting as opposed to doing covers lately? Is it more interesting to you to do covers?
Joan Baez (2:11)
Well, first of all, you have to know that I quit songwriting about over 25 years ago. And I didn't quit it. It quit.
Interviewer (likely David Remnick) (2:17)
It quit.
Joan Baez (2:18)
It quit. Yeah, the channeling or whatever was going on just stopped. And I mean, I didn't really want to go to round robins and learn how write songs. You know, I just at that point started doing everybody else's music. And that's what I've done since then.
Interviewer (likely David Remnick) (2:32)