Customer Reviews
Exquisite - By: Peter Reeve, 06 Jun 2005 
If you want just one CD that gives you an overview of Joan Baez's career & contains her greatest hits, well...you won't find one. Her career has been too long & varied for that. She was at Woodstock & at Live Aid. She covered traditional English, Spanish & French folk songs, protest & mainstream pop.
Joan's is the finest female voice of the 60's folk revival & protest movement -- pure & melodious & true. This particular CD has too much Dylan for my taste. Good at the time, these now sound very dated. But that is an accurate reflection of the period. We tend to forget now that a great many fans admired Dylan's songwriting but wished he would leave it to the sweet-voiced Joan to sing them.
My personal favorites are the traditional English songs Mary Hamilton, Geordie & John Riley. She sings them exquisitely. If you share that taste, you must get this CD.
Given that this album has a wide variety of music & the resale value seems quite high, this is a prime candidate for ripping & burning the tracks you like & selling it on, especially as the insert notes are minimal & not worth keeping.
As a child of the 60s, the album of hers that I remember best & which now seems most representative is her eponymous 'Joan Baez'. If you are new to her music, start either with that album or with this one. Both are well worth hearing.
One of the best sixties folk singers - By: Peter Durward Harris, 16 Apr 2005 
This compilation covers the ten years that Joan spent recording for Vanguard. She had some success after she left, but the Vanguard recordings remain the most important of her career.
She occasionally wrote her own songs (represented here by Sweet Sir Galahad) but mostly she recorded the songs of others. Her biggest influence was Bob Dylan, who wrote six of the songs here. Apparently, Bob never recorded Love is just a four letter word, but it is a lovely song. I first heard With God on our side by Manfred Mann, a sixties group who also recorded several Bob Dylan songs. Many people have recorded Don't think twice it's all right, including Johnny Cash - another singer who has made several raids on the Bob Dylan songbook. You ain't going nowhere, Farewell Angelina & A hard rain's gonna fall are his other songs here.
Other covers by Joan here include There but for fortune (Phil Ochs), No expectations (Rolling stones), Turquoise (Donovan) & the often covered If I were a carpenter. There are also some traditional folk songs - Mary Hamilton, Geordie & Te ador - so old that their writers are unknown.
Joan recorded so many great songs that eighteen tracks cannot possibly include everything worth having, but this is a good sampling of Joan's music. If you only want one of Joan's albums, this is a good one to choose.
One of the best sixties folk singers - By: Peter Durward Harris, 19 Aug 2003 This compilation covers the ten years that Joan spent recording for Vanguard. She had some success after she left, but the Vanguard recordings remain the most important of her career.
She occasionally wrote her own songs (represented here by Sweet Sir Galahad) but mostly she recorded the songs of others. Her biggest influence was Bob Dylan, who wrote six of the songs here. Apparently, Bob never recorded Love is just a four letter word, but it is a lovely song. I first heard With God on our side by Manfred Mann, a sixties group who also recorded several Bob Dylan songs. Many people have recorded Don’t think twice it’s all right, including Johnny Cash – another singer who has made several raids on the Bob Dylan songbook. You ain’t going nowhere, Farewell Angelina & A hard rain’s gonna fall are his other songs here.
Other covers by Joan here include There but for fortune (Phil Ochs), No expectations (Rolling stones), Turquoise (Donovan) & the often covered If I were a carpenter. There are also some traditional folk songs – Mary Hamilton, Geordie & Te ador – so old that their writers are unknown.
Joan recorded so many great songs that eighteen tracks cannot possibly include everything worth having, but this is a good sampling of Joan’s music. If you only want one of Joan’s albums, this is a good one to choose.
Great Early Works! - By: Martin A Hogan, 09 Jan 2003 This first ten year compilation showcases Joan Baez's early works, where her voice was the song. The innocence & purity of her early folk recordings are a major markin time for this marvelous singer. "Love Is Just A Four Letter Word", "John Riley" & the classic "If I Were A Carpenter" are memories madein & for heaven. Some of the other songs are a surprise as you sit back & suddenly 'remember' this one or that. This is a milestone recording
Great Early Works! - By: Martin A Hogan, 08 Jan 2003 This first ten year compilation showcases Joan Baez's early works, where her voice was the song. The innocence & purity of her early folk recordings are a major markin time for this marvelous singer. "Love Is Just A Four Letter Word", "John Riley" & the classic "If I Were A Carpenter" are memories madein & for heaven. Some of the other songs are a surprise as you sit back & suddenly 'remember' this one or that. This is a milestone recording
