Greatest Hits: Joan Baez: Amazon.ca: Music

Frequently Bought Together

1. Diamonds And Rust

2. Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

3. Simple Twist Of Fate

4. Imagine

5. In The Quiet Morning (For Janis Joplin)

6. Best Of Friends

7. Forever Young

8. Prison Trilogy (Billy Rose)

9. Jesse

10. Children And All That Jazz

11. Please Come To Boston

12. Never Dreamed You'd Leave In Summer

13. Gracias A La Vida

14. Sweeter For Me

15. Love Song To A Stranger

16. Dida

17. Amazing Grace

18. The Ballad Of Sacco & Vanzetti (La Ballata Di Sacco E Vanzetti)

19. Oh Happy Day

20. Less Than The Song

Product Description

Amazon.com essential recording

Before Joan Baez, the closest thing to a white female folksinger was Jo Stafford. Baez made her professional debut in 1959 at the Newport Folk Festival and started recording for Vanguard the next year. Her early association with Bob Dylan and performances of his songs did him no harm. The material in this CD comes from later in her career, when she had left Vanguard for A&M. Listeners who enjoy this CD will probably want to hear her earlier work. She is among the classic American voices. --Stanley Booth

Suggested Tags from Similar Products

(What's this?)

Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)

joan baez(1)

latin folk(1)

latin pop(1)

spain(1)

spanish folk(1)

traditional folk(1)

Customer Reviews

17 Reviews

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

Average Customer Review

3.6 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Unfortunate, May 15 2006

By

Peter Reeve (Thousand Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

If you want just one CD that gives you an overview of Joan Baez's career and contains her greatest hits, well...you won't find one. Her career has been too long and varied for that. She was at Woodstock and at Live Aid. She covered traditional English, Spanish and French folk songs, protest and mainstream pop.

She currently has 46 albums to her credit, including 15 compilation albums. Newcomers to her music will assume that an album entitled Greatest Hits, which is her current best seller, is the best place to start. Unfortunately, it's the worst.

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down was one of her finest songs; I remember the excitement her version generated in the 70s. This album has a live performance which is a pale imitation of the studio version. Her voice is tired and slightly off-key, the backing is scrappy, the acoustics are poor and the tempo is a little too fast. It's a mess.

She does a Dylan impersonation on one verse of his A Simple Twist of Fate. This might have been amusing at the time, and may still be to those in the know, but to newcomers it will be irritating and confusing. A mistake.

One of her signature tunes is Amazing Grace, which she has performed better than anyone. At the 1985 Live Aid concert, she made the terrible mistake of saying the words before each verse, to encourage audience participation. Mercifully, the DVD of the concert cuts this short. So why, in the name of all that's musical, does this album include a 1976 performance of her doing the same thing? An embarrassment.

All the tracks were recorded in the 70s (1972 - 1976), by no means her 'Greatest' era, nor her most representative. Simply, they are her years with A&M Records. They had the nerve to cobble these tracks together and call it a 'Greatest Hits'. A smart marketing move but a shameful musical one.

To add a positive note, the final track, Less Than the Song, is very fine. I guess you can't keep a good singer down.

Joan's is the finest female voice of the 60s folk revival and protest movement -- pure and melodious and true. As a child of the 60s, the album of hers that I remember best and which now seems most representative is her eponymous 'Joan Baez'. If you are new to her music, start either with that album or with The First 10 Years. Both are great.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

2.0 out of 5 stars Look elsewhere for these songs, Jun 20 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

I was very disappointed with this CD. Firstly the remaster is not digital. The sound is flat. Then some of the cuts are from concerts. Amazing Grace, one of her most beautiful songs, is done with audience participation. To make matters worse, she rapidly speaks the words to each verse before singing it to that the audience can participate. This breaks the mood of the song.

I really feel that I wasted my money.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

2.0 out of 5 stars ok, Feb 5 2004

By

Dance Dance Dance - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

This album isn't great, and she always sounds the same through different songs. I do like the song she made a tribute to Janis though.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse