Joan Baez pide por la justicia social en emocionante discurso en el Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "Vamos juntos a rechazar y reemplazar la brutalidad y convertirla en apasionantes prioridades" Joan Baez Pleads for Social Justice in Moving Rock Hall of Fame Speech: "Let us together repeal and replace brutality and make them passionate priorities,"/ Abril, April 7 - 2017, Rolling Stone

"Vamos juntos a construir un puente, un gran puente, un hermoso puente,  para una vez más dar la bienvenida a los cansados ​​y los pobres " dijo la cantante folk

 

 

 

Después de casi 60 años de carrera, Joan Baez ha sido incluida en el Salón de la Fama del Rock and Roll. La reina del folk recibió el honor de su amigo y colaborador Jackson Browne durante la ceremonia de la noche del viernes en el Barclays Center de Brooklyn.

 La activista y cantautora se convirtió en una voz internacionalmente reconocida de la contracultura al principio de los años '60.  Canciones de su autoría como "Diamonds & Rust" se han convertido en clásicos, así como sus interpretaciones de material escrito por compañeros suyos como Browne, Leonard Cohen y Bob Dylan.

La legendaria artista utilizó su tiempo para pronunciar un apasionado discurso pidiendo justicia social. Lee su discurso de aceptación abajo.

JOAN BAEZ, MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER and  AMY RAY & EMILY SALIERS / photo by Karen O'Connor  ( Joan Baez )

"Me da un enorme placer aceptar este prestigioso premio esta noche. Gracias al Salón de la Fama por esta inducción tan improbable. Un agradecimiento especial a mi manager, Mark Spector, por haber mantenido mi carrera visible, viable y vibrante. 

Soy consciente de que estoy hablando con muchos jóvenes que, sin esta inducción en el Salón de la Fama del Rock & Roll, no tendrían idea de quién soy. [Risas]  Mi nieta no tenía ni idea de quién era hasta que la llevé al backstage de un concierto de Taylor Swift, donde consiguió una selfie, un autógrafo, una camiseta y un nuevo respeto por su abuela.  [Risas]

Aunque  no puedo decir que soy un artista de rock & roll,  no puedo pasar por alto la música folk de los años sesenta y el  inmenso impacto que tuvo en la música popular, incluyendo el rock & roll. Tampoco se puede pasar por alto el papel que desempeñé en ese fenómeno. Tuve la suerte de haber encontrado mi voz cuando las cafeterías estaban a la orden del día. Mi primer trabajo en con la música era los martes por la noche en el Club 47 en Harvard Square, donde cantaba tres sets y ganaba quince dólares por noche, todo lo que hizo que  abandonara alegremente  la universidad.

RELACIONADO
Joan Baez cantó un  emocionante 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' en el Rock Hall

Baez también cantó canciones de The Band y  Woody Guthrie con Mary Chapin Carpenter e  Indigo Girls.
El icono de los años sesenta ayudó a inventar la idea de la cantante de protesta - más de cinco décadas más tarde, todavía está en ella

  Debo mis comienzos a los amigos y artistas folklóricos de los que aprendí  los acordes, las melodías, cómo usar los dedos para tocar la guitarra y un repertorio en ciernes. Tuve la suerte de estar otra vez en el lugar y la hora adecuados, donde conocí y era amiga de la mayoría de los ídolos del rock & roll de los años sesenta y setenta. Algunas de esas amistades las  atesoro hasta ahora. La mayoría de nosotros, en la comunidad de folk y rock, compartimos las similitudes y las diferencias de cómo llegamos a donde estamos hoy. También compartimos la conciencia de los bienaventurados y de los excéntricos, que nos acompaña en nuestra vida cotidiana, vidas que rara vez son realmente privadas. 

 Una vez un amigo me dijo,  cuando fui reconocida en la calle por un fan: "Oh, vamos. Admítelo. A tí te gusta esto".   Y yo  le dije:  "No tengo nada que admitir. Es verdad". Mi público es como  una especie de familia. Estoy en deuda con aquellos rockeros que han desaparecido hace mucho tiempo y con aquellos que viven,  que han enriquecido e iluminado mi vida, desde la época de los discos de  vinilo a  los discos digitales, y todo lo que hay en el medio, para volver al vinilo. [ Risas ]

Mis años de infancia y adolescencia estaban llenos de música clásica, country y western, rhythm y el blues, y los éxitos del momento. Cuando tenía 16 años mi tía me llevó a un concierto de Pete Seeger. Y mi mamá me regaló  un álbum de Harry Belafonte. Aunque Pete no era de ninguna manera tan hermoso como Harry, él ya estaba comprometido con la lucha por los cambios sociales. Él pagó un alto precio por mantenerse firme en sus ideales. Aprendí el significado de "tomar un riesgo" de Pete. La Guerra Fría estaba ganando terreno y abrió un período vergonzoso en este país. Mi familia ya era cuaquera, y social y políticamente activa. La influencia de Pete fue como una buena vacuna e hizo que prestara atención a la música folk y al activismo político.

  

Mi voz es mi mayor regalo. Puedo hablar libremente de la singularidad de la misma precisamente porque es sólo eso: un regalo. El segundo regalo más grande fue el deseo de usarla de la manera que lo hago, desde que tenía 16 años y me  convertí en una estudiante  y practicante de la no violencia, tanto en mi vida personal  como para  luchar por  cambios sociales. (Aplausos)   

Lo que ha dado a mi vida un significado profundo y un placer interminable ha sido usar mi voz en la batalla contra la injusticia. Me ha puesto en contacto con mi propio propósito. También me ha puesto en contacto con personas de todos los ámbitos. Con gente abierta, generosa, trabajadora, amorosa,  aquí en este país y en todo el mundo. Me ha puesto en contacto con los ricos, con los que están atrapados en el egoísmo y con los que brindan generosamente  su tiempo y sus recursos para ayudar  a los menos afortunados, e iluminan el camino para que otros hagan lo mismo. (Aplausos) 

Y me he encontrado y he intentado caminar en los zapatos de aquellos que tienen hambre, sed, frío;  la gente encarcelada por sus creencias, y las que han violado la ley, pagado su condena, y que ahora viven sin esperanza y en la desesperación . De los presos  que han pasado décadas en confinamiento solitario, en espera de su ejecución. De los refugiados exhaustos, los inmigrantes. Los que han luchado por este país, se han sacrificado, y ahora viven en las sombras del rechazo.  (Aplausos)

Gente de color,  vieja,  enferma, físicamente discapacitada, la comunidad LGBTQ. Y ahora, en la nueva realidad política y cultural en la que nos encontramos, hay mucho trabajo por hacer. Cuando la solidaridad está fallando y el compartir ha sido usurpado por la codicia y el ansia  de poder, nosotros tenemos que doblar, triplicar y cuatriplicar nuestros propios esfuerzos para ser solidarios y dar  nuestros recursos y a nosotros mismos. (Aplausos)

Vamos juntos derogar y reemplazar la brutalidad, y convertirla en apasionantes prioridades.  Vamos juntos a construir un puente, un gran puente, un hermoso puente,  para una vez más dar la bienvenida a los cansados ​​y los pobres. (Aplausos)  Y vamos a pagar por ese puente con nuestro compromiso. Nosotros, la gente, debemos decirle la verdad al poder y estar dispuestos a hacer sacrificios. Nosotros, la gente, somos los únicos que podemos crear el cambio. Estoy lista. Espero que tú también lo estés. (Aplausos)

Quiero que mi nieta sepa que he luchado contra una marea maligna, y he tenido a las masas a mi lado. (Aplausos) Cuando todas estas cosas van acompañadas de música, música de todos los géneros, la lucha por un mundo mejor, un paso valiente a la vez, se vuelve no sólo soportable, sino posible y hermosa.  Gracias de nuevo."  (Aplausos y ovación)

 

Joan Báez

Rolling Stone
April 7, 2017

RELACIONADO 

Joan Baez's Fighting Side: The Life and Times of a Secret Badass

 

"Let us together repeal and replace brutality and make them passionate priorities. Together, let us build a bridge, a great bridge, a beautiful bridge to once again welcome the tired and the poor" 

 

After a nearly 60-year career, Joan Baez has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The Queen of Folk was presented the honor by her friend and collaborator Jackson Browne during Friday night's ceremony at Brooklyn's Barclays Center.

The activist and singer-songwriter became an internationally known voice of the counter-culture during the early Sixties. Her original songs like "Diamonds & Rust" have become classics as well as her interpretations of material penned by peers like Browne, Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan.

The legendary artist used her time to deliver a passionate speech pleading for social justice. Read her acceptance speech below.

"It gives me enormous pleasure to accept this prestigious and very cool award tonight. Thank you to the Hall of Fame for this somewhat unlikely induction. Especially thanks to my manager, Mark Spector, for having kept my career visible, viable and vibrant. 

I'm aware that I'm speaking to many young people who, without this induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, would have no clue who I am. [Laughter] My granddaughter had no clue who I was. [Laughter] Until I took her backstage at the Taylor Swift concert where she got a selfie, an autograph, a T-shirt and newfound respect for her grandmother. 
 
While one cannot say I'm a rock & roll artist, one cannot overlook the folk music of the 'Sixties and the immense effect it had on popular music including rock & roll. Nor can anyone overlook the roll that I played in that phenomenon. I was lucky enough to have found my voice when coffee shops were the order of the day. My first job in music was on Tuesday nights at Club 47 in Harvard Square where I sang three sets, made 15 dollars a night, all as I gleefully flunked out of college.

I owe my beginnings to the friends and folk artists whom I picked up the chords, the melodies, the finger pickings and the budding repertoire. Again, at the right place and time, I knew and was friends with most of the rock & roll idols of the Sixties and Seventies. Some of those friendships I treasure to this day. Most of us in the community of both folk and rock music share with each other the similarities and differences of how we got to where we are today. We also share the awareness of the blessed and the bizarre, which accompanies us in our everyday lives. Lives which are seldom really final. 

Once a friend said to me when I was recognized at a post by a fan on the street, "Oh, come on. Admit it. You like this." And I said, "There was nothing to admit. It was a fact." My public is a kind of family. I'm beholden to those rock & rollers who are long gone, and to those who live on who have enriched and brightened my life from vinyl to digital and everything in between and back to vinyl. [Laughter].

Related

Joan Baez Performs Thrilling 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' at Rock Hall

Baez also revisited songs from The Band, Woody Guthrie with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Indigo Girls

Joan Baez's Fighting Side: The Life and Times of a Secret Badass

The Sixties icon helped invent the idea of the protest singer – more than five decades later, she's still at it

 My childhood was filled with classical, country and western, rhythm and blues and a hit parade. When I was 16, my aunt took me to see a Pete Seeger concert. And my mom brought me a Harry Belafonte album. Though Pete was not in any way gorgeous like Harry, he was already committed to making social change. He paid a high price for holding fast to his principles. I learned the meaning of taking a risk from Pete. The Cold War was getting a foothold and ushering a shameful period in this country. My family was then Quaker and socially and politically active. Pete's influence on me took like a good vaccine, and I turned my attention to folk music and political activism. 

My voice is my greatest gift. I can speak freely about the uniqueness of it precisely because it's just that. A gift. The second greatest gift was the desire to use it the way I have since I was 16 and became a student and practitioner of nonviolence, both in my personal life and as a way of fighting for social change. [Applause.]  Thank you.

It has given my life deep meaning and unending pleasure, has been to use my voice in the battle of injustice. It has brought me in touch with people of every background. With open, generous, hardworking, fun-loving people here in this country and around the world. It has brought me in touch with the wealthy, the ones who are stuck in selfishness and the ones who give their generosity of their time and resources to benefit the less fortunate and light the way for others to do the same. [Applause]

And I've met and tried to walk in the shoes of those who are hungry, thirsty, cold and passed out. People imprisoned for their beliefs and others who have broken the law, paid the price and now live in hopelessness and despair. I've exonerated prisoners who have spent decades in solitary confinement, awaiting execution. Of exhausted refugees, and immigrants. Those who have fought for this country, sacrificed and now live in the shadows of rejection. [Applause]

People of color, the old, the ill, the physically challenged, the LGBTQ community. And now, in the new political, cultural reality in which we find ourselves, there's much work to be done. Where empathy is failing and sharing has become usurped by greed and lust for power, let us double, triple and quadruple our own efforts to empathize and to give our resources and ourselves.


Let us together repeal and replace brutality and make them passionate priorities. Together, let us build a bridge, a great bridge, a beautiful bridge to once again welcome the tired and the poor. And we will pay for that bridge with our commitment. We, the people, must speak truth to power and be ready to make sacrifices. We, the people, are the only ones who can create change. I'm ready. I hope you are, too.


I want my granddaughter to know that I fought against an evil tide and had the masses by my side. When all of these things are accompanied by music, every genre, the fight for a better world, one brave step at a time becomes not just bearable, but possible and beautiful. Thank you. "   [Applause.] 

Joan Báez

Rolling Stone
April 7, 2017

Joan Baez with  Snoop Dogg  / photo by Karen O'Connor   ( Joan Baez )

Read Jackson Browne's Laudatory Joan Baez Rock Hall Induction Speech

Joan Baez with David Letterman/ (photo by Karen O'Connor  ( Joan Baez )

"To track Joan Baez's involvement in human rights and social justice is to chart the evolution of our own moral awakening," singer-songwriter says

Jackson Browne inducted folk legend Joan Baez at the 2017 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony at Brooklyn's Barclays Center Friday night. Bruce Springsteen inducted Browne into the Hall of Fame in 2004 and in 2013, Browne appeared at the ceremony to help honor inductee Randy Newman.

Browne and Baez have crossed paths multiple times over the years, with Baez having covered and interpreted songs by Browne on her own albums. Last year, the folk legends performed on stage for Baez's 75th birthday celebration at New York's Beacon Theater, singing "Before the Deluge" and Woody Guthrie's "Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)" together.

The songwriter gave a deeply personal speech about Baez, tracing her involvement in his own musical upbringing and greater contribution to social causes. Read the full speech below.

"The changes that began happening in the Sixties: the civil rights movement, opposition to the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, the spiritual exploration and consciousness expansion, women's liberation. None of that can be separated from the folk music that was being rediscovered and brought to the forefront of popular culture. On college campuses, in coffee houses, at folk festivals, a new generation was discovering the true history of this country through the music of people who built it.

And we weren't just listening to it. We were learning to sing and play these songs that contained the hardship and the struggles of the hopes of people who had come to this country as immigrants and as slaves. [Applause]

Folk musicians began traveling to parts of the country where people still made this music and they began finding out who was actually here and that was something you couldn't find out in those days by watching TV or going to the movies. Of all the many great artists who were singing and recording this music and who embodied the search for what was real, historic and eternal, the one who suddenly emerged and came to national prominence was Joan Baez. 

From the moment she appeared in the Cambridge folk scene, she had a spellbinding effect on her audiences. In 1960, at the age of 19, she released her first album, and then a second album, and then a live album, and then she was on the cover of TIME Magazine as the face and voice of a new folk movement. 

The first record I ever bought with my own money was Joan Baez's second album. I was 14. I went down to a record store in Fullerton, out in Orange County where my I had just moved with my family from L.A., and they had a listening booth where you could play records before buying them and I saw this album with her picture on it. She looked like the girls I had grown up with in Highland Park in my old neighborhood in L.A. I went into that listening booth and right away I was taken with what was for me completely new music. Just voice and guitar, but so ethereal. Powerfully in tune. Deeply expressive. Dramatic. Hypnotic. 

By the third song, I was completely mesmerized. I took the record home and starting learning to play that third song. It was called "Lily of the West." The purity of her voice was intoxicating. Her enormous dynamics and the command she had as a singer mixed with the drama and mystery of those old songs led me into the world of folk and blues and the voice and guitar-driven narrative became the center or my musical quest for my whole life. 

Almost immediately she introduced her audience to the songs of Bob Dylan. Joan Baez gave Bob Dylan a national audience. When she began singing his songs those who had been time traveling through folk music and discovering all the human drama and the eternal truths of our shared mystery were suddenly in the present "With God on Our side." 

"With God on Our Side," this Dylan song which summarized and examined the history of U.S. wars and the supposed rationale for each of them was one of the two songs that Joan and Bob sang on their concert tour in 1963 catapulting the broad side or what is now known as the protest song into the consciousness of a whole generation. 

Her second live album, released that year, contained her rather shy, almost casual invitation to join her in singing "We Shall Overcome." Both of these songs had a galvanizing effect on me and my friends. We joined CORE, the congress of racial equality. We joined hands and we sang and we demonstrated and we started writing songs and we were doing this out of Orange County, the bastion of the ultra-conservative John Birch society. But it was happening all over America and when I saw that Joan Baez was marching with Martin Luther King, I felt that I was represented there and that they were marching for all of us. 

And that they were marching for, to paraphrase Langston Hughes, the America that has never been yet and yet must be. [Applause] There's not a way to quantify what Joan Baez means to people of my generation who grew up listening to her voice, leading us in singing "We Shall Overcome." And when I hear the recording now I feel a deep sadness that the song is as needed now as it was then. Now even more. [Applause]

The changes that began happening in the Sixties are still happening and the injustice we opposed then we must still oppose and we need to be empowered now as much as we have ever needed to be empowered. 

To track Joan Baez's involvement in human rights and social justice is to chart the evolution of our own moral awakening and of our own growing planetary consciousness. Her example has been, from the beginning, empowering for women and for man. Of course, women are smarter and it's taken men a little longer to realize that we were being empowered too. But that's right. Joan Baez empowered me and countless people like me to sing and play guitar when I was a kid not that much younger than her and to find my voice and to eventually try to use it to make the changes I need to see in the world. 

So, it is my honor and my pleasure, and a recognition long, long overdue, to welcome Joan Baez to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "

Jackson Browne

Rolling Stone

April 7, 2017