Tuesday, May 21, 2002 7:01:07 AM
Rock 'n' Roll Artists A-Z...Re: Joan Baez
1958
Joan graduates from Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, California in June. She also records a demonstration album, but it fails to garner interest from record company executives and the project is shelved.
In late summer, the Baez family moves to Belmont, Massachusetts, when Joan's father accepts a teaching post at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joan's interest in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, folk scene grows as she begins visiting the local coffeehouses. She registers as a student at Boston University, but only sporadically attends classes and soon quits school to concentrate on her blossoming singing career.
1959
Joan begins performing regularly at Club 47, a folk music club in Cambridge, where she attracts a large and devoted following. She meets Bill Wood prior to taping WHRB Harvard Radio Balladeers program, which Wood hosts. They become friends and begin performing together. With Bill and Ted Alevizos, Joan records the album Folksingers 'Round Harvard Square for Veritas Records, a local Boston record company.
At the invitation of impresario Albert Grossman, Joan appears at The Gate Of Horn nightclub in Chicago. During her two-week stint there, she meets both Bob Gibson and Odetta. Bob is impressed enough with her that he invites her to join him during his set at the Newport Folk Festival on July 11, and her unscheduled appearance makes her the talk of the Festival and establishes her as a talented and exciting new folksinger.
1960
Joan appears at the 1960 Newport Folk Festival as a solo performer, and makes her New York City concert debut at the 92nd Street YMCA on November 5th. Also in November, her first album for Vanguard Recording Society, Joan Baez, is released and becomes a huge success.
1961
Joan meets Bob Dylan at Gerde's Folk City in April of this year, following his appearance there as an opening act for John Lee Hooker. She also records and releases her second Vanguard album, Joan Baez, Volume Two, and embarks on her first national concert tour.
1962
As Joan becomes more involved with the civil rights movement, she conducts the first of three concert tours to Southern college campuses with a strict no-discrimination policy for audiences. The album Joan Baez in Concert is released in September, and she is the subject of the November 23, 1962, TIME Magazine cover story.
1963
Joan Baez In Concert is nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best Folk Recording" category. Joan appears at the Monterey Folk Festival with Bob Dylan (and invites him to be a surprise guest on her summer tour) and headlines at the Newport Folk Festival.
Joan refuses to appear on and leads a much-publicized artist boycott of ABC-TV's Hootenanny show due to their banning of Pete Seeger as a result of his political activism. In August she sings "We Shall Overcome" before an estimated quarter of million people at the civil rights March on Washington.
Joan Baez In Concert, Part Two is released, and Squire Records releases an unauthorized reissue of Folksingers 'Round Harvard Square.
1964
Joan protests U.S. involvement in Vietnam by withholding 60% of her income taxes, the amount determined used for military purposes. The Internal Revenue Service responds by placing a lien against her. She continues to withhold portions of her taxes for the next ten years. And after performing for President Johnson in Washington, she urges him to withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam. Joan also continues her civil right work by appearing at a benefit concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, protesting the state's Proposition 14 which would allow segregated housing, and she becomes involved with the Free Speech Movement at the University of California at Berkeley. As the students take over Sproul Hall, Joan instructs them to "Have love as you do this thing and it will succeed." The police wait until she departs the building before moving in and arresting 800 students.
Fantasy Records releases Joan Baez In San Francisco, an unauthorized release of the demonstration album she recorded as a teenager in 1958, and she files for an injunction to block distribution. Joan once again headlines at the Newport Folk Festival, leads a seminar on "The New Folk Music" at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and travels with the Beatles on a portion of their U.S. concert tour.
Joan Baez/5, her final album of all acoustic music, is released, and The Joan Baez Songbook is published. Containing 66 songs from her repertoire and with illustrations by Eric Von Schmidt, the book becomes a staple among guitar students and is reprinted twenty times over the next few decades.
1965
"There But For Fortune" becomes a hit single and is nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best Folk Recording" category. Joan does a joint U.S. concert tour with Bob Dylan, gives her first major concert outside the U.S. at London's Royal Albert Hall, and Farewell, Angelina is released.
In March, Joan participates in the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and in August she participates in a demonstration outside The White House protesting U.S. involvement in Vietnam. With Ira Sanderl, she founds the Institute For The Study Of Nonviolence in Carmel Valley, California. After area residents claim the onslaught of "hippies and free-love subversives" will threaten property values, the Institute closes after one month, but re-opens without incident in December.
1966
Joan's first three Vanguard recordings are certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, and Noel is released. She also begins recording an album of contemporary popular songs produced by her brother-in-law, Richard Farina, but the project is shelved after Farina's untimely death in a motorcycle accident in late April.
While in West Germany, Joan leads an Easter Day anti-war march, and in September, she participates in a march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Grenada, Mississippi, protesting the beatings of black school children as schools were de-segregated. When Joan attempts to enroll five black children in a formerly segregated school, she is barred from entering the school. In December she both performs at a benefit for striking farm workers in California, and participates in a Christmas vigil at San Quentin Penitentiary urging the commutation of death sentences for 64 prisoners.
1967
While performing in Japan, Joan's political comments are intentionally mistranslated. The interpreter claims, and later denies, that a CIA agent pressured him to mistranslate her political remarks. The CIA denies any involvement in the matter. Back in the U.S., Joan is denied permission to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) due to her anti-war activities. She responds by performing in a free concert at the base of the Washington Monument before an estimated audience of 30,000. Later in the year, Joan joins 56 others in filing suit in California's Federal District Court to reclaim portions of their 1965 and 1966 income taxes on the grounds that they are conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War. The suit is dismissed from court in January, 1968.
Joan headlines at the Newport Folk Festival in July. She also appears on the Women Strike For Peace benefit recording Save The Children, as well as appearing in the films Don't Look Back and Festival. Her own Joan is released by Vanguard in August.
In October Joan is among 119 people arrested for blocking the entrance to the Armed Forces Induction Center in Oakland, California. She is sentenced and serves ten days at the Santa Rita Rehabilitation Center. In December, she is again arrested with 49 other demonstrators for blocking the entrance of the same induction center. She receives a 90 day prison sentence (45 days suspended), but is abruptly released after just a month because prison officials fear an inmate uprising on her scheduled release date.
1968
The European Exchange System reveals that the sale of Joan Baez recordings has been banned in Army PXs because of her anti-war activities. On March 26th, Joan marries draft resister and activist David Harris. They tour the country on a joint concert and lecture series advocating draft resistance. Later in the year, twenty young men spontaneously present Joan with their draft cards during her concert at the Los Angeles Forum.
Baptism, an album of poetry recited and sung, is released, Joan again appears at the Newport Folk Festival, and Any Day Now, a two-record collection of Bob Dylan songs, is released. Daybreak, a memoir penned by Joan, is published and is a bestseller.
1969
During a taping of CBS-TV's The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Joan's remarks pertaining to draft resistance are censored, prompting a pre-emption of the show. When it finally does air, her remarks are deleted from the tape, and soon thereafter, CBS cancels the controversial program.
David Harris begins serving a three-year prison term for draft resistance in July. Joan gives birth to their son, Gabriel Earl, in December, and Harris is released in 1971 after serving 20 months.
Any Day Now is nominated for a "Best Folk Recording" Grammy Award, David's Album is released, and in August Joan is a headliner at the Woodstock Festival.
1970
Both One Day At A Time and The First Ten Years are released. Joan appears at the Isle of Wight Festival, the Big Sur Folk Festival, and the International Song Festival in Sopot, Poland. The film Carry It On, featuring Joan and David Harris is released, as is the film of Woodstock which features Joan's performance of "Joe Hill."
1971
David Harris is released from prison on March 15th. He and Joan later separate and eventually divorce. The book Coming Out, written by Joan and David is published. Also, the soundtrack album to the film Carry It On is released.
The Chicago Business Executives Move for Vietnam Peace honor Joan with an award for her anti-war work. In October, Joan gives three sold-out concerts at University of California at Berkeley's Greek Theatre, including a benefit for the Greek Resistance attended by Melina Mercouri, Jules Dassin, and other exiled patriots.
The film Sacco And Vanzetti and its soundtrack recording are released. Both feature songs sung by Joan and written by Joan with Ennio Morricone. The film Celebration At Big Sur, comprised of highlights of the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival and featuring several performances by Joan, is released.
Joan's own Blessed Are... is released, and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" reaches the Top Ten and is certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
1972
Blessed Are... and Any Day Now are certified gold, and Joan is nominated for a Best Female Vocalist Grammy Award. Joan, having left Vanguard Records the previous year, signs with A&M Records and records and releases Come From The Shadows as her debut with A&M. While working in Nashville, she co-produces Jeffrey Shurtleff's album State Farm, also contributing vocals to the project.
In June Joan helps to organize an anti-war demonstration for women and children called Ring Around The Congress. Though plagued by political sabotage and Hurricane Agnes, 2500 women and children succeed in surrounding the Congress. Back home, Joan devotes almost a year to helping establish Amnesty International on the west coast. She gives benefit concerts for the fledgling organizations and later serves on the Advisory Council. In December, Joan travels to Hanoi at the invitation of The Liaison Committee to distribute mail and Christmas presents to the American prisoners of war. While she is there, Hanoi is subjected to heavy aerial bombings from U.S. forces, later known as the "Christmas Bombings."
1973
Where Are You Now, My Son? is released. This recording features taped segments from Joan's trip to Hanoi. She also does more fundraising and outreach for Amnesty International.
1974
Gracias A La Vida, a Spanish language album, is released. Joan tours around the world including Japan, Australia, Israel, Lebanon, Tunisia and Argentina. Also, the film Sing Sing Thanksgiving, featuring Joan and taped at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York, is released.
1975
Diamonds & Rust is released in April and later in the year it is certified gold. In October Joan begins touring with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue.
In May, Joan appears at The War Is Over! rally in New York's Central Park. In August she receives the Public Service Award at the first annual Rock Music Awards, and is honored with "Joan Baez Day" on August 2nd in Atlanta, Georgia.
1976
From Every Stage, an two-record set comprised of performances from Joan's 1975 U.S. concert tour, is released, and later in the year Gulf Winds, the first album to consist solely of her own compositions, is also released. She also tours for a second time with Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue.
Joan travels to Northern Ireland and marches with the Irish Peace People, calling for an end to the violence plaguing the country. She also promotes the plight of jailed Czechoslovakian musicians through a mass mailing to members of the music industry.
1977
Joan appears at a Kent State rally protesting the building of a gymnasium over the site where four students were gunned down in 1970, and while touring in Spain, she sings "No Nos Moveran" ("We Shall Not Be Moved") on a live national television show, ignoring a sanction imposed by the late dictator Francisco Franco 40 years earlier prohibiting the song from being performed.
Blowin' Away is released on Portrait Records and Joan tours both Europe and the U.S. Concerts in the U.S. include one at California's Soledad Prison and one as part of the Bread & Roses Festival of Acoustic Music presented at the University of California at Berkeley's Greek Theatre in October.
1978
The film Renaldo and Clara, comprised of footage from the Rolling Thunder Revue and featuring Joan, is released in January.
Joan appears at various demonstrations and rallies on behalf of the nuclear freeze movement, and she also performs at several benefit concerts in California to defeat Proposition 6 (Briggs Initiative), legislation that would have banned openly gay people from teaching in public schools. She is also scheduled to perform a concert in Leningrad on July 4 with Santana and The Beach Boys, but the concert is abruptly cancelled without explanation by Soviet officials. Despite the cancellation, Joan travels to Moscow and meets with dissidents including Andrei Sakharov and Yelena Bonner, bringing them messages and gifts from their friends and relatives in the U.S.
Joan brings suit under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain National Security Agency files pertaining to her. A Federal judge orders all documents, with the exception of two paragraphs in one report, released in November. The NSA protests the judge's ruling, claiming that the de-classified information would prove harmful to "national security." Also, late in the year, Joan participates in the candlelight memorial march to City Hall following the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, and later presents a free concert on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall as her Christmas gift to the city.
1979
The songbook And Then I Wrote..., containing Joan's original songs and sketches, is published. Also, Honest Lullaby is also released this year, and Joan receives the San Francisco Bay Area Music Award (BAMMY) as top female vocalist for 1978. In the fall, she again performs at the Bread & Roses Festival of Acoustic Music, and she also receives the American Civil Liberties Union's "Earl Warren Award" for her commitment to human and civil rights issues.
Joan founds Humanitas International Human Rights Committee, a human rights organization she will head for the next 13 years. The first course of action for Humanitas is to publish the "Open Letter to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" in five major U.S. newspapers. The letter protests human rights violations occurring in that country. Joan travels to Southeast Asia to substantiate reports of human rights violations there, and back in the U.S., she successfully prevails upon President Jimmy Carter to dispatch the Seventh Fleet to rescue large numbers of "boat people" fleeing the region. Humanitas, along with KRON-TV and the San Francisco Examiner newspaper, forms the Cambodian Emergency Relief Fund and raises over one million dollars in aid.
]
1958
Joan graduates from Palo Alto High School, Palo Alto, California in June. She also records a demonstration album, but it fails to garner interest from record company executives and the project is shelved.
In late summer, the Baez family moves to Belmont, Massachusetts, when Joan's father accepts a teaching post at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joan's interest in the Cambridge, Massachusetts, folk scene grows as she begins visiting the local coffeehouses. She registers as a student at Boston University, but only sporadically attends classes and soon quits school to concentrate on her blossoming singing career.
1959
Joan begins performing regularly at Club 47, a folk music club in Cambridge, where she attracts a large and devoted following. She meets Bill Wood prior to taping WHRB Harvard Radio Balladeers program, which Wood hosts. They become friends and begin performing together. With Bill and Ted Alevizos, Joan records the album Folksingers 'Round Harvard Square for Veritas Records, a local Boston record company.
At the invitation of impresario Albert Grossman, Joan appears at The Gate Of Horn nightclub in Chicago. During her two-week stint there, she meets both Bob Gibson and Odetta. Bob is impressed enough with her that he invites her to join him during his set at the Newport Folk Festival on July 11, and her unscheduled appearance makes her the talk of the Festival and establishes her as a talented and exciting new folksinger.
1960
Joan appears at the 1960 Newport Folk Festival as a solo performer, and makes her New York City concert debut at the 92nd Street YMCA on November 5th. Also in November, her first album for Vanguard Recording Society, Joan Baez, is released and becomes a huge success.
1961
Joan meets Bob Dylan at Gerde's Folk City in April of this year, following his appearance there as an opening act for John Lee Hooker. She also records and releases her second Vanguard album, Joan Baez, Volume Two, and embarks on her first national concert tour.
1962
As Joan becomes more involved with the civil rights movement, she conducts the first of three concert tours to Southern college campuses with a strict no-discrimination policy for audiences. The album Joan Baez in Concert is released in September, and she is the subject of the November 23, 1962, TIME Magazine cover story.
1963
Joan Baez In Concert is nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best Folk Recording" category. Joan appears at the Monterey Folk Festival with Bob Dylan (and invites him to be a surprise guest on her summer tour) and headlines at the Newport Folk Festival.
Joan refuses to appear on and leads a much-publicized artist boycott of ABC-TV's Hootenanny show due to their banning of Pete Seeger as a result of his political activism. In August she sings "We Shall Overcome" before an estimated quarter of million people at the civil rights March on Washington.
Joan Baez In Concert, Part Two is released, and Squire Records releases an unauthorized reissue of Folksingers 'Round Harvard Square.
1964
Joan protests U.S. involvement in Vietnam by withholding 60% of her income taxes, the amount determined used for military purposes. The Internal Revenue Service responds by placing a lien against her. She continues to withhold portions of her taxes for the next ten years. And after performing for President Johnson in Washington, she urges him to withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam. Joan also continues her civil right work by appearing at a benefit concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, protesting the state's Proposition 14 which would allow segregated housing, and she becomes involved with the Free Speech Movement at the University of California at Berkeley. As the students take over Sproul Hall, Joan instructs them to "Have love as you do this thing and it will succeed." The police wait until she departs the building before moving in and arresting 800 students.
Fantasy Records releases Joan Baez In San Francisco, an unauthorized release of the demonstration album she recorded as a teenager in 1958, and she files for an injunction to block distribution. Joan once again headlines at the Newport Folk Festival, leads a seminar on "The New Folk Music" at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, and travels with the Beatles on a portion of their U.S. concert tour.
Joan Baez/5, her final album of all acoustic music, is released, and The Joan Baez Songbook is published. Containing 66 songs from her repertoire and with illustrations by Eric Von Schmidt, the book becomes a staple among guitar students and is reprinted twenty times over the next few decades.
1965
"There But For Fortune" becomes a hit single and is nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best Folk Recording" category. Joan does a joint U.S. concert tour with Bob Dylan, gives her first major concert outside the U.S. at London's Royal Albert Hall, and Farewell, Angelina is released.
In March, Joan participates in the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, and in August she participates in a demonstration outside The White House protesting U.S. involvement in Vietnam. With Ira Sanderl, she founds the Institute For The Study Of Nonviolence in Carmel Valley, California. After area residents claim the onslaught of "hippies and free-love subversives" will threaten property values, the Institute closes after one month, but re-opens without incident in December.
1966
Joan's first three Vanguard recordings are certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, and Noel is released. She also begins recording an album of contemporary popular songs produced by her brother-in-law, Richard Farina, but the project is shelved after Farina's untimely death in a motorcycle accident in late April.
While in West Germany, Joan leads an Easter Day anti-war march, and in September, she participates in a march with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Grenada, Mississippi, protesting the beatings of black school children as schools were de-segregated. When Joan attempts to enroll five black children in a formerly segregated school, she is barred from entering the school. In December she both performs at a benefit for striking farm workers in California, and participates in a Christmas vigil at San Quentin Penitentiary urging the commutation of death sentences for 64 prisoners.
1967
While performing in Japan, Joan's political comments are intentionally mistranslated. The interpreter claims, and later denies, that a CIA agent pressured him to mistranslate her political remarks. The CIA denies any involvement in the matter. Back in the U.S., Joan is denied permission to perform at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) due to her anti-war activities. She responds by performing in a free concert at the base of the Washington Monument before an estimated audience of 30,000. Later in the year, Joan joins 56 others in filing suit in California's Federal District Court to reclaim portions of their 1965 and 1966 income taxes on the grounds that they are conscientious objectors to the Vietnam War. The suit is dismissed from court in January, 1968.
Joan headlines at the Newport Folk Festival in July. She also appears on the Women Strike For Peace benefit recording Save The Children, as well as appearing in the films Don't Look Back and Festival. Her own Joan is released by Vanguard in August.
In October Joan is among 119 people arrested for blocking the entrance to the Armed Forces Induction Center in Oakland, California. She is sentenced and serves ten days at the Santa Rita Rehabilitation Center. In December, she is again arrested with 49 other demonstrators for blocking the entrance of the same induction center. She receives a 90 day prison sentence (45 days suspended), but is abruptly released after just a month because prison officials fear an inmate uprising on her scheduled release date.
1968
The European Exchange System reveals that the sale of Joan Baez recordings has been banned in Army PXs because of her anti-war activities. On March 26th, Joan marries draft resister and activist David Harris. They tour the country on a joint concert and lecture series advocating draft resistance. Later in the year, twenty young men spontaneously present Joan with their draft cards during her concert at the Los Angeles Forum.
Baptism, an album of poetry recited and sung, is released, Joan again appears at the Newport Folk Festival, and Any Day Now, a two-record collection of Bob Dylan songs, is released. Daybreak, a memoir penned by Joan, is published and is a bestseller.
1969
During a taping of CBS-TV's The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, Joan's remarks pertaining to draft resistance are censored, prompting a pre-emption of the show. When it finally does air, her remarks are deleted from the tape, and soon thereafter, CBS cancels the controversial program.
David Harris begins serving a three-year prison term for draft resistance in July. Joan gives birth to their son, Gabriel Earl, in December, and Harris is released in 1971 after serving 20 months.
Any Day Now is nominated for a "Best Folk Recording" Grammy Award, David's Album is released, and in August Joan is a headliner at the Woodstock Festival.
1970
Both One Day At A Time and The First Ten Years are released. Joan appears at the Isle of Wight Festival, the Big Sur Folk Festival, and the International Song Festival in Sopot, Poland. The film Carry It On, featuring Joan and David Harris is released, as is the film of Woodstock which features Joan's performance of "Joe Hill."
1971
David Harris is released from prison on March 15th. He and Joan later separate and eventually divorce. The book Coming Out, written by Joan and David is published. Also, the soundtrack album to the film Carry It On is released.
The Chicago Business Executives Move for Vietnam Peace honor Joan with an award for her anti-war work. In October, Joan gives three sold-out concerts at University of California at Berkeley's Greek Theatre, including a benefit for the Greek Resistance attended by Melina Mercouri, Jules Dassin, and other exiled patriots.
The film Sacco And Vanzetti and its soundtrack recording are released. Both feature songs sung by Joan and written by Joan with Ennio Morricone. The film Celebration At Big Sur, comprised of highlights of the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival and featuring several performances by Joan, is released.
Joan's own Blessed Are... is released, and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" reaches the Top Ten and is certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
1972
Blessed Are... and Any Day Now are certified gold, and Joan is nominated for a Best Female Vocalist Grammy Award. Joan, having left Vanguard Records the previous year, signs with A&M Records and records and releases Come From The Shadows as her debut with A&M. While working in Nashville, she co-produces Jeffrey Shurtleff's album State Farm, also contributing vocals to the project.
In June Joan helps to organize an anti-war demonstration for women and children called Ring Around The Congress. Though plagued by political sabotage and Hurricane Agnes, 2500 women and children succeed in surrounding the Congress. Back home, Joan devotes almost a year to helping establish Amnesty International on the west coast. She gives benefit concerts for the fledgling organizations and later serves on the Advisory Council. In December, Joan travels to Hanoi at the invitation of The Liaison Committee to distribute mail and Christmas presents to the American prisoners of war. While she is there, Hanoi is subjected to heavy aerial bombings from U.S. forces, later known as the "Christmas Bombings."
1973
Where Are You Now, My Son? is released. This recording features taped segments from Joan's trip to Hanoi. She also does more fundraising and outreach for Amnesty International.
1974
Gracias A La Vida, a Spanish language album, is released. Joan tours around the world including Japan, Australia, Israel, Lebanon, Tunisia and Argentina. Also, the film Sing Sing Thanksgiving, featuring Joan and taped at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, New York, is released.
1975
Diamonds & Rust is released in April and later in the year it is certified gold. In October Joan begins touring with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue.
In May, Joan appears at The War Is Over! rally in New York's Central Park. In August she receives the Public Service Award at the first annual Rock Music Awards, and is honored with "Joan Baez Day" on August 2nd in Atlanta, Georgia.
1976
From Every Stage, an two-record set comprised of performances from Joan's 1975 U.S. concert tour, is released, and later in the year Gulf Winds, the first album to consist solely of her own compositions, is also released. She also tours for a second time with Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue.
Joan travels to Northern Ireland and marches with the Irish Peace People, calling for an end to the violence plaguing the country. She also promotes the plight of jailed Czechoslovakian musicians through a mass mailing to members of the music industry.
1977
Joan appears at a Kent State rally protesting the building of a gymnasium over the site where four students were gunned down in 1970, and while touring in Spain, she sings "No Nos Moveran" ("We Shall Not Be Moved") on a live national television show, ignoring a sanction imposed by the late dictator Francisco Franco 40 years earlier prohibiting the song from being performed.
Blowin' Away is released on Portrait Records and Joan tours both Europe and the U.S. Concerts in the U.S. include one at California's Soledad Prison and one as part of the Bread & Roses Festival of Acoustic Music presented at the University of California at Berkeley's Greek Theatre in October.
1978
The film Renaldo and Clara, comprised of footage from the Rolling Thunder Revue and featuring Joan, is released in January.
Joan appears at various demonstrations and rallies on behalf of the nuclear freeze movement, and she also performs at several benefit concerts in California to defeat Proposition 6 (Briggs Initiative), legislation that would have banned openly gay people from teaching in public schools. She is also scheduled to perform a concert in Leningrad on July 4 with Santana and The Beach Boys, but the concert is abruptly cancelled without explanation by Soviet officials. Despite the cancellation, Joan travels to Moscow and meets with dissidents including Andrei Sakharov and Yelena Bonner, bringing them messages and gifts from their friends and relatives in the U.S.
Joan brings suit under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain National Security Agency files pertaining to her. A Federal judge orders all documents, with the exception of two paragraphs in one report, released in November. The NSA protests the judge's ruling, claiming that the de-classified information would prove harmful to "national security." Also, late in the year, Joan participates in the candlelight memorial march to City Hall following the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, and later presents a free concert on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall as her Christmas gift to the city.
1979
The songbook And Then I Wrote..., containing Joan's original songs and sketches, is published. Also, Honest Lullaby is also released this year, and Joan receives the San Francisco Bay Area Music Award (BAMMY) as top female vocalist for 1978. In the fall, she again performs at the Bread & Roses Festival of Acoustic Music, and she also receives the American Civil Liberties Union's "Earl Warren Award" for her commitment to human and civil rights issues.
Joan founds Humanitas International Human Rights Committee, a human rights organization she will head for the next 13 years. The first course of action for Humanitas is to publish the "Open Letter to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" in five major U.S. newspapers. The letter protests human rights violations occurring in that country. Joan travels to Southeast Asia to substantiate reports of human rights violations there, and back in the U.S., she successfully prevails upon President Jimmy Carter to dispatch the Seventh Fleet to rescue large numbers of "boat people" fleeing the region. Humanitas, along with KRON-TV and the San Francisco Examiner newspaper, forms the Cambodian Emergency Relief Fund and raises over one million dollars in aid.
] 
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