Quad LP/Tape Poll Baez, Joan: Blessed Are.... [SQ]

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Rate "Blessed Are..."

  • 10: Great sound, mix, content

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 9

    Votes: 2 33.3%
  • 8

    Votes: 2 33.3%
  • 7

    Votes: 2 33.3%
  • 6

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5: Mediocrity Central

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1: Sux Totally

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    6

EMB

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
Since 2002/2003
Joined
Feb 8, 2004
Messages
4,101
Location
The Top 40 Radio of My Mind
Vanguard VSQ-40001/40002, from 1971.

Side 1:

Blessed Are...
The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
The Salt of the Earth
Three Horses
The Brand New Tennessee Waltz

Side 2:

Last, Lonely and Wretched
Lincoln Freed Me Today (The Slave)
Outside the Nashville City Limits
San Francisco Mabel Jay
When Time Is Stolen

Side 3:

Heaven Help Us All
Angeline
Help Me Make it Through the Night
Let it Be
Put Your Hand in the Hand

Side 4:

Gabriel and Me
Milanese Waltz
Maire Flore
The Hitchhiker's Song
The 33rd of August
Fifteen Months

Bonus 33 1/3:

Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)
Maria Dolores


ED :)
 
8. A very good, not great album. One of the highlights is Deportee off the bonus 45. Good mix, nice fidelity. Her last for Vanguard.
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And a lot to wade through...2 Lp's and a bonus single's worth. Typical St. Joan in general, with some wisely ("Let it Be," "Brand New Tennessee Waltz," "S.F. Mabel Joy") and unwisely ("Put Your Hand in the Hand," "Salt of the Earth") chosen, and some that are predictable for the artist ("Heaven Help Us All," "Deportee"). For some reason, I find Baez singing "Help Me Make it Through the Night" hilarious, it just doesn't fit her prim, piercing vocal style. And though many have sneered at her pop-ish cover (and biggest hit) "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," well...if Judy Collins could go pop, why not Joan? The altered lyrics didn't mean much, either, who cares?

Overall, not a bad album, though: a strong '7'.

ED :)
 
well some songs date and some don't and this release has both...But there's so much material here, that you can get one really good lp out of it...so i kind of like it, even though it contains stuff like "Put Your Hand in the Hand"....a good edit is needed..there really was no need to add in a bonus single..you could have just taken some of the crap off it.
 
"Put Your Hand in the Hand" was one of those pop-Jesus records of the time that was pleasant on one level, cringe-inducing on the other. Worse, it was covered by just about everybody and their brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, distant cousins...but rarely did someone of Joan's stature bother with piffle like it (I thought she did a generally nice job covering the Beatles, wish she'd done more in that vein); I thought it was beneath her, really (or the sort of thing kept in the can until some oddball comp needed a few unreleased cuts). I mean, what was next, "Snowbird"? "Everything Is Beautiful"? Blech!

ED :)
 
http://www.brewerandshipley.com/Misc/OneToke.htm

Over the years I've occasionally tuned in to those Welk retros on PBS, and the first thing I think of is 'cult,' and the books I've read by or about the show almost bear that out, strange as it might seem. A harmless one, to be sure, but there is a hermetic nature to the program and everything about it that isn't apparent in the 1950s B&W shows I've seen, when the echoes of the big band era from which Welk and his orchestra came were still echoing in pop music.

And of course you KNOW a version of "Put Your Hand in the Hand" must be in the canon along with "Toke." The song, though it does have certain religious overtones, I had always assumed was about finding God while being stoned (not really that bizarre a concept) and the duo's explanation of the song's origin certainly bear that out. I'm surprise Joan didn't take on this one too, since it seemed right for her voice, and was less obvious than "Hand." Still, BLESSED ARE... has good ones like the title track, and I agree, had it been whittled down to a single slab, would have been mighty strong and among her best. This album is certainly worth owning in quad even if you're not a fan, the mix is conventional but well done.

ED :)

ED
 
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