Joan Baez - Baptism (1968/Remastered 2004) AMG Rating: **+ Orig. Release Date: Jun 1968 This Issue: 4 Oct 2004 Label: 2004 CD Vanguard 79721 Barcode: 029667003926 Genre: Folk 01 Old Welsh Song Treece 1:16 02 I Saw the Vision of Armies Whitman 1:16 03 Minister of War Waley 1:10 04 Song in the Blood Prévert 4:28 05 Casida of the Lament Lorca 1:01 06 Of the Dark Past (Ecce Puer) Joyce 1:59 07 London Blake 1:19 08 In Guernica Rosten 1:00 09 Who Murdered the Minuets Treece 3:21 10 Oh, Little Child Treece 1:25 11 No Man Is an Island Donne 0:56 12 From Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Joyce 2:14 13 All the Pretty Little Horses Traditional 1:14 14 Childhood III Rimbaud 1:08 15 The Magic Wood Treece 2:27 16 Poems from the Japanese 2:21 17 Colours Yevtushenko 1:13 18 All in Green Went My Love Riding Cummings 3:24 19 Gacela of the Dark Death Lorca 2:09 20 The Parable of the Old Man and the Young Owen 0:51 21 Evil Rimbaud 1:30 22 Epitaph for a Poet Cullen 1:15 23 Old Welsh Song Treece 1:20 24 Mystic Numbers: 36. Wedding Song Treece 1:06 25 When the Shy Star Goes Forth in Heaven Joyce 1:24 26 The Angel Blake 1:31 Performance Credits: Joan Baez - Primary Artist, Vocals, Voices Peter Schickele - Conductor, Composer Pieces selected and edited by: Joan Baez Technical Credits: Kenneth Rexroth - translation Lawrence Ferlinghetti - translation Stephen Spender - translation Ed Friedner - Engineer Maynard Solomon - Producer, Concept Mark Spector - Reissue Producer Arthur Levy - Liner Notes Norman Moore - Art Direction Jules Halfant - Art Direction Georgette Cartwright - Creative Services Coordinator J.L. Gili - translation Arthur Waley - translation Louise Varese - translation Robert Peak - Cover Art Jim Coyme - Cover Photo Peter Levi - translation Robin Milner Gulland - translation ----- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Baptism: A Journey Through Our Time was a 1968 album of poetry spoken and sung by Joan Baez. Peter Schickele (of P. D. Q. Bach fame) did the orchestration, as he did on 1967's Joan. The album was released during a time when many folk, pop and rock artists were experimenting with mixing their music with classical orchestration (e.g. The Beatles, Judy Collins, The Rolling Stones.) ----- Amazon.co.uk Album Description: The latest in Vanguard’s series of remastered and repackaged albums from Joan Baez. Originally recorded in 1968, the album was Joan’s take on the concept album and, as a result, was one of her most unusual recordings. It features poetry, both sung and spoken, by authors as diverse as Lorca, Joyce and e.e. cummings. All this is set to music by Peter Schickele. This reissue includes three previously unissued recordings from the same sessions. In addition there are in-depth sleeve notes from Arthur Levy. ----- AMG Review by Bruce Eder & William Ruhlmann: Joan Baez's most unusual album, Baptism is of a piece with the "concept" albums of the late '60s, but more ambitious than most and different from all of them. Baez by this time was immersed in various causes, concerning the Vietnam War, the human condition, and the general state of the world, and it seemed as though every note of music that she sang was treated as important - sometimes in a negative way by her opponents; additionally, popular music was changing rapidly, and even rock groups that had seldom worried in their music about too much beyond the singer's next sexual conquest were getting serious. Baptism was Baez getting more serious than she already was, right down to the settings of her music, and redirecting her talent from folk song to art song, complete with orchestral accompaniment. Naturally, her idea of a concept album would differ from that of, say, Frank Sinatra or the Beatles. Baptism was a body of poetry selected, edited, and read and sung by Baez, and set to music by Peter Schickele (better known for his comical musical "discoveries" associated with "P.D.Q. Bach," but also a serious musician and composer). In 1968, amid the strife spreading across the world, the album had a built-in urgency that made it work as a mixture of art and message - today, it seems like a precious and overly self-absorbed period piece. Baez lacks the speaking voice to pull off an album's worth of readings, though her interpretations of Federico García Lorca's "Casida of the Lament" and "Gacela of the Dark Death" show her achieving a level of compelling expressiveness that is lacking elsewhere; and the recording of Countee Cullen's "Epitaph for a Poet" features some beautiful accompaniment by Schickele. Additionally, the sung portions, including "Old Welsh Song," "Who Murdered the Minutes," "The Magic Wood," and "Oh, Little Child" by Henry Treece, "Of the Dark Past" by James Joyce, "All in Green Went My Love Riding" by e.e. cummings, and the lullaby "All the Pretty Little Horses" are beautiful and sustain those portions of the album. Baptism is primarily for Baez completists, however, although it is also a singular reminder for '60s history buffs that not all of the antiwar movement's music, or the work coming out of the folk scene in 1968, was necessarily loud, harsh, or bitter. [The 2003 reissue adds three previously unreleased tracks from the original recording sessions, Treece's "Mystic Numbers: 36. Wedding Song," Joyce's "When the Shy Star Goes Forth in Heaven," and William Blake's "The Angel." It's easy to see why these minor additions from writers already represented on the album were left off the original release, but their inclusion gives a fuller sense of the creators' intentions. Arthur Levy's 2003 liner notes provide a sense of historical context and emphasize Vanguard Records co-founder Maynard Solomon's primacy in the creation of the album. How many label heads would sign off on, much less initiate, as seemingly uncommercial an idea as this one for a flagship artist? Probably only one.] ----- Amazon Reviewer riwabo, December 4, 2003: Remastered at last For every 100 customers who liked Joan's early albums, only one or two cared for BAPTISM. It is not to everybody's taste, so kudos to Vanguard for remastering it. It is a dark, dark collection, a meditation on tears, death, fear and loss, and overshadowed by a deep antipathy to war (this was 1968). Its best parts (COLOURS, WHO MURDERED THE MINUTES, CHILDHOOD III, THE MAGIC WOOD and EPITAPH FOR A POET are my favorites) are very moving. The rewards are worth the effort it takes to get into this recording. ----- Reviewer Steven Finch (Switzerland), October 25, 2003: MARVELOUS This is NOT a recording for "hard-core fans only". With all that's happening in the world today, BAPTISM should be required listening for everyone. In any case, it's much better than the current anthologies of anti-war poetry. This re-working of the original recording is excellent. It is a timeless recording, one of Joan's most experimental and best. Don't hesitate!