Thaindian News

November 21, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): 69-year-old Joan Baez, one of the legendary American personalities associated with folk music of the 1960s, is reportedly undergoing recuperation subsequent to falling 20 feet from a tree house in her garden. She had constructed the tree house in an oak tree at the back of her Californian residence since she yearned to snooze with the birds. Baez, who had gained national recognition in the 1960s by singing the songs of civil rights such as We Shall Overcame, fell on Wednesday as she was dismounting from the platform.

Paramedics transported Joan to a sickbay, the Stanford Hospital, near her residence where she underwent healing and was subsequently discharged as it was determined that she suffered insignificant wounds. Nancy Lutzow is the administrator of Baez’s production company, who has affirmed that Joan is resting contentedly in a safe zone.

Baez had uttered in 2008 that she naps on a tree throughout the summer. She mounts on a ladder with ropes. She had stated that she finds the presence of the birds in the morning rather celestial. On occasions, the birds soar so close to her head that she experiences the windiness.

Baez had a turbulent romance with the famous Bob Dylan that continued for three years. Baez was a person and a social activist, who was smitten by nature. She had organized a sit-in in a tree in 2006 in Los Angeles to remonstrate against the expulsion of peasants from an urban garden of 14 acres that was threatened with flattening.

Baez possessed a unique vocal manner, with a potent vibrato. Her recordings consisted of several topical songs and material that communicated about social issues. She is eminent for her chartbuster, ‘Diamonds & Rust’. She also acquired prominence for her covers of Phil Ochs’s ‘There but for Fortune’. Her initial three albums procured ‘gold record’ standing and remained on the charts for two years. Her social and political activism has been passionate as she has worked tirelessly for the promotion of civil rights, racial equality, human rights, rejection of violence and environmental friendliness.