We didn’t even know Joan Baez was still alive – always figured she was as dead as her career. Remarkably, though, Joan Baez is still alive, but considerably less than well after channeling her inner Julia “Butterfly” Hill and falling out of tree.
What’s that? You don’t remember Julia “Butterfly” Hill, either. Well, please allow us to jog your memory. She was the liberal lunatic who spent two years living in an old growth California redwood in an attempt to keep loggers from cutting it down. She named the tree Luna.
But we digress. The San Jose Mercury News has the Baez story:
1960s songbird Joan Baez had a treehouse built — without walls — 20 feet high in an oak tree behind her Woodside home because she wanted to sleep with birds.
The folksinging legend, who once performed the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” before a half-million people at Woodstock, fell from that treehouse Wednesday as she climbed down from the platform.
Paramedics drove the singer to Stanford Hospital, where she was treated and released after it was determined she had suffered only minor injuries.
Baez, 69, was “resting comfortably” Thursday, according to Nancy Lutzow, who runs Baez’s Menlo Park production company.
“I sleep in a tree all summer long,” Baez told an English blogger in 2008. “I climb up on a ladder, with ropes and things. The birds are right there in the morning. Sometimes they’re flying so close to my head I can feel the wind.”
“Those things are heaven to me.”
To quote Baez’ friend Bob Dylan, the lunatic folksinger is damn lucky she isn’t “knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door.”
Source: San Jose Mercury News, Wikipedia
View Comments (11)
Joan Baez was always a bit of a LooneyToon, but as me dear ole mudder always
said, "To each his own."
Let's see how much she loves those birds when one of 'em makes right square on her forehead..
I don't begrudge hippies for hugging their trees. What I do find insulting is that after playing with her tree she was taken by motor vehicle to a modern hospital. They do not deserve the comforts of modern life as they are always trying to deny it to future generations.
Someone should have called her the local medicine man to do a chant and give her leaves to mend those broken bones.
That's what I like about you. You're so bitter. Have a Happy Thanksgiving, dude.
Uhm... who is this person and why should I care? Is that her in the photo? Does her girlfriend live in the tree with her?
Clearly, she didn't fall far enough, or hard enough.
Perhaps she thought she had wings, rather than shit for brains.
Be nice to Joan, because after the Vietnam war she was the only one eho make a heartfelt apology for her protests etc, who went to refugee camps, donated large sums to help, and expressed any outrage about the conditions on Cambodia at the time. Bob and Jane and John and all the other poseurs actred like they'd never heard of Asia after they couldn't get famous and rich off the exposure those protests brought them. Besides, Joan does not try to get us all to live in treehouses as mos libs would, she just likes it for herself.
Well, bless her heart. It is so rare and refreshing to hear of anyone on the left during that era that actually had any remorse over the damage they caused. It actually shocked me to hear that, and I thank you for setting the record straight. Best wishes to her for a speedy recovery.
Geez. that picture is Joan Baez- I thought it was promo for TLC's lemur habitat
Don't moon bats sleep during the day? To echo perlcat's comment. They actually expect me to do stuff at work too. Darn capitalist pigs.
Oh wait.. Those pigs make it possible for me to live indoors and feed my children.
Never mind.
"Nancy Lutzow, who runs Baez’s Menlo Park production company."
Man, that has to be a cushy job, what with ol' Joan always putting out new music.
I always wind up with jobs where they expect me to do something.