I love this pic. I can't figure out who Joan is, though.

Joan Baez, I'm guessing.

Joan Fucking Baez, you mean.

Waitasec - if Joan Jett is (rightfully) called Joan Fucking Jett because she kicks all kinds of ass and the word "fuck" would just kind of roll of her tongue naturally, and Joan Baez is all peace-love-patchouli-hippy shit, shouldn't she be called Joan effing Baez? Or Joan f-word Baez?

Listen, it's like a Mozart symphony
Listen, it's something just for you and me
Listen, to what the flower people say
Aahhh- listen

I was once banned from a Steve Earle forum because someone posted that Joan Baez was appearing on some TV show that night and I said "God, how awful. Thanks for the warning."

And rightfully so, essexjan. The inability to appreciate (not like, but APPRECIATE) Joan Baez and/or Judy Collins will someday be correctly identified as an indicator of a severe mental dysfunction. There are very few things I take as an absolute, but the music of Joan and Judy are two of them. Period.

I think Joan Baez is cool. I think Judy Collins is fingernails-on-chalk-board.

well as someone whose voice is frequently compared to those of both Joan Baez and Judy Collins, I dunno what to say!

Thanks to last.fm, I was exposed to Joni Mitchell's 1969 version of "Both Sides, Now", and I enjoyed it.

My mother tortured me with much of the popular singer/songwriter crap in the early-70s. Helen Reddy is my earliest musical bad memory. (Well, that and my grandparents watching Hee Haw.)

I like Joan Baez. And Judy Collins. And Joni Mitchell. Helen Reddy -- not so much. Fave guilty pleasure -- Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"

I like Judy Collins. One of the most memorable moments of my life was at the 2005 AA World Convention Opening Ceremony in Toronto. Right at the end, the 70,000 people in the auditorium were asked to stand and join hands. The lights were dimmed, and then over the PA came the unmistakable voice of Judy Collins singing "Amazing Grace".

It was incredible. And then, to add to the awesomeness, Judy Blue Eyes herself walked out on stage. I thought the song was a recording but she was there, singing live, that stunning voice echoing round the auditorium.

I cried.

I do like Joni but I have to say that I found Joan B to be really annoying. She was always leaving coffee cups lying around, half filled, and she would buy her own "special" food and hid in the back of one of the cupboards. While she ate all the common food out of the fridge, and had NO problem eating the last red pepper, woe betold the poor fucker who found her "special" food and helped himself. God, she was a bitch.

Oh, and what the hell did she do to The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down? Turned a civil war general into some kind of freaking steamboat? WTF?

I for one enjoy the Jonis, the Joans, and the Judys of the singer/songwriter veldt.

Oh, and anyone who can listen to Diamonds and Rust without crying isn't human.

Best song ever by Joan Baez, and I saw her do it live in New Haven, CT in 1986. Ain't no way Ani Defranco's coming up with a song like that, even if you gave her a room full of monkeys with typewriters.

I think Judy Collins has a beautiful voice, but she also seems sort of annoying in person. I always imagine her hanging out in some fancy house on Martha's Vineyard, sipping white wine. Also she doesn't write any of her own music.

Joni Mitchell seems highly annoying in person, but is an incredible music genius who had an incredible voice and who made amazing albums and wrote all of her music and did her own art. I wish I could have seen Joni in her heyday.

Joan Baez has a great voice and has done a lot of work on community issues over many years. So I think that's pretty cool.

I love 'em all: Joni Mitchell; Joan Baez; Linda Ronstadt; Carole King; Carly Simon. But not so much the Judy Collins, no thanks.

Joan Baez's heart is in the right place but her music bores me to tears. Joni Mitchell at her best is amazing. Judy Collins is meh. Linda Ronstadt has her moments. Carole King is a certified genius based on her Brill Building days alone.

I'm always cranky when people ascribe Joni Mitchell songs (Chelsea Morning, Both Sides Now) to Judy Collins. But I guess that happens a lot in the music world.

Joan Baez has an amazingly gorgeous voice, and more lefty cred than most (and she's great in both Don't Look Back and No Direction Home). Joni Mitchell is an acquired taste, but she's also one of the great 20th-century composers. Rondstadt's had a long and mixed career, but at her best she's wonderful. I love Carole King's songwriting, but her voice doesn't move me the way some of these other ladies' do. I've really got no opinion about Judy Collins whatsoever.

But my opinions may not be very credible--I like Buffy Sainte-Marie (here's an mp3 of the jaw-harp heavy 'Cripple Creek').

Hell, I just like SAYING Buffy Sainte-Marie.

My estimation of these artists matches jonmc's exactly, with a slight gloss: I prefer Judy C. to Joan B. She has better song choices and I like a couple of her covers (Suzanne mostly). Joan drives me nuts - I've never liked her that much, for no good reason other than that her personality rubs me the wrong way and her voice gets a little too operatic, but she kinda comes with the territory, music-history-wise. Recently read this book, Baby Let Me Follow You Down, about the "Cambridge folk scene" and the origins of the 60s folk revival, which were somewhat unsurprisingly very Ivy-league. "Joanie" comes across as a real hard-to-please, highfalutin queen bee, which didn't make me want to like her more.

BtGoG, I get that Joan Baez comparison too, and I don't sound anything like her. I think there's just a certain set of people who compare all melodic female singers to JB because it's who they know and like.

Also, Carole King wrote 'The Locomotion,' which elevates her above 'genius,' to sainthood.

Joan Baez is just too damned earnest. She looks as if she's holding in a fart all the time. Let it out, Joan, a big, loud ripper, and then laugh your head off. Go on, try it, it'll be fun.

I love Joni Mitchell's late 70s music (Court & Spark, Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira) but the earlier stuff is too warbly and the later stuff too jazzy for my tastes.

And I know Judy Collins sings other people's songs but I love her voice, and I admire her as a person.

I wrote my very first school report on Buffy St. Marie. I think I was 8.

Joan Baez's over the top vibrato makes me want to club her like a seal.

And I completely agree on the over-earnestness.