Recently, Joan Baez had a big concert to commemorate her 75th birthday. The concert was a huge turn out, featuring many Baez original compositions along with friends and fellow singers that have sung songs with her (and possibly sung her songs) over the years. The particular highlight in mind is one where Paul Simon came out halfway through the show to sing a special one of his numbers with Joan. They sang “The Boxer.” The only other time they sang this one together was on one of Paul Simon’s concerts in 1980. Upon listening to this, it’s clear that their harmonies are pristine as ever even at three quarters of a century old.
Paul Simon comes out and thanks the crowd and the participants on stage, who are friends of Joan’s who support Joan and all her singing and songwriting efforts over the years. It was a fantastic and respectful gesture that the audience applauded as Paul started strumming his famous 1968 gem.
The harmonies from Joan are spot on and the both of them along with a third backup singer did a fabulous job, especially on the three choruses in the song. The third backup singer also had the job of doing a decorative solo guitar part on top of Paul Simon’s rhythm guitar part. The part that floored me was in the final chorus where nearly everybody in the audience started singing “lie-la-lie…” It was a truly uplifting moment. All the joking at the beginning aside, the whole performance was a slam dunk and anyone would have loved to have seen this in person. It was certainly one of the better performances of the song that I have recently heard. I have a Youtube link in the back of the article for all of you who are interested in watching this live performance. Take a listen here.
