JOAN BAEZ - In Italy (Ricordi/Vanguard, 1967)

This album was recorded in Milan, Teatro Lirico, 29th May 1967, with the exception of the last song, recorded in Vienna on June 2nd 1967. It was published by a special agreement with Vanguard records only for the Italian market, and as far as I know - Italy apart - it was never released anywhere except in Argentina.  It was reprinted for the mid-price serie "Ricordi-Orizzonte" in Italy, I guess around 1976 or 77.  In the record you find a curious version of "Blowing in the wind" in JAPANESE!  :-)))

The last song is a version of a number that hit the charts in Italy, originally sung by Gianni Morandi, "C'era un ragazzo che come me amava i Beatles e i Rolling Stones", an anti-militarist song, principally related to the Vietnam war. In the song, a young man is recruited to leave friends and music and freedom in order to fight in Vietnam, where he unfortunately will never come back from.  Comparisons are made between his guitar, an instruments that gives 1000 different notes and a machine gun, another "instrument" that can give just ONE single note: Rat-tat-tat-tat.

There exists also a black-n-white film with some extracts of live concerts of Joan Baez in Italy, but unfortunately the qality is poor, and the film is not only often interrupted by extremely loud and disrespectful audience  (Joan is constricted to suspend her performance for some minutes), but also by an intruding speaker who tells a lot of NOT-interesting bullshit about the woman and her career. If someone is interested please tell me, I will upload the film as well.
As a curiosity, I will also add the original Italian song of Gianni Morandi ;)

Enjoy.

The COUNTESS