I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night
Alive as you and me
Says I, But Joe, you’re ten years dead
I never died, says he
I never died, says he.

Joan Baez Woodstock

Struggle Mountain Resistance Band

Joan explains who’s on stage with her and that the three of them make up the Struggle Mountain Resistance Band.

Joan Baez Woodstock

Sweet Sir Galahad

This is Joan’s song–perhaps the first she wrote–and tells the story of her Mimi Fariña and her how her husband Milan Melvin courted her. Mimi and Milan had married at the 1968 Big Sur Folk Festival.

Sweet Sir Galahad
Came in through the window
In the night
When the moon was in the yard

He took her hand in his and
Shook the long hair
From his neck
And he told her
She’d been working much too hard

It was true that ever since the day
Her crazy man had passed away
To the land of poet’s pride
She laughed and talked a lot
With new people on the block
But always at evening time she cried

And here’s to the dawn of their days

La-la-di-di-di
La-la-la-la
La-da-da-da
La-ah, ah

She moved her head
A little down on the bed
Until it rested softly on his knee
And there she dropped her smile
And there she sighed awhile
And told him all the sadness
Of those years that numbered three

“Well you know I think my fate’s belated
Because of all the hours I waited
For the day when I’d no longer cry
I get myself to work by eight
But oh, was I born too late
And do you think I’ll fail
At every single thing I try?”

And here’s to the dawn of their days

He just put his arm around her
And that’s the way I found her
Eight months later to the day

The lines of a smile erased
The tear tracks upon her face
A smile could linger, even stay

Sweet Sir Galahad went down
With his gay bride of flowers
The prince of the hours
Of her lifetime

And here’s to the dawn
Of their days
Of their days.

Joan Baez Woodstock

Hickory Wind

Written mainly by Byrd Gram Parsons with some help from Bob Buchanan. Parsons first recorded “Hickory Wind” with The Byrds on March 9, 1968.

Joan Baez Woodstock

Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man

The next song is also a Gram Parsons/Byrd song with writing help from Roger McGuinn.  The Byrds had had a terrible experience performing at the Grand Ole Opry on March 15, 1968. Gram Parsons announced that instead of the planned “Sing Me Back Home,” they were going to play yet another track from their Sweetheart of the Rodeo LP. He then dedicated their performance of “Hickory Wind” to his grandmother.

Gram Parsons wrote Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man in response and had Nashville all night disc jockey Ralph Emery in mind who was among the many in Nashville who criticized the “hippie” band.

Jeffrey Shurtleff is featured in the next song and before it begins he has a few words to say: “Hello to all friends of the draft resistance revolution in America. Good evening, I hope it stops raining. One thing about the draft resistance that’s different from other movements and revolutions in this country in that we have no enemies. And it’s one of the beautiful things about it qnd to show that our hearts are in the right place we’ll sing a song for the governor of California…Ronald Ray-guns.

Shurtleff will play with the written lyrics a bit.