Folk icon Joan Baez marked her 75th birthday with an unforgettable, star-filled celebration at New York City’s Beacon Theatre. The special concert, filmed for PBS’ Great Performances, was later uploaded to YouTube, where one moment in particular captured global attention — her breathtaking duet with fellow folk legend Paul Simon, which has since soared past 10 million views.
At 73 years old, Paul Simon stepped onstage beside Baez to perform Simon & Garfunkel’s 1969 classic “The Boxer,” a centerpiece from their final and wildly successful album, Bridge Over Troubled Water. Simon handled guitar duties while sharing lead vocals with Baez, joined by acclaimed British guitarist Richard Thompson, whose subtle accompaniment added depth and texture to the performance.
The duet felt like a masterclass in musical maturity. Both voices carried the weight of lived experience, transforming the song into something richer and more reflective than ever before. Lines such as, “I am older than I once was, and younger than I’ll be,” landed with gentle poignancy, while “After changes we are more or less the same” resonated deeply with those who came of age during the turbulent 1960s.
Baez’s birthday concert featured 22 songs in total, each enhanced by collaborations with artists who helped shape her era. The evening included appearances by David Crosby, who joined her for a moving rendition of The Beatles’ “Blackbird,” along with performances by Damien Rice and Mary Chapin Carpenter. Interwoven with these duets were striking solo moments and two Bob Dylan covers — “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” and the show-closing “Forever Young.”
Beyond celebration, the concert also served a larger purpose. It launched Baez’s 18-date North American tour in partnership with Amnesty International, aimed at drawing attention to the urgent issue of racial and ethnic inequality within the U.S. incarceration system.
The 2016 performance wasn’t the first time Baez had revisited “The Boxer.” She previously delivered a solo version at Oakland Auditorium in 1981 and reunited with Simon for the song at the 1982 Bread and Roses benefit concert. While only an audio recording of that early duet survives today, its warmth and harmony remain unmistakable.
A native New Yorker, Joan Baez rose to prominence as a defining voice of the 1960s and 70s folk movement — not only as a singer and guitarist, but as a tireless activist. Since releasing her self-titled debut album in 1960, she has recorded more than two dozen albums, performed at Woodstock, marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr., and protested wars from Vietnam to Iraq. Her personal history is as remarkable as her career, including early relationships with Bob Dylan and Steve Jobs before their fame. Throughout it all, Baez has consistently woven activism into her art, championing civil rights, peace, and LGBTQ+ equality — values she affirmed as early as 1977 with her song “Altar Boy and the Thief.”