That all changed when Joan was given a ukulele. Throughout her childhood and youth, Joan suffered from anxiety attacks and found it difficult to connect with her peers. Her father's work led the family to move often they lived on the East Coast of the US, then in Baghdad, Iraq (where the 10-year-old Joan read The Diary of Anne Frank), and later in California. Joan Chandos Baez was born on Januin Staten Island, New York to Albert Baez, a Mexican-born physicist, and Joan Bridge, born in Scotland. And it took me even longer to understand the significance of this Joan Baez… Panic attacks, Anne Frank in Baghdad and a ukulele It took a while before she finally started singing. What was this? Why wasn't I hearing a happy song, like the "We shall overcome" I'd first heard at my friend's place? After all, that's why I'd bought the album for five Deutschmarks at the flea market. Then a male voice saying something about a "jet" and a "bomb." I couldn't understand much more with my poor English at the time. I put the record on only to hear aircraft noise, a siren, scraps of words and a rumble in the distance.
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