Joanie Phoanie

Leftist musicians were not universally loved throughout the United States. Most notably, there were intergenerational tensions surrounding conservative values and differing perceptions of what it meant to be an American.

Al Capp, the cartoonist behind “Li’l Abner,” combined these criticisms into a caricature of Baez called Joanie Phoanie. Joanie Phoanie incites college students to riot, promotes drug use, and publicly speaks out against poverty while making $10,000 an appearance.   

While exaggerated, these criticisms do highlight the contradiction between professional musicians voicing their moral convictions and living more than comfortably on celebrity salaries – far from the disenfranchised populations they sing about.