Joan Baez in 1971. Photo: Bill Brett/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Nate here: When I was a music business reporter for The Tennessean, I loved learning fantastical tales of Music Row. One of my favorites is the night in 1970 when Joan Baez was recording at Quad Studios and needed singers to fill out the choral part of her legendary song "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."
Quad had become the most popular non-country studio in Nashville, and a sort of unlicensed bar/hangout for musicians. Baez's producer Norbert Putnam had the idea to create a makeshift choir of the people hanging around the studio to sing the backing vocals.
As he told me in 2015, "We said, 'Let's get all the drunks in here and see what it sounds like,'" Putnam said.
It ended up being the most legendary drunken choir in music history including Dave Loggins, Guy Clark and Jimmy Buffett.
