Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell: Dida
[purchase]
In his previous post, Darius said: "There also many fine all-female duets, but I leave that thought with my fellow Starmakers" - his "gauntlet" immediately brought to mind this amazing vocal collaboration between two Joans (Joni's birth name is Roberta Joan Anderson)...
Never has so much been done with so little - two nonsensical syllables (di-da) swirl and whirl and twirl and braid and weave and criss-cross and merge and mesh and entwine and spiral and elevate... until your (at least my!) cheekbones are aching from smiling so broadly at the sound of two diverse voices creating such intricate beauty in tandem...
From the liner notes of Diamonds and Rust:
Dida [written by Joan Baez]... was originally recorded with Joni Mitchell in June 1974 while Joan was in the studio doing a record of political nature. It held up as a valid track in Joan's mind for seven months, so when she got back to L.A. she went into the studio with Henry Lewy, the original engineer, to finish it up. Tom Scott and some of L.A.'s top horn players came in on it, and the album was complete.