120 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM own guitar, starts to sing. “Her voice.… it gets you,” David says. “Joan, you’ve got to understand, was overwhelmingly powerful. Her presence, the way she spoke, the way she sang, her decency, it overwhelmed me. It overwhelmed all of my film crew.” As Earl, Gary and Randy began to play, the warmth of their music complimented the alluring lilt of Joan’s vocals. “It worked,” David says. “And I was fortunate enough to witness it.” But this musical meet-up was bigger than the songs performed that day. Perhaps what resonates with the current-day viewers of David’s film are all the spontaneous and delightfully human moments sprinkled throughout. While singing ex-boyfriend Bob Dylan’s hit song “Love Is Just a Four-Letter Word,” Joan breaks into her uncanny Dylan impression. After, she pulls her baby Gabriel onto her lap—and he promptly wraps chubby fingers around the microphone before gumming on the mouthpiece. Halfway through the session, Joan divulges that she had a crush on Earl years earlier. With girlish glee, she recounts the time she gave a concert with Earl, then gushed about him to a stranger in the ladies room. “I said, ‘Oh gosh, this guy Earl, he’s just so far out!’” The woman turned out to be Earl’s wife Louise Scruggs. “I said, ‘You lucky bum!’” Joan recalls with a smile. Despite her lofty reputation, Joan is gracious with Earl’s less-experienced sons. There’s a sweet moment when she gives an appreciative nod to Earl’s 16-yearold son Randy, recognizing his talent. “She looks at him like, ‘Whoa, who are you, kid?’” David recalls. The teen would go on to become one of the great Nashville backup musicians, winning four Grammy Awards. At the end of the session, Earl’s oldest, Gary, dedicates a song to Joan’s husband David Harris, who was serving prison time for refusing to report for military duty after being drafted. The compassionate moment and tender lyrics of “If I Were a Carpenter” ends the session on a sweet note. “Save your love through loneliness, save your love through sorrow,” Joan and Gary harmonize. “I gave you my PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF: NATIONAL ARCHIVES - USIA
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