Judy Collins


Last evening. Jimmy Webb opened great songwriter not a great singer. Judy at 71 or so can still amaze with the voice of a generation. Talked about being at Albert grossman's house in Woodstock for a party young bob was there and in the middle of the night she heard sounds from a room in the basement and got up to investigate and she heard him composing mr tambourine man. Chilling. Then of course she sang it. Her latest disc bohemian I think is the title is just great.
rpeluso

Showing 4 responses by dtc

I have seen her multiple times recently including in the front row at this wonderful new venue this Fall.

Shalin Liu

She sang Farewell to Tarwathie complete with the whale songs with that background looking much like the picture. The person who recorded the whale songs lives just a few miles away for Shain Liu. Awesome concert. She is one of the few of that era who has maintained a lot of her voice. I cannot wait for her to return.

Personally I like Paradise better than Bohemian, but both are fine albums. Jimmy Webb wrote Gauguin for Paradise. He also wrote Campo de Encino on Bohemian. At this time of year we like her Christmas album, All on a Wintry Night.

I recently picked up her first albums, A Maid of Constant Sorrow and Golden Apples of the Golden Sun. They really show how much folk music changed in the early 60's.

Her book Sweet Judy Blue Eyes : My Life In Music provides a great insight into her life and into the folk music scene of the time. Highly recommended for people who really appreciate her and folk music of the 60s and 70's. But, as she always says, if you say you remember the 60's you were not really there.
Jimmy Webb wrote Campo de Encino many years ago and it has been done by a lot of people. Judy did it on Bohemian. It is about his time living in Encino CA, outside LA. I am pretty sure she never went there, but Joni Mitchell probably did. I think she was closer to Webb at that time. Not sure about Roger Payne??

Marieke is a Jacques Brel song. I also have him singing it. Great song.
Sorry, I missed the reference. Yes, Roger Payne was the source of the whale songs for Farewell to Tarwathie. He approached her and introduced her to the sounds. Farewell to Tarwathie was the first time whale song were used in a large production commercial recording. Payne introduced her to the whale songs when she was doing Peer Gynt in NYC with Stacey Keach, amongst others.

Incidentally, her Amazing Grace was staged at St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia in NYC with a lot of her friends singing, including Stacey Keach.

She was involved with Keach after splitting with Stephen Stills, who started the Judy Blues Eyes theme, when he and Crosby and Nash sang Suite : Judy Blue Eyes at Woodstock

Again, I highly recommend her book for a lot of the detail of these times.
Coming of the Roads was on her Fifth Album (1965) which was a major part of the change to modern 60's folk. It included 3 Dylan songs like Tambourine Man and Daddy on Your Mind and Richard Farina's Pack Up Your Sorrows. Farnina's wife, of course, was Mimi Baez, sister of Joan Baez. Great album and great times for Judy and folk in general.