Taking Sides: Judy Collins vs Joan Baez

Joan - I'm sorry but, Jesus, that voice: fingernails down the blackboard; Larry Olivier drilling holes in Dustin Hoffman's teeth in "Marathon Man" etc etc

Oh yeah, Both Sides, Now too.

OTM for me. And music never makes me cry.

judy collins is like the structuring absence for so many discussions of late 60s/early 70s singer-songwriter/interpretive stuff. her albums are completely ubiquitous in used vinyl racks. you can kind of tell if you're in a crap shop if you look in the "folk" section and it's all the likes of glen yarborough (sp?) and judy collins. and yet nobody ever talks about her. but yeah, her stuff is mostly horrid as i assert above. i welcome contrary opinions.

'cook with honey' is really nice

but yeah, her stuff is mostly horrid as i assert above. i welcome contrary opinions.

Mostly, I don't know--I only have a best-of and a couple of studio albums. But there are three songs I like a lot: her covers of "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" and "Both Sides Now" (in the latter case, I'd take hers over the original...I have to say 50 Hail Marys over a stack of Consumer Guides for saying so), and her own "So Early, Early in the Spring." And, of course, she inspired one great song herself.

http://thebluegrassspecial.com/archive/2010/august10/imagesaugust10/judy-collins-3.jpg
love both of these ladies (at least their 60s work), but dang, you can really see why someone would write songs about judy's eyes.

What a photo...I almost went to see her at an Indigo last summer, where she was signing some children's book or CD she'd just put out. I wanted to get my albums autographed, but figured I'd never get close unless I bought the new product.

judy collins' voice is really something, or it was in the 60s. reading amateurist's comments from years ago i am baffled and awed by how subjective musical taste really is, and the vast range of opinions that are in fact possible. "horrid". what a world.

anyway, i am reviving this because i think the "structuring absence" thing amateurist mentioned might be coming to an end. i think we might be in the middle of a judy collins renaissance. my evidence for this is that "song for judith" was played in an episode of girls and "both sides now" was played during the credits of last night's mad men. next stop, superbowl halftime show imo.

yeah both sides is really pretty

i was being harsh earlier. she has made some truly atrocious music, but much on her earlier albums is lovely, if seldom much more than that.

she has had a lot of work done.

http://cdn.americansongwriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Judy_Collins_Approved_Press_Photo_2010_20100908_132033-1.jpg

So many wrong opinions on this thread.

and she went way out on a lot of leftist limbs, while JC got intoSondheim & white wine.

these are two of the things that make life just about worth living!

Seriously, sitting alone in dark room drinking white wine and listening to Judy Collins records= some of the best times of my life, not even joking.

in a dark room

I think Judy Collins has a beautiful voice, but she also seems sort of annoying in person. I always imagine her hanging out in some fancy house on Martha's Vineyard, sipping white wine. Also she doesn't write any of her own music.

wrong opinions= Judy Collins is terrible opinions I mean, not the people praising Joan Baez, I don't really know much Joan Baez.

Driving around today heard a bit of Judy Collins on Mountain Stage. The lady can still sing very, very well. Quite impressive.

judy collins is like the structuring absence for so many discussions of late 60s/early 70s singer-songwriter/interpretive stuff.

i like this sentence. can't speak to its accuracy -- i like what i've heard of judy collins but haven't heard too much

Mimi Farina = Joan's sister and did classic stuff with husband Richard.

Joan has a really pure voice that I like a lot.

Judy I don't know as well as I might. I have a BGO 2fer with the lp with the ISB cover on but not heard in years.

should i go see Judy Collins live?

Maybe check what kind of accompaniment she'll have---last time I saw her on TV (not recently) was with a grand pianist, who played too much, I thought. Might be different now. Haven't kept up with either singer, but Collins meant more to me early on: first of all, with In My Life, with very nice vocals, but more because they suited, in a floaty, but earthly enough mid-60s way--and not like Robert Goulet Sings Happenin' Hits of Today, just a whole lot of thee modern repetoire: several writers I already knew or knew of, several I really really didn't--and it all fit!
1"Tom Thumb's Blues" Bob Dylan 5:03
2. "Hard Lovin' Loser" Richard Fariña 2:37
3. "Pirate Jenny" Marc Blitzstein, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill 4:02
4. "Suzanne" Leonard Cohen 4:21
5. "La Colombe" Jacques Brel, Alasdair Clayre 5:03
6. "Marat/Sade" Richard Peaslee 5:33
7. "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" Randy Newman 2:46
8. "Sunny Goodge Street" Donovan 2:55
9. "Liverpool Lullaby" Stan Kelly, aka Stan Kelly-Bootle 2:57
10. "Dress Rehearsal Rag" Leonard Cohen 5:19
11. "In My Life" Lennon–McCartney 2:53
"Liverpool Lullaby" is the only one I don't remember, like, at all---but omg "Pirate Jenny" (which Dylan said on Chronicles was a crucial influence on his songwriting, though I don't know if he meant this track, think he had a girlfriend who stagemanaged a Brecht review), and her recording debut of this new guy Leonard Cohen's "Dress Rehearsal Rag" still pounds my hollow skull without warning.
She also got me good with stone cold "Famous Blue Raincoat, on Living, a live album--in between, Wildflowers was pretty good, in a less bold way, though Joni's version of "Both Sides Now" turned out to be better, ditto Collins' own Who Knows Where The Time Goes. Much more recently, has released a collection of all her early Cohen versions, with additions, which I'd like to hear.
(Oh I did see her in person with a full band, long long long ago, was great.)

grand pianist *only*, I meant to say. No guitar, not even hers, nothing else.
Some good JB discussion here: Joan Baez C/D

The Judy Collins songs from the 60s that I've liked best have been the art songs, like the Brel covers and "Marat/Sade". Unusually, she's better "stiff" than "loose", better cool than warm.
I know it's agism, but I'd be wary of paying to see any octogenarian performing artist whose earlier work I loved, so many things can go wrong with the mind and body of a performer of that age.

Tonight BBC4 are showing a Judy Collins in concert film from 1974 - in fact it's has just finished - followed immediately by a Joan Baez concert film from 1965 (in fact it's in two parts), so I'll let you know...

... I don't really need to wait though because I dislike Joan Baez's voice so much. I suffered somewhat through Joanie's first song but she's now singing Phil Ochs' "There But For Fortune", which is a good song and gives her less scope to unleash her deadly vibrato. As for Judy Collins I notice she really does try to change the phrasing and melodies of the songs she sings - which can be annoying at times but her voice is much more pleasant than Joan's.

She was one of the first to cover Cohen, pretty well, for the most part---a couple of faves:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIWSE9cCosc

And this still plays in my head pretty often, the best performance of hers I've heard, one of his best songs ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIWSE9cCosc

Sorry!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDO5mnMZ1Wc

Judy Collins, if for nothing else than for being one of Denver's best and most beloved daughters.

This doesn’t seem anything like an even match.