Judy Collins met Leonard Cohen in 1966, at a time when the young Canadian was uncertain about his skills both as a songwriter and a singer. Collins responded powerfully to his music, assuring him that his performance and compositions were alluring and potent. She subsequently covered a number of his songs, and she even coaxed him onto the stage. This disc adds three new recordings to 11 of Collins’s previous interpretations. Her crystal-clear vibrato is ideally suited to the slo [Read More...]
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No singer is more qualified to sing Leonard Cohen’s songs than Judy Collins. She introduced his music to a U. S. audience in 1966 (”Suzanne” and “Dress Rehearsal Rag”); she has continued to record his beautiful lyrics since then; and no one, including the composer himself, interprets his music better. For Collins and Cohen fans, most of the cuts here we’ve heard Ms. Collins sing before. Of the 14 selections, only three, “Democracy”, “A Thousand Kisses Deep” and “Night Comes On” are the only new material here. I would love to hear her sing “First We Take Manhattan” or “Ain’t No Cure For Love,” to name two of Mr. Cohen’s later offerings. Of course most of the Cohen classics are here: In addition to “Suzanne”– that one for my money belongs to Ms. Collins alone– there’s “Sisters of Mercy”, “Story of Isaac”, “Bird On The Wire”– the one that Cohen always opens his own concerts with– and one of my all-time favorites, “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye.”
What is so amazing is that Ms. Collins’ voice has changed little in the 40 or so years she’s been singing. Someone not familiar with her recordings would be hard put to tell which cuts are old and which ones are new here. Her voice is as clear and beautiful as her blue eyes. And it doesn’t hurt any that she always speaks out for the causes I care about too.
This CD would make a great gift to a Cohen/Collins fan or a great introduction to the few last beautiful people on earth who aren’t already crazy about this duo.
When I first heard “In My Life” and “Wildflowers” two classic albums of Judy Collins recorded in the late 60’s I was introduced to the songs of Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen. Her interpretation of their songs and so many other great songwriters is always very beautiful and I hear something more everytime I listen to them but she must also be credited with helping in great part to bringing their music to a much wider audience as well. Very few other vocalists could make such a great tribute album collecting together as it does all of her recordings of Leonard Cohen’s song from her Elektra years with three new recordings and one live recording from her own label Wildflower Records on a cd called “Live at Wolftrap” (Song of Bernadette) all sequenced with not a whisper of the plus 30 years of time and change from her first recording “Suzanne”. Her voice in the new recordings is as satisfying as it ever was and her personal interpretations as intriguing and evocative as Leonard Cohen’s poetry suggests. All of the early recordings are brilliantly remastered here and I especially enjoyed the sound of recordings she did with the music of arranger/conductor Joshua Rifkin. I could only wish that Elektra would invest in remastering those early albums to the same clarity as these present on this Leonard Cohen songbook. Thanks to Alan Silverman for the mixing, remastering and engineering of this CD. He has worked with Judy Collins on a number of recording projects among them the retrospective “Forever” and Judy’s “unplugged” version of her own wonderful songs on a CD called “Voices”. This CD will remain, along with Jennifer Warnes “Famous Blue Raincoat”, in my collection of very favourite interpreters of the songs of Leonard Cohen and as one of many Judy Collins CDs that always please.