Search - Judy Collins :: Judy Sings Dylan Just Like a Woman

S.J. T. (cactuspatch) from FREDERICKSBRG, TX
Reviewed on 3/4/2017...

Given the up-and-down swing of reviews on this album, "Judy Sings Dylan Just Like a Woman" ...Appreciation of it may be a generation/ age thing....I can only speak from my position as one of the first baby-boomers, so I can remember the very interviews in which Judy Collins introduces and promotes Dylan, who as a young artist seemed shy and unsure as to the possible reception of his songs...because they were such a departure from the bubblegum rock we had been hearing from the fifties and even into the early Beatles albums.
I think that in my lifetime, "unique" is not always a doorway to "popular" in the music world, but it IS the sign of a true artist. Which both Dylan and Collins are.
Judy Collins has always been the "top of the line" for me, her voice, her choice of songs on each album, her interpretation, her incredible graciousness mixed with the choice to be honest and transparent throughout her life, which carries strongly into her music. So any CD of Judy Collins's has been first rate in every possible comparison with any other artist I've ever heard.
As to her choice and ability to interpret Dylan's songs on this album, I think from my generation's viewpoint, it can't be questioned. There will be music lovers who would rather have more background instruments or a heavier beat - of course, that is both personal preference and a generational thing.
But for someone like me, who searched for this CD for many years, because I love Dylan's music AND I love Judy Collins' singing, the combination could not be better, and I am so thrilled to have finally found it.
But mixed with the full enjoyment of listening to it, was the addition of the liner notes and the history I already knew of their life-long friendship and admiration of each other...I think no one could have had better insight into interpreting Dylan's songs than Judy Collins has, and she's done it "pretty up and walking good."
(Okay, boomers, see if anyone can remember the artist from whom that phrase came from!)
But not to mislead - this is not just an album we "elders" would like, like Frank Sinatra was for my mother. Judy Collins is a rarety, a diamond in the gemstones of fine musicians of all our generations. She's incomparable to anyone else.
This is my best description of Judy Collins's misical gift, the same gift that you'll hear on "Judy Sings Dylan":
I was blessed to have had a chance to hear her live at an outdoor venue, at the Kerrville (TX) Folk Festival several years ago, which rarely books true folk groups anymore, but is rich with young musicians of many genres. The crowd was packed, and peppered with more gray-haired fans that night, it was obvious, but the same crowd was packed with families and with the college crowds from Austin and nearby college towns, who had been drinking heavily all afternoon and evening in the 100 degree Texas heat, talking and bantering loudly throughout the earlier (and more current) musicians' performances.
Judy Collins walked onstage late at night, the keystone performer, with only her guitar, a quiet older woman with a confident and encompassing smile, and a few younger people laughed and said, "Who's that?"
She positioned her guitar, and her pure voice rose in the Texas moonlight, and by the fourth word, the crowd was so silent, you couldn't hear a breath...and she held us this way for two hours, not a soul moving or making a noise. Just an incredible voice soaring up to the twinkling stars. It was stunning.
This is the Judy Collins who is singing the songs of her life-long friend Bob Dylan, as she interprets not only his songs, but his thoughts as he was writing them, and their mutual memories. It's not for everyone, no music is....but for Dylan and Collins fans, it's priceless.

A terrific album

M-See-Square | Philadelphia, PA | 04/10/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I too am amazed by some of the negative reviews - this album is a gem...from someone who has known Dylan her entire adult life. The liner notes recount her first meeting with Bob Dylan when she was 19 years old (and he was even younger) while both were singing in a Colorado skiing resort - before each had migrated to New York City to make their careers. She was visiting Dylan when he wrote "Mister Tambourine Man" - and was the first person to hear him sing it! She was at the Newport Folk Festival when he debuted his "electric" band (and was roundly booed by the "folk purists").

I think she has a unique vantage point from which to render interpretations of his songs - and she does an inspired job on this recording, offering Dylan's incomparable lyrics with an ability to convey his melodies with a beautiful voice.

I recommend this album wholeheartedly."

Just like a masterpiece...

cary o'dell | Gaithersburg, Maryland United States | 10/10/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I am of like minds with one previous reviewer who said that the true beauty and power of Dylan's brilliant lyrics and melodies aren't always best experienced when Dylan performs them himself. Never the best with diction and even on good days sounding a bit like a power drill when he sings, his music, for me, only comes alive when others take it on. And in that regard, surely neither Dylan or anyone else could ever ask for a better, more respectful, enthused or talented interpreter than Judy Collins.



While I'll admit that I have yet to cotton to "You've Gotta Serve Somebody" with its rather heavy-handed attempt to be a rollicking religious revival, much of this album is wonderful with "I Believe in You" being a particular highlight.



But the album's raise d'art arrives in the its penultimate track, Collins' stunningly powerful a cappella rendition of Dylan's thought-provoking, anti-war song "With God On Our Side."



In the current musical scene where so many wildly successful artists are hopeless without in-studio sweetening, techno tricks and vocal over dubs (yeah, I'm talking to you Lopez), Collin's brave and flawless accompaniment-free performance of this song reminds us of what singing is suppose to be. But her choice to go accompaniment-free isn't about showboating; it's symbolic. Stripping the song to its barest bones serves to drive home the message of it, which, in turn, transforms it into a stunning, unforgettably powerful aural experience.



And if that's not worth the $7.98 that Amazon is currently charging for this CD, I don't know what is.













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