Judy Collins sings eleven Bob Dylan songs from the early 1960s to the 1990s. Collins sings some songs like “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” and “Dark Eyes” better than songs like “Bob Dylan’s Dream” or “Like a Rolling Stone.”
I like Collins’s clear voice on songs like “Love Minus Zero / No Limit” and “A Simple Twist of Fate.” Not so much on songs like “With God On Our Side.” The choices of songs on this 1993 CD seem to attempt to provide a survey of Dylan’s music over three decades. Sometimes Judy Collins’s vocals work with some of these Dylan songs…sometimes they don’t. Are you a Judy Collins fan? GRADE: B
TRACK LIST:
| 1 | Like A Rolling Stone (Highway 61 Revisited) | |
| 2 | It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue (Bringing It All Back Home) | |
| 3 | Simple Twist Of Fate (Blood on the Tracks) | |
| 4 | Sweetheart Like You (Infidels) | |
| 5 | Gotta Serve Somebody (Slow Train Running) | |
| 6 | Dark Eyes (Empire Burlesque) | |
| 7 | Love Minus Zero / No Limit (Bringing It All Back Home) | |
| 8 | Just Like A Woman (Blood on the Tracks) | |
| 9 | I Believe In You (Slow Train Running) | |
| 10 | With God On Our Side (Times They Are A-Changing) | |
| 11 | Bob Dylan’s Dream (Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan) |
I like anyone who sings songs by master Bob!
Judy Collins is wonderful woman and singer, fond memories to my student times in the 60s when we enjoyed so much “American music”.
Wolf, I love Judy Collins’s voice. But some songs work better with her voice than others on this CD.
I like Judy and I like Bob…I’m just not sure this is, musically speaking, a match made in Heaven.
Deb, Judy sounds great on certain songs on this CD. But on “Like a Rolling Stone,” Judy sounds like she’s singing Sanskrit!
I much prefer early Collins, just as I much prefer early Dylan. I think I am showing my age.
Jerry, I stopped buying Dylan albums in the 1980s. Same with Judy Collins albums. So I’m showing my age just like you!
Dylan has done some good albums since the 90’s. Time Out of Mind, Modern Times.
Not a big fan of early women folkies. I like Collins less than Joni MKitchell but more than Joan Baez. It helps that Mitchell is a great songwriter.
Steve, Joni Mitchell wrote some incredible songs. My favorite album of Joni Mitchell is COURT & SPARK.
Me too!
Seems at 30 years of age your taste in music has been fixed forever.
Not necessarily, Wolf…my parents began listening to a lot of ’70s rock, which they previously avoided, in their latter ’60s. Alas, their fave was the Eagles.
Todd, Diane loves the Eagles, too! The Eagles were Linda Ronstadt’s backup band for a few years.
Judy Collins was a conscious steward of a gorgeous natural voice, one of the best in pop/folk; Dylan was a reasonably clever rummager through folksongs of others and eventually rebuilder of songs and creator of some good, bad and indifferent lyrics, and a Composer’s Singer, at his best not bad as a vocalist. That Collins chooses to name her album after one of his most adolescently-inane songs, no matter what sensible reasons, indicates a tendency toward too much veneration toward the source of the current repertoire…even as Collins’s voice became less supple.
Todd, I was an early Judy Collins fan. Loved her versions of “Both Sides Now” and “Send in the Clowns.” It also stunned me when her recording of “Amazing Grace” sold millions of copies!
I love her voice. So yes, I like her but as you suggest, it depends on what she’s singing. “It’s All Over Now (Baby Blue” yes, some of the others, no.
We saw Judy in concert in Central Park in July of 1977. It was teh Dr. Pepper Summer Musical Festival at Wollman Rink. Sorry, no setlist, but I’m sure she did “Both Sides Now” and “Send in the Clowns.”
Jeff, “Both Sides Now” and “Send in the Clowns” are two of my favorite Judy Collins songs! Judy’s voice works for some Dylan songs…but not for others.
Just listened to her version of Like A Rolling Stone. Pretty bad. It was a bad fit for her.
Yeah, George reviewed Lucinda Williams’s CD of Dylan covers recently. She is a much better fit.
Jeff, I think that Lucinda Williams had a better mix of songs on her Dylan CD. The Judy Collins CD of Dylan songs spans 30 years of his work.
Steve, exactly! “Like a Rolling Stone” doesn’t fit with Judy Collins’s vocal style.