A Conversation With Judy Collins – HuffPost 8.12.10

Mike Ragogna: It’s difficult to know where to begin, you being Judy Collins, cultural icon and all. Should we start by discussing your new album?

Judy Collins: It’s called Paradise which has already charted on Billboard and is doing very well on Amazon. It includes “Over The Rainbow,” duets with Joan Baez, Stephen Stills, and Michael Johnson from Nashville. It also has a new song by Jimmy Webb that he is also playing on, and a brand new song by Amy Speace that I think is one of the best anti-war songs I’ve ever heard, and a song by me about 9/11 called “Kingdom Come.”

MR: You also have a new book.

JC: A children’s book called Over The Rainbow which is on The New York Times best seller list and selling like hot cakes! It’s a beautiful book with a CD in it. I’m singing “Over The Rainbow” and a couple of other children’s songs, it’s on Peter Yarrow’s imprint. He had a big success with Puff The Magic Dragon and asked me to do the next book.

MR: What else is up?

JC: Otherwise, I am just twiddling my thumbs. (laughs)

MR: (laughs) Okay, let’s talk about your song on 9/11 called “Kingdom Come.”

JC: Well, I’m a New Yorker and when this all happened, I was devastated as it was to everybody worldwide. I didn’t think I would ever write anything about it as it was just too painful, but I got to know the population in the city of these wonderful firefighters. I hadn’t known them except for emergencies. They are such a wonderful group of people, and I was at an event that was very moving a few months after 9/11. I hadn’t realized how many people were lost. I went home and began to talk and think about it, and my husband said, “Why don’t you write something about it.” So “Kingdom Come” is the song that came out of that experience and it is on Paradise.

MR: Judy, you recorded some cover songs on Paradise and included guest artists who also have contributed so much to our culture. It looks like a roster we should be thanking for its service.

JC: Good! (laughs)

MR: Now, you recorded a duet with Joan Baez on this album.

JC: It’s Joan’s “Diamonds and Rust.” You know, she and I have been friends for 50 years and we have recorded before. We’ve done a duet before, a trio with Mimi (Fariña), Joan’s sister, who died a few years ago. I have known Joan all these years, and I told her recently that I was going to sing “Diamonds And Rust” because I think it’s such a great song and she said let’s do it as a duet. So, we did it at Newport this year, an unrehearsed duet which you can find on YouTube. It was a lot of fun and, of course, we recorded the duet for this album.

MR: Do you have some stories about the making of this album, both the process and guest artists that appear on it?

JC: I was thinking of trying to do a duet with Stephen Stills. You know, he and I had an affair in 1968 and he wrote “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” for me. Over the years, we have remained friends and recently, we discussed doing a duet. When he was in New York for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame celebrations, he came up to my place and we recorded a great song of Tom Paxton’s called “The Last Thing On My Mind.” Here we were in my place recording this song and my husband was taking pictures and he said, “WelI, I guess he chose that song as an amend to you or an amend to him. Either one or the other.”

MR: Lately, you’ve placed your career in your own hands. Now, you have your own imprint, and apparently, you are doing just fine without the major labels.

JC: Yes. I was lucky as I had a wonderful association with Elektra Records for 24 years and then again for another two years. So, that was great for me because it was during a time when record labels really took care of their artists. Then they somehow discovered that they weren’t interested in the catalogs of all these artists, I among them. So, eventually, I decided to, as you say, take my career in my own hands as far as my recording went. But I’ve also written a lot of books. And my label Wildflower Records has a number of other artists on it. I try to help other artists out and try and do for them some of the things that were done for me, like trying to get them the right press, get them on tours, get them seen by all the right people. So, that is an exciting aspect of what we do.

MR: Judy who are some of the artists you’re associating with lately?

JC: I have some young, up-and-coming, wonderful artists on my label including Kenny White and Amy Speace who wrote a song on this album. I didn’t pick it because it’s on my label, I picked it because it’s a great song. It’s a song called “Weight Of The World,” and it’s one of the best songs I’ve heard in the whole cluster of young, up-and-coming songwriters.

MR: Years back, why did you record Joni Mitchell’s song “Both Sides Now.”

JC: I got a phone call in the middle of the night in 1967 from my friend Al Cooper. You may remember Al Cooper who started The Blues Project. He was a very good friend of mine and still is. He called me up at three in the morning in the spring of 1967 and said, “You know, I followed this girl home and she said she wrote songs and I figured I couldn’t lose because she is very good looking.” But it turned out she could write songs, so he put her on the phone at three in the morning and she sang “Both Sides Now.” The rest is history.

MR: Are you aware of your contribution to the social fabric and consciousness of your generation and of those who followed?

JC: I am. I have had the fortune of having lived through it, so I do know about it. It’s been interesting how the intertwining of my own writing has come about too. When I discovered Leonard Cohen in 1966, I was the first to sing many of his songs over the next several decades. After I started singing his songs, he said to me one day, “I don’t get it. How come you’re not writing your own songs?” I had no answer as I had never even thought of writing. But because of that question–maybe it would have come up at some other time as well–I did start writing my own songs and that’s an important part of my history and my ongoing work as an artist, singer, songwriter, and performer. The richness of the other artists, I have always looked for and found in great artists. I love

MR: Of course, I’m a fan, and I think your album Judith has one of the most perfect starts of any album I’ve ever heard.

JC: Jimmy Webb’s song, “The Moon’s A Harsh Mistress.” It was the first time I ran across him, and since, we have become very close friends.

MR: And you cover another Jimmy Webb song on this new album.

JC: There is this new song by Jimmy on my new album called “Gauguin.” It’s the story ofGauguin in the South Seas, and it’s a marvelous, marvelous song. I am so thrilled to be able to sing it. He did the orchestration for it and played the conch on it, which he wants to be recognized for–he wants everybody to know that it was him playing the conch! He is the only conch player in the American Federation of Musicians in New York, actually. He’s a brilliant writer and I love his work. He has a new album out called Just Across The River. It’s a beautiful album with duets of his songs, and I am just one of his most passionate and devoted fans.

MR: I also interviewed Jimmy Webb for HuffPost and for solar-powered KRUU-FM as well. He adores you too.

JC: Oh, he is wonderful. And again, I think this “Gauguin” is a big piece. It’s kind of the “MacArthur Park” of today, and I’m thrilled that I could record it.

MR: Now, you occasionally co-write songs as well, like with Jesse Valenzuela of Gin Blossoms for example.

JC: Once in a while and, of course, with David Buskin and Robin Batteau.

MR: I believe your solo work “Houses” from Judith could be that album’s best track, and there are many Judy Collins songs that have become standards. Which was your first recorded original?

JC: “Since You’ve Asked,” and then I wrote quickly thereafter. I wrote “Albatross,” and soon after that, I wrote “My Father” which Chrissie Hynde recorded on a collection of songs of mine sung by other writers. On that album, there are Chrissie Hynde, Joan Baez, Jimmy Webb, Leonard Cohen, Dolly Parton, Rufus Wainwright, Bernadette Peters…a lot of great singers singing my material which I am very happy about.

MR: Any other favorites?

JC: I happen to have in my hot little hands a copy of my song “The Blizzard” sung by John Denver about a big snow storm. It’s never been released and is something that is an unfinished demo. But one of these days, I think I will try and get it on a label, on an album.

MR: You seem to be in constant motion yet you still find time to be creative.

JC: I continue to write. I’m always writing. I just wrote a song about what happened in New Orleans called “Saints And Angles,” and I will be doing more and more writing of my own songs.

MR: Tell us about your upcoming book.

JC: My new biography–which is coming out in 2011, is called “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes,” and it is really the story of those first 20 years in the music business in the clubs, the touring, the personalities–including Janis Joplin–and all my friends and groups like The Mamas & The Papas; of course, Stephen Stills and that early period when he was putting together Crosby, Stills & Nash; all my touring and the places that I played and the traveling that I did. How extraordinary it was to be a part of that incredible meshing of clubs, concerts, writers, record companies, and people that were really on our side as well as that froth of creativity that came out. I was right in the middle of it. So, it was a very exciting book to write, and I think it will be fun to read.

MR: That really was a magical, conscious time for American music.

JC: Yes, it really is a mythical period. Absolutely.

MR: We were talking about a song you wrote earlier called “Since You’ve Asked,” a Judy Collins original that was a hit by Dan Fogelberg and Tim Weissberg. How did you react to his recording that song?

JC: I had a lift when I got the check in the mail. (laughs) It was a big surprise because it became a big hit. I had never met Dan Fogelberg and I wasn’t sure about his version because, you know, some singers will change the song.

MR: He did alter it a little.

JC: He changed the last verse, so I was kind of puzzled by that.

MR: Did you ever meet him?

JC: He was somebody that I admired only from afar and never met him in all those years. I was so sorry, I know he died not too long ago, and I felt very badly that I had never been able to thank him for his interest in the song and for making it so well known. I think it’s interesting that people use the song in their weddings. During my concerts, I always say people use it in their weddings because it’s been around for so many decades that it’s sometimes the second or third wedding that they use it at.

MR: How does it feel having a President name his child “Chelsea” based on your record?

JC: It was a wonderful experience because we became friends after he said that I was his favorite singer. He named my albums, he named all the songs, he wasn’t just blowing smoke, and was, really, quite serious. So, my husband and I kind of just wondered in and out of the White House like we lived there for about eight years! It was just delicious and divine and, of course, I love Chelsea. I think she was so smart not to invite any of the heavy hitters or entertainers to the wedding that would take the focus off her because she was such a beautiful bride, a beautiful young woman. It was such a success for everybody. I was glad the focus was just on her.

MR: What about Hillary?

JC: Oh, she is the best. Absolutely the best.

MR: I love that family and no matter what anyone says about them, no one can deny that is a very smart family.

JC: They are absolutely amazing. Bill Clinton has done so much for the world. Do you remember the day when there was no debt?

MR: Exactly. I was hanging on for dear life during the Bush years. I remember thinking every once in a while, “Oh my God, what is Cheney going to do now,” since, obviously, he was making all of the decisions.

JC: We’ve come a long way, baby, from those years.

MR: I know, but I am a little concerned about the November elections. We’re such an ADD culture and because he doesn’t flaunt his achievements daily, I don’t think the culture gets what President Obama truly has been doing.

JC: Oh I love him too. I think he is wonderful. And what a load of things he has on his plate. It’s unbelievable.

MR: Well I wish him luck and really hope that he does get another democratic congress and second term so he can complete what he started.

JC: I will tell you something. He has done some magnificent things–many, many bills that we would not have had, and I think he has done a remarkable job. I don’t know how quickly to judge we are, but things happen slowly, and now, there is a basis for some real improvement in our health care system and in our approach to the financial community and how we can stop these crooks from running off with all of the proceeds. And I think that there are big, big moves that have been made with his administration. I do love Hillary Clinton and she also has done and incredible job, so I look forward to more good things.

MR: Yeah, I do too and like I said earlier, it’s unfortunate that he gets stuck with a culture that is the most ADD that it’s ever been.

JC: He hasn’t gotten stuck with it, he jumped into the hot seat and was the one who wanted to do this. There aren’t many people who are willing to put themselves into political situations today and take the risk of criticism. He has taken the risk and taken the actions. He’s a big boy. He has a big brain, and he has a lot of courage. He says we are going in and doing this and somehow we will cobble enough votes to get this together, get it done and he’s done that.

MR: Yes. I am still a fan though I’m just crossing my fingers because the whole level of crazy in this country seems to have spiked.

JC: You have to remember that democracy in any time but especially now, involves a lot of chaos, and the alternative is so much worse. Let’s put up with the chaos, okay?

MR: (laughs) Yeah, but then that means we have to put up with Glenn Beck.

JC: Well, maybe you do. (laughs)

Transcribed by Erika Richards