Judy Collins – HuffPost 8.12.10

[Note: This is from my first interview with Judy Collins and included here is potentially inspiring information.]

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

Judy Collins: 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: Now, you occasionally co-write songs…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: 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.