Advertise Here
|
Join
The Poetry Empire Webring |
|
|
|
|
JUDY COLLINS: an Intense Look at
and
Exclusive Interview with Empire:ZINE
|
Collins: I am thrilled to have been able to put together this new album. I actually put all the songs on it that I love. I listened to everything I had recorded in the twenty-four years with Elektra, and then just took all the ones I am mad about. I re-recorded "Chelsea Morning," because I have never been wild about the original and I felt people should hear the way it sounds today. I wrote a song with Jesse Valenzuela called "Nothing Lasts Forever," great to collaborate with him. He is a doll, you know he was with the Gin Blossoms; and I wrote a song called walls with my husband, Louis Nelson, who designed the new Korean Veteran's Memorial Wall on the Mall in Washington D.C. Perhaps my favorite is the new song I wrote called the "Fallow Way." I feel great about this new collection!!!
Collins: As far as the singing is concerned, I feel so very grateful to have the voice God gave me. It takes a lot of rest and training to sing, and I was lucky that I found a great teacher when I first moved to New York. His name was Max Margulis and he died last year, sadly. But he is the reason I am singing so well today, some say better than ever. I am just glad that I can take the music to the people who want to hear it. I love my audiences. I am deeply indebted to them for giving me the chance to sing my concerts, make records, and do what I love. Whatever people call it, it is great to have a voice!
Collins: I sang in the coffee houses of the country in the early 60's with no idea of "success" in terms of records or television. I just thought I was a storyteller. I didn't even think of myself as a singer-listen to "Maid of Constant Sorrow," and you'll know why! I had this deep, bassy voice. But I had incredible passion for the music I was singing. That was what drove me.
Collins: "Since You've Asked" came out of the blue, and I had never thought I needed to write songs, never felt the urge until it happened. Then I knew I had to write songs. I knew "Since You've Asked" was a good song, but I didn't realize that people were going to sing it at their weddings and record it. That was a wonderful surprise. I still think it is one of my best songs. It made me greedy for more…it drove me to write, and keep on writing, and not become discouraged when the songs didn't come as fast as I would have liked.
Collins: I don't think you get to good writing unless you expose yourself and your feelings. Deep songs don't come from the surface; they come from the deep down. The poetry and the songs that you are suppose to write, I believe are in your heart. You just have to open up your heart and not be afraid to get them out.
Collins: It is true that I have had heartache and tragedy in my life. These are things none of us avoids. Suffering is the price of being alive…and it is music and singing and art that has helped me live through some of the most difficult things that have happened to me.
Collins: I have inspiration and feelings of being alive most every day I live. I call them part of the joy of living, and they are there for all of us.
Collins: When inspiration does not come, I go for a walk, go to the movie, talk to a friend, let
Collins: Performing and writing are indeed different. Writing is usually solitary, unless you are with a collaborator. Singing is usually public, unless you are practicing. Each has its special gift. Both are necessary. You cannot get the same things from writing and performing, at least I cannot. I need both.
Collins: I wrote the "Fallow Way" as a poem. I was staring out the window one day at the Connecticut countryside, the lake frozen, the birds walking on the ice, air clear and frosty. I thought about how precious are times when the farmer lets the field lie fallow, when the time comes for reflection and rest, for hibernation. I wrote the poem and later, set it to music. It just sort of popped out, like a winter song.
Collins: My husband, Louis Nelson, was designing the Korean Veteran's Memorial Wall and
Collins: I may like the Blizzard best, of all the songs I have written. It, too, is about rebirth and transcendence.
Collins: I don't know where my songs come from... If I knew, I'd know too much, more than we are allowed on this plane.
Collins: I write journals and would recommend journal writing to anyone who wishes to pursue a writing career. You learn a lot. You also remember a lot… and memory is important.
Collins: Writing Shameless, or anything, is terribly hard but, alas for me, because I am addicted, a heck of a lot of fun. I often am sorry I ever started writing prose, because it is so hard. But I can't stop.
Collins: I was raised to speak out about politics and the world around me. I would do it whether I was in the public or not. It is the way I was taught. The American way.
Collins: I am glad so many women singers are being heard in music today. It is healthy for music… healthy because it means a lot of men are listening!
Collins: Persistence, persistence, persistence… and some talent.
Collins: Music is always occurring. The season of songs you speak of is all around us, it is
Collins: I am glad you like my web page. I think that new communications are wonderful and I am delighted to be a part of the Internet generation.
Collins: I am always thinking about new music, new records, new books, and new songs. I just wrote a new song about New York for my friend Jacques D'Amboise, who runs the National Dance Institute. I write a song for the dancers every year or so. There is no end to the wonderful things I have planned to sing and to write!!!
Collins: Who does your hair??
Collins: I think people who are creative are the luckiest people on earth. I know that there are no shortcuts, but you must keep your faith in something Greater than You, and keep doing what you love. Do what you love, and you will find the way to get it out to the world. Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with me. God bless you all, and hope you will keep listening.
Thanks to Katherine DePaul at Rocky Mountain Productions for helping to make this all possible. Images and photographs from Elektra Records, Judy Collins Official Website. Some photographs by Franceso
Scavullo.
|
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
Empire:Zine
is a production of Spyder's
Empire®. ©All rights reserved. Legal
notice. |
wonderful. Tell me, how does it feel now having "Forever" out for the world to hear, and what was the over-all experience like, gathering all those great songs together and recording new ones?
Collins: I always sang when I was little and my father, who was a great influence on me, also had a wonderful voice. He and my mother really encouraged me to sing and play the piano. They were always very supportive.
go… The muse is bound to return again, especially if I turn my back!
Collins: My book Trust Your Heart, which is the story of my life, will be followed in September of this year by Singing Lessons, a memoir of love, loss, hope, and healing, which talks about the death of my son and the hope that has been the aftermath of the healing from that tragedy.
just a matter of marketing, attention, and many other factors, that determines whether people will hear these songs or not. It is perhaps more difficult today to get to your audience. But you just have to keep trucking!
