In My Life – JUDY COLLINS****

Tom Thumb’s Blues/Hard Lovin’ Loser/Pirate Jenny/Suzanne/La Colombe/Marat-Sade/I Think Its Going To Rain Today/Sunny Goodge Street/Liverpool Lullaby/Dress Rehearsal Rag/In My Life

Influential American folk singer Judy Collins continued to gain recognition with the release of In My Life. Her major commercial breakthrough would come with her next LP. (US:46)

"One of Judy's very best. A brilliant selection of great songs by great songwriters with some of her finest vocal performances. Almost plays like a concept album. The rendition of Leonard Cohen's Suzanne is unforgettable. Also Weill's Pirate Jenny, a tour de force, and Marat/Sade are colourful pictures painted with words and music. This is a superbly crafted and magnificently arranged album."

"The best track on the album is Leonard Cohen's Suzanne which nails the song perfectly. Judy sings it in an almost trance state and I'm sure Leonard would agree that this might be the definitive version. All in all, its a very enjoyable record."

"This album opened my mind, heart and soul up to the possibilities of what could be expressed in song. Every cut transports the listener to a different world, and helped me learn that I was allowed to feel all different types of emotions, and to like lots of different types of music. Taken individually, every song on the album is outstanding, from the contrast of fury and heartbreak in La Colombe to the rollicking humour of Hard Lovin' Loser to the bitter pain of Dress Rehearsal Rag, the exotic strangeness of Pirate Jenny and the airy innocence of Sunny Goodge Street."

"I love most of the songs on this album, from the opening cover of Bob Dylan's Tom Thumb's Blues to the Richard Farina's comical and upbeat Hard Lovin' Loser to Leonard Cohen's magically evocative Suzanne, and his ironic and satirical Dress Rehearsal Rag. Cohen's haunting and evocative lyrics are masterfully interpreted by Collins, an early champion of his amazingly poetic folk songs. This is an early snapshot of one of the titans of modern American folk music."

"Judy Collins' In My Life is one of those albums from the mid-1960s which showed that the true artists populating the music scene at that time were quite serious about the intent to bring change into the world via their artistic sensibilities. Judy Collins was certainly at the forefront of that endeavour. In My Life was cutting-edge in its time and still is."