July Collins’ performances : popular versus great

 Judy Collins’ version of SOMEDAY SOON has been a great success, with millions of amateurs and bar bands attempting ,usually successfully, to carry the song off in the half century since it was released.

Judy Collins’ version of THE RISING OF THE MOON is sixty years old and has no one attempt to cover it - not even Collins herself : as she grew older she lost the brio needed to carry it off successful.

Songwriting experts - a money grubbing lot - think her version of SOMEDAY SOON far the more successful song, because of the offers it generated in a song she did not write, at least paid off in all the concert tour offers she received as a result.

But I think her version of THE RISING OF THE MOON one of the artistic wonders of the 20th century - one that will be played a 100 years after she dead and buried.

If it sounds a bit like Franz Schubert’s more war-like lieder, it may not be a coincidence. RISING too was originally written as a poem to be read, later converted by a musician (here Judy) into a dramatic recital in two voices, with the instrument ( here a guitar, not a piano) playing a very active role continuously commenting on the text.

So now let me put it this way, the failure of the opera LA BOHEME to be able to be taken home and played on the guitar by any amateur, after a few hours of rehearsing is a failure, sure, but one failure : it has many other successful artistic qualities. 

I am NOT arguing against shortness and simplicity and in favour of length and complexity as a sign of great art :  Collins’ RISING OF THE MOON is not at all long or complex : but as I said, it requires an apparently rare quantity and quality of brio to pull it off successful.

You have all heard Collins’ SOMEDAY SOON zillions of times : few of you have ever heard her version of THE RISING OF THE MOON.

Give it a listen and tell me if it isn’t truly great great art...