In My Life

by

Judy Collins

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When I was a young folksinger myself, back in 1967, 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 like lots of different types of music. Over these 32 years I have shared the album with special people, in vinyl, on tape and now on CD, and not one has failed to fall in love with it. This past summer on a trip to the Grand Canyon I played it in the car for some younger friends of mine, and it's on both of their Christmas lists this year. On their own, every song on the album is outstanding, from the contrast of fury and heartbreak in "La Colombe" to the rollicking humor 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." And Collins may be the only person in the world ever to have covered a Beatles song, the title cut "In My Life," and done it better than the Fab Four did it originally. But even more amazing is that one woman put all these widely different songs together in one package, poured her silver voice over them, and created one of those precious things that you can hold onto forever as an expression of your own self.