True Stories and Other Dreams by Judy Collins (Vinyl record album review)

Album name: True Stories and Other Dreams

Artist name: Judy Collins

Year: 1973

Number of discs: one

Label: Elektra Records

Collection: Brenner / Gessner

Who owned it: my mother

Buy it on Amazon: $9.99

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I listened to Colors of the Day (1972) by Judy Collins half a year ago, and thought it was ok.

What I expected

Folk rock.

What it was actually like

Judy Collins had a very nice voice.

The majority of this record was extremely boring, with most songs distinguishable only by some changes in instrumentation. For example, So Begins the Task and The Dealer (Down and Losin’) both used country guitar, Secret Gardens and Cook With Honey both used flute (in the case of the latter, far too much), Holly Ann and Song for Martin both used piano, and Fisherman Song used banjo and violin.

The Hostage was totally different from all the others, much faster and with more rhythm, bongo drums, some electric guitar, and a darker tone.

Ché was a hero’s tribute to a bigoted, sadistic and psychopathic mass murderer, who was also an incompetent fool, a coward in battle, and a meddler in the affairs of countries where he did not live and of peoples who did not want his “help.” To be entirely clear, nothing about the song Ché qualifies it as a “true story,” so my assumption is that Collins meant this song to be one of the “other dreams.” Either way, it’s a disgrace for her to have written it or to have sung it, and for Elektra to have distributed the recording of it.

Grade

2/5: bad, but I was able to listen to the whole thing