How did Judy Collins boost Leonard Cohen’s career?
In the annals of music, Leonard Cohen and Judy Collins emerge as among the most eminent and revered figures. Cohen, especially, gained renown for his knack for intertwining exquisite poetry with meticulously crafted melodies, an artistry that countless others sought to replicate in their own musical endeavours.
Cohen’s primary identity always lay in poetry before music. Throughout the 1950s and a significant part of the 1960s, he devoted his time to writing as a poet and novelist, venturing into lyricism only in 1967. With the release of his intricate album Songs of Leonard Cohen, the Canadian singer-songwriter discovered that his aptitude for language seamlessly aligned with the folk genre.
As he once said himself, “Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash”. If accurate, few lives have shone as intensely as Cohen’s, leaving behind such a poetic sentiment.
One figure that he endeared himself to was Collins. Growing up, Collins aspired to be a concert pianist but ended up becoming a prominent folk singer, playing a crucial role in boosting Cohen’s career as an emerging songwriter at the time. In 1966, Cohen, then an esteemed yet commercially struggling poet and novelist in his early 30s, visited New York to pitch his songs.
Captivated by the richness of his voice and the depth of his lyrics, Collins not only recorded numerous Cohen songs but also played a pivotal part in persuading him of his own prowess as a singer. At the time, Collins propelled Cohen into his own spotlight, and in return, he encouraged her to delve into songwriting.
“Leonard said to me in ’66, ‘I don’t understand why you’re not writing your own songs’,” Collins recalled in The Line of Best Fit. “So I ran home to my Steinway piano and I sat down and wrote my first song, ‘Since You Asked’, in about 40 minutes.”
The subsequent release of Collins’ Wildflowers marked a significant milestone for Collins and Cohen and the broader folk movement of that era. Notably, it also catalysed Joni Mitchell’s career, with her timeless song ‘Both Sides Now’ becoming a top ten hit in the US and Canada, which earned Collins a Grammy Award.
Mitchell’s personal rendition of the song wasn’t released until 1969 and featured on her first chart-charting album Clouds, which also secured her a Grammy Award.
