Customer Reviews

Who Knows Where the Time Goes

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This effort is easily the single best album in Judy Collins' long and illustrous career. From the opening phrases of "Hello, Horray!" to the final chords of "Pretty Polly", this brilliant effort never stops delighting and amazing the listener with its unique combination of brilliant song writing and selection, vocal performances, and musical scoring and accompaniment. This one went off all the charts, folks, as her first effort after the blockbuster success she experienced with "Both Sides Now". With rock luminaries like Stephen Stills (who wrote his hit song, "Suite Judy Blue Eyes" about Collins) singing harmonies, and also playing bass and acoustic counterpoint to Judy's own acoustic guitar work, the album absolutely soars in songs like "Someday Soon", "My Father", "Who Knows Where The Time Goes", "Poor Immigrant" and "First Boy I Loved". There really isn't a single dog on the whole album, and the musical style and substance is truly timeless. Put it on the machine and sit back to be entertained, moved, and amazed at what this talented and ageless singer and some her friends and lovers have given to the ages. Simply put, this is an absolutely matchless piece of music history you should be able to experience and enjoy again and again. So enjoy!

This Collins at her best. The backing muscians are superb and her voice never sounded better than it does here. The tile cut penned by the great Sandy Denny, is one of the best songs to come out of the late 60's, and she does it beautifully.The track that grabs me the most though is Pretty Polly, though there's not one lackluster track to be found here. It all shines. There are 2 female folk rock albums that in my opinion are the best of the genre. This runs a close second To "Sandy" from Sandy Denny in 1972. If you like this, you've got to check out Denny

This CD is simply the best recording Judy Collings ever made. The photo of Judy barefoot and wearing a long, rose colored peasant dress complete with floppy black hat is hopelessly 60's but that is the only thing dated about this CD. The music is as fresh and wonderful as the day Ms. Collins made the original album. I believe this is the first recording that Judy went electric on; she is joined here by Stephen Stills on electric guitar or electric bass on many of the songs. There is not an uninteresting cut on this CD from Dylan's "Poor Immigrant" to the two Leonard Cohen songs: "My Father" and "Bird on the Wire." Then there is Ian Tyson's rollicking "Someday Soon" and Sandy Denny's "Who Knows Where the Time Goes." My favorite, however, is Judy's own "My Father," where she establishes herself as a fine lyric poet as well as a singer of incomparable talent. The haunting lines from this lovely song "and watch the Paris sun set in my father's eyes" are particularly poignant if you know that Ms. Collins' father was blind.

If I were stranded on a desert island, I'd take this CD with me.

A friend asked me recently to name the 5 albums/cds I'd want if I could only have 5. It surprised even me that I named this, as I haven't heard it in years. This album has the most intense version of "Pretty Polly" that I've heard and, as I told my friend, "First Boy I Loved" is perfect. This is classic, wonderful Judy Collins before she morphed into a chanteuse.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe this is the only album of it's kind in Judy's entire catalog. At the time of this album's making, Judy was living with Steven Stills, pre CSN. The music shows, as Mr. Stills stripped down the production, and gave Judy a broader canvas to paint not only her folk hooks on, but importantly her Rock hooks as well. This direction wasn't fully used after this one lp, but showed that Judy was in very strong form vocally, straying from her trademark falsetto singing, to really push her deep rich alto voice. Some songs suggest she listened to Grace Slick and Mama Cass in this time period to great effect. Check out Hello-Horray,latered covered by Alice Cooper! and the great climax of Pretty Polly. Should Ms. Collins chose this path, she could have become one of the defenative Female rockers of the sixties. Check this out to see what could have been. Collins alto voice was as powerful as any in the period and boy could she rock!

Not being familiar with Judy Collins' entire career, I believe this album presents a side of her not available elsewhere, with more rock and country influences, and for me this is Judy at her peak. Stephen Stills contributes strongly to the style of the album with lead guitar, and this must have been during the period when he wrote his love song to her, "Judy Blue Eyes". My favorites here are the last three songs in the collection: "First Boy I Loved", best of all, is a beautiful and meditative reflection on the impossibilities of youthful love. "Bird on a Wire", by Leonard Cohen, isn't country (like "Someday Soon"), but it's strongly country-flavored with pedal steel guitar and honky-tonk piano. "Pretty Polly" opens quietly and builds into a shattering tale of murder and retribution. Its best moments come from Steve's ghostly electric guitar swirling around Judy's voice like a paintbrush, creating the scene of the story. The rest of the songs are also first rate. "The Story of Isaac", also by Leonard Cohen, is beautiful, haunting and disturbing, as is the Biblical story that is the basis for its ruminations on child sacrifice and mass murder: "You who stand a above them now, your hatchets blunt and bloody..." A fine song, but the only one I don't personally care for is "My Father", the one actually written by Judy. I like my sad songs dished up either with humor or angry determination and this has neither.

Like WILDFLOWERS before it, WHO KNOWS WHERE THE TIME GOES is one of Judy's best albums, though not quite the essential recording that IN MY LIFE is. It is still, however, highly recommended. The title track is one of the most beautiful pieces of music Judy ever wrapped her lovely vocals around, and "My Father" is probably her own most beautiful composition. "Someday Soon" is another highlight of this album, with Judy still in peak form.

This is the album I carried around with me all through the late sixties and early seventies, so that I would never be someplace I couldn't hear it. Wore out six copies before finally going to CD's. Judy's voice is at her purest, the background instrumentations just right. The songs are among her best choices, including several by Bob Dylan, some folk, some original, some country. The title song is the best of all, haunting and poignant. If you only own one Judy Collins album, this one should be it!

I recently gave a list of the best overall albums from that remarkably creative period from around 1965-1972 to a young person who has became very involved with the music of that era. This sentimental, touching and yet perfectly tight folk/country/rock album was in the top ten. I had just rediscovered it myself after almost 15 years between listens, and I was completely taken.

Judy Collins always had had a crystal clear voice, and a good range, but on this album it was at its most powerful. The material, as noted by others, is from the best-ever writers in this genre. And the session musicians include the drummer from the "Layla" album (Jim Gordon),the great country-rock guitar player featured on all those famous Rick Nelson- and also many Elvis- recordings (James Burton), one of the first true rock "superstars" (Steven Stills) and the original bass player for Graham Parson's Flying Burrito Brothers, among others.

The result is about the tightest folk-style rock album there ever was, with a fine range of sentimental and yet gripping songs. I am particularly taken with "First Boy I loved," which is a most touching tribute to young love, and by the Title song, which I think is Judy Collin's strongest vocal track, period. And "Someday Soon" is of course a classic, perhaps the only track here that most casual radio listeners ever heard.

So if you are a sixties kid and missed it, it's never too late. But I think it might be be heard most appreciatively by the young, and if you think your kids (or grandkids) would appreciate a really pure and heartfelt blend of the best of what I believe they now call "Americana" or "alt-country" music, played by some of the best musicians ever, then you should buy this for them.

Judy Collins' 1968 release "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" is a true folk-rock masterpiece which may very well have set the standard and was the template for the modern folk-rock wave that took hold of the music scene by by dawning of the 1970s. Filled with masterly covers of songs by Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Fairport Convention, The Incredible String Band and Ian Tyson, "Who Knows Where The Time Goes" has a country-rock edge to it and a smattering of her classical inclinations mixed into its folkiness.

The album starts out with "Hello, Hooray", a rousing number about performing, something the hard-working Collins knows quite a bit about.

Next up is Cohen's bizarre tale, "Story Of Isaac", with its religious overtones and its haunting harpsichord accompaniment. On this album, she's also covered (what I feel) is the premier cover of his "Bird On A Wire", done in a countrified style, as is Ian and Sylvia's "Someday Soon", a hit for Judy.

Collins' beautiful soprano floats on Dyaln's "Pity The Poor Immigrant" and The Incredible String Band's "First Boy I Loved".

The title track is by the late Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention and is a shining example of how Judy Collins' artistry can make a song her very own.

The eerie "Pretty Polly" (a "traditional" song and, again, I don't know where Collins digs up some of these interesting things she's recorded over the years) is a staggering account of physical abuse and murder with a moral to it.

Her own composition, "My Father", is truly magnificent and shows what a polished songwriter and keyboardist she is.

"Who Knows Where The Time Goes" really moves and is another album from Judy Collins' pinnacle of fame that has stood the test of time, sounding as modern as ever amidst the new trend of Americana-flavored music which has made headway in recent years and is a great example of the influence she has had on the music world.